The HP 5610 is a Nice All-purpose Inket Printer for your Office

People like a single device that meets several related needs , especially when it frees up desk space. Hewlett Packard is one of the most well-known makers of multifunction devices, and the Officejet 5610 is an affordable all-in-one printer. HP multifunction printers are often inexpensive so that you will buy them and then buy their over-priced HP ink. But if you instead purchase remanufactured HP ink cartridges , you will save a lot of money over the course of a year.

Like most HP printers, the 5610 gets high marks for its print quality, producing sharp details in everything from photos to business charts to text . Less impressive is the speed of the 5610, which is asseptable for grayscale and black text printing (nearly 8 pages per minute), but crawls to a snail’s pace when it comes to printing photos at full resolution (about 0.25 pages per minute). The biggest disappointment with the 5610, however, is its color scan quality : color scans contain a blotchiness , with noticeable scanning bands and washed-out colors. Grayscale scans turn out much better and provide adequate detail with a good range of gray shading. The officejet 5610 scanner is able to scan up to 1200 x 2400 dp.

The HP 5610 includs a 100-sheet input tray that handles a variety of paper types . An automatic document feeder (ADF) is also included with a 25 sheet capacity. Connections can be made by USB. The large buttons make it easy to make either black-and-white or color copies with the press of a single button. Other menu items provide other less common features like enlarging, color correction and manual lightening and darkening. The lid does not detach , so if you commonly make copies of open books , you may want to choose a differnet model .

Hewlett Packard ships the OfficeJet 5610 with a standard-size black ink cartridge and a single multi-color ink cartridge. The $25 photo ink doesn’t come with the printer, but you can easliy order compatible HP58 photo ink for under $19. The standard-size black ink cartridge costs $18, and HP says that it will last 220 pages. That makes printing cost a rather high 8.2 cents per page. After the original ink is gone, you can purchase a high-capacity black cartridge, good for an estimated 450 pages. The OEM version costs $20, or a more palatable 4.4 cents per page. You can cut that cost way down by purchasing HP 5610 ink cartridges effectively reducing your per page printing cost to a little bit lower than 2 cents per page.

As far as multifunction printers go the Hewlett Packard 5610 multifunction printer will give you a nice balance of productivity, ease of use , and features at an affordable price. The 5610 is able to support a small office with light printing needs, and it’s simple to install.