HP launches WiFi writer

HP Photosmart Plus eAll-in-One B110e
Price: Rs 7,570

Given the popularity of smartphones and portable web-connected devices like netbooks, HP engineers decided that a printer, too, needed to evolve in order to keep up. Erego, HP’s ePrint technology for its latest line of printers which, among other things, allows users to print documents by sending an email (from any device, including a smartphone). Clearly, HP’s latest technology cuts down on all traditional printer hassles stemming from installing or lack of printer drivers on your PC (or device from where you send the print command).

HP Photosmart Plus eAll-in-One B110e, besides being a really lengthy name, supports ePrint technology. The B110e looks like an average All-in-One (AIO) printer with a nice piano-black finish that can print documents and photos. Priced at Rs 7,570, the printer also introduces a range of apps that connect via Web for printing Web Sudoku, colouring pages & puzzles and Google Calendar, on demand. The biggest plus for including apps on a printer is that you don’t need a PC to be connected to the printer for downloads — a web-connected printer can download and print on its own.

But to get started with ePrint technology on B110e, you must first create an account (with HP) – which will assign an e-mail address to your printer – then connect the printer to a wireless (or wired broadband) Internet service. Once connected, users can specify the email addresses the printer can accept print commands from (or block email ids that cause spam).

An online portal called the HP ePrint Center maintains an account for every Photosmart printer and allows configuring printers, tracking printing jobs and even accessing Photosmart printers through the ePrint account. The account can also be used to suggest new printing apps, comment on existing ones and subscribe to news feeds from HP.

To try out the email printing on B110e, we sent a few different types of attachments to the printer — from a mobile device and from a PC. It printed PDF documents, Word files, images, etc, efficiently and even the attachments in the mail could be printed without any hassles. Every email sent to ePrint is scanned for spams and viruses by HP’s ePrintCenter before the attachments and the email itself is printed. Once the job is done, the sender even gets an email confirming the completion of the print job.

We tested the B110e with smartphones and even netbooks while on the move and there was no trouble in printing documents and images. However, the photo results were mediocre, at best.

So, does HP’s ePrint service seem significant enough for one to buy it? We would reply in the affirmative, IF you really belong to the set of consumers who want the first slice of technology.