The HP OfficeJet line offers various all-in-one printer models suitable for home and office use. In this article, we will help you choose between HP OfficeJet Pro 8710 vs 6978. They come with similar feature sets. However, HP OfficeJet Pro 8710 is more for more intensive office printing, whereas HP OfficeJet Pro 6978 is ideal for personal or home use.
What we will discuss in this article include:
– The size and weight of each printer model
– The ADF and paper capacity of each printer model
– The connectivity features of these all-in-one printers
– What ink cartridges that are compatible with each printer
– The performance of HP OfficeJet Pro 8710 vs 6978
– Which printer that is generally more recommended
Dimensions
The first difference between these two printers that we can notice immediately is the dimensions. HP OfficeJet Pro 8710 is obviously larger, whereas HP OfficeJet Pro 6978 is relatively smaller and more compact. See also: HP OfficeJet 5255 vs HP Envy 5055.
HP OfficeJet Pro 8710 measures 19.7 inches x 25.2 inches x 12.5 inches with the output tray extended in full. It weighs about 25.4 lbs. This printer is quite beefy, so it will require a considerable amount of space on your desk. Also, because of the large and heavy body, it is not really practical to move around.
HP OfficeJet Pro 6978 measures 18.26 inches x 20.39 inches x 9.0 inches in total. It weighs about 17.9 lbs. Compared to its sibling, this printer is considerably smaller and lighter. While it is not the most compact and lightweight option available in the market, HP OfficeJet Pro 6978 is still able to fit on your desk quite easily, and is fairly portable so that you can move it between home and office if necessary.
The overall designs of these printers are largely similar. They each have a black color and pretty much a conventional look. However, they indeed look modern and professional, thanks to the sleek curves of their bodies. On the top of each printer, there is the flatbed scanner and ADF, and the output tray is located on the front.
The touchscreen of HP OfficeJet Pro 8710 is put near the side, whereas HP OfficeJet Pro 6978’s is closer to the center. But the touchscreen panels and user interfaces are identical. It is a 2.65-inch color display which looks sharp, bright, and vibrant. Both printers feel very intuitive and convenient to use.
Essential Functions
Both HP OfficeJet Pro 8710 vs 6978 are all-in-one printers with print, scan, copy, and fax functions. They are also equipped with automatic document feeder (ADF). Most of their specs are similar, except for the ADF.
Each printer here has a flatbed scanner with an optical resolution of 1200 x 1200 dpi, which is great for documents and even photographs. The maximum scan size of the flatbed scanner is 8.5 x 11 inches, suitable for Letter and A4 pages. However, the ADF has a maximum scan size of 8.5 x 14 inches, so it can take Legal pages just fine.
Both HP OfficeJet Pro 8710 and HP OfficeJet Pro 6978 support duplex (two-sided) ADF scanning. However, HP OfficeJet Pro 8710 has a bigger ADF capacity, which is 50 sheets, whereas HP OfficeJet Pro 6978’s ADF can only hold up to 35 sheets.
The copier uses the same flatbed scanner, and the maximum capacity is 99 copies. However, the maximum copy resolution is only 600 dpi. This is great for text and documentation images. If you need to make high-quality copies of an image, it is recommended that you scan the image first instead of copying right away.
The fax memory can hold up to 100 pages. Both printers support black-and-white and color faxing. The maximum fax resolution is 300 x 300 dpi, which should be good enough for most documents.
Input and Output Trays
The next difference between HP OfficeJet Pro 8710 vs 6978 is their input and output trays capacity. If you need to print dozens or hundreds of pages quite frequently, you need a printer with high capacity and monthly duty cycle.
HP OfficeJet Pro 8710 comes with larger input and output trays. The input tray can hold up to 250 sheets at once, and the output tray capacity is 60 sheets. HP OfficeJet Pro 8710 is recommended for printing 250 – 1,500 pages per month, although the maximum monthly duty cycle is 25,000 pages. You want to choose this printer for office use, especially when there are multiple users using the same printer.
