Customer Reviews

HP PhotoSmart 100 Portable Inkjet Printer

5 star:		(42)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This a great little printer if you are looking for something with limited usage (it accepts 4x6 paper only). I purchased it to compliment my desk printer. I was looking for a printer I can take with me on vacation, to weddings, family gatherings, business events, etc., and this little machine fits the bill to a "T". You just take the memory card from your digital camera, (it accepts SmartMedia, CompactFlash Type I and II, and Memory Stick cards), and plug it into the printer, and away you go. When you plug in your memory card the display panel on top of the printer indicates how many photos are on the card. You can print an index page of thumbnail size proofs of all the pictures on your memory card, then selectively print just the photos you want. Optional print sizes are 4x6, Wallet (2.5x3.25), or Thumbnail (0.7x0.9). You can choose to print a single, or multiples of the same photo. You can also choose to print a range of photos (e.g. print single or multiples of index numbers 21 through 25). What a boon for taking with you on vacation! If you fill your memory card, you can make a print of each photo when you get back to the hotel, erase the card and start over taking new pictures. When you get home you can scan the prints into your computer, with the option of making enlargements. At special events, guests can go home with a souvenir print of the event. I am very pleased with the quality of the prints and the convenience and ease of use of the printer. You will only get borderless prints if you use the HP 4x6 Premium Photo paper with the tear off tab. Other brand 4x6 papers will print with a narrow border. The printer's compact size and weight (just under 3lbs) make it extremely portable, and I like the instant gratification of a print without having to take the time to store them in the computer first, (also a great point for those who are thinking of a digital camera, but don't have a computer). The only thing I would have liked is a double power source (i.e. rechargeable battery as well as AC), but that, of course, would increase the price. There is a padded carrying case made specifically to fit this printer. It has a front zippered pocket to hold the AC adapter, a spare ink cartridge, a box of printing paper, and a pocket to store prints and/or user's manual. Overall, I am delighted with the HP100, and plan to purchase two more to give as Christmas gifts.

I had always wanted to get into digital photography; but my PC was old, and I didn't want to buy a new one! So when HP introduced their new PS 100 printer, which prints directly from a camera's memory card -- no PC required -- I dove in with both feet first!

I purchased this HP PS 100 printer -- along with an Olympus C-700 digital camera -- and I've been very happy. The PS 100 makes bold and beautiful 4" x 6" prints that are every bit as sharp as those from a full-size printer.

As an additional convenience, both my camera and printer use DPOF (digital print order format) which allows for one-button printing. I can crop (and select) the photos I want to print on the camera's rear LCD screen -- pop the camera's Smart Media card into the printer -- and then output borderless 4" x 6" photos just by hitting "print" (with no scrolling necessary to find the right shot, since the PS 100 always calls up the DPOF pictures first). What could be easier?

With the PS 100, printing photos is so simple -- I now find myself giving away pictures (as gifts) to friends and family (something I had done only on rare occasion before). I've even taken the PS 100 to family gatherings -- where I've handed out photos on the spot (which everyone thought was cool!).

The PS 100 uses familiar ink jet cartridges, and is much less expensive to purchase than competing photo printers from Canon, Olympus, and Sony (all of which use a much more expensive dye sublimation technology). The PS also prints a full-size 4" x 6" snapshot, (whereas the others, such as the Canon and the Olympus, make only prints that are quite a bit smaller). The PS 100 is also the only printer in the bunch to accommodate all of the major memory formats (Compact Flash, Smart Media and Memory Stick); something the other printers will do only with an additional PC card adapter.

(For those of you more advanced, printing from your PC is an available option with the printer's built in USB connection and supplied software on disc. The 4" x 6" paper size template also transfers over to other applications, like MS Word, enabling one to print documents from the PS 100 on to 4" x 6" note cards; which, for example, I've used to prepare notes for speeches.)

The HP PS 100 is the absolute easiest way to get into digital photo printing. And when the next family gathering rolls around -- you won't want to leave home without it!

Having just recently purchased this printer, I'm extremely surprised at how happy I am. I have messed around with a lot of Inkjet printers for the purpose of making 4x6 photos. However I was always disappointed with the difficulty of just getting the picture output on the paper correctly. Also, larger format photo printers typically cost more and require special 6 color ink. Seeing that I usually print B/W 90% of the time, it's a waste of money.

