We’ve talked a lot about HP ePrint and how it enables you to print from pretty much any mobile device with an Internet connection. The secret is that each ePrint-enabled printer has its own email address, so all you do is send your print job to that address. Sounds pretty simple, and it seems to make mobile printing as expansive as ever, but does it work as smoothly and reliably as HP would have us believe? PCWorld.com has gotten up close and personal with HP ePrint on the HP ENVY 100 and HP Photosmart eStation, and the feedback is generally positive.
Some points worth mentioning:
- Your HP ePrint printer’s email address is long and complex to protect against spam and security risks, and you can adjust the printer settings to only accept jobs from an authorized list of email addresses
- Tests were performed using simple email messages from different mobile devices (iPhone, Android phone, Blackberry) and computers using Gmail, Hotmail and Yahoo
- 37 of 46 print jobs printed successfully for HP Photosmart eStation, and 41 of 51 were successful for HP ENVY 100
- For successful print jobs, print times ranged from a minute to half an hour
- Notable problems with Hotmail from a Blackberry: only 1 out of 12 print jobs sent were successful
- While you’re supposed to receive a confirmation email that the HP server received your print job, the testers didn’t always receive the email. When they did, there were occasionally delays of as long as a couple hours.
The main point seems to be that ePrint works more often than not, but there are some notable issues. And if HP is trying to make ePrint more than just a handy side feature, the bugs need to be addressed as soon as possible, because a shaky first impression in the eyes of consumers can be difficult to overcome. Hopefully HP eventually finetunes it into a game-changing service that consumers can depend on for expanded printing mobility.
(Photo via Morguefile)
