In airports, cars, hotel rooms and in client’s offices, more and more busy executives and business people spend more time away from the office and are frequently not at home. The need for a mobile color printer is a necessity for many. The H470wbt Officejet Mobile Printer includes the HP bt500 Wireless Printer Adapter with Bluetooth® Technology and a lithium ion battery allowing it to be truly portable and “usable on the road”.
Select For Need
The choice as to how portable is yours, as it comes as a base printer at $199, or including the long life HP Lithium-ion Battery at $265 and the better equipped model with Bluetooth® printer adapter and protective printer sleeve at $249 used. These low prices are courtesy of Amazon.com.
It comes with a one year limited hardware warranty as well as customer care service and support backup with a year-long technical phone support.
Availability elsewhere is not a problem and outlets on www.shopper.com stock this model and of course, always on Amazon.
Its Ability and Weaknesses
It’s a little surprising that the battery does not come as a standard. A battery can recharge in 1 hour and 30 minutes but not available with base printer.
However, it is economical as regards running costs being no more expensive than a desktop printer. The battery didn’t hold a charge for terribly long and that on days where there were a lot of humidity, the paper pickup rollers would stick causing paper jams.
It is no slouch in printing speed; it can print at speeds up to 22 ppm black and 18 ppm color. It creates high-resolution 1200 x 1200 dpi black prints and 4800 dpi in color. It has a useful sized 50 sheet input tray but realistically it works more effectively with a feed of around 40 sheets.
It can print five to six pages per minute in fairly crisp black, and about two pages per minute for a good presentation print.
Simple to use
The H470wbt is simple to operate with buttons for paper feed and to cancel. It has 3 warning indicators: one for black, another for color, and the third for paper jams. For the optional Wi-Fi and Bluetooth® adapters there is a USB socket and another for multi media and SD cards. Round the back of the unit there is a socket for USB 2.0 PC connection as well as a PictBridge camera.
The HP 470wbt is the latest refresh in HP’s portable printer line, and it’s got a nice, sleek look to it in charcoal black, with rounded edges and a generally sturdy feel. You can print from a notebook PC, PDA, digital camera, phone, or memory card using the printers USB port.
It weighs in at 4.5 lb and is a little heavier than some portable models that are available but it is sturdy and the weight is not necessarily a disadvantage as lighter models can feel a little flimsy. It will survive a little clumsy knocking before it goes flying off the desk and onto the floor.
Lifespan of the printer
This model prints well and the Bluetooth® and Wi-Fi work well. With heavy usage you can expect to get 1 and a half years to 2 years. If not such a heavy use, will last considerably longer. Some complain that aesthetics take precedence over performance and mixed opinion over print quality.
What sets this model apart from similar ones from other vendors (and from HP) are its connectivity options. It has just about every variety of USB port we’ve ever seen on a modern printer, coupled with a multi-card reader. It doesn’t handle Compact Flash, so if you’ve got an older high end DSLR, you may be looking for something else.
It’s also got a good Bluetooth® connection (good to about 12 feet in our tests) and a Wi-Fi connection that runs into the next room with ease. While some may feel they may have some reasons to grumble about the print quality, or the fact that its moisture sensitive on the paper pickup arm, you won’t have reason to grumble about trying to connect any laptop made in the last four years to it.
Print quality is adequate, but somewhat more ragged than an earlier model we had to compare to, and it still doesn’t come close to the Canon printers for photo grade printing quality.
On the other hand, if you’re someone who needs to print revised documents from your car, or at a client’s office, this is an excellent tool for the job. Although quite an expensive model, its reliability and durability is not in question and can be used for every purpose when away from the office.
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About James Wikkee