PhotoSmart 7960 both better and worse
Written: Nov 12 '03 (Updated Nov 12 '03)
|
Product Rating:
|
|
| Ease of Use: |
 |
|
| Paper Handling: |
|
|
|
Pros: Outstanding grayscale and B&W photo prints, color LCD, flash memory card slots
Cons: Size, cost of cartridges, average text print quality, lack of vividness of color photos.
The Bottom Line: Best for those who want the best B&W/grayscale inkjet printer on the market. Maintains great photo details especially with addition of 2 more inks but color photos dull.
|
|
|
| yusakugo's Full Review: Hewlett Packard PhotoSmart 7960 Thermal Inkjet Pri... |
Anyone who has been reading my epinions for the last couple of years knows that I'm a pretty loyal supporter of HP printer products. Being fairly happy with my PhotoSmart 7550, the announcement of the new high end PhotoSmart 7960 with 9 ink color tank support (coming through 3 tri-color cartridges) prompted me to search for the 7960 for a good price.
Well, I finally got one for a decent price of $229 before taxes and before ebates.com discounts. Playing with this new toy for a bit has left me with some mixed feelings so far. The 7960 really only excels in one area... the printing of B&W or grayscale photos. Otherwise, at best, it marks average to above average quality on all other fronts.
Short Run and Gun
Overall, the PhotoSmart 7960 strongest point is the printing of B&W and grayscale photos. There isn't another inkjet photo capable printer that prints such photos with the sharpness and attention to details and shading as the 7960. However, the 7960 suffers a bit in other areas. Full color photos seem a bit dull in the color department versus some of the competition... although the average user will find it more than acceptable, the enthusiast or photo professional may be a little disappointed with the lack of color vibrancy that I would see in photo prints from my Canon S900 printer. Text printing is a bit worse than the general inkjet printers in HP's line and the older PhotoSmart generation (like the 7550 model). HP also has done little to increase the speed of printing photos in presentation mode. The size of the 7960 and the cost of ink cartridges also put a damper on the printer as well.
Overall, the printer represents a decent value with a built-in color LCD, support for 9 inks, 16 MB of buffer memory, 2 USB inputs (one for the computer and one for digital cameras), ability to read most flash memory cards, and more do make the 7960 a contender... although the kind of photos you print will ultimately decide whether this printer is worthy of snagging your money.
Pros:
1) 9 ink printing
2) Outstanding B&W/grayscale photos
3) Performs better with dark contrast and heavily shadowed photos
4) Multiple flash memory card slots
5) Color LCD
6) Ability to use duplexer module (optional)
7) 4800x1200 maximum dpi on photo paper
8) Costs $299
Cons:
1) Large printer
2) No USB cable in box
3) Ink Cartridges are very expensive
4) If one color runs out, must replace a tri-color cartridge
5) Color photos lack vibrancy compares to color prints of competition
6) Average pure text printing on regular paper
7) Ink Cartridges offer low yield for price... especially the tri-color color cartridge and the tri-color grayscale cartridge. The tri-color photo cartridge is moderately expensive as well.
8) Limited size of media that can be printed to (max size 8 1/2x 14).
9) Slow at printing Photo quality prints
10) No parallel port if that matters to you
Pricing
The MSRP for the printer is $299. I purchased this printer from OfficeDepot.com for $299 - $70 off coupons, 3% rebate from ebates.com, plus 6% sales tax... that's about $238 as my final price. I've also bought myself 60 days of pricematching time by using an American Express CostCo Business Card although I doubt I'll find a better deal in that time. Please don't ask me about the $70 coupon since it no longer exists!
You can read my epinions article The Art of Buying... Getting your money's worth! to see my tips on saving money on internet and in store purchases.
Specs?
The 7960 has larger dimensions that its predecessor the 7550. The 7960 has dimensions of 20.9 x 15.1 x 7.6 in with a weight of 16.8 lbs. It is quite a bit larger (mostly in width and height) than the 7550 model and 2 lbs heavier!
