Let's imagine I'm a road warrior, and I need a laptop and printer by my side in my road cruiser all the time. I'm a closer, for sure, and when I make my sale to Jill in her office, Jane on the construction site or Jack in his living room, I print the contract and get the Jill, Jane or Jack Hancock on the dotted line.
In that life, I'd be happy to use the HP Deskjet 450wbt mobile printer. Its size, ease of set-up and use and mobile features fit the bill.
I've used many HP printers, and I have to laud HP for its set-up instructions on all of them. Getting the 450wbt going was a piece of cake. No steps were left to my imagination. With other vendors' printers, and other machines, I've reached a point and could go no further. A call to the help line revealed that the vendor assumed that I was savvy enough to know the next step.
In the field, setting up the HP 450wbt isn't going to cause a distraction that might give my customer time to rethink his decision. The printer is 13.3 by 3.2 by 6.5 inches in size, so I won't have to ask Jill to clear off her desk for it. Indeed, it only takes up the same space as two laptops stacked on top of each other. Selling to Jane on the construction site, I don't have to ask for an extension cord, because 450wbt can run on battery power. If I use my Bluetooth-enabled laptop, I can even access the Internet and print out product stats or fairly decent photos. I'll need to have some snappy repartee, however, to distract the customer while the printer puts out black and white documents at a nine page-per-minute (ppm) rate and color at eight ppm.
The slow print speed is one reason why I may not be so happy using only this printer in my home office. The other is color print quality. If I want a pretty good color print, I can get one by using premium HP paper but not on other less-than-premium papers. Quality consistency can be an issue, too, and visible lines sometimes show up in color prints, particularly on photos downloaded from a digital camera. I don't think I'd use prints from this copier for presentations, but I'd use them for a quick illustration of a product or piece of real estate.
If stellar color or speed isn't needed, the HP Deskjet 450wbt is a good, serviceable home office printer. Its size is a real plus in tight situations (like a dorm room), and its black printing is excellent. It's also a good choice for anyone who works in a small home office and on the road.
