This is probably the 30th HP printer I've either personally owned or was directly responsible for purchasing and supporting, and it appears they've outdone themselves on this one.
Over the years, HP has put out some very nice units...and in contrast, some complete dogs, as well. That being said, I'm happy to report that this, along with last years Photosmart Premium (c309g) are pretty much the best AIO/MFPs HP has ever made with the OfficeJet Pro 8500 following very closely. There ARE, however a few things I wish HP would have carried over from the C309a to this years model, such as the ADF and the direct CD/DVD printing mechanism, especially for this price point, but since I still have the C309a, and find the touchscreen a complete joy to use I'm not too terribly upset about it.
Setup was a breeze and by far THE easiest install I have ever done. First off, HP put a lot of thought into the packaging, making it easy to remove the AIO from the box. The printer is wrapped in a big nylon bag with large straps, making it easy to remove. The idea is that you keep the bag and reuse it for other things to help cut down on the amount of plastic and paper bags floating around in landfills. Pretty thoughtful, although it has a big flower on both sides, which could be a turnoff to those who prefer more "manly" carrying devices.
Once removed from the bag and after removing all the plastic protection, I plugged it in, inserted the ink carts, turned it on and let it do its pre-charging and setup. From opening the box, to it finishing it's initialization took about 15 minutes. I then had it connect to my 802.11g network, using WPA2 security, which went off without a hitch and was ready to install the drivers. I NEVER, EVER use the drivers on the included disc, as they're usually out of date and filled to the brim with crapware. Instead, I downloaded the "lite" version of the drivers for my OS (Windows 7, 64bit) and proceeded the installation. Once again, this went off without a hitch. It searched my network automatically, found the new AIO, and installed the drivers for it. Easy peasy. The lite driver pack, only weighs in at about 45mb vs 140+mb for the full version. I am able to do everything one would want (i.e. scan, print, fax, etc) via the network and dont have any crapware to eat up resources.
Print and picture quality is top notch. It's pretty darn fast, as well. I have an HP Color LaserJet and used the same source (Word doc with graphs and pictures), along with the same 105+ gram paper and did a comparison test. Although the laser is clearly better for prints such as these, the Photosmart definitely holds its own with text as small as 6 point still readable. Where is REALLY shines, however, is printing photography. Pictures up to 8.5x11 are simply breathtaking. I detected absolutely no banding or other artifacts. Do NOT let the fact that this unit is "only" a 3 color printer (CMYK) deter you. I printed the same photo on both this, and my main 6 color "photo workhorse", the Epson Stylus Photo 1400 (The only good thing Epson has put out in a long while) and had a hard time making out any discernable difference. Its really that good.
The touchscreen is amazing to use. There is a *slight* delay, but definitely nothing to get in a twist over and it makes configuration much easier than on previous models. Although the new web powered "widgets" are it's primary selling point, I find, for my use at least, they are more of a gimmick than a must have. They are definitely neat, however and fun to play with. I would like to point out that as much as HP is attempting to be less wasteful and more earth friendly, I find it humorous that they provide an app to print out news, weather reports, calendars, etc which all can be done online, without using so much as a sheet of paper.
Now for the negatives, although there aren't many. The first, is the price. I realize it's a first of it's kind and thus can generally demand a higher asking price, but even with everything it does, I think $400 is a bit high. And my last complaint is the lack of an ADF. I really would have loved to see an ADF on this as on last years model and am a bit puzzled as to why they left it off, but no biggie.
I would have no problems recommending this to anyone. This is a very capable AIO/MFP with an amazing touchscreen and complete ease of use. Get more detail about HP Photosmart Premium TouchSmart Web All-in-One Printer.
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