Customer Reviews

HP PhotoSmart 1215 Inkjet Printer

5 star:		(18)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(9)

 

 

The HP Photosmart 1215 is a terrific new printer with HP's best photo quality color layering technology. It is a breeze to install - I had mine literally out of the box and printing in 10 minutes without one glitch! I used a standard 2-way parallel cable, but its also works with USB (in either case, you'll need to buy a cable since the printer does not ship with one). This printer has so may great features: if you have a digital camera with either a Smart Media card or a Compact Flash/IBM Microdrive card, you can print directly from the card without using your computer. Or, if you'd rather, you can download to your computer from the card (so you don't even have to attach your camera to your computer!). It comes with terrific printer properties, so if you want to print a photo at the very best level, you can set it at 2400 dpi. And these photos on HP Premium Plus Glossy Photo Paper really are astounding. To my eyes they look every bit as good as a 35 mm camera! It's also fast. The only slight annoyance is that its hard to learn how to load the 4x6 photo paper in the photo try - you'll want an extra box of this paper until you learn how to place it exactly. HP should do something about this - but, to me, it is not enough of a hassle to mar the 5 star rating of this wonderful printer. Its really great!!

If you are looking for a printer that will give you photo quality printing, this is the one. I purchased this machine a few weeks ago and I was able to print photo quality pictures. It is easy to set up, and color quality is excellent.

Some friends even suggested that they are better than film pictures. I showed some printed photos to at least 10 people and they are all impressed.

In my opinion, they are not better than film pictures, but very close. Close enough not to bother with sending to a lab. And that is the key, you take the pictures and the printed photo is ready in a nice, glossy paper in less than minutes.

I did not have a chance to compare with other machines from Epson and Canon, but very likely you won't regret buying this machine, if you think that the picture quality is the most important think for you.

One potential problem is that the printer is slow when printing on photo paper, but consider, you will get your quality-photo in one or two minutes at home.

extremely easy to install with windows 98. Took me all of 5 minutes to be up and printing. The only tiny problem I found was that it would loose communication with the computer ONLY WHEN I HAD IT CONNCECTED TO A 4 PORT USB extension "HUB" ( too many toys, not enough usb ports). I unconnected it from the hub and used the USB port on the back of my tower...since then, NO PROBLEM WHAT SO EVER. NO PAPER JAMS, PRINTS BEAUTIFUL, BEAUTIFUL COLOR PHOTO, AND FAST TOO. It says it prints 17 pages per minute, but it printed out 22 pages in under 60 seconds for me, and the text was sharp,crisp anc clear, as were the color photos I made to send in christmas cards. I love the feature of selecting how many photos on one photo sheet I want to print without having to use someone elses photo software. I suggest that to save photo paper.....you print out the "index" on plain paper.
For those who use alot of color cartridges, may I suggest the
one that holds 38ml of ink. Even though the package says large, look at the item number and ml/oz. The 6578D holds 19ml while the 6578A holds 38ml ( 1.28oz)......twice as much!!!!
Anyway, It is quiet, fast, and gives me excellent results. If you want to spend $100.00 more, check out the HP 1315.....it previews your photos right on a small screen right on the printer itself. No need to print out an index to see the photos and waste ink.... That would be great for people who didnt want to connect it to a computer, but wanted to print out photos.......
Anyway, I am a happy camper with this unit.

I have to be honest with you. After using my Epson 700 Photo printer for about 1 year for printing photos I had high expectations of any printer costing more. This printer was easy to install, had 3 CD's for every desktop. It's very quiet. I almost can't hear it print and it's fast as long as you don't print photo's, using 2400 by 1200 dots per inch. Then it's slow but it's still faster than my Epson. However the print quality is not much better and in fact I can't even tell the difference which printer the photo came from. So when you make decision about buying, keep that in mind, and if the speed is of essence you won't see it. I bought it specifically for speed. So here is the reason for 3 stars. This is a good printer, not a great one for the money I paid I expected a great printer.

The HP Photosmart 1215 is the best printer on the market. Outstanding photo quality printing. Easy set up. Fast and quiet printing. It has every option and feature you will need. The best feature on this printer is that it has memory card slots so you can directly insert a memory card in the printer. This printer is worth buying. Another fine HP product.

This is a great printer. I had trouble at first with the 4 x 6 photo tray - all the photos were jamming so I called HP customer care and was instantly able to talk to very nice person who gave me instructions to load the tray properly (the little oval slider should be even with the little line farthest away from the printer when using HP paper with the tear off tab) - NO MORE JAMS!! Cannot believe the quality of the photo printing - combined with my Canon Powershot G1 this amateur looks like she knows what she is doing.

If your PC is only loading drivers for the printer, and not other things (AOL IM, Iomega Zip, etc.) it works great. However, it does overwrite other drivers and programs, forcing itself to be not only the printer driver, but also the monitor and Acrobat Reader. After a week (and weak) of (lack of) tech support, I returned it. Shame, it would have done all the things I wanted it to do. But bad tech support (I am pretty savvy in computer terms) and the large amount of programs loading into memory to make this thing run was too much for me.

I am a freelance photographer who has jumped into the digital photography world and was looking for the best photo printer I could find that could put out quality 4X6, 5X7, & 8X10 photos. I needed a vehicle that could take me from my Canon PowerShot 90 via an IBM 340MB Microdrive into a photo printer and wha la, give me great results. The HP Photosmart 1218, delivered great photos, proofing index photos, ink dried fast, and it worked like a mean lean machine, this machine was just what the photo doctor ordered.

I had problems at first with the 4x6 tray for the first few pics like most it seems. Havent had anymore since then, I think that it just be a new printer alignment or something that the printer needs to do a few times to work the problem out. Fast printing, incredible pictures, easy to use, and very reliable. Great for photos and the everyday things.

I LOVE this printer. It is exceptionally easy to use, super fast, quiet and most importantly - the print quality is fantastic! You can print directly from your digital camera's smartmedia cards without even using your PC. LOVE IT!