HP 4500 Wireless Fax Printer
by Matt Gerchow
The HP 4500 All-in-One Printer
This is a strong printer for the home consumer. With this printer you can print, copy, scan and fax on the cheap, but it’s a little bit slow.
It gives home and home office users a wide variety of features for such a low price but it does tend to run on the slow side.
HP products are generally very reliable and you can find supplies for them just about anywhere. Also, if a software product is considered to work with printers, then for sure it will work with the HP.
One of the features that people are just getting used to is the wi fi capability of multi-function printers. HP includes software to setup the wi fi but keep in mind you will have to connect the printer first to your computer with a standard internet cable before you can go fully wireless.
There are many features on this model but none of them are too robust.
Connectivity wise, the Officejet 4500 Wireless comes with both USB and Wi-Fi. With the $99 little brother, ethernet but not Wi-Fi is included. Included with the unit you will find a USB cable, a phone and fax cable in addition to a line adapter.
All of the above mentioned features are fairly easy to use. This is largely due to the “flash-based” animations that walk you through installation, common tasks and potential problems.
All of these options are controlled from a two-line 16 character mono lcd and the typical >, OK and back / cancel buttons; this unit also comes with a numeric keypad. A feature missing on MANY of the All-in-One fax printers.
One of the things I noticed while reviewing this printer is that there is not verification “OK” or “Set” once you have selected a setting. The printer does provide a subtle double beep to let you know you are finished.
This fax printer was not designed to be a work horse. It is designed in my opinion for the occasional user that really does not need the high speed and volume of others we have tested (at higher prices).
Our test results were the following:
5.5 PPM (pages per minute) when printing text alone
2.5 PPM when pages included graphics
4 PPM when copying
5 PPM when scanning
There are several other printers out there with faster processing speeds but they generally lacked the wifi and there ink cartridges were priced on the higher side.
As far as quality of print, on plain paper the black text was very black even though a little fuzzy around the edges. Graphics were mostly smooth. Our photo paper print test showed a little cloudiness and the occasional yellowing.
Pictures still fell within a natural range and were acceptable by most standards.
We found inks for sale for a variety of prices. Overall, for black printing you are looking at 7.5 cents per page.
For color printing you will pay 8.1 cents per page.
$15 = 200 pages black (7.5 cents / page)
$32 = 700 pages black (high yield option) (4.6 cents / page)
$29 = 360 pages color (8.1 cents / page)
$32 = 1,200 pages black (2.7 cents / page)*
The HP Officejet 4500 Wireless All-In-One has the power and the features to give one user, maybe two enough features to run a small office or a work-from-home scenario. More than that, there are other printers, plus affordable fax services you should consider.
All things aside, the wi-fi is a nice bonus and if that is a high priority on your list, this is the printer for you.
Test drive RingCentral and fax free for 30 days
This is a strong printer for the home consumer. With this printer you can print, copy, scan and fax on the cheap, but it’s a little bit slow.
It gives home and home office users a wide variety of features for such a low price but it does tend to run on the slow side.
HP products are generally very reliable and you can find supplies for them just about anywhere. Also, if a software product is considered to work with printers, then for sure it will work with the HP.
One of the features that people are just getting used to is the wi fi capability of multi-function printers. HP includes software to setup the wi fi but keep in mind you will have to connect the printer first to your computer with a standard internet cable before you can go fully wireless.
There are many features on this model but none of them are too robust.
- 20 Sheet automatic doc feeder
- 100-sheet input tray
- 20 sheets of printed output caught in paper tray (this can be a little awkward but this is fairly common design characteristic amongst the lower cost models)
- You are able to duplex but this is a manual process with on-screen prompts.
Connectivity wise, the Officejet 4500 Wireless comes with both USB and Wi-Fi. With the $99 little brother, ethernet but not Wi-Fi is included. Included with the unit you will find a USB cable, a phone and fax cable in addition to a line adapter.
All of the above mentioned features are fairly easy to use. This is largely due to the “flash-based” animations that walk you through installation, common tasks and potential problems.
All of these options are controlled from a two-line 16 character mono lcd and the typical >, OK and back / cancel buttons; this unit also comes with a numeric keypad. A feature missing on MANY of the All-in-One fax printers.
One of the things I noticed while reviewing this printer is that there is not verification “OK” or “Set” once you have selected a setting. The printer does provide a subtle double beep to let you know you are finished.
This fax printer was not designed to be a work horse. It is designed in my opinion for the occasional user that really does not need the high speed and volume of others we have tested (at higher prices).
Our test results were the following:
5.5 PPM (pages per minute) when printing text alone
2.5 PPM when pages included graphics
4 PPM when copying
5 PPM when scanning
There are several other printers out there with faster processing speeds but they generally lacked the wifi and there ink cartridges were priced on the higher side.
As far as quality of print, on plain paper the black text was very black even though a little fuzzy around the edges. Graphics were mostly smooth. Our photo paper print test showed a little cloudiness and the occasional yellowing.
Pictures still fell within a natural range and were acceptable by most standards.
We found inks for sale for a variety of prices. Overall, for black printing you are looking at 7.5 cents per page.
For color printing you will pay 8.1 cents per page.
$15 = 200 pages black (7.5 cents / page)
$32 = 700 pages black (high yield option) (4.6 cents / page)
$29 = 360 pages color (8.1 cents / page)
$32 = 1,200 pages black (2.7 cents / page)*
The HP Officejet 4500 Wireless All-In-One has the power and the features to give one user, maybe two enough features to run a small office or a work-from-home scenario. More than that, there are other printers, plus affordable fax services you should consider.
All things aside, the wi-fi is a nice bonus and if that is a high priority on your list, this is the printer for you.
Test drive RingCentral and fax free for 30 days