Customer Reviews

HP OfficeJet K80 All-in-One

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

 

 

I've had MFs for a number of years, most recently a Brother MFC7200. That unit offered all the same features as this HP K80, but at twice the price. Despite that, it was only mediocre at performing its tasks, save its poor performance as a scanner. The K80 on the other hand is an excellent printer, fast, clean and quiet. Its fax features are also topnotch, with the 33.6 faxmodem allowing for 3 seconds per page faxing. The scanning clarity and speed is the best of any sheetfed unit I've seen, and copying with and without enlargement is also pretty darned amazing at this price.
However, what really makes the whole pkg so nice is the software that runs quietly in the background and only pops up when needed. When it makes its appearance, it really simplifies whatever task you're working on and obviates the need for any kind of manual.

We've had a K80 for about a year now for a small office. We use it to print everything from correspondance to brochures. In general its been a great multifunction machine.

Print speed:
Has been excellent with one exception. All the HP printers print vertical lines along a page extremely slowly. We print correspondance with a template containing a vertical line that runs the length of the page. Letters were taking several minutes to print because of it. Graphics speed is generally excellent, much faster than our HP 1215 even though they are rated at the same speed.

Print quality:
Excellent. Photos print beautifully (something we didn't really expect on a multifunction printer) and our brochures print with clear vivid color.

Copying:

Black and white copying is very quick and produces excellent results with text. Results with black and white graphics are not as good, shaded boxes are sometimes grainy or not shaded at all. We did return one machine because color copies all contained a light blue band, the replacement machine has had the same problem. We don't do enough color copies to worry about it.

By the way, the return was handled routinely with no hassles from HP's end.

Scanning:
We were not as disappointed as Amazon's reviewer with the OCR capability. I've scanned and extracted text from a number of magazine articles. Although the OCR is far from perfect, it was adequate to meet our purpose. Photo scanning is easy.

We were disappointed with the late support for the XP operating system and that we had to pay to have new drivers shipped on CD rather than have them downloaded. The HP drivers still don't support all printer functions.

The HP director software worked beautifully under Windows 98.

This particular model is starting one of HP's older ones now and may soon go out of production. The printer has generally served our purposes well. If we had to do it again, we might go for a flatbed model.

I agree with all the positive reviews of this product. The quality of printing, copying and faxing is quite high. Even color copying worked quite well although the colors on the copy were slightly muted compared to the original, but still quite acceptable with decent speed.

I also agree with the Windows 2k user who spent hours trying to get the printer to work with a USB connection. I installed the printer first on my Windows 98 desktop PC. Everything installed easily and the printer worked fine. Then, I connected it to my Windows 2k Professional notebook PC's USB port and it kept crashing with a blue screen error message. It worked fine using the standard parallel port, however. I finally went to the HP support site and found a USB patch. I applied it and then I was able to use the USB port without any problems. Note: if you need to re-install the software driver, make sure you use the included uninstall program, first.

I have another slight quibble. When using the sheet feeder sometimes the copy comes out slightly askew. I think the problem is that there is only one roller in the middle to pull the original into the unit. It would have been better to put a roller on each side to keep the paper aligned properly.

This multifunction machine is a dream. I used to have a scanner, printer and fax machine taking up precious space. These are combined into one, high-quality machine. Setup is very easy and instructions are clear, too.

