HP Photosmart Premium All-in-One Printer
- Print, scan and copy from a single, energy-efficient device with 3.45-inch touchscreen for printing directly from Snapfish
- Connections include Wi-Fi (802.11b/g/n) and Ethernet networking, Bluetooth, USB, and PictBridge
- Rotate and crop, adjust brightness, or apply color effects before printing with TouchSmart control panel–no PC necessary
- Up to 33 ppm black and 32 ppm color print speeds; scans up to 4800 x 4800 dpi (8.5 x 11.7 inches)
- Borderless photo printing up to 8.5 x 11 inches; 125-sheet input tray and 20-sheet photo tray
Product Description
Wirelessly print,1 copy, scan and access photos on Snapfish.com2 right from the large HP TouchSmart screen on this energy-saving all-in-one…. More >>
I am not able to review this product based on performance; however, I thought those shopping should know that this product retails for 199.99 on hp’s site, and they are currently selling it for 139.99. DO NOT pay what Amazon is asking for this printer.
That said, I am excited to try it out. All of the reviews have been terrific.
January 3rd, 2010 at 9:29 amRating: 5 / 5
PROS: PRICE WAS REASONABLE AT THE TIME OF SALE. VERY FAST PPM. FAST SHIPPING. THIS IS MY 5TH HP PRINTER.
CONS: 31 DAYS LATER THEY LOWERED THE PRICE ABOUT $40.00. THEY DECLINED A PRICE MATCH REFUND AND THEY WERE VERY RUDE TO ME FOR ASKING. COLORS ARE NOT THAT CLOSE TO THE ORIGINAL PHOTO COLORS. FIRST SHIPPED PRINTER WAS DEFECTIVE, BUT THE EXCHANGE PROCESS WAS STRESS-FREE (EXCEPT FOR THE WAITING PERIOD). ALL INITAL INK CARTRIDGES HAD VERY LITTLE INK IN THEM. IN THE PAST, HP FILLED THEIR INITAL CARTRIDGES ABOUT HALF FULL.
January 3rd, 2010 at 1:51 pmRating: 5 / 5
The C309G is not a small printer. The duplex add-on and the front tray take up an enormous amount of room on a desk and you definitely want to take measurements in your small office to make sure it will fit. I’ve smacked my elbow into it numerous times. Let’s start with the basics.
The unit does not come with a USB cable, so make sure you have one in the event you do not want to use the Ethernet or WiFi connections. Rest assured, the USB cable isn’t needed to connect the printer to the network at all. Everything is set up via software or the touch screen. The LCD touch screen is a very cool feature! The on-screen keyboard isn’t QWERTY so it took some time to input the passcode for my WiFi network, but the overall user interface is very sleek and easy to use!
When I popped the lid to install the cartridges, I noticed there were no LED’s to indicate proper installation of each cartridge like my Canon Pixma MP620. The C309G also makes a steady hissing sound when it is turned on, and you get to hear it for at least 5 minutes during the first initialization of the printer (which is an awful long time to wait when you’re anxious to use it).
I used the on-board photo printing feature to try out some of the photo paper that was included (100 sheets). The cropping feature is very lackluster and managed to cutoff some of my photographs. It wasn’t as flexible in allowing me to crop the photo the way I wanted, and it was hard to tell if the photo quality was going to be good or not, so make sure you use a good camera and take a clear pic. The color reproduction is quite spectacular and the glossy prints look Kodak-quality. I made a few photos for family and they thought I got them developed. The duplex unit worked very nicely but it takes a few moments for the ink to dry before it proceeds printing on the reverse side.
The software isn’t that great as it takes 15MB or more of memory (not hard drive space) and installs a bunch of IE/FireFox add-ons for no reason. The scanning system works seamlessly as you are able to save directly onto a USB flash drive. Unfortunately the scanner only scans at 300 dpi (fixed setting) and saves as a JPG without any option to store all the images in one session onto one PDF file like my Canon Pixma MP620. This isn’t a big deal if you’re just scanning photographs from a scrapbook, but I usually scan lots of documents at 150 dpi and it makes it convenient to store 35 pages into 1 PDF rather than store it as 35 JPG’s in 300 dpi format.
There are some fun maze and puzzles available for print straight from the printer itself. It can print out mazes or Sudoku puzzles (ranging from simple to expert), or other activities right from the touch screen.
Pros: Fast printing, individual color tanks, duplex attachment, great photo printing capabilities, onboard WiFi setup, excellent touch screen user interface, and excellent print quality even in the Fast Draft setting.
Cons: Takes up a lot of physical space, installation and initialization can take awhile, and the unit makes a hissing noise from the speaker.
Overall: Feature-rich printer but I felt my less expensive Canon Pixma MP620 does everything but takes up less room, and has a better scanner interface with the same quality of printing. The really great feature of the HP C309G is the duplex attachment and easier to access paper tray.
UPDATE 12-23-2009:
January 3rd, 2010 at 3:03 pmA bit of a warning about the ink cartridges:
The 564 cartridges don’t last very long, specifically the big tank for black ink. After maybe 100-200 print outs, it tells me to buy a new tank. I recommend looking at the 564XL cartridges for higher capacity. They cost more but the standard sized 564 cartridges don’t last long at all.
Rating: 4 / 5