HP OfficeJet 250 Printer Review

The HP 250's build quality is mediocre. The scan cover feels slightly flimsy, and the ink compartments feel tight when inserting the ink cartridges. Also, fingerprint smudges are very noticeable due to the surface's glossy finish. Since there's no output tray, you must stand in front of the printer to grab the pages or ensure enough space on the desk so that papers don't spill onto the floor. On the upside, the rear input and the ADF has width sliders to accommodate different paper sizes, and paper jams are easy to reach from the top of the printer. Since it's a portable printer, it has a rechargeable battery for when you're on the go and don't have a power outlet present. There's also a light indicator on the left side for Wi-Fi connection, battery charge, and power. Both the power cable and the rechargeable battery are removable, so you can easily replace them if necessary.

This printer requires frequent maintenance. Because of its low page yield, you'll have to change the ink cartridges frequently if you print regularly or in high volume. Changing the cartridges is easy and intuitive, but the printer needs to be on to do so. There's only one access point to the printer's internals, though the opening gives access to almost the entirety of the inside. You'll also have to fill the paper tray regularly as it only holds 50 sheets. As an inkjet printer, there's an inherent risk of clogging if it sits for a long period between uses. Thankfully, there are several maintenance tasks built-in to align and clean the printheads.

You can access the user manual here.

The HP OfficeJet 250 Mobile has a good display. The settings menu is easy to navigate, thanks to its well-identified icons. It has three touch-sensitive buttons below the screen: Back, Home, and Help. The Home button provides a quick exit back to the main display, and the Help button pulls up how-to videos and tips. The screen is flush with the printer's body but has a spring to prop it up at an angle. It has good vertical visibility, but the viewing angle isn't as good from the side.

This printer has a bad cartridge system. Its page yield for both black and color pages is very low, so you'll need to replace the cartridges often if you print regularly. Also, since this printer uses a tri-color cartridge, you must replace the whole color cartridge even when one color runs out. You can purchase HP 62XL High Yield Black and HP 62XL High Yield Tri-Color cartridges with an advertised page yield of 600 pages each.

While the advertised scan speed is nine black pages per minute, the ADF can only process up to four pages per minute, regardless of whether it's plugged in or using battery power. You can produce a searchable PDF or document; although this results in a few errors, they're mostly the result of special characters.

The ADF's scan quality is okay. While the colors are a little washed out, the text is clear and easy to read. However, the image processing is very aggressive and removes all fine details and background elements, resulting in scans appearing noticeably different from their source materials. Finally, the scanner produces tilted scans, even if the paper is aligned properly with the guides.

• Quick start guide
• Power cord
• Rechargeable printer battery
• HP Starter Cartridges:
• 1x HP 62 Black
• 1x HP 62 Tri-color

Black-and-white documents look excellent from this printer. The text is clear, and charts and graphs are easy to read. Fine details are present, although ever so slightly grainy. However. dark shades like purple and maroon are very difficult to distinguish from one another when converted to grayscale.

The print quality of color documents is amazing. Colors are vibrant, text is crisp, and fine elements like lines on a chart or graph are sharp.

When printing using the battery, it can only push one page per minute for black and color documents alike, and the first page takes 37.8 seconds to print. If you want a portable printer with faster printing speeds, check out the HP OfficeJet 200.

Unfortunately, manual duplex printing doesn't work despite being an advertised feature; the printer doesn't provide a prompt to flip or re-insert pages.

The color gamut on this printer is mediocre. While there's enough contrast between colors for photos to appear detailed, color transitions are especially grainy. Moreover, this printer struggles to reproduce saturated shades of any color.

This printer has acceptable color accuracy. The printer struggles with skin tones, blacks, and blues. It's fine for casual photo printing; however, it isn't sufficiently accurate for professional photo printing or enthusiasts.

This printer is excellent at reproducing small details. You can differentiate background details from foreground objects, and fine elements are quite sharp.

In addition to the posted sizes above, you can print 3.5" x 5" (88.9 mm x 127 mm) photos.

You can print from a USB flash drive using the USB port on the side of the printer. Bluetooth support is available for device setup but not for printing.

You can use the HP Smart app to initiate prints, scans, and copies, as well as use your device's camera for scanning. You can adjust color and contrast settings for scans and order more ink for your device.

You need to install drivers to print on Windows devices, while macOS and ChromeOS devices don't require drivers to print. To initiate scans from the printer when using a Windows device, you also need to install the HP Printer Assistant.