HP Photosmart 1315 Picture Perfect
Written: Jun 17 '02 (Updated Jun 17 '02)
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Pros: Color LCD Display, card reader, high quality printing
Cons: none so far
The Bottom Line: I would recommend this printer to anyone with a digital camera.
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| opinionated3's Full Review: Hewlett Packard PhotoSmart 1315 InkJet Printer |
For those people that are familiar with digital photography and camera's know that they pose a unique problem. How is the best way to print these pictures that you just spent hours taking? Most digital cameras come with a color LCD screen to view the pictures that you take. This allows you to instantly determine if you need to retake a picture due to any problems.
Up until now, we had to come home with the camera and connect a serial cable to our PC and plug it into the camera. That wasn't really much of a problem since we had the software loaded on our PC that came with our Olympus digital camera. We simply uploaded the pictures from the Smartmedia card that was plugged into the card slot of the camera. The downside of the transfer system, it drained the battery power of the camera to transfer all the pictures over to our PC. This is because the only interface connection that was available when we bought our camera was the serial connection and it wasn't the fastest connection. Currently, most cameras come with USB connections which speeds the upload times.
When we replaced our main family PC back in February we upgraded the Operating System to Windows XP Home edition. We soon found that the software for the digital camera wasn't compatible with Windows XP and we were stuck with a media card full of pictures and no way to upload them to our PC. What we needed was a way to be able to print the pictures directly from the media card and also to be able to view and make alterations to the picture without having to use our PC. This is because since we couldn't upload the pictures due to the incompatibility of the camera software and WindowsXP.
I looked at a few options from HP and Epson and only one of the companies offered a printer that would fill all of our needs and that was HP. HP has a line of photo printers that would fit our needs to a tee. It is the HP Photosmart series of printers and this review will focus on the HP Photosmart 1315 inkjet printer.
I was at our local CompUSA looking for some software and I happened across the isle of inkjet printers. I saw that they had several of the HP inkjet printers and I decided to check out some of them. This is when I found the HP Photosmart 1315 and I just had to try it out. The most unique feature of this printer has to be the 2.5" color LCD display. The reason that it is unique is because all the other printers in the Photosmart series have small monochrome LCD displays. These displays are used to show menu options for the printer. The menu's that are displayed on these screens are used in conjunction with the camera media card readers.
The media card slots are located on the right hand side of the printer as you are looking at it. These slots for the card media will handle CompactFlash type I and II, SmartMedia and Sony Memory Stick. This is when the color LCD display comes into play. With embedded software and a few buttons you can actually see your pictures that are saved on the media card. This software allows you to alter your photo's just like you could if you first uploaded the pictures to your PC and then use your editing software. I was so impressed with the quality of this printer that I just had to buy it and bring it home.
After getting the printer home and pulling it out of the box. The printer came with almost everything I needed in the box with the exception of the USB cable. I made sure that I purchased one with the printer. The contents of the box includes; The HP Photosmart 1315, power cord, black starter cartridge, tricolor cartridge, easy setup instructions, Basics Guide, software CD and HP Photo paper starter kit.
HP makes it easy to setup the printer and depending on the operating system you are using on your PC. As I said we have WindowsXP installed on our PC and it had no problem locating the USB connection. I popped in the CD and loaded the software and drivers and away we went. For those users that don't have an USB port, the HP Photosmart 1315 also comes with a parallel port so you can connect it to the parallel port on the back of your PC. The CD also has the drivers for most of the popular Operating Systems like, Windows 98, Windows 2000, Windows Me, Windows XP and Mac OS.
After sending the usual Windows test page to ensure the printer and PC were communicating. I was ready to start printing to my new printer. The first thing I wanted to test out was the that color LCD display and the card reader feature of my new toy, I mean our new printer. My wife just finished taking some pictures of our three kids and she popped out the Smartmedia card and I put it in the card reader slot and pushed the button and the first image popped up in the display and I was amazed at the clarity of the display. I went through and selected a picture and printed it.