The 7960 still maintains a 100-sheet regular copy paper/24 sheet 4x6 photo paper/14 envelope input tray. The output tray hold a maximum of 50 sheets of regular copy paper. Beneath a partially translucent smokey colored panel lies the slots for all the major flash memory card players which include Compact Flash Type I and II, MicroDrive, SmartMedia, Secure Digital Card, MultiMedia Card, Memory Stick, Memory Stick Pro, and xD-Picture Card. The printer can transfer photos on the card back to the computer although this is slower than using a dedicated card reader especially if you have USB 2.0 ports. You cannot write to flash cards through the printer. The 7960 can only read from one card at a time (only one card inserted even though there are four flash card slots for the various media).
The printer still accepts three ink cartridges although you can swap the black cartridge with the new gray tri-color cartridge.
You have a nicely sized 2.5 inch LCD in the center of the printer with a litter of buttons to the sides and below it... the 5-way directional pad lies directly below the LCD. Thank goodness that HP returned to the larger 2.5 in color LCD last seen in the PhotoSmart 1315!
HP rates the printer as a 4800x1200 dpi color/grayscale printer when printing on photo paper and 1200x1200 dpi in B&W. The printer is still 600x600 dpi on regular copy paper! Regardless, people won't likely notice since the regular paper print still look quite good at least for photos.
Note that the printer is limited to 8.5 x 14 in sized media.
Print Speeds... It's not the Road Runner!
Let's give you the HP rated numbers...
B&W:
21 pages per minute (ppm) in draft mode
7.7 ppm in normal/everyday mode
0.9 ppm in presentation mode
Color:
16 ppm in draft mode
5 ppm in normal/everyday mode
0.9 ppm in presentation mode
If you are printing photos... you aren't likely to use anything less than normal mode. Most likely you are going to use presentation mode! Talking about real life print times in a different story. The 7960 is slow especially for one labeled as a dedicated photo inkjet printing solution.
My times in B&W (not grayscale!):
draft mode 16 ppm
normal mode 5 ppm
presentation 3 minutes per page on moderately complex photo
My times in color (grayscale slightly faster than these times):
draft mode 12 ppm
normal mode 3-4 ppm
presentation mode at 3-4 minutes on simple/uncomplicated photos (portrait photo with solid light color to white background printed to 8.5x11 bordered shot) up to 6-7 minutes for more complicated photos. Borderless 4x6 prints took up to a minute each!
Now most photo inkjets aren't going to give you a 8.5 x 11 bordered shot in under a minute, but most are significantly faster than the 7960. Heck, the entire PhotoSmart line has suffered from this problem since its inception. HP touts their draft numbers on the box and in the ads... but realistically, draft mode is not how you want to print photos that you want to last! My older S900 Canon photo printer gives me a 8.5x11 borderless photo print in around 3 minutes with moderate to heavy complexity!
The overall speed of the 7960 is a letdown.
Print Quality?
First and foremost, the 7960 was meant to be a photo printer. The B&W and grayscale photo prints are the best I've ever seen. Sepia shots are also magnificent. At this time, I don't think there is a better grayscale inkjet printer available (other than possibly the 7660 and 7760 HP models). Try printing grayscale photos with a bit of a watercolor effect... these look awesome.
Detail level of the photos are even better than the 7550 with the addition of the tri-color gray cartridge. Shadows and lighting gradients are done especially nice. However, the same weakness as the 7550 of a lack of vibrancy on color prints... i.e. they look subdued or dull. You would most notice this when comparing the 7960 prints to prints from Epsons and Canons (in this case, I compared against similar prints from an older Canon S900 printer).
Another relative weakness is the text printing of the 7960. The text seemed fuzzier than the 7550 although mostly apparent on plain copy paper. Text printing on photo paper was above average. The discontinued 7550 had a better general purpose background than the 7960. I don't feel as confident about text prints even in presentation mode as I did with the 7550.
By the way, if you're wondering about the elderly ALPS-5000 printer I have, that still produces better photo prints than any inkjet I've owned or played with even to this day! That's what you get for a thermal sub-dye printer... although it takes an eternity to print... and if I could find the inks ribbons easily.
Ink... the Pain the Expense!
Note that I called the printer a 9 ink tank printer... well, the 7960 might actually be an 8 ink tank printer. Here's why...
