Unboxing

Annoyingly, it doesn't come with a USB cable! I thought that was to save money - but they included a UK and EU power cable, so I think it's just to "encourage" using the WiFi. Even more annoyingly, it doesn't use USB-C - instead it's that awful square USB plug. Eugh!

You'll notice that there's no mention of the type of USB port - nor any photos of it - on the HP site. Nor on the product packaging. Sneaky.

The unpacking experience really isn't very good. There's a dozen different flimsy bits of paper to tell you how to configure it, a big warning sheet telling you not to use 3rd party ink, and a big glossy brochure trying to upsell you on buying an ink subscription. This becomes a recurring theme. HP don't see you as someone who bought a printer - they see you as someone who is going to give them lots of money for ink.

The printer is secured with lots of packaging and tape - ostensibly for security. But mine had a panel which had popped out - either in transit or as a result of a poor Quality Control process.

This doesn't feel like a premium experience. Very little thought has been given to first impressions.

But, hey ho, let's get on with printing, eh?

Print Quality

It's a boring mono laser printer. You send it a file, it comes out quickly and cleanly.

I have a Samsung ML-1210 which, I'm not kidding, is about 20 years old! This new HP has exactly the same resolution - 600x600. The HP is quicker and quieter. But it seems we've reached the plateau of print quality.

There really isn't anything to say. Black and white text comes out with the expected resolution. It doesn't crimp the paper. There is a (slightly hidden) stand to hold paper once it has been printed. It can do around 20 pages per minute.

Despite HP claiming this to be their "smallest" printer, that's only true when not in use. There's a flip out tray for the paper which effectively doubles its footprint.

Scan Quality

Again, it's 2022 and scan quality hasn't advanced much in the last decade - it's 600ppi. That said, the colour reproduction and fidelity are good. Again, it is quick and quiet.

There is a "photocopy" button on the control panel. Press it, and the scanner will scan a page and immediately print it out. I guess that's kind of useful?

There's also an "ID copy" button which is specifically for making copies of ID cards and passports. No, I've no idea either. Seems like a feature in search of a user.

The App

*sigh* Why can't printer manufacturers like HP write decent software? It's a mystery to me. The HP app is offensively bad. You will spend ages waiting at this screen. You need to use the app to set up WiFi. In doing so, it will beg you multiple times to buy more ink. Desperate!

Once set up, this is the sort of quality product you can expect.

Why doesn't it show the full name of the printer? Why is "Get Support" wrapped so badly? Why are some features unavailable - tapping on it doesn't tell you. Why - despite this being my only printer - is this listed as "2 of 2"?

Seriously, are there no software engineers or UI designers left at HP? It won't even tell you how much toner is left. Pretty crucial I'd've thought for selling more ink.

What's even worse is that you can't set most printer options from the app! You have to go to the web interface of the printer if you want to set it up properly! What's the point of the app then?!

Honestly, I've used a lot of bad apps but this is just pathetic. This is meant to be their core competency - but it looks atrocious and seems like nag-ware for constantly pleading with you to set up a subscription. Uninstall it the second you've finished configuring the printer.

Linux

First up, how easy is it to get working with Linux? The "about" page proudly lists it as Linux compatible. And the HPLIP page says the printer is compatible with HP's open source stack since v3.21.10. However, it does say it's only compatible with USB - not network printing.

I plugged in the USB cable and… it was instantly detected and printed without issue! I opened up Gnome Simple Scan and… the scanner was instantly detected. A few seconds later I had a colour image scanned in.

I disconnected the USB, connected the device to WiFi and… everything just worked! WTF? I was looking forward to hours of fiddling in the terminal to get things working. What a disappointment 😉

Connectivity

The WiFi (2.4GHz only) is fast enough. It doesn't need gigabit speeds. Interestingly, there's also Bluetooth available and it is difficult to switch off! Luckily, it doesn't actually seem possible to pair a device to it. It only exists so the app can set up the printer. So it's just another broadcast beacon waiting to be hacked. If you log into the web console and dive around the settings, you'll eventually stumble on a way to disable it.

It does, however, support IPv6! Hurrah! It picked up an address from my router without issue.