I've used the K80 with windows 98 for 3 years and have been extremely happy with all features. When I upgraded to XP it was a nightmare. XP along with the HP website turns your printer into a G model and it only prints. Don't try to download the XP drivers from the HP website. Finally I ordered the drivers from the HP website and they sent (the invoice was correct) drivers for a HP C20 camera. Thats when my real problem began, HP has terrible support, I was passed around 12 times in 2 hours, disconnected and just about called a liar when i tried to explain all I wanted was what I ordered (cdrom c6750-10002)and had received a camera driver cd. Some asked me my 'serial number' only to be told that my serial number didn't exist. Each area of support is independant of the other. I somehow ended up speaking with a tech located in Canada and she was the only person that sounded professional, told me my serial number was correct and sent me the correct cd. She was not able to get thru to anyone who could refund my $10 for the incorrect cdrom. I then spent another hour with sales, they have website sales, which is different than support web sales, which has hardware sales and then software sales, and they all have incompetent workers and one supervisor. They have yet to email me or phone to advise me of there decision to refund my purchase, since it would be a 24 hour decision. But my cd arrived, loaded perfectly and the k80 is again printing, scanning, faxing and copying perfectly. I will try never again to purchase a HP product until I can get through to someone in that company to ask them to call support themselves and experience a day on the phone.

Definetly not plug & play. Took nearly six hours, several calls to technical support, three visits to HP site & one (at HP's suggestion) to microsoft. Part of problem is that this product is not necessarily ready for Windows 2K. But HP doesn't tell you this in the installation info. So, its only when you give in to frustration and call HP that they tell you, "oh yeah go to micfor soft and install Service Pack Two" that this becomes clear. (From the desktop, right click "My Computer" and look in "Properties" to see if you have Service Pack One or Two.)

Second problem was in trying to install using USB cable. I was unable to complete this even with HP support--they gave up & said call for a new installation disk. I gave up and used the parallel cable.

The integration between the scanner, printer and fax is fantastic. The printer is quite nice; fast and the colors are sharp. The bundled software assists in small office functions.The one drawback is the amount of memory and resources that the system consumes.

I had installed many printers in the past, and this is the hardest to install. It worked fine for a month after I installed this printer with my new Windows XP computer, then all of a sudden the scanning function stopped working. I couldn't even uninstall the software. After being on the phone, twice, with HP technical support, the problem still wasn't resolved. I highly do not recommend this printer to anyone, even to those who know how to troubleshoot computers or modify Windows registry.

We are a HP printer family and the time had come to replace my spouses' HP 832C. The single function printer was becoming long in the tooth and it was time to retire it to a relative who would make good use of its single mode functionality. The little printer had served my spouse well, but she needed more; i.e. faster color printing, fax sending and receiving, color scanner, and coping capabilities. So the research began in earnest to find her a multifunction printer that met our specifications for under $200.00; enter the Hewlett Packard Officejet K-80.

First Impressions:

I liked the design: small, but functional, attractive, and well built, very similar to the OfficeJet T45 I used. The software was simple to install, as was the printer to the computer via a bi-directional parallel printer connection. Software drivers for Windows 98/Me/Se/2000/XP are included on the enclosed CD.

Like all HP printers the print quality was exceptional, one might say without peer at this price point. The black text was sharp and crisp with no noticeable bleed, and the color ink was rich and vibrant. The included software is a step above that included with the "T" series multifunction; the user interface and functionality are much improved, and the features are easy to use and intuitive.

While in operation the K80 performed its duties quietly and cleanly, and printed with barely a whisper. One feature I appreciated is the backlit display; the display on the T45 in contrast is not backlit and can be extremely hard to read. Another feature we both appreciated was the power-save mode the printer could be set to enter after an hour, since we would want to leave the K80 on to receive faxes.

And now, time for a hiccup!:

For the first few days, the K80 worked like a dream. The printer printed beautifully, the fax faxed flawlessly, the copier copied with speed and precision, and the scanner scanned with clarity.

As I started at the outset, this multifunction was for my spouses' desktop. She was deep into a special genealogy project and needed to print multiple copies of her masterpiece-she had spent a year compiling-in time for Christmas. Her computer ran Windows Me (it has since been upgraded to Windows XP Home) with a 552MB Pentium 4 Celeron processor, and 256MB of Ram.

