The HP PhotoSmart 7150--Smart Choice for the Money
Written: Jan 26 '03
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Great color, great 4800x1200 image resolution, smooth operation, great software with loads of features
Cons: Too cheap for its superior performance
The Bottom Line: Excellent printer at a great price! Quality of image resolution and color can easily rival any high quality professional print from 35mm film, even up to 8x10 inches.
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| paulphoto's Full Review: Hewlett Packard PhotoSmart 7150 InkJet Printer |
I decided to buy the Hewlett-Packard HP PhotoSmart 7150 printer after being disappointed with my Epson Stylus Photo 820. I was regularly impressed with the quality of the photo prints that my cousin made with his Hewlett-Packard HP PhotoSmart 1215 printer. This printer has already been discontinued and being replaced by the HP PhotoSmart 7150/7350 series. Knowing very little about the HP 7150/7350 series printers, I had to do a little research on them. There are a few outstanding and informative reviews written by epinions members on the HP 7350, particularly the one written by surferdude7. The HP 7150 and 7350 series share similar characteristics, except that the 7350 model has a few advanced features, which I will mention later.
My purchase of the HP PhotoSmart 7150 was sort of a twisted incident. Originally, I had planned on getting the HP 7350, after assessing the requirements for the printer I needed. Then, when I was ready to pick it up at my local Staples store, it was out of stock and would not be available for a week or so. But I needed the printer immediately. The salesperson suggested that since the HP 7150 shares most of the features with the HP 7350, why not give it a try. Furthermore, it's being offered with a $20 instant rebate. If you decide you don't like it, simply return it in exchange for the HP 7350. So I decided to go for it. It has been a month now; I'm still using the HP 7150 and very happy with it.
The HP PhotoSmart 7150 only supports a USB cable for interface, no parallel port. It has two USB ports (1 front and 1 back). The front USB port is used for connecting an HP digital camera and print directly from it. The rear USB port is for a computer. As usual, the cable is not included and must be purchased separately. However, two cartridges (for photo prints) are included with the printer. With the USB cable, hooking up the system is quite simple and even faster than the parallel port. The HP software that comes with the package is loaded with wonderful features. It is also quite straightforward to install the software, by just walking through the step-by-step procedure with the software (in fact, hardware and software must be installed at the same time). The software is compatible with Mac or Windows.
PC system minimum requirement:
Operating System: Windows 98, 98SE, 2000, XP Home or Professional, ME
Processor: Pentium II equivalent or higher
RAM: 64 MB (128 MB recommended)
Free Disk Space: 500 MB
Mac system minimum requirement:
Operating System: Macintosh OS 9.x, OS X 10.1 or later
Processor: G3 or greater
RAM: OS 9.x: 64 MB, )S X: 128MB
Free Disk Space: 300 MB
I run the software on my PC with Pentium 350 MHz and OS Windows 2000.
The HP software is very impressive. With it, you can load up your images, view them, perform editing to images, choose layout to be printed, etc. All sorts of layout designs are available from its Creative Printing folder or Photo Printing folder. You can create an album for a slide show. There are numerous features to explore; I haven't gotten the chance to digest all of them yet.
The HP PhotoSmart 7150 is capable of printing photo images at an incredibly high resolution of 4800x1200 dpi (dot per inch) at maximum setting. For photo print images, there are all sorts of selections in image size to choose from. Photo prints can be made from as small as mini ID or wallet size to 8x10 inches (or maximum size of 8.2x10.2 inches). The software provides creative layout for making photo prints from both 35mm and APS on an 8.5x11-inch photo or regular paper. I normally print 3 4x6-inch photos on the 8.5x11-inch HP premium plus photo paper (with matte finish) using the layout option in the software.
For print quality, there are several options to choose from: 1) Best , 2) Normal, 3) Everyday 4) FastDraft. By default, the printer (or software) selects Normal. For best photo quality, option 1 (Best) should be selected. For text print, I regularly choose option 2, which is also set by default. The HP 7150 provides a number of options for paper type selection, such as Plain, Inkjet, Photo, Transparency, Films, Special Papers, Greeting cards, etc. For a direct printing from an HP digital camera, there is a digital photography option where images can be edited (such as, contrast, brightness, sharpness, etc) before printing.
