If you are a home office user in need to an AIO unit, you may want to consider the top of the line unit from Kodak’s new Hero series, the 9.1. It is a fully-featured unit with the ability to print, scan, copy, and fax. It can print black pages at up to 8.5 ISO ppm and color at 5.5 ISO ppm just like the Office Hero 6.1, so it certainly is not a speed demon. Standard 4x6” photos print out in about 28 seconds on the device.
Being the flagship model for the Hero series, it has the largest touchscreen at 4.3” LCD touchsreen display which allows users to see photos before they get printed. It features both Wi-Fi and USB 2.0 connectivity as well so you can have it work as a standalone unit connected to your PC, or put in on your network to be shared. With the Wi-Fi connectivity, users get the advantage of also being able to print from their Blackberry, iOS, or Android powered mobile devices. It is a cloud-ready printer, so you can email your documents or photos to a unique email address, or print photos with the Pic Flick app. Photo buffs may also enjoy the ability to print 3-D photos which can be seen through a pair of glasses (included in the box).
The paper tray is about average for a home multifunction with a capacity of 100 sheets. Users who print a lot of photos will appreciate the separate 40-sheet capacity photo tray which keeps them having to trade out the paper. The 30-page ADF is a nice additional feature which makes it easier to scan, copy, or fax sets of papers. The Hero 9.1 also comes with the ability to automatically print double-sided sheets of paper saving users time and money. Another useful feature with the unit is Kodak’s Smart Sensor technology. It predicts the amount of supplies needed to complete a print job and automatically detects the paper you have sitting in the tray.
The ink system on this and other Kodak printers are one area of concern. There is a single black cartridge which is available in either standard yield (425 pages) or high yield (770 pages). The color cartridge is a tri-color (cyan, magenta, and yellow) with a standard yield (420 pages), so once you’re out of one color, the rest of your prints will be off, or you can replace the whole cartridge. The cost per page difference between the two black options only ends up being 0.2 cents (2.4 cents/page vs. 2.2 cents/page) which means it’s almost a wash.
All in all, this unit is probably the best we’ve seen from Kodak as far as home printing goes. If you don’t mind the ink setup or the print speed, then this unit will probably work just fine for you. If you prefer individual inks, you’d also want to check out the HP Photosmart 7510 e-All-in-One which has the same size touch screen, a larger input capacity, a slightly smaller photo tray and ADF (25-sheet capacity for both) and faster print speeds.
