HP OfficeJet Pro 9135e review: A brilliant inkjet multifunction for a busy small office

HP has a knack for building good small office inkjets, and the OfficeJet Pro 9135e is a brilliant example. A four-in-one combining printing, scanning, copying, and fax, it covers every office need. The 9135e doesn't just address the basics, though. Its scanner is equipped with a 35-sheet automatic document feeder (ADF) to handle multi-page scans, copies, and faxes. Both its scanner and printer support automatic double-sided (duplex) operation, so you can set up a double-sided fax or copy, then go and make yourself a cup of tea while it finishes.

This MFP's impressive specification continues elsewhere. It has two 250-sheet paper trays, allowing you to load an entire ream of paper, or mix a stock of plain paper with photo or headed paper, reducing the amount of shuffling and reloading you'll need to do. There's support for wired networks, along with Wi-Fi standards up to 802.11ac.

With a large 10.9cm (4.3") color touchscreen, it's easy to control the range of direct features available on the MFP itself. These include scans to, or prints from a network drive, or a USB stick inserted in the USB host port. You can also scan or print from Google Drive or OneDrive, but you'll need to use the HP Smart app for that.

The HP OfficeJet Pro 9135e uses cartridges, rather than HP's refillable Smart Tank system. The largest 'EvoMore' supplies are rated for 2,500 black pages, or 1,650 for each color, which is pretty generous for a cartridge inkjet. At the time of writing, color running costs worked out at a reasonably keen 6.0p per page, but black prints cost 2.0p. That's not unreasonable, but it's a little higher than we'd expect in this class – and far off the ultra-low costs you'd get from a refillable printer.

Previously, HP's top band of Instant Ink subscription could rival that price, but the Business tier now works out at 3.6p per page, and only if you print your 700-page monthly allocation in full. Unless you print a lot of color, cartridges are likely to prove cheaper.

HP OfficeJet Pro 9135e review: Setting up

This might be a great printer, but it feels like HP needs to reconsider its setup process. At least this is physically straightforward: the OfficeJet Pro 9135e is on the bulky side for an inkjet, but it's lighter than a laser and easy to lift into place. With no vents or hatches on either side, it's happy to share desk space with shelves, computers, and the like. You'll need room on top to access the scanner, and you may need to reach the back if there's a paper jam.

For us, other aspects of the install process were annoying. HP has updated its touchscreen menus, and the new system is less helpful than the last. During the initial setup, the screen displays a QR code that leads to an online quick-start guide. That sounds like a great idea, but it's not as practical as just showing animations or instructions on the screen itself.

Experienced users will be happy to insert the four startup cartridges without guidance, and may be irked that there's no obvious way to clear the QR code and access the main menu, for example, to manually join the printer to a wireless network. It is possible, via the help icon.

For some time, HP has been deprecating its full software install in favor of the HP Smart app. This works well on smartphones and tablets, but for PC users it feels oversimplified. Crucially it also doesn't contain TWAIN drivers, which you'll need to import scans directly into most imaging programs. The full software package is still available, but you'll need to search for the HP Easy Start installer instead.

One other potential irritation stems from what seems like HP's obsession with protecting its cartridge business. Users have to bat away offers to join HP+, which offers some benefits in exchange for an agreement to only use HP supplies for the life of the printer, and notifications about security measures that the printer uses to block third-party supplies. It's not that we object to using OEM supplies – in fact we recommend it – but HP's up-front approach can be an intimidating start to your ownership experience.

HP OfficeJet Pro 9135e review: Printing, scanning and copying

Happily, such frustrations are easily forgotten once you start using the HP OfficeJet Pro 9135e. It's immediately obvious that it's very fast for an inkjet in this class; it delivered the first page of text in 16 seconds and went on to reach an excellent 22.1ppm on our 25-page job, whether printing in draft or normal quality. It also reached a brilliant 8.0ppm on our very challenging color graphics test, which is as quick as small office inkjets get.

Like all inkjets, the 9135e has to slow down during duplexing to allow drying time so that ink doesn't smear. Accordingly, it managed only 3.7 images per minute (ipm) when printing 10 sides of graphics onto five pages. That's much slower than a laser printer, but again it holds up very well against the competition.

Copies were all fast by inkjet standards, with single-page copies quick by any measure. The HP OfficeJet Pro 9135e completed a single mono A4 page in eight seconds and needed just 11 seconds for the same job in color. Using the ADF, 10-page versions of these tests took 50 and 75 seconds respectively.

It's great that this MFP can make double-sided copies of double-sided originals, helped by a dual-sensor ADF that captures both sides of the page in one pass. Duplex printing again limits the speed here, but the 9135e still completed a 20-side, 10-page color copy in a little over four minutes.

The HP OfficeJet Pro 9135e has a particularly quick scanner. It was able to finish a preview in seven seconds, with no further scanning necessary in order to save images at 150 or 300 dots per inch (dpi). The 9135e also dispatched a 600dpi scan of a 6x4" photo in seven seconds, but most impressively it needed only 21 seconds for a 1,200dpi photo scan – that's a job that ties up most MFPs for at least a minute.

It's a shame that this scanner can't automatically detect the size of your original; it's annoying having to manually select photo sizes when rivals from Epson and Canon pre-crop the image for you. Still, when you're done scanning, you'll appreciate the "easy slide-off glass", which is HP's way of saying there's no lip on two sides of the platen. It's so much easier to retrieve original documents that it makes you wonder why all scanners aren't like this.

We wouldn't expect HP to drop the ball on quality, and sure enough, the HP OfficeJet Pro 9135e produces thoroughly satisfying results. It's an excellent text printer, producing bold black characters with exceedingly crisp outlines. We couldn't tell the difference between standard and draft text which, taken with the identical speed at which they appeared, suggests there probably isn't any. Color graphics weren't the punchiest we've seen from an inkjet, but they were good and mercifully free of common bugbears like banding or grain.

Perhaps surprisingly, this isn't a bad photo printer. Its pigment inks tend to sit up on the surface of glossy papers, producing a semi-gloss finish, but otherwise, prints had accurate colors and a reasonable amount of contrast and fine detail.

The OfficeJet Pro 9135e delivered sharp and well-exposed document scans at lower resolutions, making it a good device for office archiving. Higher resolution photo scans were serviceable, but like other HP scanners, images from the 9135e showed signs of digital sharpening. You can't switch this off, but it's only likely to be an issue for creative uses where fidelity is paramount.

With a good scanner and excellent printer, it wasn't too surprising that this MFP turned out excellent black photocopies, with almost perfect exposure. Color copies shared this strength, but unfortunately suffered a little from dour, desaturated hues.

HP OfficeJet Pro 9135e review: Is it worth it?

Yes, HP's software and setup can be a little frustrating, but it's easy to forgive when the OfficeJet Pro 9135e is so good at almost everything else. It's much faster than most inkjets in this class and excels across all the jobs that are so important to everyday office life. We'd like the 9135e even more if HP could lower its black ink costs to 1.5p per page or less, but if you prize quality and flexibility above long-term value, we can't think of a better small-office MFP.

HP OfficeJet Pro 9135e specifications