Customer Reviews

HP DeskJet 920C Printer

5 star:		(22)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I've been using a Canon BJC-250 for the past 5 years. I go Windows XP and the Canon doesn't work anymore. I was forced to buy a new printer. I saw the DPI resolution on this printer, which is the same as any other printer costing much more than this one. This was a tremendous change for me! I have never seen a better image come out of a printer in my life! Very detailed, very flowing. There are some exceptions to the printing. Buildings that are smaller can actually look blotchy on the photo paper, while water turns out perfect. Also, when printing out multiple pages, I've had the printer actually jam quite a few times. I've used maybe 20 pieces of paper, and 4 have jammed, two of them in a row. Other than these incidents, it does turn out to be a very worthy printer for the price. It is XP compatible and can be hooked up with the computer still on. You are not forced to buy the USB cable. If you already have a cable for your LPT Printer port, it will work also. I am using the LPT port. The printer is also quite large for what I'm used to (see dimensions). Make sure you'll have enough room for it on your desk. Paper loads from the bottom, not the top like my old printer, and can hold up to 100 sheets. This makes it easier than having to constantly reload the darn thing. After a few weeks, the jamming has stopped. Maybe the printer just needed to be broke in. You must install both ink cartridges with this printer (black and color). This is also new to me, with the Canon I had to constantly change cartridges; another perk from HP. The printer also takes quite a while to "warm up." Instead of just hitting the print button and watching it print, it takes maybe 1-2 minutes (depending on how long it has sat idle) to warm up before printing. It is quite loud when warming up and loading the first sheet of paper. After the first sheet is loaded, it's *amazingly* quiet. (Remember, I used to have a 1998 Canon! This is super cool by my standards!) The speed is something to be proud of, as well. Although warm up time can take a little bit longer, after it gets going, it's running very well! A nice high DPI photograph can take up to 1 minute to print at about 800dpi. I haven't tried it any higher yet. Black pages... maybe 10 seconds, if even that!! I changed my rating from 4 stars (on March 17) to 5 stars (on March 21) because the paper jams have stopped. Don't think you need a new printer? For this price, you deserve one anyways! Order one now!

I bought this printer for home use mainly for printing text. The PhotoRET III and 1200 x 2400 dpi printing on special paper is a nice little extra for me. After picking up this printer today, I toyed with it by printing a 1024 x 1536 resolution portrait with a 8" by 10" size on the glossy HP paper that came with the printer. I had the print resolution set at 1200 x 2400 dpi. The results were phenomenal! I was blown away. Before seeing the results, I had scorned the so-called "photo quality" inkjet printing touted by inkjet manufacturers. The print samples I've seen of photo quality printing are on plain paper. But after seeing the print quality produced on glossy paper at the highest print resolution, I was extremely pleased. My expectations were exceeded by 100 fold. I could barely make out any pixelation or graininess on my print portrait. In fact, the quality is near photo-lab quality. I was thinking of getting the dye-sublimation printers for printing photos (The quality of the photos they produce supposedly rival those you print at the photo lab). But now, it looks like I'm pleased enough to put that off for a while! The "nice little extra" that I had originally expected of this printer turned out to be much more.

Pros:
- Capable of producing phenomenally pleasing and photographic look and feel of traditional photo lab prints.

- Extremely economical considering the fact that this printer produces the best print resolution for inkjet printers to date (1200 x 2400 dpi). It has all the features you would want for great quality printing present in all the top-of-the-line inkjet printers. A definite bang for your buck!

- Features HP's PhotoRET III, the latest and best technology from HP for printing pictures.

- Prints beautiful black text on inkjet paper. The printed text is sharp and heavy-weighted. I was unable to distinguish the inkjet printing from one that is produced by a laserjet printer.

- Prints beautiful black text on inkjet paper. The printed text is sharp and heavy-weighted. I was unable to distinguish the inkjet printing from one that is produced by a laserjet printer.

- Software-controlled double-sided printing. A great plus if you hate paper bulk (like I do). Forget about the HP 940+ series capable of double-sided printing with an attachment - paper jams seem to be a very common problem according to many Amazon.com reviewers of these HP models.

- Quiet operation. All that is emitted by the printer is a quiet whrrring noise. Great for those late night printings if you do any.

- Separate color and black ink tanks - saves you money if you just want to do black or grayscale printing because you can just buy the black ink. Some inkjet manufactures have the color and black ink tanks in one unit.

Cons:
- May be a little slow printing photos. (It took about 6 minutes to print my 8" by 10" portrait at the highest quality).

- Borderless printing not supported.

Conclusion:
I strongly recommend this printer as an all-purpose printer for the home user. It functions as both a document and photo quality printer that delivers top quality and reasonable speed.

