The HP OfficeJet 250 mobile all-in-one printer is made to be easy to move around, so you can take it with you when you travel for work. It has a battery that you can take out and charge when you’re not near an outlet, and it has a lot of ways to connect to other devices. It doesn’t have a flatbed scanner, but it does have an automatic document feeder, and it can copy at a higher resolution than other options. But it only prints a small number of pages, so you may need to replace the cartridges often. If you print a lot, this can get expensive very quickly. It’s too bad that it takes a long time to print documents, whether it’s plugged in or running on battery.
1. Design
The HP OfficeJet 250 isn’t very well put together. When you put ink cartridges, the ink compartments feel tight, and the scan cover feels a little bit like it could break. Also, because the surface is shiny, fingerprints are very easy to see. Since there’s no output tray, you have to stand in front of the printer to get the pages or make sure there’s enough room on the desk so papers don’t fall on the floor.
On the plus side, both the rear input and the automatic document feeder (ADF) have width sliders that let them work with different paper sizes, and it’s easy to get to paper jams from the top of the printer. It’s made to be portable, so it has a rechargeable battery for when you’re out and about and can’t plug it in.
On the left side, there is a light that shows when the Wi-Fi is connected, the battery is charging, and the power is on. Both the power cable and the rechargeable battery can be taken out, making it easy to switch them out if you need to.
The HP OfficeJet 250 is a very small printer that was made with travel in mind. It should fit well in a backpack and not take up much space on a desk. It is about the same size as an HP DeskJet 3755. Check out the Canon IVY Mini Photo Printer or the Canon SELPHY Square QX10 if you want something much smaller to print photos on the go.
The screen on the HP OfficeJet 250 is good. The icons in the settings menu make it easy to find what you need. It has three buttons below the screen that can be touched: back, home, and help.
The home button lets you quickly get back to the main screen, and the help button brings up videos and tips on how to do things. The screen is flush with the body of the printer, but a spring holds it at an angle. It’s easy to see up and down, but it’s not as easy to see from the side.
2. Document
The cost-per-print is fine for the HP OfficeJet 250. Since the number of pages it can print is very low, you may need to replace the cartridges often, which can quickly add up to more than the cost of the printer.
Even if you only print in black, keep in mind that most inkjet printers still use the color cartridge for maintenance, so you may still need to replace it at some point.
The HP OfficeJet 250 doesn’t print quickly, whether it’s plugged in or running on battery. Text documents that are only black take a long time to print, and color documents take a little longer. In the review, we show the results of our tests, which show how fast the printer works when it’s plugged in.
When it was running on battery, we got a speed of 1 PPM for both black-and-white and color documents. It took 37.8 seconds to print the first page. Also, it can’t print automatically on both sides, and we couldn’t get it to tell us when to turn the page over and put it back in.
4. Mobile apps and networkings
The HP OfficeJet 250 can print from a USB drive right away. It technically works with Bluetooth, but only for setting up. It can’t be used to print. When someone tries to print over Bluetooth, the printer simply sends them to the mobile app to connect to a wireless network.
With the HP Smart app, you can print photos and PDFs directly from your phone or tablet. You can also change the color and contrast settings for a scan. You can also check the amount of ink left in the cartridges and buy more. You can also print other common file types, but only on iOS.
All View
The HP OfficeJet 250 can be used by the whole family. It prints photos with decent detail, but they look a little grainy. It has a high-resolution copy function and an automatic document feeder, but it doesn’t have a flatbed scanner. It can’t automatically scan or print on both sides of a page, and because it has a low page yield, it can quickly cost more to replace the cartridges than the printer itself.
The HP OfficeJet 250 Mobile All-in-One printer is made to be portable, so it doesn’t have a lot of features. For example, it doesn’t have a flatbed scanner or an output tray, which saves space. It’s a bit pricey for what it can do, and the number of pages it can print is very low, so if you print a lot, you’ll have to buy new cartridges often. Check out our lists of the best cheap printers, the best wireless printers, and the best all-in-one printers for more ideas.