The printer provides two types of tray (or adapter), one for 8.5x11-inch regular size and the other for a special 4x6-inch paper size. According to the manual, the in-try can be loaded with 20 sheets of photo paper at a time. For regular inkjet papers, it can hold up to 100 pages. But I find it is better to put regular papers to about 30-40 sheets at one time. It seems that the printer has difficulty loading paper when the tray is too full (with 100 pages). The 4x6-inch paper tray (which is an adapter set on top of the large tray) can also hold up to 20 sheets at a time; but I normally load 2 or 3 sheets at time, since source image can be printed one at time. It is possible to perform continuous printing.
Contrary to Epson printers (such as, my Stylus Photo 820), the HP uses front loading and front ejecting. The papers are loaded via the lower tray. The upper tray catches or supports the printed papers. In this way, the photo paper must be loaded faced down, because the printer will take in the paper, bends it around, prints and then ejects it. In terms of minimum space occupation, this method is quite efficient. However, I personally prefer the Epson's method of loading paper from the rear and without bending or changing the direct of the paper's path.
There are two reasons why I prefer this type. First, I often print slide labels. Two, I also would like to make photo prints on a thick fine art or archival paper. By bending the paper around, slide labels might accidentally get peeled off and cause paper jam. The same goes for a thick paper, because it might be difficult to bend it around and perhaps destroys it in the process. I have not attempted to print on my slide labels or thick paper yet, to see how the printer handles, and perhaps this fear may not become a reality.
In terms of image resolution, by default the HP printer selects the print resolution to match with the source image, using its PhotoREt setting. For best quality, an option on 4800x1200 dpi should be selected, especially for source images with 600 dpi resolution or higher. But there is a catch. The printer will require a large amount of disk space (500 MB or more). The print rate is significantly slow. I have timed its print rate on three 4x6-inch images printed on an 8.5x11-inch HP photo paper, and it took about 10 minutes. However, this is where the HP impresses me the most. Its print resolution, hence photo print quality, can easily rival the conventional 35mm print film made from my local professional lab. A ten-minute printing time is not very long to wait compared to a 3-day turn around service for my regular 35mm reprint.
Similar to most Inkjet printers, the HP PhotoSmart 7150 printer uses a 6-color ink, separated in two cartridges, but each containing three colors. The HP#57 is a tri-color print cartridge. The HP#58 is the Photo print cartridge. These two come with the printer. To produce beautiful photo prints, these are the two to be used. However, there is another optional cartridge HP#56 that contains only black ink. This one is recommended for printing plain text and should be used in place of the HP#58, which as a result will save a lot of ink. I have not tried it yet, but this would be a good economical idea for text prints. There is a cartridge protective cap that comes with the printer to be used to store the HP#58 or HP#56 when not in use.
Compared to other 6-color inkjet printers, like the Epson Stylus Photo 820, the HP 7150 requires swapping cartridges for pure text prints. Theoretically, it is more economical to print text using a separate black-ink cartridge than mixing three color inks to create black. Therefore, an additional cartridge HP#56 is highly recommended to save money. Better yet, get a separate printer for text and use the HP 7150 solely for photo prints.
The quality of text print is outstanding. To make comparison, it is much better than my Epson Stylus Photo 820. Unlike my experience with the Epson 820, both photo and text prints come out perfect every time, either by using the HP software or direct print from my Microsoft Excel or Word applications. This printer is amazing! It outperforms my Epson 820 printer in every respect.
The printer is quick to start up (warm-up time). It prints immediately, especially from Microsoft applications. No shut down time; well, only a second needed to park its cartridges to the side. My Epson 820 printer has no comparison to this HP 7150. It also operates at a very low noise, extremely quiet compared to the Epson 820. Some of these improved and outstanding characteristics may have been due to the use of USB cable for interface versus parallel cable that I used on my Epson 820. But in terms of print quality, the HP 7150 is far superior to the Epson 820, which I believe has nothing to do with the communication cable.
The printer does not use much ink. I have not exhausted the first cartridge yet. But so far I have estimated that it has produced ten sheets of 8.5x10-inch photo prints (and couple more were used as a test run). Five of which contain 3 4x6-inch photo size and 5 more contain a 5x7-inch layout with 2 3x5-inch and some wallet size and mini ID size. All of these ten photo sheets are equivalent to the normal 8.2x10.2-inch photo size printed on an 8.5x11-inch photo paper in terms of ink layout. Also about 20 pages of plain text were printed. Only 1/2 of ink has been used up. Needless to mention, all those ten sheets of photo papers were printed using the highest 4800x1200 dpi resolution, which the printer was supposed to use a lot of ink. The print software also shows the status of ink in the cartridges during printing.
