I originally purchased my HP 722c at a local Best Buy approximately two years ago. A time when "photo quality" printers costed at least $250 and more. My purchase price was $249 with a free copy of American Greetings Create A Card Gold ($50 rebate). Ok, so I needed a printer and HP has been known as a reliable brand, so I decided to go for it. Back to the future. . .two years later, still kicking out those 8x10's at photo quality and family and friends are still amazed.

I have considered many times to replace my 722c (and probably will soon buy a HP Photosmart for digital photos only), but I have no real reason to waste my hard earned money. My wife sometimes prints off hundreds of pages for her reports (grad school), and I have trained her well to use the "draft quality" mode more often. I haven't actually kept up with how many b&w pages we get with one black cartridge, but it's at least a couple hundred.

Lately, I have used the 722c for printing digital photos produced by my Nikon Coolpix 800. All I can say is "simply amazing"! No longer spend $5-10 for an 8x10 enlargement, I can print an excellent image from my original 2.1 Megapixel file. Again, the color ink cartridge last a LONG time. Probably 30+ 8x10's at "Best" quality! Amazing!

As for the ink, I have tried some alternatives to the HP cartridges. I have purchased a few ink refill kits for the color and black cartridges and had pretty impressive results. These kits are sold at local computer shows and cost about $30 for 5+ refills of each cartridge! The black is very simple to refill, but be careful with the color. I have a few yellow spots on my wall in the office. . .long story. Now HP sells the dual packs of the C1823 for as little as $40. These are the high-capacity color cartridges, great price!

The 722c was introduced before the onslaught of USB printers. No big deal, really. The parallel interface works fine, and is pretty simple to set up. ALL of HP's latest printers have USB "plug and play" simplicity.

I have only experienced a few problems while printing 4x6 photos on pre-cut paper. I actually think it is the fault of the paper (corners are rolled). As the salesman at BestBuy said, the "De-Jaminator" on the back gives easy access to those rare paper jams. I print on envelopes with no problems, and only occasionally, the printer will try to pull 2 pieces of photo paper at the same time (b/c they stick together). Easy fix, Just print one photo page at a time.

As with all HP printers, this dude will shake everything around. While printing, the unit seems to "shudder" quietly and keeps those desktop ornaments dancing. No big deal. Print speeds are relatively fast, but newer printers are much faster. My 8x10's take about 6mins. Just enough time to set up the next print. . .

My brother and father have since purchased HP printers. We are hooked. I suggest them to all my friends. Do they ever break? Trust me, I have considered upgrading to the Epson Stylus 870, but I think I'll stick with HP.

Look for other models such as 882c, 895cse, 952c, 970c, and others. This models are even better than the 720/722.

Recommended: Yes

Amount Paid (US$): 249
Operating System: Windows