A quick nmap showed:

PORT      STATE SERVICE
80/tcp    open  http
443/tcp   open  https
515/tcp   open  printer
631/tcp   open  ipp
3910/tcp  open  prnrequest
3911/tcp  open  prnstatus
8080/tcp  open  http-proxy
9100/tcp  open  jetdirect
53048/tcp open  unknown

Those allow for the web control panel, and standard network printing functions.

There's an adequate web interface.

Look, it isn't the prettiest pig in the poke, but it'll do. It seems fairly comprehensive - but isn't much to look at. It's clear that HP don't believe that sysadmins should have any kind of usability or aesthetic niceness.

There are lots of options to fiddle around with. It's confusingly laid out, but gets the job done.

It also lets you see the printer status - including exactly how much toner is left:

Hang on! If the web interface can show this, why can't the bloody app?!?!

It's reasonably secure, you'll need the password printed on the machine if you want to monkey about with it.

Do note, it has a self-signed https certificate. But that's normal for local network devices.

There was a firmware update waiting for me - it updated quickly, but gave no changelog. So I've no idea what bugs it fixed.

You can also disable the HP Web Services. You'll still be able to print via your LAN, but you won't be able to print from the web. Unless you have a burning need to send documents home while you're out, I recommend disabling its connection to the HP mothership.

Pro Tip - if you look at the HTML source code of the admin pages, your eyes will start to bleed.

Downsides

There are a few negatives - they probably aren't dealbreakers, but you should be aware of them.

WiFi is 2.4GHz only. The speed of WiFi isn't that important, but when you're in a congested radio environment it is often useful to have everything on 5GHz.

No duplex - so no double-sided printing or scanning. There's also no document feeder for the scanner.

Although it is small, once you flip open the bin for paper, it does take up a fair bit of space.

It's really important to HP that you don't dare buy toner cartridges from someone other than them. They have a big fat disclaimer, and website warning you of the perils of using non-HP approved ink. Fuck those guys! They want £70 for a toner cartridge! That's a third of the cost of the printer. Despicable.

Oh, and even better, the ink is out of stock on the HP site. So even if you wanted to buy from them, you can't! I rang HP and they suggested buying from a 3rd party site - or subscribe to InstantInk™. They are desperate for recurring revenue. It would be great if the printer just automatically ordered a new toner when it was running low. But it could use my stored payment details for that rather than hooking me up to a subscription.

The toner cartridges are good for about 950 pages, so here's a quick breakdown of the costs if you subscribe:

Look, I get that HP wants to up its Average Revenue Per User and get some cashflow - but this is bonkers! Just let me pay on demand at a reasonable price rather than tying me in to a disempowering subscription.

Unless you consistently print the same amount each month - and a considerable volume at that - you're probably best off trying to buy the toner from eBay for about £40.

Verdict

If you need to print out lots of single-sided black-and-white documents, this is about as good as it gets. As long as you don't mind being gouged on the toner prices.

For the occasional bit of scanning, again, it's fine. But for anything more you'll probably want something with a page feeder.

The app is utter shite. Use it to set up the wireless config and then immediately delete it.

WiFi is a bit of a gimmick. But if you have a multi-computer household, it's nice to be able to print and scan from multiple machines.

Linux support is superb. The epitome of "it just works".

Basically, what I'm saying is that this is an entirely average printer. It's not much better than the laser printers of the early 2000s. Nor is it markedly different from the scanners of the same vintage.

But it is pretty small and quiet. Until you see the price of official toner cartridges. Then you will hear a very loud scream.

The headset is USB - and worked instantly with Ubuntu Linux: It even has a dedicated "mute" button to cut off the microphone. Handy when on a conference call.

The only problem was, the stereo was reversed! Testing the left speaker played a sound through the right, and vice versa. Not a huge problem for VoIP or music - but I'd rather it worked correctly if I'm ever playing games or watching movies.

Before I started diving into the arcane Linux files which control such things, I thought I'd check to see if anyone else had this problem. They had, as this thread on HP forums shows.

Basically, the microphone is reversible - you can flip it over, turn the headset around, and the mic is on the other side of your face. When the mic is rotated, it hits a microswitch which flips the stereo sound.

Rather than implement this properly, HP have gone for a system where all you need to do to flip the stereo is click the switch once.

So, to get the correct stereo orientation, all you need to do is lift the mic vertically until you hear the click and then lower the microphone back to its original position.

