Look away if you're into colors because the Deskjet 460wf is not about to impress you. This Deskjet is built for mobile professionals who require printing services while traveling. Underneath its dull exterior, the Deskjet 460wf packs a punch of connectivity features, but not without its misses.

Design
We've seen enough compact and mobile printers to take the product dimensions with a pinch of salt. The Deskjet 460wf measures 340 x 185 x 81mm and weighs 2.15kg. However, you'll need a little more room (11 x 2cm) after factoring in the sheet feeder--which is folded down when not in use--and the protruding Wi-Fi/Bluetooth printer card.

You can find the usual PictBridge, USB and AC power connections on the rear of the printer. In addition, there's a sliding Wi-Fi profile switch which allows you to select settings (maximum of three) for different environments. For security purposes, there's a lock connector (cable lock purchased separately) to prevent theft.

Over at the right (from the back), a multiformat card slot accepts HP's 802.11b or Bluetooth printer cards together with CompactFlash Type I, Secure Digital and MultiMediaCards.

The control panel on this Deskjet is simple, period. Coated in shiny silver, there are buttons for One-touch power, Resume and Cancel. Two LED indicators provide status on ink cartridge levels and print status.

The Deskjet 460wf comes with a personal touch. There is a holder under the belly of the unit where you can slot your business card into. Though user-friendly, the printer can just as easily belong to someone else simply by replacing the card.

Features
Of all the features on the Deskjet 460wf, Wi-Fi connectivity takes center stage. Setting up the printer for wireless connection won't require the brains of a Nobel scientist. However, you will need to know the current settings on your Wi-Fi network.

The Users' Guide provides basic setup procedures. Otherwise, onscreen step-by-step instructions are comprehensive yet understandable. To set up the wireless connection, you will need to know the following information: The communication mode (ad-hoc or infrastructure); the network name; and security settings (WEP or WPA encryption).

You will still need the USB cable for the initial setup process, so don't be too eager to chuck it away. The Wi-Fi profile switch isn't terribly innovative, but it does save you a step or two when you revisit places you frequent.

The Deskjet 460wf is Bluetooth-compatible (card purchased separately) as well. We found this feature to be especially useful when you need to print a document via your personal digital assistant. Pairing the printer to our wireless device during our tests was a breeze.

Other than a whole range of connectivity options including Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, PictBridge support and a built-in memory card reader, we particularly fancy the external Lithium-ion battery (180g) which powers the printer when the unit is not on AC connection. With an optional car charger, you can recharge the Deskjet while traveling.

We're not going to try this out, but according to HP, the 460wf has been tested to withstand accidental drops of up to 0.5m, regardless of which side the printer was impacted.

Performance
The performance of this Deskjet, though not impressive, will meet the basic requirements of the mobile professional--that's if you can endure the agonizing wait of about 1 minute for the unit to power up. Shutting the printer down, thankfully, was a lot faster at less than 2 seconds.

We ran performance tests via the USB cable since printing wirelessly depends a lot on connectivity speeds, and thus would affect our results. In addition, we shut down and turned on the printer in between each test. The Deskjet managed to complete our 10-page print run in approximately 4 minutes 55 seconds. Printing in draft mode shaved off 3 minutes, clocking at 1 minute 49 seconds.

A page of colored graphics and text took 36 seconds from the time you hit Print on your desktop until the page was released from the printer.

Printing A4-sized photos on HP's Advanced photo paper (glossy) at 600 x 600dpi took slightly longer than 2.5 minutes. The Deskjet was able to churn out photo prints at a maximum resolution of 4,800 x 1,200-optimized dpi. However, you might have to wait close to 10 minutes for an A4-sized print.

Before we ran our tests, our main question was how long the printer could last on its Lithium-ion battery. While paper specifications claimed the unit was able to print approximately 450 pages on a single charge, we managed to print only slightly over 70 pages (mixed text and graphics) and four A4-sized photos before the battery gave up.

Image Quality
If you're looking to have high-quality photo printouts, you'd be better off with other dedicated photo printers. We found slight banding problems in our A4-sized photos while printing in normal quality. In addition, our printouts exhibited a slight greenish tint.

Font types were clearly readable even at size 3 (Times News Roman) in normal quality. However, in draft mode, it was difficult to distinguish the bold text with the standard ones.

Service And Support
HP's support for the Deskjet 460cb includes a one-year limited hardware warranty and one year of technical phone support. A toll-free 1-800 number is available 8.30am to 5.30pm, (+8 GMT) Monday through Friday, but many questions can be answered at HP's Web site which includes an online live chat with a technician, email support, a searchable knowledge base, software and driver downloads, and tips for getting the most out of your printer. You can also purchase an optional HP Care Pack for three years from the purchase date.