HP's multifunction printers prove that Canon doesn't have a monopoly on stylish devices at the moment. We particularly like the look of the Photosmart Plus B210, finished mostly in smart matte black and livened up by a glossy top. The scanner lid's tessellated hexagon design is attractive too.
HP packs this MFP in a re-usable bag that's probably too big for general shopping, but is excellent for students or anyone else who wants to keep it handy for protecting against scratches in transit. The device comes festooned with blue tape, but removing it all is a good way to familiarise yourself with its many features. Generally the Photosmart Plus has the same major interfaces, memory card slots and features as the Photosmart Premium C310, but it's missing an automatic duplexer and has a smaller touchscreen.
Other than the tape, this is an easy device to set up. HP ships its ink cartridges in more minimal packaging than most and they come with a card to help you replace them with compatible ones. The printer makes a succession of intriguing sucking and whirring noises as it prepares to print, giving you something of a distraction while you sit through the incredibly slow software installer, which crashed on our Vista test PC.
When we began our print tests, we found a basic Windows print settings page rather than the user-friendly interface we'd normally expect with an HP device. We uninstalled all the software, rebooted and re-installed, only to find the same page. We were able to continue our normal print tests, but a more limited scan interface prevented us from testing the preview or 150dpi scan speeds as normal.
