Hewlett - Packard Photosmart 8150 review

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Verdict:

If you don't mind swapping cartridges for different tasks, the 8150 is the ideal all-purpose printer. Its photo quality isn't quite the best here but it excels on plain paper, and its excellent direct printing lifts it above the competition.

Review Date: 20 Oct 2004

Price when reviewed: inc VAT

Our Rating 5 stars out of 5

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Review
Specs

Of the two new HP printers in this test, only the Photosmart 8150 uses the company's new-generation inks.

It is supplied with two cartridges that give six-colour printing, but like the older 7760 will accept a tri-grey cartridge for enhanced greyscale photographs.

In theory this system allows HP's printers to be best configured for the job in hand, but repeatedly changing ink tanks soon becomes a chore. We also prefer single inks to three-ink cartridges, which force you to throw away good ink when just one colour is exhausted.

Importantly from the point of view of plain paper printing, the 8150 also accepts the company's new #339 black cartridge (see What's New, page 28), which has a yield of 800 pages and a large head that enables it to print text extremely quickly. Thus equipped, the 8150 produces draft output at an incredible speed, and it reached 17.5 pages per minute in our 50-page document test.

The quality of the 8150's photo prints is the best of the three HP printers in this test, but only marginally. Prints have slightly less contrast, which makes them appear more natural, and their colours are more accurate.

The 8150's direct photo printing is the best we've tested. The printer supports PictBridge via a front USB port, and has slots for all major memory card formats. A clear and crisp 6.4cm LCD screen and simple menu system let you browse memory cards and tag multiple images for printing. The colour matching of all direct prints is near perfect.

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