HP Officejet 4500 - all in one print/copy/scan/fax
So first a shout out to packaging: product was packaged so well (wrapped in plastic then surrounded by foam so not even touching cardboard outer box) that even when my UPS delivery guy left the box out in the pouring rain all day none of the components were even slightly damp when I unpacked it.
Assembly instructions were clear and easy to follow. Basically you plug in the printer and insert an auto-load cd to your computer and the rest is magic. Unfortunately despite easy to follow instructions set up did not work on my computer. I am running Vista - not sure if other Vista users had similar problems? Anyway was able to access HP Solution Center and downloaded a separate set of manual set up instructions that were not quite as easy to follow. My computer crashed 3 times trying to back out the auto install files. 2 hours later I was able to clean my hard drive to follow the manual install instructions and got the darn thing set up.
Now after all that... here are my thoughts/grades on how the product works.
Physical Design: A
Overall the product is sleek pretty and compact. It has a shiny black color and sits comfortably on the corner of the desk.
Ease of Use: B+
There are clear picture icons on the buttons to identify the different options: color vs bw fax color vs bw copy etc.
Paper is easy to load. Took some points off for the tiny little communication screen on the front. This reminded me of the "word processing" electric typewriter I had back in the 80s. the menu screen shows just a few characters at a time so that you have to scroll through to see menu choices settings etc. thought this part was a little annoying but I'd imagine i'd mostly be setting up jobs through the PC so hopefully I wouldn't need to use this screen so much.
Speed: B
Had no issues with speed of printingcopying etc
Loudness: B+
Found the noise level on copy and print jobs to be very manageable. I tried running a copy job while talking on the phone and found that the noise level was not at all distracting.
Quality of Output: B
So I thought the quality was good. Certainly document printing (both color and bw) were fine. I did try to print/copy a photo and found that photo quality was not at the level of a dedicated photo printer (like my Canon Pixma). But it's great for standard printing jobs.
Overall I'd give this a B/B+ (my installation/set up issues did not factor into my rating). It would not replace my beloved Canon printer but I did find it to be a competent and compact solution for home office/personal use.More detail ...
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