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More…At $400 (as of June 6, 2007), the HP OfficeJet Pro L7680 All-in-One is pricier than many other inkjet multifunction printers, but it comes loaded with nearly everything a small-office could want in a networked MFP. In addition, it combines strong speed, good print quality, and low consumables costs, making it a viable alternative to color laser devices that cost much more.
HP OfficeJet Pro L7680
Pricing
$269.00 From 1 Vendor Get Best Prices »
- Spec Navigator
- Core Components
- Media Handling
- Display
- Network
- Connectivity
- Platform Support
- Dimensions
- General Features
- Green
- Included Hardware
- Included Software
- Resolutions
- Scanning
- Faxing
Media Handling
| Manual Feed Slot | No |
| Maximum Number of Input Trays | 2 |
| Maximum paper size, height | 14.0 inches |
| Maximum Sheets With All Paper Trays | 600 |
| Output Tray Capacity | 150 |
| Standard Number of Input Trays | 1 |
| Maximum paper size, width | 8.5 inches |
| Standard input sheet capacity | 250 |
| Duplex printing | Yes |
General Features
| Media slots |
|
| PictBridge compatible | Yes |
| Printer languages supported | PCL 3 GUI |
PCWorld Rating, September 8, 2009
13 User Reviews Add your own »
$269.00
From 1 Vendor
Get Best Prices »
- Lab Tested
- How We Test Printers »
Pros
Offers fast plain-paper printing
Cons
Pricey
Bottom Line
Get the higher-end office features you'd expect from a color-laser MFP, but for much less money.
HP OfficeJet Pro L7680
OfficeJet Pro L7680 Review, by Paul Jasper June 21, 2007
The HP's basic printing and scanning specs are impressive. Its single paper tray holds 250 sheets or 30 envelopes. To increase the printer's paper capacity, you can add a 350-sheet second tray for $100. A built-in duplexer makes double-sided prints. Even better, the automatic document feeder can turn pages to scan both sides, generating double-sided copies. While the ADF holds 50 sheets in up to letter size, the glass platen accommodates legal-size paper.
The L7680 can fax in color and it has a 125-page memory for handling incoming faxes, in case the paper runs out while you're away. You can program up to 99 speed-dial numbers for destinations you fax regularly. To print photos, either attach a PictBridge-compatible digital camera to the 7210's direct-print port or slide your camera's memory card into one of the four media-card slots, which together read all major formats. The MFP also lets you print a proof sheet of the images on your card, mark up your favorites, and run it through the scanner to select your prints.
Alternatively, you can preview the images on the 2.4-inch color LCD. The L7680's editing functions permit you to adjust or crop the image, remove red eye, and apply effects and borders prior to printing. After plugging a USB flash drive into the PictBridge port, you can print any photos that it contains. Scanned images and documents store as JPG or PDF files on the drive, a memory card, or a network folder (preprogrammable as a list of digital filing locations). You can print PDF files only from a PC, not directly from a media card or flash drive navigated through the L7680's control panel. An optional ($40) Bluetooth adapter allows you to print photos wirelessly from a mobile phone or other handheld device.
The L7680 prints with four inks packaged in individual cartridges, including a pigment-based black ink optimized for text. If you purchase HP's high-capacity replacement cartridges, you can, in theory, achieve page yields similar to those for a low-end color laser printer, at a fraction of the price. A black ink cartridge rated by HP for 2450 pages costs $35, for an estimated ink cost per page of 1.4 cents; the three color cartridges are rated for 1700 pages and cost $25 each, so the cost per color page based on HP's predicted yields is 5.8 cents. In contrast, the similarly priced $400 HP Color LaserJet 2600n offers estimated toner costs of 3.0 cents per black-and-white page and 15.4 cents per color page.
In our print quality evaluations, text prints looked less sharp than those we usually see from laser printers, and we noticed some slight horizontal banding. A line art sample exhibited strange banding patterns on a few parts of the page. This may be because the paper didn't lie flat enough at the speed it traveled through the printer mechanism. Plain paper graphics had a grainy appearance, uninspiring colors, and occasional white horizontal bands. For our plain-paper tests, we use multipurpose paper that lets us compare output from a variety of printer types.
While photos printed on glossy paper were clearly superior to those from color laser printers, they fell short of the best output from some inkjet printers we've tested recently. We saw bright, natural colors with plenty of contrast, but images were noticeably grainy, especially in skin tones. Scan quality was merely adequate, while photocopies earned high marks.
