EXCLUSIVES

HP Deskjet 5850
By Scott Dewbre

July 2004

Wireless networking has come a long way in a fairly short time. Pop AirPort® cards into a couple of Macs®, and you've got a nifty peer-to-peer network. Add a wireless network hub or AirPort Base Station, and you can share a cable modem connection.

Oddly enough, desktop printers have lagged behind this wireless revolution. Most printers link to one computer at a time via USB or require a special Ethernet adapter to connect to a network. Leave it to Hewlett Packard to bring desktop printers kicking and screaming into the wireless age.

The Deskjet 5850 ($199.99, HP) is the first inkjet printer from HP to feature self-contained 802.11b wireless networking. Coupling an excellent HP inkjet printer engine with the unsurpassed ease of wireless connectivity, the Deskjet 5850 is by far the best (and possibly the only) wireless inkjet printer under $200 available today.

Proven print engine
Under the hood, the printer chassis of the Deskjet 5850 is very similar to the Deskjet 6127, which was introduced in 2002. However, the Deskjet 5850 builds on the 6127's chassis with both wireless and wired Ethernet connectivity and a fold-up paper tray, along with some productivity improvement features. Arguably the Deskjet 5850's main improvement over the 6127, aside from the wireless networking, is its improved photo printing capabilities, which include the ability to print borderless prints on 8.5 x 11 inch paper.

Speaking of paper, the Deskjet 5850 has a 150-sheet paper holding capacity, which is limited but larger than average for printers designed for home use. If you don't like to change the paper in your printer that often, an optional 250-sheet paper tray ($79.99, Hewlett Packard) increases the 5850's paper capacity to a more respectable 400 sheets.
Our test machine came with an optional two-sided printing accessory, which costs an additional $79.99 over the cost of the printer alone. We decided to include it in our test, so the MSRP creeps up to $279.99.

The 5850 uses the HP 57 tri-color ink cartridge and either the HP 56 black ink cartridge or the HP 58 photo quality color ink cartridge. Our test machine came with all three, so we selected the HP 57 and 58 ink cartridge combination in order to examine the machine's photo printing abilities. A more typical home office setup would be the 56 and 57 cartridges for more widely used black-and-white printing capacity.

A printer with its own website?
We've seen some easy printers to set up before, but the 5850 redefines the idea. It took about five minutes to un-box the printer and install the print cartridges. Once we powered up the printer, Rendezvous™ made short order of finding and connecting to the printer for our AirPort Extreme-equipped iBook® G4. Essentially, we went from zero to printing in just under eight minutes.

A quick read of the owner's manual showed us how to print out a page with the printer's IP address. With that information, the manual said, we could surf to the printer's website for security configuration and printer information. This was an opportunity we just couldn't pass up. How often do you get to view your printer's website? We couldn't help but wonder if the site had online chat or a 24/7 webcam. Fortunately, the answer was no in both cases. We did find some useful information on the printer's HP-provided website, like ink level gauges for the cartridges.

Our test printing went smoothly, although our print speeds of three to five pages per minute were nowhere near the 15 to 21 pages per minute that HP touts for the machine. We attributed this to our selection of print settings, normal or high quality at all times, which were not recommended by HP for speed.

Slow or not, the print output was definitely worth the wait. We printed some 8 x 10 in. photos on HP glossy photo paper, and the results were breathtaking. The photo print quality was as good as anything we've seen from inkjet printers costing four times as much as the 5850. Text reproduction was crisp, with well-formed letters and no ink bleed-through.

Duplex printing did concern us a bit, considering that inkjet printers do have a reputation for bleeding through the paper. But, we discovered that even with two-sided printing, the pages turned out clear and easy to read.

Bottom line
The Deskjet 5850 impressed us with its awesome photo quality printing abilities. We would recommend this printer on the basis of its print quality alone. Considering that its wireless connectivity makes it possible for multiple Macs (or PCs) to share a printer without running a single cable, the 5850 is an absolute gem.
HP has really raised the bar in terms of features offered on a printer based-priced below $200. It will be interesting to see how other printer manufacturers respond.

Item: HP Deskjet 5850
Manufacturer: Hewlett Packard, Inc.
Price: $199.99 (MSRP printer only); $279.98.99 as tested
Web: http://www.hp.com Pros: Wireless networking built-in; awesome photo reproduction
Cons: Slow output on high quality settings