This is where the Photosmart 100 solves the problem. First of all it's a quality printer. It comes with a small world wide power supply that allows you to go anywhere in the world and make pictures from your Digital Camera. It's compact, and fast enough to make printing pictures a breeze. If your camera supports DPOF (a standard for imprinting print info on the digital media) all you have to do is select the photos you want printed on your camera, number of copies each and you are done. Load paper into the printer, insert the media, and press print. All your photos print w/o any more work on your part.

This is my first HP printer and I'm impressed with their packaging and software. The printer comes with a CD that includes all the necessary drivers and software for all HP printers and for most operating systems. Unfortunately this printer doesn't support Mac OS, but it does support Windows XP. This printer also doubles as a media reader allowing you to load photos from the media onto the PC.

I'm still uncertain as to what the cost per page is. I have a feeling that it will end up being about the same as using online photo services such as Ofoto or Shutterfly. A replacement Ink Cartridge costs around (current price), and HP paper is about (current price) for 20 sheets. I'm guessing that the ink cartridge lasts for about 100 photos which brings the cost per page to about .65 cents a page. That's a bit more than online which is around .50 cents a page (excluding shipping). I find that the quality is about the same, so for a few extra cents a page you get a photo in a matter of minutes rather than days. However, for large print jobs I'd still recommend the online photo shops.

Anyway, it's a great value for the money and it will sure to be an excellent traveling companion for vacations.

I have been looking for a photo printer since I got my digital camera, and I finally settled on the HP100. I have to say that I have found nothing but pleasant surprises since the day I took it out of the box. The 2400x1200 dpi resolution creates wonderful richly colored prints, and does so while being surprisingly affordable. The wide array of input options really proves that some engineer was paying attention to the consumers needs when they put this little gadget together. With slots for Compact Flash, SamrtMedia, and Memory Stick combined with the USB connection to your PC there is nothing to keep you from using this printer in one way or another. All you have to do is take you memory card out of the camera, slap it into the corresponding port, and you are ready to print. Of course, no product is without flaws, but here is the rundown as I see it:

Pros:
Compact Size
Versatile input options
2400x1200 dpi
Prints 4x6 (borderless), wallet size, and thumbnail prints
Great color depth
Easily navigated menus
Doesn't require a PC connection
Affordable

Cons:
High quality printing is a little slow
Only prints on 4x6 paper
Ink cartridge could last a little longer

Overall, this is a great little printer that I would recommend to anyone. If you are looking for a printer that will let you print many different size prints, then you should look elsewhere. But if you only want to make 4x6 inch prints, without spending a ton of money, then this is a perfect companion to any digital camera.

I purchased a digital camera last year because my children are very young and my wife insisted. Yet, we still take most of our pictures from film because our regular color printer only takes "so-so" photos and it takes too long to print 4x6 pictures (assuming you figure out the software). Accordingly, our digital camera is often left at home. I wanted to change this by purchasing a better photo printer. I was looking at the HP 1315, but was waiting for the price to come down from $400. The other day, however, I saw the HP 100 on display at COMP USA (price--$180)and fell in love with it for nothing more that it's small size and dedicated use for printing 4x6 pictures. This is one of the few computer gadgets I have purchased on impulse. Boy, did I luck out. I was printing professional quality photos from my compact flash media card less than five minutes after removing the printer from the box. My inlaws were impressed with the photo quality and soon began making orders for my digital photos. My digital camera has now moved up to be the number 1 camera. When photo paper and print cartridges go down, we will probably abandon all of our film cameras. Finally, the HP photo printing software is superior to many similar software program in terms of ease of use, including Adobe PhotoDeluxe Home Edition.

The new product development team at HP really did a good job on this one! VERY nice pictures....as good as any other photoprinter that I have seen. VERY easy to use either with the computer or as a standalone and printing off your memory card.
Great software package that you'll actually use !

I have a number of photo quality printers and I find myself printing 4x6 prints 99% of the time and this printer really is easy to use... no fusing with paper size, print size etc.

