HP Officejet Pro L7590

The recently released Officejet Pro L7590 is a refresh of the popular L7580. It has been slightly redesigned and slightly improved. The strengths of both the discontinued L7580 and the Officejet Pro L7380 are apparent in this printer.

The L7590 has gained some height and width, as well as an extra 2kg. The unit retains a professional look that suits offices. The L7590 also retains the L7580's auto-duplexing unit and Ethernet port, neither of which is found in the less expensive L7380. Paper capacity is set at 250 sheets, with an optional paper tray allowing for an additional 350 sheets.

A multi-card reader adorns the front, supporting CompactFlash, MMC, SD, xD and Memory Stick. There is no colour LCD, and users have to transfer photos to a computer to view or print them. We would have liked the ability to print directly from media cards, as found in Lexmark's X9575 Professional.

The 'Scan To' feature found in the majority of home and small office multifunctions is available, making full use of the unit's Ethernet port. Users can initiate scanning from the L7590, choose their desired destination and desired format (such as image, text or email attachment).

The speed of printing has been improved overall. Standard draft quality text documents will print at 24 pages per minute, a major improvement on the L7380's 22.2ppm. Printing at standard quality will slow down the L7590, but it still manages an adequate 13.3ppm. Documents with graphics and text highlights printed at 22.2ppm during our draft quality test; at normal quality they printed at 8.7ppm, on par with its predecessor's speed. Standard 4x6in photos print in an average 28sec, while A4 photos print in 1min 15sec; this gives a good indication of the multifunction's performance while producing in-house marketing materials.

It appears HP has significantly improved the model's printhead: the quality is far greater than its predecessor's. The L7590 remains a poor choice for true photographic quality — colours are largely oversaturated, leaving exaggerated and overly dark colours that make photos look unnatural. But for document printing, the L7590 is close to becoming a true rival to laser printers. It prints clear text with no messiness both on white backgrounds and text highlights. The quality difference between the L7590 and L7380 is immediately noticeable, particularly in regards to text. Although the L7590 does a poor job with photos, colour is accurate and consistent enough for regular office colour printing.

The L7590 has the same scanning resolution as its predecessor; it's sufficient for document scanning. However, the newer model has a certain bias towards darker images. This might be a problem for photography enthusiasts.

The L7590's running costs average 9.18c per page, making it one of the most efficient printers in its class.