A little while ago I was offered the brilliant opportunity to try out the HP Photosmart Premium Fax All in One. I jumped up in excitement because not only we needed a printer in this house but having a wireless one was almost a requirement in itself. The space around my desk is very small and I didn't want an ugly printer and all its wires around it!
One day the door bell rang and that's when I saw it for the first time... It wasn't ugly and it wasn't huge. Unfortunately I had to wait a whole day for my husband to come home and set it up. This is not because it is complicated to do so, far from it, only because the idea of 2 sets of tiny hands pulling things around while I am trying to get it sorted was very repulsive.
Here is what Craig has to say about the printer and the setup:
"The idea behind wireless printers is fantastic, if you don’t have a dedicated office or if your office area has a dual purpose. A wireless printer allows you to place the equipment in the best possible location that fits around you life style, rather than just placing the equipment in position as that’s as far as the connecting cable can stretch. All this being said sometimes task of connecting it to the wireless network can be a real headache.
In regards to this I am happy to say the HP Photosmart Premium Fax all in one is a joy to set up and can easily be out of the box and running in minutes.
After removing the printer from the box and spending a few minutes removing the myriad of protective plastic and sticky strips, (this is by far the most time consuming part of the set-up), being brave I opted to attempt a straight connection to my home wireless network, with my SSID and Keyphrase in hand. I followed the supplied quick start guide, skipping the USB and Bluetooth connection options and proceed with the wireless connection instructions. The steps were straight forward and easy to follow.
Low and behold within minutes the printer was accepted onto my wireless network and all I had to do to install in onto my PC was to simply insert the installation CD-Rom into my PC and run the program."
Once the setup was done, the fun begun!
Since having it I have printed our holiday photos to frame: no more going to the printer or sending them and the quality is excellent!
I have designed and printed thank you cards (note to self: they need to be sent now!). Same with invitations and personalised birthday cards to family and friends.
I have printed 60 pages e-courses front and back very easily.
I have been able to select options to save ink when necessary and to request highest quality when needed.
I have done all this and more before running the ink dry. Saying this you start receiving messages telling you the ink is low way before the printing quality gets bad. This leads me to think that the warning is way too early and could make you change the cartridges before it becomes absolutely necessary.
The good thing about the cartridges is that the colours come in separate cartridges which means that you don't have to replace all the colours at once! We all know that it is very annoying especially if you consider the cost of a cartridge. Well there again, each cartridge comes to approximately £8 each, not bad at all.
The downside is that it is quite prone to jamming if you use photo paper a bit thick in the big tray. This is a tad annoying.
Apart from that I think it is a brilliant family printer. It is a bit pricey and retails around £205 I believe, but if you are happy to splash out on a very good quality wireless printer, this one is the one!
I am off to design my Christmas cards now!
