Customer Reviews

HP PSC 2210 Multifunction

5 star:		(29)
4 star:		(13)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(23)

 

 

I bought this PSC 2210 all-in-one as an upgrade to my trusty HP 950 in order to get HP's new six-color, borderless printing. The six-color printing (accomplished by trading out the black cartridge for another three-color unit) is great. It's every bit as good as what I get from my HP 7550 Photosmart printer - for both text and color photos. Unfortunately, borderless printing can only be performed when photos are sent from a PC -- and not when printing directly from a memory card. If I had known this before hand, I probably would've purchased the less [spendy] PSC 2110 instead -- and gone without the extra cost of the PSC 2210's memory card reading feature.

As background, the PSC 2210 and 2110 are identical units except for the built-in card reader which allows the PSC 2210 to print directly from a memory card -- either by selecting the photo's number in the LCD menu, or by "bubbling in" a proof sheet and scanning it, after which the PSC 2210 will output all of the selected photos automatically. Unfortunately, since neither method will print without borders, I've found myself by-passing the card reader entirely - and outputting my photos almost exclusively from my PC!

As a positive, PC World magazine (in their November, 2002 issue) has verified HP's claim of a 73 year photo life when using HP's Premium Plus photo paper. Since archiving my photos is an important issue to me, I found this news to be very reassuring.

In terms of general capabilities, the PSC 2210 is also an excellent color and black & white copier. The scanner's resolution is good enough to make e-mail quality images, but inadequate for producing higher definition photo enlargements. (I don't use the fax machine so I won't comment here.) One of the most outstanding improvements of the PSC 2210, though, is its much lower profile, which gives the unit a sleeker and more stylish appearance on my desk. This was made possible by the six-color system's shorter ink tanks, and by eliminating the dedicated 4" x 6" paper tray found on the HP 950. Snapshot paper is now fed through the regular paper tray -- by adjusting the width of the paper guide accordingly.

If you're in the market for a new all-in-one, HP's new six-color printing system is fantastic! But for borderless prints -- save the hundred bucks - and get the PSC 2110 instead!

It all started out when I wanted a nice flatbed scanner that would work with my GNU/Linux desktop computer. I quickly found that a decent scanner was going to cost me. It was at this point that I realized that since my printer had been on the fritz, I might as well get a MFD so that I would have two devices in less space.

The PSC 2210 is everything I wanted and more. It works nicely as a copier, and the scanner seems to be really top notch. Likewise the printer produces sharp, crisp text and life-like photos very quickly using the drivers HP developed for Linux. The built in photo card reader with index prints and easy print selection make this device even better. Oh, and as an added bonus, you can mount the memory sticks or other photo cards through the PSC 2210 under Linux for convenient access!

If you are looking for a high quality printer and/or scanner, I highly recommend this unit. HP officially supports it under GNU/Linux, which is a big plus for those of us who prefer something other than Windows. So what are you waiting for? Click that order button...

After much searching for an officejet to replace my old HPk45, I decided on the 2210. It was the right size, had the right features and the right price. However, after setting it up, I found that it would not scan when attached to my new Dell Dimension 4550 running XP. My first call to HP resulted in this advice: Dell has problems with their USB ports, and, get a powered USB hub. Dell denied a problem. My second call resulted in more honesty. The rep admitted that the printer has problems and that corporate has not addressed them because of their preoccupation with the Compaq merger. Only lately have they taken notice of the complaints. I asked the rep which Officejet he recommended, and he replied unequivocally, the D135. So I returned the 2210 and bought a D135. It cost more, but it has more versatility, is less costly on consumables, and it does scan!!!

I was a little leary in buying a multifunctional machine, but after buying and trying this HP PSC 2210 Multifunction Copier Plus, my fears were relieved. I've tried every function. Even sent a fax using my regular phone line and it worked like a charm. ( I didn't have to send the fax, but I did it just for for giggles.) My photo copies are hanging on the wall in my dining room and relatives are nagging me for blow ups of family photos I've shot and copied with the HP 2210.

So far so good.

Very high quality photo production, copying, faxing, character recognition scanning, printing. Easy set up. Great online support. It even takes the card from my Olympus digital camera, prints a proof sheet that allows the user to indicate which photos should be printed in full size. Even copies the disk contents from the printer to the computer. Very pleased with the purchase.

I have used every function on this machine except the fax in the five days since this machine was delivered. I am very pleased with its performance. The HP 2210 is for low volume or for low speed use. If you need a lot of copies quickly, this is not the machine for you. But for purely personal use, it's great. I'm very glad I bought it. I bought mine from HP directly, btw.

HP PSC2210 is an overall decent machine, which may please an average occasional user. However, its performance falls way short of what HP claims in the manual and on the box. I was frustrated with the scanner performance and dissatisfied with the printer, and ended up returning the product and buying Epson Stylus CX5200, which in my opinion performs much better for less money.

INSTALLATION: I installed the software on Dell Dimension 4500 (P4, WinXP, 2 GHz, 768 MB RAM) without a glitch. The process took a long time - over 5 min, and occasionally nothing would change on the screen for over a minute, although I could hear some hard drive activity going on. On a slower computer, one can easily get a wrong impression that the installation hangs, although it does not. I did not experience any of the installation problems reported on Amazon earlier. The software package is rather extensive, has basic tools for image editing, optical character recognition, and enables one to create video CDs which can be watched on most DVD players.

