Targeted at the small office/home office segment, this Multi-Function Device (MFD) lets you print, scan, photocopy, and fax documents, both in color and black-and-white. Installing the device is pretty simple. It connects to your PC through the parallel port and Windows auto detects it. Its drivers also monitor any device malfunctioning. All functions of the OfficeJet are controlled through its OfficeJet Manager software. It also comes with Readiris OCR software and a copy of Adobe Photo Deluxe (Business Edition) that lets you make photo albums of scanned photographs. 

Printing 

The OfficeJet can print at a maximum resolution of 600x600 dpi (black-and-white) and 600x300 dpi (color). It can print on a variety of print media such as transparencies, photo paper, envelopes, T-shirt transfers etc. It has a 150-sheet paper tray and another 10-envelope input tray. 

We first tested the MFD for speed in Ecofast mode. For this, we used a full-page text document and printed it 30 times. The print quality was good with no visible jaggedness at any font size. However, it took nearly 11 minutes to do it, resulting in an average print speed of 2.8 ppm, whereas its rated speed in this mode is 5 ppm. 

To find out why this difference occurred, we got a test file that HP uses for rating the MFD's print speed. This document printed in 7:23 minutes, which translates to a speed of just above 4 ppm. Printing full-page color graphics with the MFD takes nearly 11 minutes in Best mode, but the quality is good. Print quality in other modes is average. 

Scanning

The MFD can scan photographs, text, or a mix of the two. You can also do custom scans, where it lets you change the resolution, image type (color or black-and-white), level of compression, and brightness. Scanning a text image with the 725 took 29 seconds, while a postcard-sized color photograph took approximately 34 seconds. You can do an OCR scan to convert a text image into editable text. This entire process took only 39 seconds. 

Copying

Here, you can choose the number of copies you want, from one to 99, type of copy (photograph, text, or a combination of the two), and paper type. You can change copy size, ranging from 25 percent of original size to 400 percent. To do a copy, the MFD first scans the document and then prints it, which together takes a pretty long time. For example, it took 1:20 minutes to scan a simple text page, and the printing took another minute. Time taken for color documents is even more.

Fax

The OfficeJet 725 has a small module containing a 14.4 Rockwell modem chip, which has to be separately fit on it. It has three jacks to connect a phone, modem, and a direct line. The OfficeJet's fax software records details like name, fax number, company, etc, of people whom you've sent faxes to. These get stored in an address book, making it easy to fax to the same person again. You could fax a plain sheet of paper, or a file kept on your hard drive. 

Overall, it's a good option for small offices who don't want to buy separate devices for each function. 

Sachin Makhija at PCQ Labs