It is interesting to see why the HP 7150 provides such outstanding performance in terms of reliable and perfect photo print quality with smooth operation. Unlike the Epson printer, which utilizes the micro piezoelectric technology, the HP applies an entirely different technology known as thermal inkjet printing. By technical terms, the HP printer uses heat (thermal) to generate vapor bubbles by ejecting tiny drops of ink through its nozzles or print heads placing them precisely on a surface of paper for texts or photo images. Its great advantage is the precise control of ink drop placement. There are other advantages resulting from this technology. Firstly, there is no warm-up or shut down time. With its hundreds of tiny print heads (nozzles), high quality prints can be achieved at high speeds. One of the great advantages, which HP should be congratulated in terms of its superior print quality, is that thermal inkjet technology is less sensitive to air bubbles residing inside the chamber, a problem that my Epson 820 regularly experiences and is vulnerable to. The HP system does not suffer from nozzles clogging (or at least reduce to minimum) due to trapped air bubbles; it is very reliable and efficient. All of these advantages incorporated in the technology are clearly evident in the performance and photo print quality in the HP printer; I get a flawless/perfect print every time, be it photo or text.
The HP 7150 and 7350 series are almost one and the same printers. They share all of the features I have described above, except that the HP PhotoSmart 7350 has card slots for direct printing using digital camera memory cards. There are slots for CompactFlash (type I & II), SmartMedia, Secure Digital/MultiMedia, Memory Stick. The HP 7350 series also has a bigger buffer size, 16MB compared to HP 7150's 8MB. At first, I wanted to get the HP 7350 because I wanted these features, especially the16MB buffer. But after trying the HP 7150, I felt it should not make much difference. Furthermore, I do not need to use the card slots yet, and these features are available at an extra $50. At my local Staples store, the HP 7150 is priced at $149, while the HP 7350 is at $199. When I bought my HP 7150, there was an instant $20 rebate. So I ended up spending only $129. What a great deal for a superb but low-end printer!
After using this printer for one month, I have found the followings to be the pros and cons (or strengths and weaknesses):
PROS (Strengths)
- superb photo print quality I have ever seen
- high image resolution at up to 4800x1200 dpi
- excellent software with great and useful features
- very easy to use with no start-up or shut down time
- reliable quality prints (text or photos) every time
- print response is fast
- can print borderless photos
- can print on transparency, greeting cards or special paper
CONS (Weaknesses)
- uses only paper size up to 8.5x11 inches
- maximum photo print size 8.2x10.2 inches
- may require black ink cartridge for text prints (to save ink)
- front loading, may be vulnerable to printing labels or thick paper (only a speculation, so far have not tested)
- your computer must have a USB port
Well, these are the few I can think of so far. However, in my opinions, the PROS really outshine the CONS. First of all, this is a low-end printer, and if a photo image with size large than 8x10 inches is required, a high-end printer should be considered instead. Furthermore, all low-end printers similar to the HP 7150 can only print images up to 8x10 inches.
At a price of $149, sold locally, this printer is worth every penny of that $149. If you are looking for a printer that can print quality photo images to rival (or basically substitute) the conventional 35mm prints (or reprints) from a professional lab, this is the only printer at an unbelievable and affordable price. I mentioned "professional photo lab," because only that place can produce the highest quality in photo prints compared to a cheaper photo finisher offered through a department store. I was always disappointed with prints developed and processed from these chain stores, because (due to mass processing and a cheap price) they don't pay much attention to your film like those people at the professional lab, in terms of mixing the right color, or correct exposures, etc.
Specifications: Hewlett-Packard PhotoSmart 7150
Resolution: 4800x1200 dots per inch (1200x1200 dpi optical)
Color Pallette: Up to 6-ink color printing technology,
Uses two tri-color ink cartridges (HP#57 and HP#58) for photo print or one black-color ink (HP#56) for text prints
Paper type: Plain, Inkjet, Photo, labels, card, Transparency (16 lb - 24 lb weight)
Paper capacity: 100 sheets (plain paper), 20 sheets (photo paper)
Maximum printable area: 8.2x10.2 on regular 8.5x11-inch size
Interface: USB (1 front -- for direct printing from HP digital camera, 1 back -- USB1.1)
Input buffer/Memory: 8 MB
Dimensions: 18.7 x 15.4 x 6.1 in
Weight: 14.3 pounds
Recommended:
Yes
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