SCANNER. The scanner works fine if all you need is to scan an image to paste it into Word or post on the web. A 4" by 6" photograph takes 12-14 s to preview, and about 35 s to scan at 600 dpi. This is on par or faster than what you would expect from stand-alone scanners in the same price range. However, if you scan a photograph into Photoshop and look at shadow areas, you will see bluish vertical streaks, which are artifacts of the scanner. Additionally, the scanner tends to emphasize all dust particles and scratches, particularly at 600 dpi or 1200 dpi resolutions. This makes the scanned image looks a lot worse than the original at 600 dpi and horrible at 1200 dpi. 48-bit scanning, although supported, is a total disaster. First, once you turned it on, the preview takes forever - 70 seconds! Secondly, since the bluish streaks in the dark areas are even more visible in 48 bit mode, the scans at 48 bit are as good as useless since you cannot improve the picture in the shadow areas without making the scanner artifacts visible. I have an Epson Perfection 1650 at my office, and could compare the scans obtained from the same photograph with very bright and very dark areas. Sorry, HP, but Epson's scans are incomparably better.

PRINTER: I have not tried photo printing, but tested text printing rather thoroughly. HP should be ashamed of its misleading the customers by claiming that it prints up to 17 ppm in B&W. I guess, HP measured this speed by printing blank pages. I measured printing speed of a double-space formatted black and white text and obtained 5 ppm in "normal mode" and 7.5 ppm in "fast draft". This is only 1.5 times faster than my old slow HP710C. For comparison, Epson Stylus CX5200 which I bought instead of this HP printed 7.5 ppm of the same text in "normal" mode and 12-15 ppm in "draft". Ink cartridges are tiny (17/19 ml) which is about half of the size used in HP 700/800 series printers.

COPIER: Can't complain, works fine, although it can copy only as fast as it can print. Has a number of useful zoom/brightness/quality adjustments, accessible through the small LCD screen and four multifunction buttons.

OTHER GOODIES: It has 4 slots which accomodate any existing type of memory card. Index print can be generated automatically; then you take a pen, check the boxes on the index print which pictures you want, how many copies, and what size, scan the index print again, and the PSC2210 recognizes the marks and does the printing for you. Sounds pretty cool. I have not tried this feature since I prefer to upload my digital images to one of the .com companies which prints them on real photopaper at a lot lower cost than it costs to print them on an inkjet at home.

BOTTOMLINE: Many users will be happy with this machine, if they do not expect a lot and had no chance to compare it with other models. The built-in fax and ability to print pictures directly from memory cards may be appealing to some. However, the quality of scanning and the printing speed were a lot lower than I expected from an HP product in this price range, and falls short of what the competitors offer at the same price.

I purchased three of these over the weekend at different local electronics' superstores here in Austin. Each one had a slightly different paper handling problem and all three of them had the same problem faxing.

First problem:
Let's begin with the faxing problem. When entering a fax number using the printer's keypad it would not accept a "pause" in the sequence of numbers when dialing with a phone card. I called HP support and the said they were aware a few of these printers had this problem but three out of three!

Second problem:
Each printer had different paper handling problems!
With standard letter size paper I would get a "paper to narrow" error message and the message would not clear until I turned off the printer. One printer would intermittently error out with an "empty paper tray" message even with varying amounts of paper in the input tray! Two of the printers would paper jam after printing less than 10 pages. I thought the paper feed problem might be due to my paper so when I returned the printers to the stores where I purchased them they were able to duplicate these same problems.
One of the store technicians said this printer model has a very high return rate

Conclusion:
After wasting hours of my time I finally gave up on this HP printer (and HP in general). I then consulted a consumer magazine for just an inkjet printer and I bought a Canon i550 which is their top rated printer. Tip: When deciding on a printer, to buy, also consider the cost of printing. HP uses small inkjet cartridges The Canon i550 printing cost is nearly half the printing cost of this HP printer. Buy the way, the i550 worked perfectly out of the box, no problems and the Canon printer drivers are more modern than HP's printer drivers! I hope you find this information helpful.

I've owned my HP2210 now for about two weeks and I love it. I've used almost all of the photo print capabilities and find them to be excellent. This is particularly unusual since I am a 35MM photo buff. The quality on the 2210, using the 58 print cartridge and HP photo paper is consistant with my 35MM prints. I've enlarged existing 3.5 X 5 prints to 8 X 10, printed digital shots and printed shots E-mailed to me. They are absolutely beautiful. The install went without a hitch following HP's install poster. I run Win XP and had no problems with the software. The unit does have a large footprint on my desk but with this kind of capability...who cares. The black printing is comparable to other inkjet printers, just fine of home use. The copy capability is very good for our light useage. I've used the scanner and it's output is very good, like other HP top quality scanners. I haven't faxed anything yet. we are not heavy fax users. I wanted the capability just in case. Overall, I see this unit lasting us for years and giving us a home capability comparable to any small office.

I bought the HP 2210xi all in one and it was a nightmare to use. It never installed properly. The software went OK but the hardware never recognized. When I contacted HP support via a non-(800) number, they were unable to assist me after an hour and forty-five minutes. Another friend purchased this same product and had similiar problems but eventually got the printer to work. However, there is a constant warning icon on the taskbar that never goes away and the "safely uninstall hardware" icon is constantly present. Under device manager the "?" icon is present. She, too, uses a Dell 8200 with XP. HP believes there is either a problem with the Dell chipset or the inability of XP to allow their software to write to the registry. I have tried all the patches and updates and re-configured the registry but to no avail. I am quite computer savvy and yet this product's installation (which has a very user friendly and easy to understand setup guide) eludes me. Sounds like a great purchase for the money and decent specs. but not fully compatible with a Dell 8200 running XP Home Edition. The customer support did try their best and apologized but this was a long distance and quite expensive phone call. Just BEWARE before you purchase. If you do a search for this product on Google's newsgroups (which I should have done before my purchase) you will see that many other people had this same problem and never resolved it, either thru contacting Microsoft, HP, Dell or all. I am still looking to purchase an all in one and I am open to any suggestions.