This is overall a very good printer. I like the built in duplex scanner and printer; it scans 2 sided documents without the need to flip it as well as prints 2 sided. The only drawback is that there is a brief 10 second or so pause after printing one side to allow the ink to dry.
I would give this product a 5 star rating but lowered it by 2 for two reasons.
Reason 1:
I question the quality of this printer. My first one was defective. It had two problems.
First, the key pad would not function properly. It ignored about every other key press and that was when pressing them normally. Pressing the buttons quickly such as to scroll down a menu would result in only a few buttons being recognized if any. Going through the menu with this defect was a chore. I checked the display model at a store which did not have that problem. This defect appeared to affect all the buttons.
Second, the printer registered the ink as installed on December 2008 even though it was installed in May 2009. This did not affect the ink warranty however.
My replacement printer operated normally. The keypad recognized all the buttons. I was able to quickly work my way through the menus. The ink showed it was installed in May 2009. However, the connection piece in the back that connects everything (power cable, phone, Ethernet, USB, etc.) does not appear to be tightly connected to the printer housing (not a big deal).
Reason 2:
In choosing my new printer, I was looking for a low cost printer to do black and white printouts to replace my old HP laser 4si. The replacement black ink cost appears to be much more expensive when compared to the HP Officejet Pro 8500 wireless all in one model. This printer uses the 564XL black ink which is good for only about 800 pages. The 8500 all in one uses the 940XL black ink which is good for about 2200 pages, nearly 3 times more, yet they cost about the same when purchased from Amazon. It would appear the price per page for black ink is more than double the cost of the 8500 model.
The color inks appear to have the same per page cost between this model and the 8500 when purchased through Amazon. The inks for this printer have about 1/2 the page capacity, but are also about 1/2 the price.
While I prefer the 8500 models black ink cost, I decided against that higher end model because of an annoying high pitch noise it emits from where the power cable connects (at least from the one I took home as well as from several store displays).
Good Quality Photos:
The photos look great on HP glossy paper. Looking at them, they would appear to come from a photo lab, there was no graininess. I never believed Ink Jets could print such beautiful images. However, when I printed them through Windows Vista photo gallery, they came out too red. I adjusted the magenta down and increased the cyan and yellow. I still wasn't happy with the results. When I printed them through the HP Digital Imaging Monitor and selected Auto Photo Fix under advanced options, the colors appeared to print correctly under the default settings. So I am guessing in the future, I will need to print all my pictures via the HP Digital Imaging Monitor.
I would give this product a 5 star rating but lowered it by 2 for two reasons.
Reason 1:
I question the quality of this printer. My first one was defective. It had two problems.
First, the key pad would not function properly. It ignored about every other key press and that was when pressing them normally. Pressing the buttons quickly such as to scroll down a menu would result in only a few buttons being recognized if any. Going through the menu with this defect was a chore. I checked the display model at a store which did not have that problem. This defect appeared to affect all the buttons.
Second, the printer registered the ink as installed on December 2008 even though it was installed in May 2009. This did not affect the ink warranty however.
My replacement printer operated normally. The keypad recognized all the buttons. I was able to quickly work my way through the menus. The ink showed it was installed in May 2009. However, the connection piece in the back that connects everything (power cable, phone, Ethernet, USB, etc.) does not appear to be tightly connected to the printer housing (not a big deal).
Reason 2:
In choosing my new printer, I was looking for a low cost printer to do black and white printouts to replace my old HP laser 4si. The replacement black ink cost appears to be much more expensive when compared to the HP Officejet Pro 8500 wireless all in one model. This printer uses the 564XL black ink which is good for only about 800 pages. The 8500 all in one uses the 940XL black ink which is good for about 2200 pages, nearly 3 times more, yet they cost about the same when purchased from Amazon. It would appear the price per page for black ink is more than double the cost of the 8500 model.
The color inks appear to have the same per page cost between this model and the 8500 when purchased through Amazon. The inks for this printer have about 1/2 the page capacity, but are also about 1/2 the price.
While I prefer the 8500 models black ink cost, I decided against that higher end model because of an annoying high pitch noise it emits from where the power cable connects (at least from the one I took home as well as from several store displays).
Good Quality Photos:
The photos look great on HP glossy paper. Looking at them, they would appear to come from a photo lab, there was no graininess. I never believed Ink Jets could print such beautiful images. However, when I printed them through Windows Vista photo gallery, they came out too red. I adjusted the magenta down and increased the cyan and yellow. I still wasn't happy with the results. When I printed them through the HP Digital Imaging Monitor and selected Auto Photo Fix under advanced options, the colors appeared to print correctly under the default settings. So I am guessing in the future, I will need to print all my pictures via the HP Digital Imaging Monitor.