The #59 Gray cartridge contains light gray, medium/dark gray, and photo black(?).
The #58 Photo cartridge contains photo cyan, photo magenta, and photo black.
The #57 Tri-color cartridge contains the three primary colors of red (magenta), blue (cyan), yellow.
And the #56 Black is well black... not photo black labeled just plain black.
I'm unsure if there is a difference in the black in the #59 gray cartridge and the black in the #58 Photo cartridge. So I guess I should call it an 8-ink tank printer than a 9-ink tank printer.
Prices for the cartridges run $20 for #56, $25 for #58, $25 for #59, and $35 for #57.
The #56 cartridge has 19 ml of ink in it with a HP's rated print life of 450 pages of 5% coverage per page. The #57 cartridge has 17ml of ink in it (total ink!) with HP's rated print life of 391 pages of 15% coverage per page. The #58 cartridge has also 17ml of total ink in it with HP's rated print life of 125 4x6 photos. The #59 cartridge has 17ml of ink as well with a life of 110 4x6 photos in 8-ink cartridge mode.
Now looking at all those numbers probably confused you more... bottom line the #59 gray cartridge is usually the first to go since it seems to be used quite often to add subtle color gradients in every photo. When used in this way, I estimated about 40 pages of 8 1/2 x 11 bordered photos. When printing exclusively grayscale photos, watch out... I was looking at 25 maybe 30 8.5 x 11 bordered photos! The #57 and #59 should last in the 50 page range for 8.5 x 11 bordered photos.
Considering the price of the ink cartridges and that an ink cartridge needs to be changed if only one of the inks of the three in the cartridge is used up, the 7960 can be quite an expensive printing solution.
Prints from my 7550 have held up well in the past year... so hopefully these prints will last the 73 years supposedly rated by the Wilhelm Institute.
By the way, I no longer try to refill the ink cartridges... too many bad experiences in refilling. I buy the brand name cartridges and try to use coupons when ordering them from office supply websites like Office Depot and OfficeMax. Staples rarely gives online coupons these days. Oh and buy multipacks to save a bit more (if you use that much ink however!)
My Closing Thoughts?
Although overall detail levels, contrasts in color improvements, and the excellent grayscale output are major pluses for the 7960. The slow print speed and lack of color vibrancy against the competition can hurt the 7960. It's a toss up more based on your tastes for color preference. Overall, I think most people would be perfectly happy with the print quality and color reproduction but would have that twinge of jealosy (okay maybe more than just a twinge!) when they see the full color output from printers like the S900 from Canon. In grayscale photos, they is no other inkjet printer that even comes close to the 7960 (and its siblings the 7660 and the 7760) simply due to the #59 gray tri-color cartridge. If you're looking for photo printer with good general purpose capabilities, I would look at the 7550 over the 7960 if you're dead set on a model from HP. I still prefer to print color photos from my Canon S900. If I need professional quality, I will print using the ALPS-5000 (although I am having a very hard time finding the ink ribbons for this printer!) or going to my local CostCo!
I would also warn that if you print alot of photos, you would be better off looking at CostCo for printing since the cost of photo paper and the HP ink cartridges do wind up being much more expensive for a 4x6 print. 59 lb photo paper at 20 cents a sheet ($19.99 for a 100 sheets at CostCo with coupon) would give 2 4x6 or 5x7 prints. Assuming 50 pages from the three ink cartridges. Total cost of $85 for the ink cartridges and $10.00 for 50 sheets of 59 lb photo paper. Total cost is $95 so far. This is before any taxes and the price of electricity! This would yield 100 5x7 photos. Average cost would be $1.00 per 5x7. CostCo charges 15 cents per 4x6 and 27 cents per 5x7. Duh... no brainer there (I am not counting the cost of a CostCo membership though I doubt you would get CostCo membership just to print some photos! :).
Recommended:
No
Amount Paid (US$): 229
Operating System: Windows
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
yusakugo
|
 - Top 10 |
|
Member: Rich Go
Location: Somewhere in the NorthEast
Reviews written: 399
Trusted by: 497 members
About Me:
Losing Sleep and Lacking Time... sigh...
|
|
|
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.