HP Officejet Pro L7380

HP's Officejet Pro range is designed to maximise speed, cost efficiency and quality. The L7380 multifunction is a suitable fit for the line, and it's an excellent option for small businesses. With decent quality and a number of useful functions, the only thing that hampers the L7380 is a lack of networking options and automatic duplex.

Connecting to the L7380 is done solely through the printer's USB port. Although there are designated spaces for an Ethernet port and media card reader, both have been removed as a way of differentiating between the L7380 and its bigger brother, the L7580. While the media card reader is hardly a necessity for office operations, the lack of an Ethernet port reduces the ease of using it as a shared printer for the office.

The L7380 has an automatic document feeder, but an automatic duplexing unit is optional: users will have to purchase the unit separately if they desire two-sided printing.

Nevertheless, there are enough features to this multifunction to enhance productivity around the office. Scanning, faxing and copying can all be achieved through the L7380's control panel. The inclusion of a 'Scan To' function enables users to scan pictures and documents to a computer from the multifunction itself, or to an email address through the connected computer's email client.

Printing speeds on the L7380 are some of the best we've seen for an inkjet multifunction. Draft quality text documents printed at 23 pages per minute — a respectable speed for an inkjet, especially given the decent print quality. At normal quality, this slowed to 12.8ppm; this is still sufficient for office usage. Text documents with graphical elements retained the draft speed of 23ppm, but slowed to 8.7ppm at normal quality.

Print quality is impressive. Text quality is on par with laser printers, resulting in clear and accurate text documents. Colour accuracy is also quite impressive. Graphics and simple photos are clear, with consistent colour and no evidence of banding. In detailed photos, clarity isn't fantastic, with blurred lines and some grain on close inspection. Dark gradients are exaggerated somewhat, causing an over-saturation of colour in some photos. Nevertheless, for an office multifunction intended to mainly print documents and in-house marketing materials, the L7380 is certainly up to the task.

The L7380's scanning quality is adequate. The L7380's image isn't as balanced as the HP Photosmart C7280, providing a slightly darker image than the original. This is particularly noticeable when scanning photos, although it won't be an issue with text documents. It is capable of scanning at 2400dpi — useful when employing the multifunction's integrated OCR capabilities to convert scanned text into editable documents.

Perhaps the best advantage of the L7380 is its cost effectiveness. Due to the multifunction's individual ink system, there are four required consumables, all of which have generous page yields and are priced relatively low. The L7380 runs at 12.4c per page, a cost that easily beats the effective HP Officejet H470b, and provides definite competition for laser printers and multifunctions.