For a shade under £20, it's decent enough headset. The volume control and mute button are nice additions. The USB cable is about 2m long - which is long enough to be useful without getting tangled all the time.

HP's position isn't quite as perilous as Nokia's "Burning Platform" was, but there are definite similarities. Apple sells more iPads than HP sells PCs, their traditional market for printers is drying up, its share price is on the wane, and a series of boardroom scandals have left it weak.

Meg Whitman has correctly identified where the company needs to head next

"My view is we have to ultimately offer a smartphone, because in many countries of the world, that is your first computing device. There will be countries in the world where people will never own a tablet or a PC or a desktop. They will do everything on a smartphone."

This is an extremely crowded market upon which HP has set its sites. What are its choices?

WebOS

Most obviously, it could resurrect Palm WebOS - bought for $1.2 billion in 2010 and cruelly dumped a year later. The Operating System was open-sourced earlier this year - but there is no modern hardware which supports it, and no other partners using it. There's no ecosystem of apps to speak of - although its HTML5 roots would make it very quick for developers to create new and innovative products.

WebOS has the advantage of being well-liked among users and developers. Poor pricing and execution crippled sales from the start, and a nervous CEO cancelled the project with undue haste.

Ultimately, does HP have the right mindeset to carry on with a product it once abandoned? I doubt it, and having burned its bridges with the developers once before, I suspect HP would find developers reluctant to work for them again.

Windows 8

The dirty little secret of Microsoft Windows is nobody likes it. We use it because it's foisted on us. Most people would rather stick with XP than whatever overpriced Operating System Microsoft decides to spit out next.

When you tell people that Windows is on phones, the first questions they ask are "how often does it crash?" and "do I have to run anti-virus on it?" Its reputation is fatally compromised in the eyes of the buying public - as its mediocre sales attest to.

Microsoft are also fanatical about controlling the hardware specifications. Why couldn't Nokia release the outstanding 41-megapixel "PureView" technology on its latest Lumia phones? Because Microsoft was either unwilling or unable to offer that level of customisation.

Windows 8 lacks a solution for the low-end marketplace which HP is desperate to capture.

If HP went with Windows, it would be just be returning to its roots as another beige-box PC shifter. A comforting proposition for many inside HP I suspect - but not the way to seize the future.

Firefox OS

Mozilla and Telefonica (my employers) are preparing to release a brand new, HTML5 based operating system. It's squarely aimed at the low-end market HP is so desperate to enter.

The software is unreleased, so this would give HP a chance to be a pioneer. With few competitors, they could carve out a very prosperous niche for themselves.

A fresh start, unencumbered by legacy technology, and focussed directly on HP's targeted market - it could be just the tonic.

However, these are uncharted waters for HP - and indeed for all those involved with Firefox OS. Does HP have the institutional bravery to take such a risk?

(As a declaration of interest - I work alongside the Firefox OS team , although I'm not involved in the project.)

Android

Android is perfect for capturing the low end market. It runs on $50 phones and is ideally suited to the needs of the first time web user.

Android is also highly customisable - witness the success which Kindle have had with their "Fire" tablet.

There is a trap, though, with excessive customisation. Cisco made the fatal mistake of releasing their expensive and shoddy Cius system into a market which was awash with cheap phones and tablets. Cius had to fight against products which didn't have Cisco's draconian restrictions, nor their outdated version of Android. It didn't even last two years in the market.

HP doesn't have the media muscle to create a product like the Kindle Fire. Does it want to get into a war with Chinese manufacturers who can produce a competing Android product at half of HP's price?

Homebrew

Assuming that HP doesn't pick up the wreckage of Tizen/Meego/Bada/Limo/Symbian it could always create its own proprietary OS. Or, perhaps heavily customise a version of Linux like Ubuntu.

This strategy is risky and needs at least a 5 year, fully-funded commitment in order to be taken seriously. That's time and money which HP may not have. As RIM have recently found out, going your own way can be a lonely business if the market rejects your offering.

Trends

HP have spotted the right trend - the next billion Internet users will be on phones and tablets, not on clunky PCs. HP can leverage its excellent supply-chain and design skills to build such products. But it no longer has the talent - or the time - to create its own software.

This leaves HP preparing to compete with HTC, Samsung, Huawei, and a thousand other manufacturers in a cut-throat market.

Perhaps HP should stick to selling ink?