HP claims that the L7680's print speeds rival those achieved by color laser printers. At 13.1 text pages per minute in our tests, it certainly outperforms any other inkjet MFP we've tested to date, but it doesn't beat many lasers. On the other hand, it outruns most color lasers on plain-paper graphics, with a speed of 4.2 ppm. Our glossy photo printed in 79 seconds, which trails the average marks for both inkjets and lasers. Still, it's a notable achievement, considering the high quality of the photo output. During our tests, we noticed that the HP printed more noisily than most laser printers.
All in all, the HP OfficeJet Pro L7680 All-in-One is a good solution for a small office that needs to perform a wide range of printing, scanning, and faxing tasks. It offers fast text printing for an inkjet, better photo quality than a color laser, and economical ink costs.
Paul Jasper
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PCWorld Lab Results
- Rating Breakdown
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76
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83
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84
- See Complete Lab Results »
Performance Comparison with Similar Printers
76
74
82
76
Performance
| 300dpi Line Art Image (secs) | 12.68 |
| 4 by 6 Color Photo (secs) | 14.24 |
| 4 by 6 Grayscale Photo (secs) | 14.99 |
| Color Output Quality | Fair |
| Color Photo Quality | Very Good |
| Copy Output Quality | Very Good |
| Copy Quality | Very Good |
| Final Scan Time, 2-by-2-Inch Document, 600 dpi | 22.72 |
| Final Scan Time, 4-by-5-Inch Document, 100 dpi | 8.43 |
| Final Scan Time, One-Page Word Document, 300 dpi | 15.66 |
| Grayscale Glossy Output Quality | n/a |
| Grayscale Output Quality | Good |
| Line Art Output Quality | Fair |
| One-Page Copy | 17.43 |
| One-Page Copy (secs) | 17.43 |
| One-Page Line Art, Maximum Resolution | Very Good |
| One-Page Webpage (secs) | 16.5 |
| One-Page Word Document, 300 dpi | Good |
| Overall Scan Quality | Good |
| Preview Scan, 2-by-2-Inch Document, 600 dpi | 9.36 |
| Preview Scan, 4-by-5-Inch Document, 100 dpi | 9.77 |
| Preview Scan, One-Page Word Document, 300 dpi | 9.54 |
| Sports Action Shot (secs) | 78.71 |
| Ten-Page Word Document | 59.51 |
| Ten-Page Word Document (secs) | 59.51 |
| Tested Color Speed (ppm) | 4.2 |
| Tested Glossy Photo Speed (ppm) | 0.8 |
| Tested Grayscale Speed (ppm) | 4 |
| Tested Lineart Speed (ppm) | 4.7 |
| Tested Text Speed (ppm) | 13.1 |
| Text Output Quality | Fair |
| Three-Page Word Document | 25.64 |
| Three-Page Word Document (secs) | 25.64 |
| Total Scan Time, 2-by-2-Inch Document, 600 dpi | 22.72 |
| Total Scan Time, 4-by-5-Inch Document, 100 dpi | 8.43 |
| Total Scan Time, One-Page Word Document, 300 dpi | 15.66 |
| Two-Page Excel Document | 26.18 |
| Two-Page Excel Document (secs) | 26.18 |
Scanning
| Preview scan, 2-by-2-inch document, 600 dpi | 9.36 |
| Preview scan, 4-by-5-inch document, 100 dpi | 9.77 |
| Preview scan, one-page Word document, 300 dpi | 9.54 |
| Preview scan, one-page Word document, 300 dpi | 9.54 |
Text Printing
| Text output quality | Fair |
User Reviews
Average User Reviews for HP OfficeJet Pro L7680
8 Reviews Add your own »
- Latest User Reviews 8 reviews
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Reviewed by: jeffmarkman
Duration of ownership: 14 Months
Strengths: good print quality. all the features you need
Weaknesses: got a paper jam. cleared it. unit still thinks there is a printer jam. these are unrepairable. when you call the only alternative is to buy a new one. they do not repair them. unbelievable. this is my last HP product, ever.
Overall: poor quality. cannot be repaired at all. hp is filling up landfills.
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Reviewed by: mthoma11
Duration of ownership: 14 Months
Strengths: Overall A Very Good Unit, This is my 2nd Review. Also Shop around for a good price, like right here today, in PC World's Compare Price's. This Unit runs from a low of $149 to $409, so shop around!!!
