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​Inkjet: HP’s Next Generation

Written by Marlene Orr | Apr 4, 2014 4:22:28 PM
Can it Work in the Enterprise?

When HP announced the Officejet Pro X Series last year, it really shook things up in the industry, claiming that ink could keep up with or even replace laser in the office, at least in small workgroup environments. But with the announcement of the Officejet Enterprise X Series late last month, HP has migrated ink upstream, claiming it is now ideally suited for higher-volume environments too. BLI is currently testing the HP Officejet Enterprise Color Flow MFP X585z from this series and will publish a report in the coming months, but read on for a first look at some of our findings…
HP Officejet Enterprise Color Flow MFP X585z: How Does it Compare to the Original?
Designed for five to 15 users, the new product looks even more like a laser MFP than the initial Pro X model, which was recommended for up to 10 users. And it’s priced like one, too ($2,799, estimated street price, for the scan-optimized “Flow” version pictured at left). That’s a whopping $2,000 price increase over the Pro X model. Do users really get an enterprise-class MFP to meet the needs of higher-volume workgroups or is it just a repackaged version of the original with a hefty markup?
To help answer that question, we put together a quick comparison using bliQ to show how this Enterprise model compares to the Officejet Pro X576dw. Boasting a higher recommended monthly volume range and more memory, as well as a hard drive (which the X576dw lacks), the X585z promises to be better suited to larger environments; enhanced security (secure/encrypted printing and scanning) is also important for the enterprise. Unlike the earlier Pro X model, the Officejet Enterprise Color Flow MFP X585z is positioned as a scan-optimized MFP, which includes dual scan heads in the document feeder, a standard retractable keyboard to simplify data entry and offers support for more scan-to file formats than the X576dw.
Specifications At-a-Glance
 HP Officejet Enterprise Color Flow MFP X585zHP Officejet Pro X576dw MFP
Street Price$2,799$799.99
Speed44 ppm color/44 ppm black42 ppm color/42 ppm black
Recommended Monthly Volume2,000 to 6,000 impressions1,000 to 4,200 impressions
System Memory1.8-GB RAM, 320-GB HD768-MB RAM
Secure Print / Encrypted Secure PrintStdNo
Encrypted PDF Mode (Encrypted Scanning)StdNo
Scan File FormatsPDF, JPEG, TIFF, MTIFF, XPS, PDF/A, Text (OCR), Unicode Text (OCR), RTF (OCR), Searchable PDF (OCR), Searchable PDF/A (OCR), HTML (OCR), CSV (OCR)BMP, JPEG, PDF, searchable PDF, PNG, RTF, TIFF, TXT
Specification data from bliQ, provided by the manufacturer and not confirmed by testing.
What About Performance?
For complete test results, you’ll have to check out bliQ and create your own side-by-side comparison, but we’ve provided a few highlights here. Most notably, testing shows the X585z has greatly improved performance in BLI’s job stream print productivity test—which was a significant weakness of the Pro X model uncovered in BLI’s lab testing. A key indicator of real-world performance, this test simulates multi-user traffic in a busy workgroup environment. While the X576dw choked on this test, the HP Officejet Enterprise Color Flow MFP X585z ran at more than twice the speed of the Officejet Pro model. Other advancements of the new model include the addition of an auto-color mode and a much more robust scanner, which produced blazing speeds in our testing, particularly when scanning double-sided pages thanks to dual scan heads that image both sides of the page in a single pass (see below). For more detailed information, check out the full productivity results here.
Tested Scan Speed (In IPM)
 
Based on BLI lab testing of both models. Testing is conducted with single-page files scanned at 300 dpi in PDF format.
 
Stay tuned in the coming months for additional coverage on this series, including a full lab test report on the HP Officejet Enterprise Color Flow MFP X585z.
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