The only thing that kept me from rating it 5 stars is the fact that the initial setup didn't go as smoothly as it should have.
It is so quiet that you very literally have to stand next to it to tell if it's printing. The print speed is fast enough; it's not extremely slow. This is not the model to get, however, if you're looking for lightning speed. I use a parallel port connection, so that is probably why there's a slight delay in getting the print information to the printer.
The print quality is OUTSTANDING! I only print photographs once-in-a-while, so I didn't buy the machine for that, but you can! Even on regular paper, the printed photographs don't even look computer generated.
After set-up, I'd give this printer a 5 star rating. It's a definate value for the money. I doubt the more expensive models would do much better.

We've had it for almost a week. It installed perfectly the first time on Win XP. The images are sharp and the detail is perfect. The first times, it printed a little dark, but you can adjust all that in the software. Its simple, no "bells and whistles" to break down or mess up, and so far has printed on everything we have put in it. Oh..its a little slow, but this is a home, not a business..and no one has yet fallen asleep waiting for anything to print...its fast enough for us. My only concern is the 3-month warranty, indicating that HP doesn't have alot of faith in its longevity. But then again, an extended warranty can be cheaply purchased from wherever you buy it.

We tested all the printers in the store that we could, and this one really put out the best for the money! We recommend it to anyone who wants a good printer for a very reasonable price.

I was looking for an inexpensive printer for my 19 year old to take to college for printing term papers, etc. Having just begun to use a digital camera the HP 920c caught my eye because of its ability to print photo quality images. The price was also right. I decided to try it out and I am really impressed with the results. It was easy to install (with my son's assistance, of course,) and my photos were as good as the ones I paid for. I have decided to keep this printer at home and send our old Deskjet 682c to school with my son. Now we're both happy.

My only caveat is that with the cost of paper and ink cartridges and my time (this printer is not ultra fast) its still cheaper to send out for my digital prints, but there's more immediate gratification and more fun if I do it myself.

A week ago after buying a 4.1MP digital camera, I soon found out I needed to buy a higher resolution printer. I saw the 920c on the shelf, just in that day, touting 2400x1200 dpi! Ran home to check on that stats of it and saw it also had PhotoRet III! So, I bought it and haven't regretted it. Prints beautiful pics and handles documents fast (Picture printing is slow, but who cares for this price). A great printer for the money. I'll only buy HP!

I evaluated a lot of printers on the market since I was looking to print photos from my digital camera. I also wanted that the printer be able to handle text too because when all is said and done, you might need the printer for printing simple text too.

At the end of my evaluation, I found that Epson was extremely good for printing photos only while the HP was very close to the Epson in terms of graphics, but was way ahead in terms of text printouts. Also HP has a reputation. So HP it was; And till today, I have no regrets.

Its ultra quiet & pretty fast (Not earth shattering, but then we are talking of a few minutes here and there, not a big deal). Not one photo has come out to be smudgy or bad. Every print is crisp even on normal paper and when printed on HP photo paper, the quality is just awesome.

And yes, everything has a bad side to it and the 920c is no exception. There is hardly any usefull printing software bundled with it. You need to shell out more bucks for a decent software to manipulate images and print them.

So if you are on the lookout for a great printer at a good price (Not exactly a bargain), then go for the 920c.

I purchased this to upgrade from my Lexmark 1100 printer[a dinosaur compared to the HP 920].
Set-up was quick and easy. Instructions appear right on your monitor screen so you can actually see what goes where.
And my old Lexmark printer cable fit so I didn't have to purchase a new one.
I was ready to print within 10 minutes.
The HP 920c prints clear and quickly. It is also a very quiet machine.
I am very happy with it!

If your one of those people still struggling with a 5 year old printer, you'd be CRAZY not to pick this one up. It's a GREAT printer at a GREAT price. I couldn't be more pleased with it. I initially bought it to print out papers for college, but ended up using it almost every day. The speed is what makes it so useful. It's no longer a pain to print a screen from a website, or an receipt from an online order. This thing is QUICK. It's also Hewlett Packard, so your getting a brand name printer at a generic price.
Highly Recommended.
Good luck and take care.

This HP is the best value in printers. I shopped, & shopped again. What I discovered is this -- there is no better buy out there!

There are other good printers -- make by the folks at Epson. These generally:
1) Cost More: To Gain The Same Features.
2) Have Inferior "Build Quality."
3) Are Earsplitting: In Comparision.
4) Have Much More Expensive Ink Cartridges.

*** No such complaints with my HP ***

Seting this HP up was a snap -- even for me?!
Lastly, Just purchas this HP & SAVE SOME MONEY. :-)