ritafp's Full Review: Hewlett Packard OfficeJet J6480 All-In-One InkJet ...
I'm a sucker for HP printers - I admit it. I generally think they're the most reliable and versatile printers out there. I'm on my fourth HP All-in-One and I couldn't be happier. As a Mac owner, I am especially pleased that HP works so easily with Macs. By the way, none of my previous printer/AIO broke, I just wanted to upgrade and the old ones are still in service with my mom or at a local charity to which I donated them.
My latest HP AIO was the HP 5600 series AIO and I was very pleased with it. My latest upgrade, to the HP J6480, was prompted by my wish for wireless printing as well as for a printer that would use my camera's SD card directly. I tend to use my laptop all around the house and having to bring it back to the study and connect it to the printer every time I wanted to print or scan was getting old. There are printer bridges and other devices for about $50 that turn your regular printer into a wireless, but they all have some shortcoming or other (no wireless scanning, no report on ink levels, etc.) that make it less than desirable. The HP J6480 is a full-featured wireless AIO with 802.11g networking. For the $139 minus a $50 gift card that I paid, it sure beats a jury-rigged bridge.
And it has everything my old printer had - The standard AIO features Printer, scanner, fax, and copier, plus a larger document feed, OCR scanning auto-duplexing, and most importantly an external card reader that reads xD, Memory Stick, SD, and CompactFlash. It doesn't have PicBridge for direct printing from the camera, although I didn't need it since it has the card reader.
The J6480 is a behemoth of printers - make room on your desk for it. It is no wider than my old printer, but it is taller (11") and much deeper (18.5"). It is solid, with paper trays that do not fold up and hold half a ream of paper - the larger capacity is great since I hate running from across the house because the printer's out of paper. The keypad looks complicated at first, but is organized in an intuitive way that makes using it surprisingly easy. The two-line LCD panel gives clear directions. Similarly, the wireless setup was easy and straightforward. I was nervous about being able to get this printer on my network but the quick set-up guides you through the process step by step. I had it set up within 15 minutes. You will still need a USB cable to set up this AIO however. Ink prices are always the downfall for these printers and this one does a bit better than my old 5600. Cartridges are $15 for black and $18 for three-color ink cartridges and they are still horribly over-packed, not green at all. They also have high-capacity cartridges that cost 2.5 times as much but print three times as much - a greener choice.
The proof of the pudding is the printing of course, and this printer does very well with clear crisp text and sharp graphics. The speed for text and graphics is excellent, better than most printers. The problem comes in printing photos - although the photo printing quality is fantastic, it is slow as molasses in January.
Funny though, I don't mind the speed since I am no longer standing over the printer waiting for it to finish so I can take my laptop back upstairs to get back to work!
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 139 Operating System: Macintosh
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