Customer Reviews

HP PSC 1350 All-in-One Printer, Scanner, Copier

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(22)
3 star:		(10)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(28)

 

 

I bought this little fax/copy/scanner about a month ago for light-to-medium home/office use. I've been pretty happy with it, overall, with some reservations.

Pros:
1. Very good copy and print quality. (Haven't used the scanner)
2. Moderately fast print/copy speed.
3. Variety of print settings to allow you to print fast/draft, fast/normal, normal, best, and maximum dpi. You can also choose greyscale and "black cartridge only." Given the price of color cartridges, I use the latter setting most often.
4. Easy to learn. The manual is good, and use is pretty intuitive (mostly).
5. The size is great -- it fits on top of a small bookshelf, with all the features of much bigger units.

Cons:
1. While mostly intuitive, use is not COMPLETELY intuitive. To print some custom-size invitations, for example, I learned by trial and error that you need to change the settings in TWO places: in the document's printer properties settings (through Word, in my case) and through the printer's own settings, through the print manager. Very strange way to do it, I thought.
2. The in/out paper slot on the printer is the same. That is, it takes paper up, prints on it, and spits it out on top of the "in" tray. It doesn't re-use printed pages, but this isn't the most convenient arrangement for monitoring paper level or even grabbing finished documents.
3. The paper ejection is often too powerful, especially in Fast/Draft. This results in the finished document's being scattered all over the floor -- very annoying.
4. Cancelling print jobs often requires restarting the computer to clear the memory -- although this could be a Windows bug. I mean, an "undocumented feature."
5. Cartridges are pricey. The HP site (only place I looked) listed black cartridges for over $20 and color for more than $30.

Overall, it's a decent machine that could use some retooling to improve functionality. If you're just going for quality and price (and size!), and you have low to moderate volume print/copy requirements, you'll probably be very pleased. I'll probably live with the annoyances of this unit, given my light print/copy needs. If I printed/copied more often, I'd return this machine for something better engineered.

One special note: I purchased this printer through Amazon's partner program from Circuit City. When I went to pick it up, the store had lost the order, even though I had an order number. The staff was incredibly rude and unhelpful. I finally bought it off the floor and had to call to cancel the original order (for which I'd already been charged!). Given Amazon's own excellent customer service, free shipping, and fair return policy, I wish I'd just waited the week it would have taken for Amazon to ship it to me directly. I won't make that mistake again.

Update October 2008: This machine is still working fine, and I remain pleased with it (with the above caveats). I still haven't figured out how to stop it from spitting paper all over the floor, and I'd prefer a double-sided option -- but I'm happy it's still going five years later!

After getting sick and tired of all the streaked printing from a series of Epson printers--okay, it could have been me doing something wrong, but when I mentioned it at several stores, the clerks smiled and said, "What else is new?"--I decided to get my first HP. I wanted a multifunction unit because I have two kids in middle school and a bit of copying and scanning always comes in handy. I am more than pleased with the PSC 1350. It is remarkably small and attractive, and the black and white text printing is plenty fast, and color printing is terrific. I'm not using it to scan photographs, so you may not be happy with 36 bit scanning if that's your bag, but it is a wonderful sidekick at a very reasonable price.

I got what I wanted -- Something to use with my laptop when on car trips. Plus, it's a good copier! It's small and lightweight and folds up into a tight little box, ready for travel. (But don't forget the power adapter and USB cable.) It accepts camera cards, including the Xd picture card, which I use.

The 1350 has an amazingly clever way of printing from camera cards without a computer. It prints a sheet of thumbnails. Then you blacken a little circle next to each picture you want printed. Then you put that form face-down on the glass, and it prints just the photos you selected. I have not tried this yet; I read about it in the user's guide.

During installation, there was a paper jam, which stopped the install. But you have to complete installation before you can search the online user's guide and read how to clear a paper jam! Clearing paper jams is not covered in the dinky little printed manual. I finally pulled the paper out with brute force. Later, I found out that I was supposed to open a door in the back.

The getting-started instructions warn that the software install will take a long time, and it does, and it takes up lots of hard disk space. This psc is not for older, slower, smaller systems. For a newer computer, the install speed and storage requirements are acceptable. I installed under Windows XP on a 2.8-gigahertz system with a 100-GB hard disk.

PRINTING: So far I've printed only a few web pages, and they came out fine. The output falls right on top of the input paper tray -- crude, but if you're just printing something small on the fly, no problem. I prefer it to my old Canon super-small portable because the HP uses full-size print cartridges, so I won't need to frequently change cartridges.

SCANNING: Mixed results. It is faster than my (very) old scanner, and where the paper is right up against the glass, it produces a beautifully clear image. However, if the paper is a little bit off the glass, as where a book's page curves up into the binding, it does not focus. I guess the technical words are, it has very little depth of field. My ancient scanner beats it in this department.

COPYING: A snap. Put the input on the tray, push a button, it makes a nice color copy. However, the depth-of-field limitation described under SCANNING applies here too.

FOUR MONTHS LATER: The 1350 is still performing well. The three-star rating may be a tad unfair. HP deserves another half star for combining so much functionality into such a compact box.

My husband and I purchased this printer 8 months ago on sale at Costco, for under $90, impressed by the 3 in 1 deal. We own all apple computers, so there was no need to install software - my computer recognised the printer as soon as I plugged in the USB cord, which was a great time saver.

I have used all three functions of the All-in-One-Printer, and will comment on them individually.

PRINTER: Photos come out near perfect - though they take longer than a laser printer understandably. The 17 copies per minute (as advertsied) must refer to plain text documents. It takes much longer to print anything with color - particularly high detail color prints like photos.

