HP All-in-One Printer: Not Exactly All
Written: Jun 26 '05 (Updated Jul 15 '05)
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Pros: Looks attractive. Easy to use. Built-in memory card slots.
Cons: Photos don't print high-quality. Dirty un-cleanable inside glass.
The Bottom Line: Unless you're super-interested in photo printing/scanning, this should probably cut it for you, with ease.
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| shopprnicole's Full Review: Hewlett Packard PSC 2175 All-In-One InkJet Printer |
To be honest, I hate this thing. It looks good, it sounds good...it performs horrible. Okay, maybe I'm being a little harsh, but being someone who likes to take digital photographs and scan old 4x6 prints, I think this thing is a waste of money and works badly. But if you just need to be able to scan things once in a while and don't care too much about having the best quality, then this might be perfect for you.
Compatibility
PC (Windows) and Mac
Pricing
I purchased this when it was fairly new and therefore paid $150. Now, as with all printers/computer equipment, it has been on the market and the price has gone down a great deal (half what I paid! what a bargain).
Why It Disappoints Me
(And this might not even happen to you) The first one I bought at a store and when I used it I realized everything I had scanned looked horrible because the glass on the inside of the scanner (the part you can't clean) had streaks of lines all down the length of it, which made the photos I was scanning have white lines across them. Terrible! I called HP and they sent me a new one. It came....AND HAD THE SAME DIRTY STREAKS! So they send another one. STILL DIRTY INSIDE! I just decide to keep it. And then they make unauthorized charges to my credit card (which I had them remove).
I have to push everything to one side of the scanner to avoid the marks, and this only works with small things because otherwise they have to go over that area. Then I spend another hour with photo editing software trying to make it look like the streaks aren't there. WHAT A PAIN!
The Printer
It is a color inkjet printer. The quality isn't that great in terms of photo printing. Otherwise it is pretty decent. Using photo paper and setting it to the best quality still results in pixel-looking printouts. I am not impressed. I have an older HP Inkjet printer which prints photos much better. So I end up using this older printer instead. For other color print-outs this works well. Have not had any problems with paper jams and you can load a good amount of paper into the printer at a time.
The Scanner
The quality of the scans is AMAZING. You have a choice of what dpi (dots per inch) you would like it to scan in. The higher the dip, the longer it takes to scan. 300dpi is the norm and it scans quickly and efficiently. At 600dpi it goes a bit slower but the scanned image shows you every little fiber that is scanned! The bad part is the dirty glass on the inside-side of the scanner. It can never be cleaned (unless unassembled), so it messes things up. You can set it to even higher dpi's but they go even slower and personally, I don't need to scan any higher. It is extremely simple to use. Just open the top cover and place the object/paper/whatever on the scanning bed, close the cover and you can either press the "scan" button on the top of the unit or you can open up the software that comes with the printer and press scan from the software's control panel. Once it is scanned you get to preview the image to make sure it is how you want it and you can even crop it to a certain area you want, and then hit the button to let it scan the final copy that saves to your computer.
The Copier
Works the same way as the scanner except that the "scan" is printed out right away instead of scanned onto the computer first. This works like your normal copy machine.
Digital Photography
This machine comes with "memory card" slots built-in so that you can insert your digital camera's "memory card" and print down your pictures without even having it hooked up to the computer (or even having the computer turned on)! It is a very nice feature. You can also load the pictures onto your computer from these slots, which you can then burn onto a CD if interested.
Product Design
I think this is a very attractive machine. It is dark (navy) blue and gray/silver. All of the buttons are located on the top on the right side and are very easy to press and understand. I never even read the instruction manual and was able to figure out all the functions of this machine with ease. They designed it to be self-explanatory. I think it is attractive and functional. The top half of the machine lifts up for when you need to change the ink cartridges. There are 2 ink cartridges, 1 black and 1 color.
My Other HP Reviews:
HP Pavilion ze4400 PC Notebook Laptop
My Other Reviews Involving Digital Photography
Sony MagicGate Memory Stick PRO 512 MB
SanDisk 64 MB SmartMedia Card
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 150
Operating System: Windows
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Epinions.com ID:
shopprnicole
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Location: East Coast, USA
Reviews written: 38
Trusted by: 2 members
About Me:
Trying to pay for college...every little bit helps!
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