The 123 HP OfficeJet 4650's control panel is a simple affair, with no dedicated buttons other than the Home and Back buttons to the left of the small, 2.2-inch monochrome touch screen. One interesting touch is that a 2-inch-wide arm swings out from the body automatically to serve as the output tray's paper catch.
Specifications say the
123 HP Officejet 4650 has an automatic paper sensor, but every time I opened the paper tray, the LCD displayed a message: “Did you load plain paper, letter?” However, the message goes away after a few seconds if you don't respond by pressing “OK.”
123 HP Officcejet 4650 Printer Speed
The 123 HP OfficeJet 4650 printed a text document faster than a couple of other inkjets we recently tested — the HP Envy 5540 and the Epson ET-2550. The
123 HP OfficeJet 4650 churned out our five-page text document in 33 seconds, or 9.1 pages per minute (ppm). The HP Envy 5540 took just a little less than 40 seconds, while the Epson ET-2550 printed the document in 42 seconds.
Using the OfficeJet 4650's quiet-mode feature only decreased the noise level in a minor way and slowed text printing to 5 ppm. Using the duplexer to make two-sided prints slowed the print speed dramatically. The same five-page document printed in 1 minute, 31 seconds, or just 3.3 ppm.
Adding graphics to the mix also slowed things down considerably. The OfficeJet 4650 took almost three-and-a-half minutes to print a six-page document of mixed text and graphics. HP's Envy 5540, by comparison, was done in 2:40.
As with text printing, using the duplexer on a graphics document slowed the printing speed of the OfficeJet 4650. Our six-page graphics document printed in a little more than 4 minutes. The wait in between pages could be as much as 17 seconds while an “ink is drying” message appeared on the LCD.
Copy and Scan Speed of 123 HP Officejet 4650 Printer
You might expect an office-oriented multi function device to copy text pages quickly. But the 123 HP OfficeJet 4650 was disappointingly slow on this test, taking 26.5 seconds to copy a single page of text. The HP Envy 5540 was a little faster, while the Epson ET-2550 spit out a copy in just 10.9 seconds.
Unfortunately, you won't get a quick turnaround using the ADF, either. The OfficeJet 4650 took 1:52 to copy a five-page document. At 22.4 seconds per page, it's faster than just copying a single page, on average, but it's still just 2.7 ppm. The ADF draws in sheets very slowly, making it not very suitable if you need a lot of multipage copies.
Just as with printing double-sided pages, making two-sided copies will result in the “ink is drying” message on the LCD. The OfficeJet 4650 took close to 3 minutes to make a black-and-white, two-sided copy of a six-page document.
The OfficeJet 4650 made a color copy in 34.4 seconds, which was on a par with other inkjets we've tested recently. The OfficeJet 4650 scanned a 300-dpi black-and-white PDF in 10.6 seconds, beating out the much slower Epson ET-2550. The OfficeJet has the advantage of simply letting you save the document after the preview scan, while the ET-2550 scans the document a second time. The OfficeJet 4650 also scanned a color photo 14 seconds faster than the Epson
123 HP Officejet 4650 Print Quality
The 123 HP OfficeJet 4650 delivered very high image quality across the board. Text looked sharp and heavy, though not quite on a par with the razor-sharp edges produced by laser printers. Graphics printed with attractive color saturation and smooth textures on plain paper, and glossy photos printed with plenty of detail and rich colors.
Compared to the glossy prints of the Epson ET-2550, I spotted a minor difference: The Epson inkjet printed stronger dark shades and subtly sharper fine details that created a little more depth in some areas. Some smooth textures in the OfficeJet 4650's prints had a slight cloudiness to them, and as a result the prints didn't have quite the “pop” of the ET-2550's prints. But considering that the OfficeJet 4650 is an office model, it's commendable that the quality it offers is this high when it prints photos, adding to the all-in-one's versatility.