The HP Officejet Pro 9020 is a new breed of cloud-enabled, multi-function (print, scan, copy and fax) small office, home office (SOHO) printer that has double-sided scanning/
What is the catch? An HP OfficeJet Pro 9020 at $299 including free delivery from HP Australia. Well, as far as we can see, there is only one – you must use genuine HP 965 ink to make it work. And that is not so bad as it offers both standard (approx. 700/1000 pages colour/black) and high yield XL (1600/2000 pages) that you can get from any major retailer.
OK, why the genuine cartridges? Isn’t that restraint of ‘something’. Call the ACCC!
No. To give consistent laser-like quality (from an inkjet) and speed of 24 (professional mode) to 39 (general office mode) pages per minute, 1200 x 1200 DPI (native) with huge 30,000 pages a month duty cycle the ink cartridges have smarts in them. On other printer’s ink cartridges are simply ‘dumb’.
Some may see it as a lock-in – but it makes sense to avoid non-genuine cartridges and achieve the extra functionality.
HP OfficeJet Pro 9020
HP began reimaging the HP OfficeJet Pro series more than three years ago. It connected with thousands of small business owners in more than 20 countries, identifying areas where HP innovation and creativity could help each achieve their goals. This led to the reinvented HP OfficeJet Pro series.
Q: What did SMBs want?
A: Smart, mobile, secure, small footprint and low ink costs.
GadgetGuy thinks HP is on a winner.
Website here
Out of the box
- The HP OfficeJet Pro 9020 comes in lid colours of Light Basalt (1MR73D) or Oasis (1MR80D)
- Main paper tray
- Second paper tray
- HP 965 Black, Cyan and Magenta ink cartridges
- Power cable
Setup is via the HP Smart app for Android (tested) or iOS. It also has drivers for Windows, macOS, Chrome and Linux.
App
You will need to create an HP account to use some app features. This is not so much the case with the Windows or macOS drivers, but some additional functionality of this printer resides in the HP cloud (like the HP Tango reviewed here).
The App automatically registers your warranty and requests necessary access to files and folders on the device and will update the firmware. It also can enable voice control (not tested)
From there, you can also set up Smart Tasks (one tap), enable remote cloud printing, scanning, faxing, share the printer and order ink.
It also has a new feature called self-healing Wi-Fi, although we are not sure what that does!
It also has a web server interface for us oldies
Base specifications – HP OfficeJet 9020
| Speed |
Mono: 24/39ppm (professional or office mode) Colour: 20/39 (ditto) Photo print 10x15cm 39 seconds Native DPI 1200 x 1200, or multi-pass 4800 x 1200 |
| Paper gsm |
Up to A4 – 60-105 (paper), 220-280 (photo), 163-200 (Card), 75-90 (envelope) 500 sheet capacity over two paper trays – 100 sheet output |
| Screen | 6.75cm colour touch |
| ADF | Dual-sided in one pass – 35 sheets for scan, fax or copy up to 15ipm |
| Remote Print | Apple AirPrint; Wi-Fi Direct Printing; Mopria Certified; HP Smart |
| Coms | USB-2.0, LAN, Wi-Fi N dual-band and USB print |
| Duty cycle | 2000 recommended by capable of 30000 sheets per month |
| Size | 437 x 396.3 x 318.3 mmx 12kg |
| Noise | Idle 0dB to 55dB |
| Power | 1.22W to 30W |
| Cartridge | HP 965 or 965XL (four cartridges) pigment base |
Price
- 9010 from most office retailers $249
- 9012 Officeworks $249
- 9018 Harvey Norman $249
- 9020 Officeworks $299
Tests
One thing we have learned with printers is that all the quoted speeds use the theoretical ISO (International Organization for Standardisation) tests and often don’t reflect real-world use.
Our test used Windows 10 and our reference HP x360 Spectre. One thing we noticed is that the initial warm-up from power off takes nearly two minutes, so it is best left idling. That should also save ink clean cycles.
Single-sided
- First page out: about 10 seconds in mono or colour – PASS
- Black Office/Professional mode (based on ten pages less first page out time) 32/20 pages in 60 seconds – PASS
- Colour Office/Professional mode – 30/20 – PASS
Duplex print
Speeds are about half the above – PASS
Office use
Over a week using mixed media Word documents of less than 10-pages, we felt real-world speeds were about half the ISO speed. Still that is very fast for a $299 printer and are within HP’s claims.
Print Quality
- Office (draft) quality was great, with no banding or significant colour variance.
- Professional quality (on coated stock) produced laser-like mixed media pages.
- Photo quality took 45 seconds for a 10x15cm print and just over four minutes for an A4 borderless print.
Bond recycled paper is a sponge, so we used both it and coasted stock. Even on bond quality was good and on coasted stock colours popped with sharp detail and deep blacks.
These are within HP’s claims.
Print costs
Obviously, we can’t test until we run out ink. Using HP’s stated capacities and Inkstations lowest price for the 965 and XL cartridges respectively we estimate
- Mono under 5/3 cents a page
- Colour under 20/12 cents a page
These are reasonable if not on the low side for a SOHO printer.
Fax
Few use it anymore, but it has phone line I and out ports.
Build
It is well-made and sturdy, but like any lower cost device it is mainly plastic. Provided you put it on a desk it should last three-five years with reasonable use.
The duplex (and flatbed) scanner looks robust enough, but we can’t find if the rollers (which do wear out quicker than the print mechanism) are replaceable. We can say it is fast and fed 35 sheets without fault.
The colour touch screen is quick and can perform most functions. The app is more about setting up Smart Tasks – one tap tasks.
GadgetGuy’s take – HP OfficeJet Pro 9020 is one of the best SOHO printers we have tested
Brother, Epson, Canon and HP all have great products. But in the inkjet field, I suspect it has the edge over earlier technology, and it is well priced.
Quality HP build, reasonable to low ink costs, probably the fastest speed in its class – it is a very good ADF and duplex printer. Intelligence and good looks!
It has everything you need for an Android, Windows or Apple environment.
HPs printer cartridge policy only makes sense to HPs bottom line. Nothing more.
I’m disappointed you were so soft on such a sham they pretty much created.
You are correct and I don’t know why I was soft. EcoTank, Endurance and Inkvestment printers are far lower cost but for what this is (office quality SMB) it was lower than other tested. Yes its a shame when ink cots more per ml than the best champagne.