Why You Can Trust CNET HP Officejet 6000 review: HP Officejet 6000
HP Officejet 6000
The Officejet 6000 is HP's latest offering in the single-function inkjet printer category. It doesn't have many of the bells and whistles of the popular all-in-ones, but what it lacks in features, it makes up for in print quality and speed. Topping out at a competitive 0.46 full-color photos per minute, there's no doubting the capability of the 6000, but it's missing a few critical features such as a USB cord, LCD screen, and media card reader. The Officejet costs an affordable $90, but you can get much more office functionality out of the Canon Pixma MX330, a multifunction printer with a built-in fax machine, copier, scanner, color LCD, and an auto-document feeder for only $20 more than the HP. Check out the Canon if you want the most features for your dollar, but if all you're looking for is a fast printer, you won't be disappointed with the HP Officejet 6000.
HP Officejet 6000
The Good
The Bad
The Bottom Line
Design and features
There isn't a lot going on with the HP Officejet 6000 in terms of snazzy design. Like most of the printers in the Officejet line, the matte beige and black color scheme is designed to match the drab, unassuming palette of any office. Since it's only a single-function printer, the footprint is easily manageable at 18.03 inches long by 15.31 inches wide by 6.45 inches deep and weighs 10.56 pounds. The printer could've been a bit shallower, but a fixed output tray protrudes from the bottom and demands a little more space on the desk. While most single-function and even some all-in-one printers can only hold 100 pages, the robust input tray on the 6000 stores up to 250 sheets of plain paper at a time.
The printer comes with a removable paper output tray that installs on top of the fixed output tray and collects finished prints on their way out. You can also extend the output tray even further to corral longer prints. Just above the paper trays, you'll find a series of buttons and LEDs that control all the functions of the printer. From left to right, you'll see a power button, paper feed button, cancel button, and a network setup key. Also, the top right of the control panel features four LEDs that blink to indicate depleted ink levels. Unfortunately, you won't find a dedicated LCD screen on the printer: instead, you have to access all of the options, settings, and features through the driver. Since it's also lacking a media card reader and USB slot, the Officejet 6000 is unable to operate autonomously from the host computer. Finally, we're irritated to see that HP doesn't include the necessary USB cord. HP recommends buying its proprietary "hi-speed" cable for a lofty $20, but you can get one cheaper at your local electronics store or online.
The HP Officejet 6000 uses HP's 920 series ink cartridges. The top of the printer pops open with a latch on the side, revealing a compact bay for individual black, cyan, magenta, and yellow cartridges. In addition to the standard cartridges, HP also sells extra-large models that we use for the highest potential cost-savings in the following cost per page analysis. According to the HP Web store, the XL black cartridge costs $32 and lasts for 1,200 pages, and the three-color cartridges cost $15 each for 700 pages. By our calculations, you'll pay 2.7 cents for a page of black and 2.1 cents per page of color, which is a bit less than the average cost by today's printer standards.
Performance
After putting the HP Officejet 600 through the usual speed tests, we found that it outpaced the competition by a large margin in both photo and graphics speeds. We're particularly happy with its capability to produce 3.54 pages of our color graphics document per minute, since the next printer in line is substantially slower at 1.79 pages per minute. In fact, the only test that the 6000 didn't place first was the text speed test, where the Lexmark Z2420 achieved a crowd-pleasing 11.13 pages per minute. Still, the HP settled comfortably into second place with an admirable 7.38 pages of text per minute.
(Longer bars indicate better performance)
 | Photo speed (one sheet) | | Color graphics speed | | Text speed |
Per usual, HP comes through again with the exceptional print quality we've come to expect from the brand. Our full color graphics document printed on HP's Premium Presentation Paper came out bright and clear. Specifically, we noticed the extreme clarity of facial colors and construction, and while we did see a few jagged edges and minor wicking, we agree with HP when it says that the 6000 can produce near "laser-quality" text. In fact, the photos we printed out produced more accurate and pleasing images than many of the multifunction printers we've tested, even ones that cost hundreds of dollars more than the 6000. We should note that this printer is definitely office-oriented, so don't expect the highest quality prints (some of the photo elements were washed out, for example), but you won't be disappointed if you plan to use it more for text, with the occasional snapshot printout.
Service and support
HP backs the Officejet 6000 printer with a standard one-year warranty that covers parts and labor. You get toll-free phone support from 8:30 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. weekdays and 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. on Saturday for no extra cost and the benefit of HP's Total Care package that includes an online learning center, FAQ, and a comprehensive support forum. You can also extend the warranty an extra two years for $35 or an extra three years for $50.