Very happy with this printer
Written: Nov 13 '01
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Pros: Under $200, Great Photo quality, great text
Cons: Tray the paper fall into does not pull out.
The Bottom Line: If you are like me, a home user that uses a printer for both text and photos, This is a Great printer.
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| etavonni's Full Review: Hewlett Packard PhotoSmart p1000 Ink-jet Printer |
I have had this printer for about a month now. My last printer, a Canon 6000, started having problems, so I started looking for a replacement. With the price of printers being so affordable, I figured that it is better to buy a new and better one, than have an old one fixed. And that is what I did; this is definitely a better one. That is not to say that the Canon wasn't a very good printer, this is just so much better.
I spent a lot of time looking at reviews and opinions from people that have bought the printer, then looked for the best price. I found them at Wal-Mart for $179, but purchased it from Circuit City who matched the price.
After having it for about a month now, I wanted to add my comments since I used the comments of others posted here in making my decision to buy this printer.
I have used it with 8.5x11 and 8.5x14 paper for regular text printing. I have used the photo paper, gloss, super gloss, and matte finish, and the 4x6 glossy photo paper. I have printed from pictures on my hard drive and directly for the photo card. I have not played with the envelope printing yet, (I rarely use them as I do most correspondence and bill paying on line). Also, I am connected to my computer through the USB rather than the cable as I understand that it is faster.
1. Price. I am assuming that the people who found this printer to be expensive bought it before the price came down. I understand that it was $400 at one time. Now that you can purchase one for $179, I think that the price is very affordable for the quality.
2. Speed. I think that this is relative. I have had the Canon 6000 and an Epson Stylus Color and the P1000 is much faster than both in all of the print modes. If you asked someone used to using a faster printer, he would tell you that this one is slow. I think it is pretty fast, comparing it to my other printers. I use mine for home use, do a lot of text printing on all three setting (draft, normal, best) and have been happy with the speed. (Let me add, I was really impressed with the print quality with the printer set on draft.) I do a lot of photo printing and have a digital camera and a scanner. I am very impressed with the quality. I read one reviewer here that had problems printing from the 4x6 tray. I had problems the first couple of times I tried, but it was the way I was feeding the paper because I have done a lot of 4x6 printing since and have had no more problems.
3. Speed of picture transfer from printer to computer. Again, this must be relative. Before I bought this printed, I transferred my pictures to my computer directly from my camera. Now That is slow!!! When I first sent my pictures from the printer to the hard drive, I couldn't believe how fast it was. So, once again, I guess it is what your used to. If you have a card reader already, you probably wouldn't have need to download from the printer anyway, and if you are like me and have been loading the pictures from camera to computer, you will be very happy with it.
4. Print Quality. I guess I have already covered this. Print Quality is great in all the modes.
5. Printer Quality. I have had no problems in the paper feeding, no jams or paper miss-aligning. It is so quite that I really did look inside the printer the first time that I printed something as I wasn't sure it was printing. Also, there is no shaking of the printer table when the printer is printing. Both my other printers were, if not loud at least audible, and both caused a visible shaking to the table that I have the printer set on. This is truly quiet and does not vibrate at all. I have only had the printer a month. I use it daily, but for the long term I don't know how it will perform. I know that my Canon started having problems with aligning the paper after about 8 months of use.
The only criticism that I have is the paper tray that the paper falls into does not extend. I use a lot of 8.5 x 14 paper and the pages are too big for the tray.
6. Connecting and included software. I read a couple of other reviews that almost made me decide against purchasing this printer. These reviewers had problems with setting up the print drivers. I hate to have to read pages of "how to" and go to the internet or support lines just to set something up. I have windows 98 and followed the prompts and of course did not read the manual first. The software installed without a problem and I was printing within in less than 10 minutes from the time that I took the printer out of the box.
That’s it. I wanted to give my feedback because I relied so much on the opinions that I found here by others in making my decision as to which printer to buy. I hope that I can pass it on and help someone else who is thinking of buying a printer.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 179
Operating System: Windows
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Epinions.com ID:
etavonni
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Member: Robert Singleton
Location: Reno, NV
Reviews written: 3
Trusted by: 0 members
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