Billed as the world’s smallest inkjet all-in-one printer, the HP Deskjet Ink Advantage 3776 is positioned as the perfect homework aid for your young scholars. Does it deserve to be in the honor roll?
Design: 4/5
True to its claim, the HP Deskjet 3776 immediately impresses with its compact dimensions, taking up very little space on a study table or book shelf. The cool mint green accent color for the top surface and HP livery perks up the white plastic body and gives it a youthful vibe.
A band that runs across the top contains the power button on the left side and the LCD control panel and function buttons on the right. Underneath the band is the paper path with the scanner roller.
Two ports are found at the back—one for the power connection, the other a USB port for which you will likely have no use for due to the printer’s wireless capability. Also at the back is the vertical paper input tray with a guide and extender.
The front panel opens to provide access to the cartridge tray with takes one black and one tricolor (CMY) ink cartridge. Below this is the paper output tray, also with an extender and paper catch.
review unit.
Hardware: 3.5/5
The most noteworthy technology for the HP Deskjet 3776 is its wireless connectivity. Built-in WiFi 802.11 b/g/n makes it accessible to mobile devices, allowing a direct connection without need to log in to a shared network.
Another innovation is the use of a document feeder system for scanning and copying, utilizing a roller to pass the document over a stationary scanner, instead of the bulky flatbed scanner plate and moving scan head mechanism found in most multifunction devices.
On the printing front, the hardware is pretty basic, utilizing HP’s thermal inkjet technology with two print heads—black and tricolor. The paper feed process is a single, direct pass system from the vertical-oriented 60-sheet input tray at the back, to the horizontal 25-sheet output tray in front.
User Experience: 4/5
For me, one of the best things about the HP Deskjet 3776, in addition to its small footprint, is how easy it was to set up. I did not even need to connect it physically to a computer, as I just used the HP All-in-One Remote Printer app on my iPad. Following the instructions on the app, configuring the Deskjet 3776 was a breeze.
Once you’ve set up the machine, it’s easy to send printing jobs from your mobile devices wirelessly. First page out is a decent 15 seconds for black and 18 seconds for a color print. Considering that this is pretty much an entry level device, print speeds are respectable at 19 ppm for black and 15 ppm for color pages in draft mode, and 8 ppm for black and 5.5 ppm for color prints in laser-comparable mode. Print quality is, as expected, at the HP standard of vivid colors, saturated blacks, and well-defined image edges.
Do not expect high-quality scanning or copying from the Deskjet 3776, as maximum optical scan resolution is only 600 dpi, while copy resolution for both black and color are 300 x 300 dpi. Further, the roller technology employed to pass the single page to be scanned/copied means that you can’t lay the page exactly flat on the scan bed. As the page moves through the paper path, there is a tendency to skew along one edge, so it’s hard to get an exact replica of the original document. Also, the document feeder cannot take thick materials like credit cards.
For difficult-to-scan materials, such as pages in a book, or PVC plastic cards, your best option would be to use your smartphone camera to take a photo or use a scanner app, then send the image wirelessly to the Deskjet 3776 for printing.
Value: 4.5/5
No local prices are available as of this writing, but based on regional pricing, this compact all-in-one should retail below PHP 5,000. Considering the very affordable price levels of HP’s Ink Advantage cartridges, per page cost should be quite reasonable.
Power consumption is a very economical 2.2 watts on standby and 0.69 watts in sleep mode. Moreover, an auto-off function can be set to totally shut down the unit when not in use after a certain amount of time.
Bottomline:
Kids bugging you for a new printer? This will fit perfectly under the tree this Christmas!
Also published in GADGETS MAGAZINE November 2016 Issue.
Words by Maribelle Alba