The printer installed she set about her task, that's when the trouble began. She would try to print 20 copies of a page (she was creating 20 booklets with a mixture of text and graphics), but could only get through five pages before the computer locked up and had to be rebooted. She tried everything it seems; printing pages with just text, closing unneeded programs, etc. nothing worked. And it didn't matter which program she printed from; i.e. Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, or Photo Editor, the result was maddeningly the same: system lockup!

I ensured that the printer port was set to ECP, then EPP, and the ECP/EPP, still no resolution; no more then five pages would print before the computer would lock up. Needless to say, my spouse was highly frustrated, which meant I was highly frustrated! Finally I gave up, I threw up my hands and hollered uncle. The printer went back to whence it came (OfficeMax); and my beloved OfficeJet T45 is now sitting on her desktop and working perfectly!

I never did figure out what the problem was; software, hardware, or a combination of both. Would a new printer cable have resolved the issue, or was Windows Me at fault?

Another problem we experienced centered around the paper tray. I had a devil of a time trying to slide the tray back in after loading it with paper. On one occasion I spent well over five frustrating minutes trying to manipulate the try back into place. Paper can be load by lifting the try cover, but only a few sheets at a time. This problem also contributed to my decision to return the unit.

This is the first negative experience I have had with an HP printer, multifunction or otherwise, and I have owned quite a number of HP printers over the years. I will put my experience with the K80 into the "it had to happen one of these days" category and move on. Its academic anyway since the K80 is being phased out, and the multifunction' are getting harder to find.

Conclusions:

I can not say with certainty that my experience with the OfficeJet K80 would be your experience with the K80. I could have been sold a lemon, or there could have been a glitch in the software that HP needs to address. As I stated at the outset, when the K80 functioned properly, the machine was more then adequate to the task. Would I buy another OfficeJet K80? Probably not. Would I buy another HP? Most certainly and did as a matter of fact; an OfficeJet d135 to replace my T45. When it comes down to it, I trust HP products, always have and with good reason, the companies printers have proven themselves reliable, trustworthy partners, and have earned the loyalty I feel towards them. I got burned with the K80, but the flame was a cold one without lasting effect.

I wanted to get a color inkjet to back up my primary printer, and had an panasonic plain paper fax that worked good, but used those awkward roll ink films.

I got a USB 2.0 (1.1 compatible) cable, and hooked everything up by the book, software first, then printer, then phone, then power, etc... and a nightmare began. First it wouldn't find the printer, and the help files online suggested that a USB 2.0 cable, regardless of compatibility claims, might not work. So I installed a 1.1 cable from my canon scanner, and it found the K80 immediately, but my woes got worse. Printing from IE, for example, would spool, but then lock up. Have to restart to get it clear from the spool. I couldn't access the fax whatsoever. After reinstalling a few times from the CD, I went to HP's site, downloaded the latest release of "Director" (HP's all in one management solution), and installed it. One reboot later, everything worked perfectly. I should note that the USB 2.0 cable hooked up to my canon scanner and works perfectly with it... so be wary. I couldn't find a USB 1.1 cable anywhere (they were all 2.0, with 1.1 compatibility, but not in the case of the K80 as it turned out. The one I used was a Belkin, and I'm pretty sure it's an HP thing, rather than a Belkin thing).

Faxing is awesome, both in send and receive, now that it works. It is lightning fast, and reception of faxes far better than the panasonic. I also like that it works as a "print to fax" device within windows, without having to resort to the faxmodem. As I use a flatbed scanner, I haven't tried that feature, but the test fax I sent was much clearer than the one from my panasonic... so this is an improvement.

Overall, I find it on par or better in print quality with my HP 895cxi in best mode, but in normal mode it's a bit muddy looking, although adequate for most stuff I print, mainly web pages and powerpoint drafts. It does text faster, but with large graphics mixed in it slows to around 2 pages per minute in normal quality mode...

Overall a good deal, if you have the patience to troubleshoot a bit... This is my second AIO machine from HP, the first one had trouble after a couple of years, when the feed rollers started drying out... we'll see how this one holds up.