Bargain functionality
Written: Nov 14 '00 (Updated Feb 26 '01)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: multifunctionality in one product, quality of scan and print
Cons: slow ppm speed and copy speed, ink price, and size of machine
The Bottom Line: Great deal for both business and home office settings
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| evajung's Full Review: Hewlett Packard PSC 500 All-In-One Printer |
First of all, despite the description above, it is not fax capable.
We purchased this particular model a few months ago because of a longstanding argument. My husband is working on a USAF website for 3SOPS and needed a scanner to scan in his scarves and patches for graphics, and our Microtek E6 is junked. I do alot of printing, and my Epson Stylus 600 had a run in with my 3 year old and a handful of hickory nuts.
We shopped around for a new printer and scanner, but found that for the quality we both needed to get both would cost us about $400 to $500 dollars. We stopped at Best Buy, and were looking at scanners (my hubby usually finds a way to get things his way)when we noticed the PSC 500. There was a demonstration printout in the tray from a scan. It was very good quality.
About that time an employee approached. I asked him if the printout was actually from that machine. He told me it was and proceeded to pull out the same keyring from the scanned picture. I was amazed, it actually scanned a 3D object in perfect detail. Then he copied the new scan.
The copy quality is slightly less than the Print/scan quality, but still good. It works best for document copies rather than photo quality. It was priced at $299, 1200x600 dpi, did 5ppm (one drawback besides its immense size), previewed in 30 seconds, scanned in less than a minute at full resolution, and doesn't lock up your system while it's scanning.
A decent printer costs about $200, and a good quality scanner from $2-300. We could have picked up a cheapie printer and scanner, but wouldn't have been able to do the things we wanted. Finally, a copier is usually from $500 to $20,000; depending on what you need (and I've always wanted a copier. So for $299, we got all three.
Ink is a bit pricey, but no more so than an Epson. Black is about $20 and color about $25. It uses regular printer paper, and supports banner and other specialty sizes. This particular model is about the size of a small copy machine (read HUGE)and is resultantly difficult to place in a small home setting.
The PSC 500 is easy to install through the accompanying software, no downloads necessary. It is easy to use for all functions, and both scan and copy can be completed by simply pressing a button on the machine. Its copy function also has enlarge and reduce capacities.
Because of its size, price, and speed I don't recommend this to your average home computer user who needs nothing more than an injet printer which can be purchased for about $100 dollars,(Canon) and a decent scanner which can cost about $60-70 (Acer). If you don't need more than that you'll save by NOT buying a PSC.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
evajung
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Member: Eva Jung
Location: Colorado Springs, CO
Reviews written: 28
Trusted by: 5 members
About Me:
Country girl and green lady who loves trees and adores children
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