Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)My "real" rating would probably be 4.5 stars out of 5, but since I can't do that, I'll round up.
When my old printer died, I decided to look into an all-in-one since my scanner was getting up there in age and I had begun to notice how convenient having a fax machine in the house would be. I also wanted built-in two-sided printing (since I'd been spoiled with that feature on my last printer), and good print quality (especially photos). I also thought it would be nice to have each color in separate ink tanks so I wouldn't have to replace anything more than what I had used. With this printer I got everything I wanted except for the separate ink tanks.
I've been very impressed with the scan quality and copy quality. I have sent and received faxes with absolutely no problems. I've printed pages of great looking sharp text and impressive looking photos just using the default black and tri-color cartridges (i.e., without putting in the optional photo cartridge). The color LCD and the menu system it uses is great and easy to navigate.
If you're trying to decide between this printer and the 7410, I did some research and emailed HP to confirm what exactly the differences are. The only differences are:
1) The 7410 comes with the extra 250-sheet tray that attaches to the bottom of the printer and adds an extra inch or two to the total height of the printer.
2) On the machine itself, the 7410 has a 'collate' button and an option to collate within the 'copy' menu. HP also calls this 'reverse order printing' and they say it can be activated on the 7310 through the driver (although I have not done it). The same button on the 7310 is 'Lighter/Darker' and the 'collate' option is not in the copy menu.
3) While both printers have built in networking, only the 7410 has built-in wireless networking. This was not an issue for me since I already have a wireless router and I just ran an ethernet cable from my router to the printer. Now any computer that connects to the wireless router is able to print to the printer without having to go through another computer. The printer is basically its own device on the network and relies on nothing other than its network connection (i.e., no usb cables connected). If I had the 7410, the only difference is that I wouldn't have the ethernet cable coming from the router, but the functionality is the same.
I had no problems actually installing the software on any of our computers and have no problems using or accessing the printer from any computer on the network ("accessing" includes accessing any flash card in the media slots). There was a little complication with the software upsetting XP's Data Execution Prevention (DEP), but there is an update on HP's website that took care of that pretty easily.
My complaints:
- If you don't pull out the tray extender, anything you print will fall on the floor. This is kind of annoying if I'm printing from my laptop downstairs, go up to retrieve my print job, and find it all over the floor. Simple solution: If you just leave it pulled out (but not 'flipped' all the way out) it will still catch pretty much everything without having to deal with the thing jutting too far into space.
- As I mentioned before, I wish HP's ink cartridge system was different so that each ink color had its own cartridge that could be replaced as the individual color ran out. On a related note, I wish I could leave the photo cartridge in without having to swap out the black cartridge.
This is a great printer that is the first all-in-one that I have used that could perform all of its many functions really well. It is a little on the expensive side, but you get what you pay for. I have never regretted buying this printer.
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