The HP PhotoSmart 1215 Produces Photos as good as a Kodak Printed Picture!
Written: Oct 25 '01 (Updated Jan 18 '03)
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Pros: Beautiful Photo Prints!
Cons: None
The Bottom Line: If you want an excellent printer for both photos and regular use, then this is the one to get!
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| surferdude7's Full Review: Hewlett Packard PhotoSmart 1215vm InkJet Printer |
This printer is made for the digital camera owner in mind with slots on the side to place in your SmartMedia, CompactFlash or Microdrive memory cards from your camera. The HP 1215 will print photos directly from your cards without the need of a computer. The printer can also upload your photos to your computer for you.
I just bought me a new digital camera and my old printer just wasn’t giving me the quality I was looking for. So I went shopping and ended up with a HP PhotoSmart 1215. The quality of the photo prints from my digital camera are amazing, they look as good as a picture developed from film.
The printer is not in the typical light gray color of other models, the PhotoSmart series are in a dark gray that is almost black. They stand out from their other printers very easily. There is an LCD on the front of the printer letting you know the status of the printer.
Paper
The printer will print on almost any types of paper with sizes up to 8.5 x 11 and envelopes.
What makes the printer special is you can load 100 sheets of paper into the main tray and just above the main tray is a place to load up to 20 4x6 inch glossy photo cards. So when you wish to print on the 4x6 inch stock all you do is slide a guide down and it will automatically pick up the 4x6 inch paper. Slide the guide back up and it will pick up paper from the main tray again. No more unloading and loading paper just to print a photo.
HP has 4x6 inch glossy photo paper with tabs on them made for the printer. The tab is torn off after the photo is done and this will give you about an 1/8 of an inch border. This printer will not print borderless prints.
The Memory Cards
There are two slots on the right side of the printer, the top one is for SmartMedia cards and the one below it is for CompactFlash or Microdrive memory cards.
With the cards you have the ability to print one or all of your photos directly from the card without having to use a computer. You can use the LCD on the printer to specify what photo number you wish to print.
You can also upload your photos to your computer and save battery power on your camera. Uploading through a parallel connection is very slow but it works, if you are going to upload a lot using the printer be sure you have a USB connection.
Connecting to a Computer
The HP PhotoSmart 1215 gives you three ways to connect with your computer and other devices.
1. Parallel
There is a Parallel port that has a good speed for printing, it is very slow when you are uploading photos to your computer. A bi-directional IEEE 1284-compliant parallel cable is recommended.
2. USB
USB offers the easiest connection with about the same printing speed as the parallel. But the uploading of photos to your computer are so much faster.
3. Infrared
This printer has infrared, which means if your camera has infrared you can print a photo from your camera using the infrared. No wires or connection to make, just transmit your photos through the air.
You can also transfer files to the printer from a Laptop, PDA, Cell Phone or anything that has the infrared capability.
Two Sided Printing Option
If you need to print on both sides of your paper then HP offers a two-sided printing module that snaps in the back of the printer. You have to go to their web site to get one and the price is $79.
Printing Speeds & Resolution
The HP PhotoSmart 1215 will print in resolutions of 2400 x 1200 dpi (Dot Per Inch) color using premium photo paper. Black printing is up to 600 dpi of resolutions.
I find that the 600 dpi in the best quality provides for excellent quality for any photo in the 4x6 inch size. The 2400 x 1200 dpi printing will slow the printer down a lot and for me it is only used when I print an 8x10 photo.
The HP PhotoSmart 1215 is rated at 15 pages per minute in the Black printing and 12 pages per minute in Color printing. This figure is in the draft mode printing text for both Black and Color.
You have 3 printing modes to choose from on both resolutions, Draft, Normal and Best.
Printing a full color photo in the 600 dpi on 4x6 inch glossy paper takes about two minutes to print. A full color 8x10 will take about 5 minutes in the 600 dpi and longer in the higher resolution.
In the Box
You get the HP PhotoSmart 1215 printer
A black cartridge
A color cartridge
Software
Users Guide
(No USB or Parallel Cable included)
The Software
The HP PhotoSmart 1215 comes with 5 CDs.
CD1 Is for setting up Windows 95, 98, NT 4.0 and ME.
CD2 Is for setting up Windows 2000.
CD3 Is for setting up Mac OS 8.6 or higher.
CD4 Is for setting up the Infrared for Windows and Macintosh.
CD5 Is ArcSoft PhotoImpression
Other Specifications
16 MB built-in RAM
Lets you know when the ink is low!
Printer command language is HP PCL Level 3 enhanced
Uses HP Photo Ret III - Enhanced Color Layering Technology
Automatic paper-type sensor
8 built-in fonts
Overall
A printer selling for under $300 that can give you excellent photo quality is a bargain. To get the photo quality you do need to print on photo paper. Printing on regular paper gives you beautiful results, they just don’t look like photos.
This is one of the easiest to use and setup printers I have ever seen. Also it is one of the quietest and best printing printers I have seen, HP does it again.
You can’t go wrong with the HP PhotoSmart 1215, I highly recommend it.
~~~ Thank You for Reading my Reviews! ~~~
Read about some of my other Printer reviews.
HP PhotosSmart 7550 Photo Printer
HP PhotoSmart 7350 Photo Printer
HP PhotoSmart 1315 Desktop Personal Printer
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 250
Operating System: Windows and Macintosh
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