All in one solution needs improvement
Written: Apr 24 '01 (Updated Aug 06 '02)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: An all in one solution for the home or office.
Cons: Macintosh integration appalling .
The Bottom Line: If you are a Mac user then you really should think twice, numerous software updates have made little difference to the reliability of this product.
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| adicarter's Full Review: Hewlett Packard OfficeJet g85XI Ink-jet Printer |
The Officejet G85 was bought as part of our new computer package for the office. We were looking for something that would put all our needs under one roof. Fax, Scanning, Printing and Copying.
The Officejet G85 seemed like the obvious choice so we took the plunge and went ahead with our purchase. The G85 in question here was going to be working with a new iMac Special Editon.
First impressions on this machine were good, it's quite a hefty looking machine but then you have to remember what it is capable of doing. You can't have everything under one roof without a relatively sizeable footprint and if you compare what it would be like to have all the individual pieces of kit strewn all over the place then this kind of machine does make sense.
We got the printer before the iMac so we had it setup for about a week working as a standalone piece of kit before it was hooked up to a new computer.
The G85 performed well during that time and as a standalone product it does work impressively. The control panels and display are clearly labelled which means that you can access all the G85's functions with ease, even the office technophobe got in on the act.
In terms of scanning and copying you have the option of sheet feeding your paper into the machine or using the "raise the lid" flatbed option.
A couple of keypresses later and your required scan / copy / fax starts. Even when you are printing at high quality the machine knocks out copy at pretty nifty rate with an excellent print quality as well.
At this point I figured we were on to an all round winner, then the iMac arrived and although the hardware is indeed commendable it wasn't until we started intergrating the printer with a computer system that we began to see some shortfalls.
Installation of the software itself was painless under OS 9.1. Put the CD in and you are pretty much away. The install leaves you with a new icon on your Macintosh desktop, welcome to the "HP Director"
Here you have basic menus that cater for the G85's functions from scanning to email, copying etc. Unfortunately as I said the menu's are basic and that's where things go awry. I just found the software was too limited for some of the things I wanted to do.
I'm looking through the software options right now and have to say that in terms of configuring the machine through the Mac, the options are abysmal.
I have used a wide variety of other printers with the Macintosh platform and I have to say that most of them including an ancient StyleWriter II have more configuration options than this.
Unfortunately my problem's didn't end there either, I found on a consistent basis that although faxes and scans came through with pretty good clarity, when you are printing documentation from the Mac itself then there is no comparison, for some reason the print quality drops substantially even when you have selected the best quality available.
As for now we are persevering with the G85 albeit in a somewhat disappointed fashion. What we have here is a pretty good hardware setup that is unfortunately let down by the software that drives it (for the Macintosh anyway).
If HP can shape the software up a little bit and give the end user a bit more control over the printer fromthe computer itself it would ineed make a world of difference.
UPDATE : We have endeavoured to persevere with the G85 but alas things haven't got much better from our point of view. HP have released numerous software upgrades for the Macintosh. They have solved some problems but at the same time introduced other ones at the same time.
Finally the last revision for the G85 was posted on thier web site for Mac users. The download weighed in at over 35 Meg which isn't convenient for people without broadband.
I contacted HP on the phone as I had ordered driver disks for the printer before only to be told they were only supplying driver disks for Windows based machines. After all the problems we've had with this item and the appalling problems I've had with HP and thier attitude to customer support I honestly don't want to be associated with any of thier products again.
Recommended:
No
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Epinions.com ID:
adicarter
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Member: Adrian Carter
Location: Sheffield, UK
Reviews written: 101
Trusted by: 15 members
About Me:
A lifelong fan of anything electronic. If it goes beep, let me see it first!
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