Forget this version, go with the 630c
Written: Aug 08 '01
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Pros: Fast printing, Ease of install, Good quality prints
Cons: The 630c is a better value for the money
The Bottom Line: As long as the 630c remains on the market, don't buy this one. The extras in this model don't make up for the $30 price difference.
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| adamadi's Full Review: Hewlett Packard DeskJet 640c InkJet Printer |
The Hp Deskjet 640c is member of HP’s low cost product line. This product is extremely similar, if not almost the same to the 630c. But there are a couple of differences, I’ll explain later.
What you get
For $75, you get a fairly good package. You get the printer, the power adapter, a manual, instruction sheet (visual guide to install), driver cd and 2 inkjet cartridges, a color and a black. These cartridges are as usual, not the full cartridge. They hold less ink than the ones you buy singly at a store.
As with the 630c, you don’t get a cable, so remember to buy a cable with the printer. The printer supports both USB and Parallel connections. The printer is made of a hard plastic. The paper tray is removable, actually, it doesn’t properly clip onto the printer, it just slides in. Also, the top cover is a simple clip onto the printer, giving it a cheapy feel. But Hp had to do this to cut costs.
The printer has 2 cartridge slots, one for the regular color and one for the black. The black slot is also used for the photo cartridge, but those are very expensive.
This is a no frills printer, and therefore, no extra software is bundled. But you can’t expect much at this price level.
Installation
This printer, like its 630c brother, is rather simple to install. Using the instruction sheet as a guide, you will install this in a matter of minutes. With usb, when you plug it in, a screen will come up, you just need to put in the cd and click a few next buttons and its installed.
With parallel, you’ll just need to run the install file from the CD, via the autorun screen. But this really isn’t complicated. From then on, you put in the cartridges, let the self test run and your ready to print.
Results
This printer performs very well. Printout with both the color and black are quite speedy. The 640c prints at a slightly faster rate than the 630c, but I don’t believe it warrants the jump in price. (See below why I don’t recommend this printer) Black text prints at around 4 pages per minute, that’s for an average page. Color printouts, that is a full picture, take around 1 – 1 ½ minutes per page. This is very fast compared to some higher end printers.
Print quality is also very good. Black printouts, with the black cartridge, are quite solid. Though not near laser quality, they can compare with the higher end inkjets. Color printouts, with the regular color cartridge and regular paper are a bit grainy and faded, but at this price range, you can’t expect more.
Using HP’s photo paper, or even the outrageously expensive glossy paper in conjunction with the photo cartridge will produce much better quality. BUT, the price of these do not make sense, and if you need better quality, you should pay the extra buck for a higher end model. I like the 840c and the 930c.
Other things to know
As with the 630c, this printer comes with a 90 day warranty clearly showing the intention of this printer. Don’t expect this to last you a lifetime, I estimate a year or two work life from it.
This printer will hold paper 8 ½” wide at max, therefore supporting Legal and letter sized paper but not A4, just something to keep in mind.
This is not a straight paper path. Like most HP’s, paper is stacked in the lower tray and outputted on the upper tray. Good thing is that this printer prints fast enough that it doesn’t curve the paper much, only slightly.
Why I don’t recommend this printer
Its not that I don’t like this printer, but compared to the 630c, this printer isn’t a reasonable purchase, let me explain. With every printer release, HP typically makes 2 versions. The first version will be a no extras version, with no extra software, no extra cartridges, just a simple package aimed at the lower price market. Then, the second version will have all the software, even some extras and will cost more. Sometimes they do this to release a home and business version. The first printer may come with birthday card creation software, aiming at the home market, while the second version may bundle business card creation software, aiming for the business market. (I’m just creating a scenario folks)
With this version, the differences are minor. But the price is much greater. The differences between the 630c, $50 retail and the 640c, $80 retail are
-You get a bundled Black cartridge with the 640c while the 630c only comes with the color, BUT, both of these cartridges are the smaller versions (they hold less ink) than the cartridges you find in retail stores.
-Print speed is slightly faster, it says on the box that the 630c is 5ppm and the 640c is 6ppm, with the black cartridge. (ppm is pages per minutes, pages printed per minute) But the difference is not greatly noticeable.
Therefore, for $30 dollars more, you get a small black cartridge and slightly faster print times. But this is not worth $30 dollars. A new Black cartridge is about $25, and this cartridge holds 28ml compared to the one bundled with the 640c which holds 20ml. Therefore, this is definitely NOT a deal. It may have been a deal if HP had bundled extra software with this printer, but since they didn’t, I cannot recommend this.
As long as the 630c remains on the market, I would not suggest buying this printer. Buy the 630c and buy the black cartridge thereafter, the 1 ppm sacrificed is really not noticeable.
To see my 630c review go to
http://adamadi.epinions.com/content_34987806340
Recommended:
No
Amount Paid (US$): 75
Operating System: Windows
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adamadi
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Reviews written: 56
Trusted by: 25 members
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