We see for ourselves if HP Lives up to its claim of releasing the ‘world’s fastest MFD’, a while ago, and see what else the Photosmart C6188 is capable of doing.

Build

The HP C6188 can be quite a daunting first impression. It has just so much going on, you wouldn't know where to begin. Firstly there's that gigantic keypad with a host of buttons that would just about do anything for you. I almost expected a self-destruct button hidden in there somewhere.

Once you get past the buttons, there's that colour LCD display staring right at you with its tilting capabilities.

When your eyes move a little further down, you'll see a range of memory card slots that support all the common formats used today. A little below that is the pict-bridge socket to print directly off your camera.

A little more experimentation led me to discover the hidden 4x6 inch photo paper tray.

Overall, the feel of the printer is very solid. With all the trays and moving parts in the printer, there isn't a single thing that feels flimsy. Like I said, the C6188 does look pretty complex, but at the same time it does have a cool 'Transformers' like appeal to it. At 450x385x247 mm it doesn't even occupy a lot of space.

Rest assured, it'll look good on any desk.

Features

I'll start here from the most prominent part of the device, viz. the keypad. Like most other mid-range MFDs, the C6188 is capable of working completely by itself without the need of attaching it to a PC.

You can print straight out of memory cards or the USB port. You can scan images straight to a memory card by a single button press on the device. You can even communicate with it straight via network or through WiFi. In short, the printer offers excellent workarounds making it a complete solution in itself.

The LCD is an excellent and a very essential part of the printer. It gives an ultra-simplistic interface for anything you want to get done, so whether you're tech savvy or not, operating the device is a piece of cake.

The C6188 takes six cartridges, again a common trait of mid to high end printers. I guess after a certain point, you don't care about spending the extra rupee as long as the output quality is worth it. The best way to determine that in the C6188 is through our performance and quality tests.