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HP Photosmart C7280 All-In-One

2007-12-09

Most ink-jet-based all-in-ones (AIOs) emphasize either photo-related or office-centric features. The former are best suited for a home, while the latter work well for a small office or home office. The HP Photosmart C7280 All-In-One is strong in both departments. It offers photo-friendly features and high-quality photo prints, and also sports an automatic document feeder (ADF), standalone and fax, network connector, and Wi-Fi capability, all features that any office would welcome. All these capabilities make it a great choice for the dual role of home and home-office AIO.

On the photo-centric side, the C7280 can print from memory cards, PictBridge cameras, and USB keys. You can review photos on its 2.5-inch color LCD. Most important, you can print high-quality photos. It uses six ink colors with a separate cartridge for each color-cyan, yellow, magenta, black, light cyan, and light magenta-a common choice for photo printers.

As for its office features, it can print, scan, scan to e-mail (launching your e-mail program and adding the scanned file as an attachment), fax from your computer, and work as a standalone fax machine and copier. It makes quick work of scanning, faxing, or e-mailing multipage documents, thanks to a 50-page automatic document feeder (ADF). It can even scan legal-size pages using the ADF.

Still another feature that helps the C7280 fill a dual role is its network connector and Wi-Fi support, which make it easy to share on a home network. Setting up on a network is straightforward. The AIO measures 9.8 by 17.7 by 17.5 inches (HWD). Simply find a spot for it, remove the packing materials, plug it in, turn it on, and load the ink cartridges and paper. Then plug in the network cable, run the automated installation program, and wait while the software installs.

While you're waiting you might contemplate the paper handling, which is a mixed blessing. The C7280 includes two welcome touches: a duplexer for automatically printing on both sides of a page, and a 20-sheet, 4-by-6 photo tray so that you can switch between printing on standard paper and on 4-by-6 photo paper without having to swap paper. Unfortunately, the primary tray holds only 100 sheets. Refilling it could quickly get annoying if you print, fax, and copy more than about 20 sheets per day, making the C7280 suitable only for those offices that have the lightest of printing needs.

As for output quality, the C7280 is a little weak on text, but strong on graphics and photos. The text quality is typical for an ink jet, though on the low side of the range. I would call the text good enough for schoolwork or most business use, but not suitable for, say, legal contracts with small fonts or anything approaching desktop publishing, such as a client newsletter.

Graphics are easily good enough for any internal business use, including projects like PowerPoint handouts. Thin lines tend to disappear, which is a common issue with printers. Otherwise, the graphics are good enough to give to an important client or customer you need to impress with your professionalism. If you print full-page graphics, you may want to spend a little extra on better-quality paper. With the plain paper we use in our tests, full-page graphics tended to make the paper curl slightly.

Color-photo quality is terrific, close to what you expect to see from a more expensive photo printer or a professional photo lab. The one flaw worth mentioning was a color-balance problem in a monochrome photo.

And the photos should last. HP claims a 200-year lifetime for photos kept in dark storage, as in an album, 40 years for photos behind glass, and 30 or more years for photos exposed to the air.

HP competitor Dell also offers a 968 all-in-one wireless printer with a Dell Internal Wireless Adapter for the wireless technology , 802.11b/g Wi-Fi  and Optional Bluetooth adapter

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