HP OfficeJet Pro 7720 review: An excellent A3-capable MFP

HP’s OfficeJet Pro 7720 is an inkjet MFP for moderate use in a small office. It’s a bit bigger than the norm because it can print – but not scan or copy – on A3 paper. Few authorities would agree with HP’s description of this as constituting wide format, but it’s still a useful trick, particularly if you ever need to print detailed plans, posters or spreadsheets at a more practical size.

Aside from A3 support, the OfficeJet Pro 7720 supports wired and wireless network connections, can print on both sides of a sheet of paper and has a 35-page automatic document feeder for automated, multipage faxes or copies. Direct jobs such as copies and faxes are controlled through the obligatory touchscreen interface. The only significant omissions are duplex scanning – so you can’t make automatic double-sided copies or faxes – and a USB port for direct printing or scanning.

We’ve never been particularly keen on HP’s oversimplified print and scan software, but the latest iterations aren’t all that bad. On Windows 10 the print driver is neatly laid out over several tabs, but on Windows 7 you have to dive into unfriendly Advanced settings to change paper size. HP’s TWAIN scan interface no longer induces fury, but it’s still our least favourite among big manufacturers. The MFP’s touch interface is decent, but its Copy page includes only a single start button that defaults to colour. If you want a black-only copy you’ll have to fiddle with the settings.

These are fairly minor grumbles and, in use, the OfficeJet Pro 7720 quickly makes up for its weaknesses. It raced through our 25-page text test at 22.7ppm, and reached an impressive 8.6ppm on our more demanding colour graphics test. On A3 paper, five A3 pages of text took 26 seconds, while five graphics-rich pages took a minute. Even at the Maximum DPI setting, each 6 x 4in colour photo took little more than a minute.

Scans were swift, too, with A4 jobs at up to 300dpi taking around ten seconds. Scanning a 6 x 4in photo at 600dpi took 19 seconds, and at 1,200 took 63 seconds. At 16 seconds in black and 22 seconds in colour, single-page photocopies weren’t so fast, but ten-page copies from the ADF were competitive, taking 1min 23secs in black and 1min 41secs in colour.

Print quality was generally excellent on plain paper, with photo prints being good for an office device. Copies were fine, if slightly drab, while scans were above average: colours were accurate and the focus was reasonably sharp, but this MFP struggled to capture subtle differences in the darkest shades. Enabling its Auto Exposure feature just tended to wash out the lightest regions, too.

The OfficeJet Pro 7720 accepts a range of ink cartridges, with the highest-capacity black supply stretching to 3,000 pages, and colour cartridges available at 1,600 pages. Calculated for these, running costs work out at a very competitive 5p per mixed page, split between 1.1p per page for black and 3.9p per page for colour.

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HP OfficeJet Pro 7720 review: Verdict

Overall, this MFP finds a good balance between price, performance and features. If your home or small business needs A3 printing, and you can live without duplex faxes or copies, it’s an excellent choice.