HP OfficeJet Pro 6978, on the other hand, has a 225-sheet input tray and 60-sheet output tray. This printer is designed for lighter duty. It is recommended for printing 200 – 800 pages per month. The maximum monthly duty cycle is 20,000 pages. This printer is ideal for home use.
Connectivity
In the connectivity aspect, there is just a minor difference between HP OfficeJet Pro 8710 vs 6978. They do come with the same connection options, which include USB, RJ-11, and Wi-Fi connections.
On each printer, you can find a USB 2.0 port for printing from a computer. In addition, there is a Host USB for direct printing from a flash drive or mobile device. You can navigate through the folders on the touchscreen. HP OfficeJet Pro 8710 has two RJ-11 modem ports, whereas HP OfficeJet Pro 6978 only has one RJ-11 port for fax.
Both HP OfficeJet Pro 8710 and HP OfficeJet Pro 6978 come with built-in Wi-Fi. You can use the Wi-Fi to set-up the printer on a wireless network, so that any device that is connected to the same network can print directly without having to swap the USB cable.
Do you often work from your smartphone or tablet when you are on the go? The Wi-Fi of HP OfficeJet Pro 8710 and HP OfficeJet Pro 6978 also enables you to print directly from a mobile device via HP ePrint or Apple AirPrint. So, there’s no need to send your documents to a flash drive or computer in order to print. This saves a lot of time and is a very practical solution for mobile printing.
Ink Cartridges
Each HP printer here runs on individual cartridges for black, cyan, magenta, and yellow inks. This is really nice. Traditional inkjet printers often use a single tri-color cartridge, so when one of the color inks runs out, the cartridge won’t be able to print that color and you need to replace the whole cartridge even though the other color inks are still available. With individual cartridges for the colors, the ink usage and replacements can be more efficient.
HP OfficeJet Pro 8710 uses HP 952 ink cartridges. The 952XL black can print up to 2,000 pages per cartridge, and each of the 952XL colors can print up to 1,600 pages per cartridge. Meanwhile, the standard 952 black cartridge can deliver about 1,000 pages, and the standard 952 color cartridge can deliver about 700 pages.
HP OfficeJet Pro 6978 uses HP 902 ink cartridges, which have relatively lower page yields (and lower prices, too). The 902XL cartridges can print up to 825 pages. Meanwhile, the standard 902 black cartridge can print about 300 pages, and the standard 902 color cartridge can print about 315 pages.
Processor and Memory
HP OfficeJet Pro 8710 has a slightly faster processor, which is 600Mhz. However, the memory is only 128 MB. In general, HP OfficeJet Pro 8710 will still be faster in processing a file before printing, especially when you are dealing mostly with text documents.
HP OfficeJet Pro 6978 runs on a slightly slower 500Mhz processor, but the memory is much bigger, which is 1GB. The bigger memory can help when you want to print huge files, such as large-sized images. Nevertheless, the difference in processing speed is negligible, unless you deal with a lot of Photoshop files frequently.
Print Performance
Overall, HP OfficeJet Pro 8710 and HP OfficeJet Pro 6978 have similar print quality. They both have a maximum print resolution of 1200 x 1200 dpi. This is more than good enough for crisp text and sharp medium-sized images. When printing on HP Advance photo papers, both printers can print at 4800 x 1200 optimized dpi and deliver high-quality photographs.
The difference is on the printing speeds. HP OfficeJet Pro 8710 is only a bit better when printing in black-and-white with an ISO printing speed of 22 ppm. However, it is much faster than the 6978 model when printing in color, with an ISO printing speed of 18 ppm.
On the other hand, HP OfficeJet Pro 6978 only has 20 ppm for ISO black printing and 11 ppm for ISO color printing. For sure, it isn’t bad. It is just a bit slower than 8710, but this is not a real problem if you don’t print hundreds of pages daily.
HP OfficeJet Pro 8710 vs 6978
Conclusion
These two models are quite similar in terms of features. HP OfficeJet Pro 8710 is generally more recommended because of the higher duty cycle, better ADF, and larger ink cartridges. It will require less frequent cartridge replacements. Also, the print speeds are higher.