I fully expected to be waiting for quite some time for the 8" x 10" picture to print. But, to my surprise in about a minute or two I was holding a high quality picture of my three kids. I was truly amazed at how well the HP inkjet printer had made this image. All of the colors were crisp and very bright. At it highest resolution which is 2400 x 1200 dpi or dots per inch, this printer rivaled my Epson C80 inkjet printer. Of course that resolution can only be achieved on premium photo glossy paper.
The speeds and resolutions that are published by HP are designed to give you a best case scenario and you must take that into to consideration when comparing different printers from the many different manufacturer. All of the companies that make printers always advertise the highest speed attainable by their printer in hopes to sound so much faster then their competition. Then when you start reading closer and seeing the fine print of what the printer will actually print. You just might be amazed at how slow the printer actually is. Not only that, but to achieve the highest resolution that the inkjet printer can print. You have to use a premium photo paper and the printer will automatically adjust the print quality to the highest setting. Have found this to be true with my Epson C80 and I am guessing it is the same with the Canon and all the other leading brands of inkjet printers. HP says that the print speeds should be.
Best quality color 1.2 pages per minute
Draft quality color 13.0 pages per minute
Normal quality color 5.0 pages per minute
Best quality black 1.3 pages per minute
Draft quality black 17.0 pages per minute
Normal quality black 6.5 pages per minute
Like I said all these print speeds are best case scenario's and it still depends on what you are actually printing. The complexity of the image you are trying to will also change the actual print speed of the image. If you are printing out a simple email, it is going to print pretty close to the 17 pages per minute in black and white draft mode. If you are printing a combination of black and white text and a simple color graphic you print speed will be reduced. Just so you know this is nothing new to inkjet printers, this has always been the case and pretty much always will.
The paper also plays a major role in how your image will look when it is finished. This inkjet printers are very smart nowadays, it know how to adjust the print quality just by selecting plain paper. It knows that when you select photo glossy paper, that it will adjust the resolution to it maximum setting of 2400 x 1200 dpi and you will get a great picture. The printer is able to handle a wide range of different paper (plain, inkjet, glossy and banner) and it will handle envelopes, transparencies, labels, cards and iron-on transfers. All the different media is loaded into the 100 sheet paper tray sticking out of the front of the printer. This is a definite advantage that the HP inkjet printers have over the Epson and Canon inkjet printers. Because of this front loading feature of the HP Photosmart 1315, there is also an optional automatic duplexing unit that fits in the back of the printer. With this optional duplexer you can print double sided prints. I have never used this feature on an inkjet printer.
The last thing I want to talk about is the memory that is installed in this printer. The reason I want to talk about it is because it is an issue that really separates HP from Epson as far are first page print speed. The reason that is because Epson doesn't include memory in its inkjet printers, it relies on your PC's resources to buffer the print job and send it to the printer as it is printing. This is why you hear tons of complaint from Epson owner about it slows my PC down when I am printing. This is because the software will spool the print job and use system memory to send the print job in bursts to the printer. Unlike the HP Photosmart 1315 which has 16 MB of memory installed and it will receive the whole print job and start printing almost immediately. Unfortunately, the 16 MB's of memory is the maximum amount of memory that this printer can handle.
Likes and dislikes
This printer is so versatile and complete. I could not find anything at all that I don't like. The speed is decent and the print quality is pretty darn good. The love how quiet this printer is. I can actually hold a conversation when it is printing and not be startled when deep in thought, which is more than I can say about my Epson C80. I absolutely love the card reader and color LCD display and how I can edit my pictures without having to upload them to my PC first.
In conclusion I would recommend this printer to those digital camera owners that want to be able to printout their pictures without having to buy a $1000.00 PC and a printer. The card read and color LCD features are well worth the extra expense of this printer.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 365.00
Operating System: Windows and Macintosh
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