HP PSC 950 Multifunction

by HP

Product Details

Product Manual [4.02mb PDF]

• Item Weight: 19.4 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 10 pounds
• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B00005OA3Z
• Item model number: PSC 950
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (67 customer reviews)
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes
• Date first available at Amazon.com: November 15, 2001

Product Description

Amazon.com Product Description

Why buy multiple office machines when you can have one that does it all? The HP PSC 950 combines the functions of a printer, scanner, copier, and fax machine into a single solidly crafted unit that weighs less than 20 pounds. Plus, it supports your digital camera's CompactFlash, Smart Media and Sony Memory Stick cards, for quick and easy photo printing.

Print speeds are an impressive 12 ppm (10ppm color), while print resolution tops out at 1,200 x 2,400 dpi, resulting in crisp, accurate images. Great for photos as well as office documents, the paper handling options are impressive: a 100-sheet input tray, 50-sheet output tray, and a special tray for professional-quality 4-by-6-inch photo paper.

The copy function lets you reduce or enlarge images anywhere from 25% to 400% of original size, and it makes up to 90 copies at a time. Copy speeds are around 12 cpm (9 cpm color), while a copy resolution of 600 x 1,200 dpi provides accurate images with little to no degradation.

The flatbed fax has a number of useful features including fax forwarding, auto-redial, broadcasting of up to 20 locations, distinctive ring detection, and more. 60 of your most often used numbers can be stored into speed dial memory for quick access, while a transmission memory of up to 55 pages ensures that you won't miss important faxes, even when your paper tray runs out.

The scanner has an optical resolution of 600 x 1,200 dpi (9,600 dpi enhanced) with 36-bit color depth, providing bright, true-to-original reproduction. Installation is easy with a USB port connecting to either Mac or PC systems. The PSC 950 also comes backed with a one-year limited manufacturer's warranty.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

94 of 97 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Easy to use, a productive timesaver and fun!, January 6, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: HP PSC 950 Multifunction (Office Product)

Though I purchased this elsewhere, I wanted to give a big "thumbs up" to Amazon customers considering getting a multifunction printer/copier/scannner/fax machine such as this. The speed and high quality printing, copies and scans have been a real plus. Set-up was a breeze--as a scanner, it is almost effortless with abundant options for modifying scans, etc. What sold me on this was being able to load my SONY handicam's media stick, print out a sheet of thumbnail images, pick which ones I wanted to print, etc. Many photo printing options--for example, one can print out single or multiple images on the same sheet, fitting a variety of combinations (e.g., 2 4x6 plus several wallet, 8x10, 9 wallet, plus custom sizing). If you love to scan photos or take digital ones for custom printing, you will enjoy this. Color and black-and-white copying is photo-quality and best of all, the machine is quiet--great for doing work late at night! Plus, you can use the copy or fax functions without bothering starting up your PC (unlike some scanners with a "copy" function). The only negatives have been 1.) the lack of an included USB cable ( ~ $5-$35, depending on size, where you shop, etc.) and 2.) I'm spending too much time playing with it!

63 of 66 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Impressive technology device..., September 25, 2001

By 

"ivavalle" (Mayaguez, PR USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: HP PSC 950 Multifunction (Office Product)

This excellent product provides a great deal of functionality in a considerably small package. HP might not have the cheapest price in this category, but believe me... I am really impress with the quality, speed, and the overall experience with this product. I am very picky, and wanted the best, dollar for dollar... After comparing the output from other similar products/brands in a local store, there was no doubt for me that this was the one. Forget about dpi, and other technical 'wording'. Output quallity is what really matters, and this one provided the best. I still can't believe the quality of the color copy function, as well as the photo features.

The only thing missing for making this my 'perfect' machine, is a digital answering phone system with caller ID :-). I strongly recommend this product. Every time I compare HP products with others, looking at cost, quality, functionality, and service, I end up with the same answer... Buy HP...

46 of 49 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Nice snapshot printer, not a photo printer, January 22, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: HP PSC 950 Multifunction (Office Product)

The HP PSC950 is a compelling printer that is selling out routinely. There are a few "first-looks" type articles on it, but no serious reviews yet, and no comparisons of its photo printing abilities. After trying out 4 HP PSC950's, I've got a pretty good idea of what I do like, don't like, and would eventually like on this lovely machine. Its Really Cool Feature is a one-stop fotomat-like print-from-card program that allows a user to print snapshot "orders" without the computer even being on. Its Really Big Drawback is a mini-banding problem that just won't quit, combined with a somewhat "grainy" image.

Size: Best I've seen in freeing up desk space. Great form factor with paper in & out at the front. The fact it replaces desk space of a printer, scanner, and copier/fax is killer! General printing: Really good. Runs text & graphics fast & quiet. Few delays. Paper handling is usually good, but not quite as good as I expect from HP.

XP compatibility: Great. Out of box it has a song & dance for most XP drivers, "wait six months," but to just plain print it just plain works. You plug it in and it goes. XP auto-detects it, auto-finds the driver, and auto-installs it. You don't even have to click a "next" box! It's even serialized: when I got an exchange unit, XP recognized the new one was different and auto-installed a different printer for it.<Snapshot printing: Great for contact sheets and snapshots. Ok for shoebox-style photo albums. An excellent match for your average HP camera, or a Sony camcorder's memory-stick stills.

Card-to-photo printing: works well. See Really Cool Feature below. Text-based menu works well but you need to print a contact sheet to know the card reader's shot numbering scheme.

Really Cool Feature: you can print contact sheets, and they come out like 2-shot "order sheets". You fill in the blanks for which shots you want, size,and single-prints or double-prints. Then you scan your order sheet, and it prints the order off the memory card! Cool! Photocopying: Pretty good, but with a banding problem that seems more accentuated than the print-from-card function.
Faxing: So it doesn't have a sheet feeder, big deal.

Consumables: $2-3 per page for ink, plus paper costs, per totally soaked 8x10 sheet. I figure maybe $1 per 4x6 snapshot. If snapshot printing is 1/4 what you buy the PSC950 for, that $100 worth of printer amortizes out pretty fast over all the snaps you will print. And you will print a lot of them. That's the real beauty to the PSC950 as a snapshot printer. This printer makes it easy enough that you really will keep printing snaps routinely.

Really Big Drawback: mini-banding that just won't go away. Out of the box, snaps show 1/2mm bands of color density (light/heavy) in lighter areas. These were hardly noticeable from 2 feet, clearly visible from 1 foot. I worked on the phone with HP, got some helpful advice at a newsgroup, tried from card, scanner, and several programs (XP, Camedia, ThumbsPlus, Photoshop 6). Tried 2 different sets of cartridge/heads. Cleaned contacts/heads. Tried other printers in stores. Exchanged printers at home. All the teaking and tuning resulted in several shots where the mini-banding was almost undetectable to the naked eye.

Really Big Drawback, part 2: grainy image. My best-worked shot (1MB JPG, into Photoshop 6 color-corrected & printed best resolution-matched 20MB PSD) pretty much took care of the banding after several printer tweaks. But the "near-perfect" image in terms of banding still looked grainy. Photo-RET III is still manipulating a 4-color, 5-picoliter, disposable-head system. No print ever looked as good as a good clean shot from the Epson 1200 upon close examination. Good luck in your own printer shopping, I hope this helps!