Hewlett-Packard Regains a Customer
Written: Apr 24 '03 (Updated Jun 17 '03)
|
Product Rating:
|
|
| Ease of Use: |
 |
|
| Paper Handling: |
|
|
|
Pros: Print, scan, and copy without cutting corners
Cons: Doesn't include a USB cable, printer is very light in comparison to print head
The Bottom Line: Need to print, copy, and scan? Get the PSC 2110. Need fax and memory card capabilities? The 2210 is a better choice!
|
|
|
| caradoc's Full Review: Hewlett Packard PSC 2110 All-In-One InkJet Printer |
Over the last few years, I'd drifted away from the HP printers. My old HP LaserJet 4M still works, and puts out superb black-and-white output. For color output, I'd been using a Canon MultiPass C635.
It had a sheet-fed scanner, fax capabilities, copying capabilities, and did reasonable color output. But more to the point, it had better support at the time for Macintosh drivers than any of the HP printers.
It died last year. Some belt or another broke inside the printer, and the print head wouldn't move. I was quoted $150 by a local shop to repair it (and they wouldn't sell me just the part!), so I went shopping for another printer in that price range. We started doing some research last August before the semester started, really started shopping in earnest last January, and bought the PSC 2110 last month.
Since my fiancee is currently an interior design student, we decided that we really wanted a flatbed scanner instead of the sheet-fed like the old Canon had, as well as color printing and color copying capabilities.
Fax capability wasn't important to us, nor was the ability to print directly from a CompactFlash card from a camera. Any pictures we take get stored on a website before they get printed, anyway, so a memory card reader was overkill.
Besides - the computer already has a fax modem, and if you scan a document, you can fax it out anyway. The only advantage with the old Canon was the ability to fax directly from the printer.
If you really need a way to print directly from the card to paper, you should look at the PSC 2210 series - they include memory card readers and fax capabilities.
I did a lot of research before coming down to a decision between two models - the HP PSC 2110, and the Lexmark X83. However, when it came down to buying the printer, I couldn't get the X83. It was discontinued last September...
Installing the HP PSC 2110 on a Macintosh is very simple. Insert the CD-ROM, load the software, then plug in the printer. If you're running Mac OS 9.1 (or earlier, as long as you have USB support), you'll need to select the printer in the Chooser. If not, the Print Center in Mac OS X will autodetect the printer for you.
Scanning and copying are one-button functions. Just load the object or document you want to scan onto the flatbed, and press the button - the driver will detect the button press and open the "helper" application, HP Scan. Copying is performed without the assistance of the computer, so there's no difference in operation.
Scanning a document is relatively painless. You can accept the defaults and get a nice high-quality scan, or you can tweak things for your particular purpose. Color, Grayscale, and Black-and-White settings are available, at "real" resolutions of 3600 by 3600, or "enhanced" resolutions of up to 19,200 by 19,200. The latter resolutions are, to my thinking, useless. Anything higher than 300 by 300 tends to start getting a bit ridiculous on printing, anyway, and results in file sizes that can be incredibly huge.
Once you've put the document into the scanner and selected your scan functions, you can also choose different destinations for the scan results. You can save the file as a PICT, JPEG, or TIFF file, or send it immediately to Readiris, which is HP's included Optical Character Recognition (OCR) application. You can even instruct HP Scan to e-mail the resulting document, or send it to MS Word after Readiris converts the image into text.
I couldn't find a way to control the actual bit depth (how many bits per pixel are scanned) but the rest of the settings are easy to use.
Readiris performs remarkably well for an "included freebie" application, even to the point of recognizing the Walgreen's logo as text when I scanned a prescription pamphlet.
The color output from the PSC 2110 is nothing short of phenomenal, even on plain paper. The glossy "photo-quality" paper is exactly that - I "copied" a color 8x10 photo onto the glossy paper, then couldn't tell the difference between the two images at six feet.
Print speed is fairly good, but the printer itself seems to be just a little light for the speed and mass of the print head. On a slick desktop, the printer actually shimmies back and forth as it prints. Sticking a mousepad under it solved that particular problem. On a surface that's a little "stickier" than glass, this shouldn't be a problem, but you may want to make sure that it sits on a stable surface. The plastic "home office" file drawers shimmy just as badly.
Paper handling is excellent. I've jammed the printer exactly once, and that was an envelope. I'd forgotten to reset the paper handling tab/lever for the thicker envelope. I can't blame the printer for that one.
Like a lot of printers currently available, there's no USB cable included in the box. You need to buy one. On one hand you can't use the printer without a cable, but for the fashion-conscious Mac user it's nice to be able to pick a cable that "looks" good with your other hardware.
We've used the PSC 2110 for both scanning and printing on a Dual 1GHz Power Macintosh G4 and an older Power Macintosh 8600/300. The box says you need at least a G3, but that's apparently not "required" if you're not overly concerned about wait times in scanning a high-quality image. We've found the scanning and printing to be very usable on the 8600/300.
I've been very impressed with HP's latest efforts in regaining their lost Mac customers - the PSC 2110 is a considerable improvement over the level of support offered back in the DeskJet 660C days. The current version of the PSC 2110 drivers for both Mac OS 9 and Mac OS X haven't caused any crashes on either machine, which is better than I could say about the DJ660C drivers!
Updated 06/17/2003
I was wrong. I've been laid off, and getting work for a contract agency means I need to be able to send faxes of hand-signed documents. So, the PSC 2110 has been placed in her office, and I've gotten the OfficeJet 6110xi for my office. I still like the 2110 - it does what it's supposed to, which is why we kept it and got rid of the poor old LaserJet 4M.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 140 (rebate)
Operating System: Macintosh
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
caradoc
|
 - Top 500 |
|
Member: John Groseclose
Location: Scottsdale, AZ
Reviews written: 182
Trusted by: 133 members
About Me:
System admin, technology addict, knife thrower, and dog "caregiver."
|
|
|
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.