HP Deskjet F2480 Printer

rh25

at 10:25 pm

As a student, I was looking for a printer that was: 1) Cheap; 2) Did double sided printing; 3) Had a scanner function and 4) Was relatively cheap to run. It took me ages to find a printer that satisfied all of those conditions, but I think I have found the right one.

I have been using it nearly every day for 8 weeks now and have not had a single problem with it. The scanner is quick and of very good resolution, and the supplied software enables you to save scanned documents as .TIF of as a PDF which is really handy. This means that you can easily scan in diagrams etc to incorporate into essays or powerpoint presentations.

It will photocopy in colour or in black and white without having to even get the computer involved at just the tap of a button, although if you want to do this with two sided printing then you do need to use the computer and save the file as a PDF.

It works straight out of the box, the installation is easy and the ink usage is not too bad in draft mode.

Print quality is acceptable in draft, and very good in normal. Photo print quality is very good, and it works well with the glossy photo paper from HP.

I have only had to replace the black ink cartridge so far, although it did run out pretty quickly. I am now using an XL capacity ink cartridge which seems to be lasting well and is well worth investing in if you print a lot.

The supplied software for once seems to be useful, and will give you reliable information about the amount of ink left etc.

The paper tray is large enough and two sided printing has to be done manually but is easy to do. It prints very quickly, and although some printers claim to have a high ppm rate they actually spend ages processing the job which adds ages on to the printing time. This printer prints straight away and will print pages at a very quick rate, quicker than the Canon Pixma 540 printer which I have also used.

As a basic all in one this is as good as they come, and despite perhaps a slightly shorter than ideal ink cartridge life span, this is about as good value for money as you will find anywhere.
Rating: 5 / 5

Chinatown Blue

at 1:37 am

My old Epson all-in-one packed up this week after several months of extremely poor quality printing (despite using original cartridges), so I came looking for a new one. This seemed a good, value for money purchase, and having seen comments about the absence of a USB connector, I ordered one of those, too. The cable didn’t arrive with the printer, but fortunately my old one fits just fine. Having installed it this morning I can say it is a damn good design compared to my last one. The Epson loaded the paper at the back, making it hard to get at and a pain to free paper jams; plus the paper went in from above at an angle, making paper jams rather frequent. This loads from a flat tray at the front, and returns the finished sheet from the front too, making it very convenient. Installing the ink cartridges was much simpler and easier on this, and the controls are on the top, making it much better for me (I have spinal arthritis, so bending down to get at controls on the front is painful – I can reach these without any effort). Installation was a bit slow, with all the software updates, but very straightforward. There is no huge manual, since most of the operation is common sense, and a very easy to use online support setup. The ink is pricey, and so far I can’t comment on how long it lasts, but then most printers are costly for ink. And having tried non-brand cartridges in the past, I am very wary of using them as I have had a couple of printers suffer terminal clogging from inferior ink. All round, very pleased with this purchase.
Rating: 5 / 5

DC Fan

at 4:32 am

This printer/scanner/copier combo does everything it says on the tin. Easy to install and to use. Small and tidy on my computer desk too. Only problem is the ink (especially the black) runs out very quickly with even minimal printing
Rating: 4 / 5