Weaknesses: Software/Driver Problem, that I have told HP about and what need to be Fixed, but they so far have not Done So. The software problem with my L7680, running on Window's XP, has been the having to go into the printer setups in Windows, each and everytime one turns your system off or one does a Restart, and resetting the Duplexer setting from "Not Installed to Installed" as for some reason it will not stay in a default of Installed. And only sometimes does one have to also turn off the Tray #2 Installed, as a L7680 does not have a Tray 2, at all, only the L7780 has a Tray #2.
Overall: I have read allot of the other Reviews Here, & Many of your are having Paper Jamming Problems. I did at also, but I found the fix to this problem with all my printer's. STOP BUYING CHEAP PAPER!! Believe me, it pays to buy GOOD quality paper, Like the "Hammermill Brand" witch I find at all Office Depot's. And even the Hammermill Brand said's "99.99% JAM-FREE". And when I changed to that paper, the Jams STOPPED, 100%!! When I used cheap paper I had nothing but Jamming problems also.
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Reviewed by: normsp
Duration of ownership: 3 Months
Strengths: When it works it is very fast with excellent print quality.
Weaknesses: Poor reliability. Didn't work out of the box. Replacement unit worked fine for 2 months when it stopped printing black. After many hours on the phone with HP, they finally replaced the black/yellow print head (free) and it works again, who knows for how long. Software installation is very slow and painful. Operation is very noisy.
Overall: A great printer when it works, but reliability is pretty bad so far. It also uses much more ink than as advertised, maybe because I have had to clean the heads so many times due to printing problems. The duplex printing is nice, but VERY SLOW since it waits for the ink to dry on each page before continuing.
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Reviewed by: stevefordsjf
Duration of ownership: 2 Days
Strengths: Nice prints
Weaknesses: First unit started jamming and HP recommended replacement with refurbished. Since it was only 2 days old returned it to the store. The 2nd unit emptied the Magenta cartridge into the unit after 5 pages of printing. Ink was dripping out the bottom onto my laser printer. Called HP and they suggested I return it to the store again. I got my money back..
Overall: Since HP quit using the canon print engines, the printers have gone down hill in my opinion.
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Reviewed by: JohnFleming
Duration of ownership: 1 Month
Strengths: An excellent combination of print, scan and copy- who sends faxes any more?
Weaknesses: I use the HP L7680 on a laptop on and off a docking station. Each time I re-dock, the fax setup wizard(who sends faxes any more?) insists on running, even though it was perfectly well configured the last time. HP's Technical Support has not cracked it yet, and in the process of not succeeding has come up with some pretty lame suggestions.
Overall: Potentially an excellent product, let down by an apparently sloppy software interface, and unsuccessful technical support.
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Reviewed by: doncrawley
Duration of ownership: 2 Months
Strengths: Excellent print quality and very fast.
Weaknesses: The worst tech support imaginable. Expensive. Difficult, time-consuming installation. Features that don't work.
Overall: I bought this product for our home office based on HP's reputation and the features it offers. From the very beginning, installation was difficult for a variety of reasons and HP's tech support via chat sessions and email was inadequate. I now have 20 pages of email exchanges in which their technicians ignored the issues I wrote about, supplied inaccurate and/or incomplete solutions. They even sent a replacement unit which exhibited the same behavior as the original unit. When I emailed them about that, they simply started the exact same troubleshooting process as they had done previously...totally disregarding the history of this ticket. Thank heavens for Staples and their return policy.
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Reviewed by: markwagner
Duration of ownership: 4 Months
Strengths: it's an HP. if you've used anything else, you know how the quality compares.
Weaknesses: difficulty with setup; loss of settings; lack of user reference materials.
Overall: To start, the install was not smooth. Could not get the printer to synch with the PC over the network connection. After 24 hours of online and phone tech support, uninstalls, reinstalls, we finally just switched to the USB and everything worked. Subsequent PC's are able to print to this printer over the network connection, but cannot scan. We do a significant of graphics design for our home marketing business. High quality prints showed a disturbing "white line" at regular intervals throughout the print. A replacement printer exhibited the same. By the third trip to get a replacement, we had accidentally discovered the detailed printer setup program, which was not referenced in ANY book or online resource. A simple adjustment to higher print quality resolved this issue. Better documentation would be helpful. Finally, from time to time the printer "loses" it's settings for front panel buttons, scanning to the PC, fax speed-dial #'s, default scan resolution, etc. It's a pain to have to reload these settings. It's no doubt a good multi-function printer, as have been all of the HP's we've used over the years. But the install and continuing software issues are problematic. They would be fatal for the non-technical user. We are hoping for updated drivers that may address these issues.
