HP Deskjet 6940 review

The HP Deskjet 6940 is a basic colour inkjet printer designed for home and small-office users who have low-volume printing needs, but may want to print the occasional snapshot. In fact, its price, features and print quality make it a great printer for students. Its no-fuss, low-profile design makes it easy to tuck in the corner of your office or room, and the built-in Ethernet capability means you can leave it there and print from any networked computer in the office or from your roommate's laptop.

It's simple to print photos without using your PC with the built-in USB port for PictBridge-enabled cameras or camera phones, but the fact that you need to change ink tanks for optimal photo quality is a drag if you switch back and forth between normal text/graphic documents and photos. Still, at £80, the Deskjet 6940 is excellent value. If you don't need the network capability, check out the Canon Pixma iP4200 -- for £20 less than the Deskjet 6940, you get built-in duplexing and two input trays.

Design
The Deskjet 6940's design is understated and rather prim. The boxy, silver-and-black printer measures 450mm wide, 366mm deep and 145mm tall, and it weighs a light 6kg. The paper input/output tray juts out of the printer's front face nearly 140mm and doesn't fold up, which can be a pain if you're short on desk or shelf space. On the front left is a limited control panel that reflects the printer's few functions: a power button, a print-cancel button, a print-resume button and a printer-`report button. There are also graphical LEDs to indicate low ink and a network connection.

A single USB port for printing directly from a camera resides on the other side of the paper tray. The paper cartridge operates as both an input and output tray. The input tray, which sits below, holds up to 150 sheets and has two paper guides. You can buy an optional, £46 250-sheet input tray as well. The tray doesn't slide out for refilling, but the input tray's cover, which functions as the output tray, flips up or pulls out entirely for easy access. The output tray has a pass-through slot for feeding in smaller media, such as envelopes, 100x150mm (4x6-inch) photo paper or postcards. A pull-out extension helps keep longer paper in check.

Features
The front cover flips up for easy access to the two ink cartridges, which are simple to replace. For standard document printing, use the included black cartridge and the tricolour CMY cartridge. For photo printing, you can swap the black ink for a second tricolour ink cartridge for six-colour printing or for a grey cartridge for black-and-white photos. Changing ink cartridges is a simple matter: open the main cover, flip up the plastic cover for each ink tank, and pull the tank straight out. While the task is easy enough, it can be a pain if you switch back and forth often between photos and standard documents. If you're willing to sacrifice some photo quality for convenience, the Canon Pixma iP4200 doesn't require changing ink tanks for photo printing.

At least the HP Deskjet 6940 uses separate black and colour ink tanks, though: if you print primarily black text, you won't have to waste the precious (and expensive) colour ink when you run out of black. HP ships the printer with full ink tanks, but they are expensive to replace: the standard black tanks cost £14, as does the tricolour tank. The grey photo and tricolor photo ink tanks cost £18 and £17 respectively.