The HP OfficeJet 200 Mobile is sibling to one of the best compact printers around, so you can expect a strong performance from the start. In a nutshell, this HP is a fast portable printer that delivers high-quality photo printing and offers a range of connectivity issues including WiFi and USB.
It's primarily designed for printing on the go, as well as for use in smaller office spaces where you don't have much room (or need) for a larger printer. It's compatible for use with the best laptops and home computers, so it should fit in well with your existing work setup.
As a mobile printer, it supports wireless printing from your laptop or other compatible device, and can run on battery power (keep reading) when away from a mains outlet. The HP OfficeJet 200 Mobile printer is part of the same model line as our top compact printer choice, the HP OfficeJet All-in-One 250, but it isn't a portable printer and scanner, hence the lower price tag.
HP OfficeJet 200 Mobile review: Features
The HP OfficeJet 200 Mobile is ultra-portable, measuring 14.3 x 7.32 x 2.7 inches and weighing 4.6lbs without the included battery installed (4.9lbs with). That makes it roughly the same weight as the Canon PIXMA TR150, and it’s small enough to carry in a backpack if you're working on the road or moving between temporary office spaces on a regular basis.
This mini portable printer opens up with an extendable input tray and features a sleek-looking control panel that has physical buttons integrated into its smooth surface. The battery comes with the printer and sits in a compartment on the back. That compartment has a dedicated window and button so you can check how much power you have left. The HP OfficeJet 200 Mobile is capable of printing 500 pages between charges, with each full charge taking around 90 minutes thanks to the HP Fast Charge function.
Like most of the portable color printers we reviewed, this compact printer pairs a single black cartridge with a tri-color cartridge to print in a full range of colors. Standard-size ink cartridges have yields of 200 pages for black-and-white prints and 165 pages for color prints, making the price per page 21 cents. HP also offers high-capacity cartridges that increase the yield to 600 and 415 pages, respectively, which reduces the cost to 16 cents per page.
The printer’s input tray holds up to 50 pages at a time, matching the highest-capacity portable printers available. Like most mobile printers, it ejects finished pages onto whatever surface it’s sitting on, with no output tray to speak of.
HP OfficeJet 200 Mobile review: Print quality
In our print testing, the OfficeJet 200 Mobile printed some of the best quality documents we saw from a portable inkjet printer. In fact, they were nearly identical to those printed with HP’s more expensive compact printer - good enough to match the quality of full-size stationary inkjet printers.
The sample documents we printed were nearly error free, with very few unwanted ink spots, minimal banding, and none of the streaking or alignment issues we saw in documents printed by less capable portable printers. It’s also pretty fast, printing black-and-white text at a rate of eight pages per minute and color documents at more than seven pages per minute.
With a print resolution of 4800 x 1200 dpi, this compact printer has the chops to handle photos as well as documents, and can print on up to legal-size paper. The HP OfficeJet 200 Mobile is also fairly quiet in use and considerably less noisy than several of the other mobile printers we tested.
HP OfficeJet 200 Mobile review: Connectivity
The portable printer connects to PCs and mobile devices through both USB and Wi-Fi, and supports Windows, Mac and Linux operating systems. For mobile printing, you will need to download HP’s ePrint app, which is available through both the App Store and the Google Play Store.
The ePrint app is very simple to use, and enables you to print images and content from your smartphone and tablet, making it a fairly seamless process. If you're printing on the go for your business, via the app you could also take advantage of HP's network of 30,000 Public Print Locations, like FedEx Office, The UPS Store, Swiss Post, and more.
Should you buy the HP OfficeJet 200 Mobile?
The single-function HP OfficeJet 200 Mobile printer is covered with a standard one-year warranty, and you can buy extended service plans at the time of purchase. HP has several avenues for support, including a user manual, an online troubleshooting guide, plus a customer forum. For one-on-one help, contact HP's printer support staff by phone, email or social media (Twitter, Facebook).
The HP OfficeJet 200 Mobile takes everything we love about the HP OfficeJet All-in-One 250 and slims it down. It drops the scanning and copying hardware to deliver the same great print quality in a smaller, more portable package, and is very good value for the money.
If you're concerned with just printing, and want a mobile printer that produces high quality prints quickly, this is a good choice with its decent speed, connectivity options and high page yield (for a portable printer). For an exceptionally lightweight and slimline portable printer, also take a look at the Brother PocketJet PJ723.