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Reviewed by: marm217
Duration of ownership: 1 Day
Strengths: NONE
Weaknesses: ALL
Overall: I took the printer out of the box and plugged it in. I didn't attach it to the computer or install the software. The moment I turned the printer on, it started to ask questions about language and seemed pretty normal until it stopped dead and gave me an error message about the magenta/cyan printhead. Technical support advised me to return the printer and get it replaced. This is the second time I've had problems with HP all-in-one printers. At this point, I feel that they are hastily made products and prone to being refurbished. You might as well save yourself the trouble of buying a new one and buy a refurbished one instead.
Review Now! Already own it? Tell us What You Think
User Reviews From Around the Web
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Reviewed by: H-Poop
Strengths: Fine when it works.
Weaknesses: Print heads fail unexpectedly and for no appear ant reason.
Overall: It's no surprise that print heads are the most expensive accessory. I've had to make several replacements and they continue to fail. Designed Obsolescence has crossed my mind more than once.
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Reviewed by: elberlin
Strengths: Generally a solid product but....
Weaknesses: We cannot figure out how to scan a multi page document. This scanner makes each page of a multi page doucment a separate jpg....It is ridiculous.
Overall: I would not reccomend this produce. The user guide was very difficult and I cannot find any information on how to deal with this problem.
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Reviewed by:
Strengths: Easy to set up; lots of connection choices; great quality printing; ink lasts a long time (with the retail cartridges).
Weaknesses: Some scanner driver/software complications were resolved with new driver/software install. Manual feeder occasionally would misfeed a document and then it would jam.
Overall: This has been the best multi-purpose printer we have owned. For our small, Macs-only office, it has been the perfect addition for our printing, scanning, copying and faxing needs. We have installed eight of these printers in other offices with no complaints.
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Reviewed by: hisormine
Strengths: None. Product prints fast but jams and very glitchy.
Weaknesses: Had issues with this unit in our office. We had over 20 of these and every single one ends up breaking down.
Overall: I Dont recommend this unit to anyone. The product is not well built and will break down. The L7680 is built very poorly and is primarily made from cheap plastic. There are much better machines from Canon than this HP unit. THe L7680 has very well known problems and is the worst unit you could purchase. Stay away from the L7580, L7680, L7780 these are all the same units with different options on them. We had over 20 of these at our office and not a single one lasted over 6 months.
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Reviewed by: ifdefmoose
Strengths: Very fast print speeds for text and photos; excellent text output quality; relatively low cost per page; great feature set (duplex printing and ADF, standalone and network fax, scan to network)
Weaknesses: Limited paper handling (no manual feed slot), poor color photo output, buggy software installation and conflicts with other image acquisition software
Overall: Despite the many negative reviews posted here and elsewhere, I bought one of these printers. I should have paid more attention. I spent at least 20 hours, including a 3 hour HP tech support call, trying to get the printer software to install with a network connection on 2 of 3 WinXP and 1 of 2 Vista computers. There is a conflict that neither I nor tech support could identify or workaround. In addition, the installer will not run more than once for the same printer, requiring a complete uninstall and manually removing registry entries between attempts. After 3 hours, the HP tech support person decided there was something wrong with my router, and I had to open ports in order to get the network install to work, even though I told her I had installed it successfully on a third WinXP PC and a brand new Vista PC. She agreed to call me back in an hour, after I had reconfigured my router, but never did so. I had the same install problems with the latest software downloaded from the HP web site (8.0.1) and the CD that came with the printer (8.0.0). I finally installed it with a USB cable, just to test the print quality. Text output was very good and very fast. Photo output quite fast, but poor quality, with visible banding and lines that did not appear when printed on my old slow Canon photo printer. I tried one color copy: the red text on the original printed as orange on the copy. I don't know if the problem is with the scanner or the printer. For an office printer, this unit also has very limited paper handling: a single tray, and no manual feed slot. I'm returning it for a refund. Next time I will pay more attention to the negative reviews. Fortunately, I purchased the printer from a vendor (Amazon) that accepted a return, even though I had installed the ink cartridges and used the printer. In addition, 3 months later, after having run the full "level 4 uninstall" at least twice on all 5 computers that I used in my initial tests, there is still some HP software running that periodically checks for updates on the internet on 2 of my computers.
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