A great first experience with this HP product
Written: Mar 27 '03
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Superb photo quality
Easily handles heavy photo papers
Six color ink system
Very affordable
Cons: Supplied documentation could be better
Optimized 4800dpi printing requires lots of time and system resources
The Bottom Line: The Photosmart 7150 is a great printer for the money with smart features and ease of operation that make it an excellent choice for digital photography and general use.
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| jgreve75's Full Review: Hewlett Packard PhotoSmart 7150 InkJet Printer |
Having recently purchased an HP Photosmart 7150, I can honestly say that I was amazed at the print quality that can be achieved from this printer. I take a lot of digital photos and have been printing my own for almost three years. I have always had good luck with Lexmark products in the past, but recently lived a total printing nightmare after the purchase of a Z-65p. After returning my dead Z-65p after only a short month of limited use (I only printed about 150 or so photos that month due to all the technical difficulties), I was once again in the market for a good photo printer. I had never owned an HP printer before, but I had read some good reviews about the HP Photosmart line of printers, specifically the 7150 and the 7350. After suffering horrible compatibility issues with the card reader on the Lexmark and not really having a use for the card reader on the 7350 anyway, the 7150 seemed to be the better choice for me. I must say, at this point I was a little ho-hum about the concept of having 4800 dpi prints, because the print quality on the Lexmark really was quite good...when it decided to print. I was pretty sure I had a good idea of what kind of print quality to expect. I had no idea what kind of a surprise I was in for.
Once the 7150 was home and out of the box, installation was a breeze. HP installation software works hand in hand with Windows installation wizard and after a quick auto-reboot everything was in place and working. I had anticipated problems after reading about USB conflicts in other reviews, but I encountered none...even though I had (oops) left my other USB all-in -one printer on during installation, which is supposed to be a big no-no. In less than five minutes of setup time from box to installation, I was ready to print.
I have a few really colorful indoor and outdoor photos that I reference for comparisons and I was anxious to see what this printer was really made of, so I immediately printed them out to see how they would stack up. Wanting to see some results fairly quickly, I used the PhotoREt setting. When the first page came out, I had to check the side of the box to make sure I had the right printer. I was astounded by the color detail and overall quality. On a standard 4x6 print I don't think you could tell them apart from photo lab quality without a thorough examination, and maybe not even then. These prints made the 4800dpi Lexmark prints look like someone drew them on an etch-a-sketch. Never before have I printed such bright, clear, sharp photos. The results were even more amazing when printing in 4800x1200 Optimized print mode. The only drawback is that this takes awhile to print. Once the command is sent to print, it takes awhile to spool the print job and actually start printing. On my system, which is starting to feel it's age, it takes on average about ten minutes to send it to the printer and then a few more to print. This seems like a long time, but the quality is unbelievable. I have found myself using this option more for larger photos and not so much for snapshots. PhotoREt seems to work great for snapshots and it's pretty quick about it, too.
The 7150 will print borderless photos on 4x6 paper with or without the tab. I prefer the tab setting, because the image is cropped to allow for an unprinted edge with a piece of untabbed 4x6 paper. After all, it has to have something to hang on to while it's printing that last line. I buy my paper in standard sheets and cut it anyway, so it's no trouble to cut it 4x6.5 and then trim the tail off after printing. I will say that the borderless feature is very economical. It makes it possible to get three 4x6 photos to a page instead of two, which saves on paper. I use Kodak Ultima glossy photo paper in my 7150. Contrary to what I've read I have noticed no difference between that and the recommended HP papers. They do give you a sample pack of the HP paper with the printer so you can judge for yourself. The Ultima paper is pretty thick paper (71lb 10 mil) and I have not experienced any jams or misfeed problems with whole sheets or trimmed 4x6 paper. I haven't printed any stickers yet, though that might be a concern with the front feed tray.
The printer properties menu has ink controls for setting the ink volume for faster drying and also the drying time between each print. There is also a color adjusting screen for changing color hues and saturation, which is a big help if you refill your own ink like I do. Even with good quality ink, a little color tweaking is vital to maintain that OEM print color and quality. Ink usage doesn't seem to be excessive, but it's not an ink miser, either. I usually get about 20 to 30 sheets from a cartridge, but it depends on what kinds of photos you print. Thats not bad when you consider that's about 60 to 90 4x6 prints. Print cartridges seem to be available pretty much everywhere and they are in the low 30's for the color and mid 20's for the photo which isn't bad either considering there are a lot of cartridges in the upper 40 to 50 range. So ink and paper cost is about average for a photo inkjet. There is an optional black ink cartridge for this unit that replaces the photo cartridge if you do a lot of text printing, and those who buy this as a dual use printer will have to contend with swapping cartridges in and out. I haven't had to deal with that, because I have a combo scanner/printer/fax for all of my day to day printing needs, so this printer is a dedicated photo printer for me.
One of the few things I could really find to gripe about is the lack of detailed documentation supplied with the printer. There is a basic guide and thats about it. The setup and software installation is covered in great detail, but you must rely on the online help for anything else and that can be a little vague at times. I guess I'm just old school and like that big thick operator's manual but it would be handy for explaining some of the more advanced functions in greater detail. I didn't have any big problems, but I couldn't help but think that a user who isn't very familiar with the printing setup and print process might be at the mercy of default settings and auto adjustments. I wish I could be a little more balanced in my opinion, but thats the best I can do on the negative side. There just isn't anything I don't like about this printer.
I'm very pleased that I took a chance on the "new to me" HP line. I would recommend this printer to anyone who is interested in photo quality printing at home.
Recommended:
Yes
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jgreve75
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Reviews written: 2
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