HP PhotoSmart 1215 Photo Printer
by Hewlett Packard

List Price: $199.99
Our Price: $69.98
You Save: $130.01 (65%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Category: CE
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Digital Photo Product Details

• 2,400 x 1,200 dpi enhanced resolution using photo paper
• Exclusive HP PhotoREt III color layering technology
• Prints black text at 17 ppm, color at 13 ppm
• Prints directly from digital camera memory cards
• Parallel, USB, and wireless infrared interfaces; PC and Mac compatible

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Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of HP PhotoSmart 1215 Photo Printer

Customer Review: HP Whomps the Printer Market
Summary: 5 Stars

Now, I will be honest, I have not yet actually bought one of these, but as soon as my next paycheck shows up, it will be mine.

My father has an HP DeskJet 722C that he bought years ago. And even though it's only a 600 x 600 printer, it still makes great photos. That's why I told my neighbor when he asked me what to get that he should only look at HP. And he did, now he has a 932C that he loves.

Now about this printer:
The versatility between parallel and USB makes it easy for anyone with an older PC or newer PC/Mac to connect it up. (Hewlett-Packard's website doesn't say it works with WinXP, but read on...)
Since I wasn't sure whether or not the printer would work with my notebook running Windows XP, I called the people at Best Buy and asked if I could hook up their demo printer to my PC to try it. They said sure, so I did. It worked flawlessy! I had a photo I had previously downloaded to my PC from a digital camera that I had taken of my cat. I opened Paint Shop Pro 7, changed the DPI from 72 to 600, which resized it to about 3 inches. I then blew it back up to 5 inches, which of course then loses quality.
I set the printer to it's highest quality, and clicked "OK" to print. From the time I clicked "OK" to the time it finished printing was only about 30 seconds. Even on the cheapest paper Best Buy found under a pallet in there store, the image was still excellent. I am convinced and a "true HP believer" :).

I normally wouldn't give something the highest rating, but HP has gotten me. I will have this printer, that is for sure.

Description of HP PhotoSmart 1215 Photo Printer

To test the PS1215, we inserted our digital camera's CompactFlash card into the PS1215's slot and followed the LCD menus to print an index sheet that contained thumbnails of our photos. We also followed the menus to select a photo to print as an 8-by-10. The process was slow but intuitive, with most of our time spent waiting for the index sheet to print. The results were very good, with exceptionally sharp thumbnails and a surprisingly sharp and colorful 8-by-10, even using the printer's default normal mode.

Next, we installed the software drivers, connected the printer to our PC, and printed our standard test documents using the printer's three modes--draft, normal, and best. Mixed color and black text documents printed at 5.6, 2.1, and 0.9 ppm respectively. Black-only text documents printed at 6.3, 3.9, and 0.6 ppm. (All speeds were adjusted upward to account for first-page delay.) Draft documents were faded; normal documents were sharper and had more accurate color; best documents were exceptionally sharp, requiring close inspection to distinguish them from the output of a laser printer.

The PS1215 shined brilliantly in our color photo tests. On our PC, we used the included photo printing software to select our own high-resolution digital photos and to position them in the software's predefined page layouts. Samples were a bit slow to print--a typical 8-by-10 required 4 minutes and 28 seconds--but the output was superb on HP's premium glossy photo paper (sample pack included). Our samples displayed rich and accurate color, perfect register, fine detail, and realistic skin tones. There was no visible banding or smearing and only the faintest hint of pixelation.

The PhotoSmart 1215 is priced considerably above its sub-$200 rivals, but the dramatic improvements in quality justify the extra cost. It operates quietly, sets up easily, prints very sharp text on a variety of media, and produces beautiful color documents and photos. This remarkable performer is an excellent all-purpose printer. --Mike Brown

Pros

• Accepts CompactFlash and SmartMedia directly
• Easy to set up and use
• Sharp text and beautiful color photos
• Detects paper type automatically

Cons

• Slow printing on higher-quality settings
• High cost per page when printing photos

The HP PhotoSmart 1215 also makes a great PC or Macintosh printer--just connect the printer to your computer's USB or parallel port. The 1215 is perfect for printing pages for your photo album, greeting cards, or newsletters. HP's new optical sensing technology lets you choose your paper and print settings manually, or the PhotoSmart 1215 will automatically set them for you based on the type of paper in the printer tray.

Other features include a convenient print-cancel button, low-ink warning, and a 4-by-6-inch photo paper tray, saving you the hassle of changing paper each time you print photos.

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