Customer Reviews

HP 3420 Deskjet Printer

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(15)

 

 

When my wife needed to take her printer (an Epson Stylus) back, I needed another printer. Because I print letters and envelopes mostly, I just wanted a no-nonsense inkjet that I could use to print out reports, articles and so forth as well.

After looking around, I settled on the 3420. I didn't expect much from the printer, considering the price. However, it has consistently exceeded my expectations; inkjet printer technology has come a long way in the two years since we bought our last printer!

This printer is very fast; text documents come flying out. This is good, considering speed was a big concern for me. The print quality is also excellent; photos look better than they do from our Stylus 500. The setup is very easy and the print driver is a breeze to use from both Windows XP and MacOS X. The other big selling point of this printer is the form factor; it's very small, and because the paper tray and output are both on the front, it doesn't take a lot of desk space. It looks good as well.

The only minor problems I've had have been with ink smudging; the ink needs to dry a little bit before you can touch it, but once you know that, it's fine. Envelopes also tend to smudge a bit in the corner, but then I realised that loading about five envelopes in the paper tray fixes this problem.

Unless you need specific features from a higher-end inkjet (e.g., larger paper sides, a duplexer, full-bleed printing, etc.) I'd recommend this; save yourself some money for ink cartridges!

The 3420 is a quality little machine. Unfortunately, the low cost only comes with the purchase of the printer. The #27 and #28 cartridges are inexcusably small. What we have here is classic HP, the lower the price of the printer, the higher the price of the print. The #27 tank is only 10 ml of ink, for 2/3 the cost of the 21 ml #15 black tank used in the 3820. The #28 color tank is only 8 ml, again 2/3 the price of the #78 19 ml used in the 3820. 2/3 the cost, half the ink. . . again, the less the printer costs, the more the ink is. If you do not print much, this is a good unit. It is good for a college student who is using it for papers. It does have decent resolution, but photos are not really an option.

If you want lower print cost, spend some more initially.

epc

...I saw the new HP 3420 and decided to try it - I was amazed at how good this printer is even though it's so [inexpensive]. It was easy to install, and worked the first time. I've printed many web pages, and the colors are remarkably bright, and the text is dead sharp. The design is very smart too, because the paper tray folds up neatly and tucks away under the lid. The ink seems to last forever, which has been the biggest suprise. I've printed well over 100 pages and the ink display show that I have used less than 1/2 of the color ink. I've even printed several full-page photos using the HP photo paper. The photo output is stunning...I'm very glad I decided to give HP a try ... HP has a winning printer here, ...nothing else can compare. Good work HP!

I purchased the 3420 originally in March 2003. It broke in June 2003 - luckily within the 90 day warranty. HP Shipped my a refurbished 3420 and that just November 17th - outside of the 90 day warranty for the refurbished printer. There is a plastic piece that connects the printer cartridge to the belt - this is what broke in both printers. I received no compensation for the 2nd printer breaking down, and HP really had nothing to say. I do not recommend you purchasing this printer. Spend a little more money and purchase anything other than an HP!

I am a college student and recently was looking for a printer for my dorm room. I didn't have much to spend, and not much space to spare. I ran across this printer and decided to buy it because of its cheap price and compact size. I set it up and everything works great. It's fast, not really quiet, but not loud at all. I recommend this printer to anyone who is looking to do some casual printing. I print school assignments, essays and such. That is all I need. I don't print much, but when I need to I know this printer can handle it.

I bought this printer in August '03 and used it occasionally; however, by November '03 it was broken. A small black plastic part jumped out of the printer, exactly as other reviewers of this product had encountered with their own printer.

Purchased an HP 3420 at Circuit City 2/16/03. It was manufactured on 11/30/02. On 4/16/03, the plastic gear which is attached to the bottom of the ink cartridge carriage assembly broke; a the part of the plastic piece with the plastic groved gear broke off. The black plastic belt with gear grooves on it would not move without engaging with this plastic gear on the bottom of the ink cartridge carriage assembly.

I called HP. It was still under the 90 day warranty. Other HP printers have a one year warranty, if that tells you something. I sent the busted printer to them and they sent me another refurbished 3420 which was manufactured 9/20/02. On 8/8/03, the EXACT same thing happened to this refurbished printer.

Since it was out of warranty, HP refused to deal with the problem even though it is extremely obvious that they have a design flaw. This plastic gear should be made of cast aluminum or some other metal which will shed heat and not break or wear.

I told them they just lost a long time customer who has two other HP products....one very large ink jet scanner, printer, copying machine and an HP 920.

I would rate this 3420 only a half a star. If you buy it, you must get the 3 year HP warranty when you buy it to protect you for the first three years and 3 months you have it. The three year warranty starts after the 90 day original warranty expires.

The printer works perfect, prints exceptionally well for the price and has a wonderful light weight feel to it, BUT there is a strong chance it won't last you 6 months even with minimal usage. Please read the warnings of the other reviews that said it broke on them too. It seems a little piece inside of the printer wears and breaks off in no time. These printers are said to have a "light weight technology", but more like cheap plastic technology to me. I went through 2 of these printers and similar in one year, first the 3420 and then the 3320 which did the same thing in less than 6 months. I don't do much printing and reading these reviews I realized it's not the user's fault. HP is a great brand when it comes to printers. However, I suggest you go with a much higher up printer that will give you your monies worth.

worked fine for a while, the usual paper jam every once in a while, but other that that it was pretty good... then all of a sudden, something inside broke, out of the 90-day warranty of course, and this thing is unusable. not recommended.

I bought this printer almost a year ago and it still works great. It is very easy to install. It is lightweight and prints at a considerable speed (in type). A bad thing about it though is, it might be just me, but the paper gets jammed about every 3 pages which really irritates me. I'm not using special paper, just the standard HP 92 paper. I recommend it to anyone who moves their computer around a lot. It is so easy to fold up and move. I guess I could sacrifice a few paper jams and noisyness for its convenience