SCANNER: This is my favourite part of the machine. The scanner works really really well, and picks up color and detail perfectly. If I have something to copy, I scan it in first, and then print it to ensure no detail is lost. It's really easy to use too. Just lift the lid, put your item on the flat bed, and press scan. It automatically uploads the images to your computer in an easy to use program.

COPIER: The copier is great - no problems here. Just lie your items on the flat bed and press either Black & White, or Color copy.

Good Points:
1. The unit is very easy to use.
2. Sleek, compact, and great print quality.
3. It's great having the printer, scanner and copier all in 1.

Problems:
1. After 3 months of sporadic use (we don't use our unit very often), the printer started jamming a lot.
2. The printer is greedy, and likes to grab more than 1 piece of paper at a time - which causes the unit to jam, freeze, stop printing, run out of paper....a nightmare. This means that now when we are printing stuff we need to be on standby to make sure that everything is working as it should. Needless to say, when the printer does work well, the prints are always great.
3. When the printer jams, it is really difficult to stop the print job. I usually have to reset the printer about 5 times, go in manually and cancel print jobs, and fiddle with all kinds of setting and buttons to finally allow me to print again. I have had heaps of trouble getting the error button to turn off.

Overall, not bad for the price - but if I had a second chance I would buy a different printer! 3 star rating for the scanner, and quality of photos when the printer works properly.

I was never a big fan of inkjet printers, but when the salesman snapped my picture and then printed it out on photo paper - I was amazed. Even on plain paper the prints were unbelievable. Needless to say, I had him test just about every HP inkjet in the store and they all performed extremely well.

I chose this model because I liked its small footprint for an all-in-one. The software takes a long time to load but is well made and works well with the unit. Although you don't even need a computer in order to print out your photos.

Would have rated it 5 stars if the unit allowed you to print borderless 8x11's like the other HP stand alone printers. Very happy with my purchase.

I needed a copy machine and a scanner. This was perfect for my needs. Installation was quick and painless. I'm not sure why others had so much trouble. It took us 10 minutes tops to get it installed and working perfectly.

I'd give it five stars but I do think they should've included the USB cable. Luckily my husband is an IT guy so he happened to have hordes of USB cables to choose from, but still, it should've been included. Having to go out and buy one after getting it home would've been a pain. The little $20 camera we got our kids for Christmas even had the cable included, so c'mon, this should've too! :)

As with most HP printer products, it also makes a lot of noise and prints violently. :) But we've found that's normal with HP products.

I love the copy feature. Super simple.

Overall, great product!

I got this printer to go with my new computer a little over a year and a half ago. I have had absolutely no problems with this printer. It has been very good to me, better than any printer I have ever had. (Best out of 5!) I print alot (papers for schools, pictures, etc.) I still haven't had to change the color ink. And I just changed the black ink not too long ago (which would have lasted longer had I not went through almost two packs of paper last school year printing out mostly essays and short stories for school).

The quality is very very nice. I printed out several pictures when I first got it and they came out very good. Pictures come out best on photo paper but also come out very good on regular paper.

The scan option could be better, but it isn't at all bad. The drawback to the scanner is that it can get dusty. You have to make sure it's dust-free or else your scans with come out with dust flakes on it. (It can be easily dusted off.) The other drawback is that it does NOT come with a usb cord (I had to make 2 trips to the store.) So if you get this, make sure you buy a usb cord at the same time.

Overall, I love this printer. 5 of my friends also have this printer and they also love it! I love having a printer, scanner, and a copier at my fingertips.

Installing was painless. I don't know why so many people are complaining about the setup. It was super easy. You have to make sure you install the software before you plug the device in. It states this cleary on the instructions.

The scanning is very simple to use. I think the quality is very good. Also, the copying is faster than I thought.

How nice it is to have everything in one unit!

The guy at the store warned me that it didn't come with a USB cable. I would have been very upset if I have got all the way home and I couldn't use it due to HP not including such a vital piece of equipment!

I'm glad I didn't read the horror stories on this forum before I bought the 1350. I would have missed out on a great product for a great price.

let me say this: if a scanner's what you're looking for, and you have the slightest bit of concern as to how your photos look once you scan them, you'd be well advised to look elsewhere.

i bought the psc 1350 from a local retailer and was sorely disappointed in the scan quality. there is almost no dynamic range in the colors; the blacks are far too black and the whites are far too white, with little definition between. it's simply not a good scanner.

if scanning is merely an afterthought for you, bear in mind that this machine pretty much does what it says; it's easy to set up and it prints and copies admirably. but if you're like me and intend to actually use the thing for all of its advertised functions, then you'll be bringing it back to the store within a week like i just did.

good luck!

I purchased this printer for my father so he can use it in his Brine Shrimp business. My father has been raising Brine Shrimp for years and to be honest his fascination with these things is downright disturbing at this point. Not only does he raise them, he eats them too. The guy puts them in soup. These aren't the type of shrimp you normally eat, mind you. These are brine shrimp. They're tiny like little bugs. For all I know they are bugs. He's probably just been eating bugs...

But on to the printer. Overall the print quality was great, complete with a moderately fast print speed. When you tie in all the extra features this printer offers it really is a great deal. I'm a huge fan of these all in one type units.

The only downside really, as others have noted, is that the cartridges are pricey. But we don't mind too much. We use the expended carts as tiny little hatchery tanks for the shrimp. My father, who we'll probably just institutionalize eventually, swears that HP had this in mind when they designed the printer.

All in all I'd give this printer 4 out of 5 stars.