Up There With the Big Boys!
Written: Nov 14 '00
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Product Rating:
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Pros: photo-quality color, high speed, whisper quiet
Cons: confusing technical assistance
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| elliejo's Full Review: Hewlett Packard DeskJet 970c InkJet Printer |
Since there is no separate category listed herein for the HP DeskJet 930 Series, and because the color printing capabilities are identical to the 970 series, I'm writing my review here. Besides, my new printer deserves to be rated with the big boys!
My Hewlett Packard DeskJet, 930 series, is a pleasant surprise after six years with a Canon JBC600 with its noisy whine and rattle, its necessary and prolonged warm-up period, its fuzzy color printing, its slow chugging out of a single black text sheet per minute, and its temperamental paper feeding. Now that we have a digital still camera, we sought out a decent color-printer that would do our pictures proud, plus print out text quickly, neatly and efficiently—without waking up the whole household. We were willing to spend more than we did for quality pictures, and are simply delighted with the results we’re showing in sample printings in the past three weeks.
We chose the HP, and this model in particular, because the picture quality of 2400x1200 dpi on photo quality paper (PhotoREt in normal or best format) was standard on all models up to the Professional quality HPs. So we chose the least expensive model ($199 plus $50 for long-term maintenance and other extras) for what we consider the best quality photo color. As a bonus we gained a draft speed in black text of 9 pages per minute, no warm-up period at all, whisper soft printing and only briefly temperamental automatic sheet feeding. Actually, once we learned to jiggle the paper around in its paper bed, and adjusted the sheet feeding adjustment, we had no further feeding problems.I’m dizzy after printing out 20 pages in just a few seconds over 2 minutes, and my editor is impressed with the quality of submitted photos.
There are additional bells and whistles with my new HP printer, including 4 MB built-in RAM, a duty cycle of 2,000 pages per month, a sheet feeding tray capable of handling 100 sheets of plain paper at a time, up to 20 sheets of banner paper, up to 15 envelope, 30 cards and 20 sheets of labels. Like most quality ink jet printers, ink supplies are costly, but consist of two separate cartridges, one in black, one for the colors, not the single cartridge that other machines use. So far, this inexpensive, efficient beauty has only one flaw-- imperfect reference manual and system for trouble-shooting. The manual insists the user go online to resolve difficulties, and so far, I have been unable with my limited computerese to master this access. Installation was basic, and trouble-free.
As long as the HP keeps humming along-so quiet all you hear is the faint rattle of the paper tray giving up its next victim and a faint whooshing sound as the print head courses along several times across each page being printed, I’m not complaining.
As for speed in color, full color photo printing on high quality photo paper is naturally slower on the HP—but I’ll gladly wait a minute for a finely copied photo I’d have paid a couple of dollars for at my local print shop. And colors and details are excellent--no oversaturation of colors, vivid tones and excellent gradations.
For the fun of it, HP includes a package of photo size special paper and the software capability of importing special programs from HP online. For someone with an ark of a previous generation printer, (which admittedly has produced the admirable output of three or four novels and tons of shorter works over the years), is a dream come true at a reasonable price. Just keep that paper feeding and I’m a happy camper.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
elliejo
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Member: Eleanor Sullo
Reviews written: 64
Trusted by: 23 members
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