Pros:
+Easy to use
+Great picture quality
+Can be used with or without a computer (a feature I am using a lot more than I thought I would !)
+Uses only 1 printer cartridge and 1 size paper (4x6)...keeps things simple !

Negatives:
- HP print longevity (lightfastness). You will need to send your prints out to a commercial service like Ofoto if you want to put them in a long term album. Prints will fade in a few years...fine if your just showing them around the office and rotating them through your frames etc. This is a problem with ALL inkjet printers, not just HP. Some claim longer "lightfastness" (like Epson) but only time will tell ! Note: I have some HP prints on my office wall that are almost 5 years old with no fading...so ????

Bottom Line:GET IT ! If you want a quick way to print 4x6 prints from your digital camera to show your friends around the office and send to relatives (who really don't keep those pics of your kids that long anyway !) the P100 is the ticket. You'll find yourself printing off your data card (vs. the computer) a lot more than you think you will ! Excellent quality prints that beat the 1 hour print.

I've had this printer for four days and am now prepared to come to some conclusions: This is an extremely well-made product and appears to be far better made than the other PhotoSmart printers, namely the 1000,1115,1215 & 1315. The output is nothing less than stellar given that it only produces 4x6 prints. It is obviously made for a very specific purpose which includes taking it with you when you travel. (HP offers a travel case on its website.)

The print mechanism of the PS 1000, 1215 etc. seems to be very poorly made with lots of plastic parts which ultimately will result in a premature death of some type. It doesn't surprise me that their have been numerous reports of paper jams in the reivews of the other PhotoSmart printers. I've considered owning one of the other printers but this latent flaw prohibits me from buying any other printer. The HP 100 has a very solid feel and efficiently takes the paper in and processes it. It appears that a paper jam is highly unlikely with this product.

The only reason I don't give this a five star review is because of the need for a smaller ink cartridge, having less than half the ink of the #78, yet costing the same. The convience of this printer doesn't come without this added cost. To my knowledge there isn't a larger, more economical cartridge or a two pack offering some savings. However, the high quality of the product ultimately prevails in my mind and leaves me with an optimistic, confident feeling that I have a very good product and that it will remain so for some time to come.

I purchased this printer because I own two digital cameras and no computer to down load the pictures. After reading a mazagine I came across the ad for the Hp 100 but I was skeptical on purchasing it until I got some more info or reviews on the product. After researching Amazon.com and Cnet I decided to take a chance and purchase one. It took about five minutes to set it up. I printed a test page on the plain card included and then a thumb nail print from one of my compact flash cards and I wasn't Impressed with them. I Closed my eyes and proceeded to print my first picture, once the printer stopped I opened My eyes. I was shocked at the results they were very impressive, I kept looking at the picture trying to find flaws. I then printed a few more. I couldn't put the pictures down, it was like having your very own photo shop. None of my friends could tell that I printed the photos from a printer until I told them, it was that good! I highly recommend this printer for anyone that has a digital camera. It's light an compact excepts three different types of cards with multi voltage so you can take it anywhere and it also connects to your computer. I'm glad I did my home work and took that chance on purchasing this superb little printer.

The title says it all. The pictures from this printer come out pretty quickly and are absolutely GORGEOUS! I love not having to trim the photos, since it does only hold 4 x 6 paper. I'm certain more companies will soon copy HP's perfect companion to digital photography. It's genious!

These pictures are BETTER than lab prints for me. My pale, blond haired daughter always looked like she had black eyes from the dark circles under her eyes in lab prints. The HP 100 improved that tremendously. Also, my lab prints were always dark in the background of the subject. Again, this is no longer a problem. My pictures are now bright and beautiful! I'm not sure if that's from the camera itself (Kodak 3600) or the printer, since I got them within one week of each other.

This printer is small enough that it fits inside my tower cabinet. It doesn't clutter up the workspace. I was deceived by thinking by USB camera cord would work on this USB printer. It didn't, and I had to buy the...USB cord anyway. But I am not complaining!

I took my memory card right to the store and asked to sample the quality of prints. It was no problem for the salesperson, and guess what? They had a sale made within 5 minutes of my coming through the front doors.

I overheard my usually un-impressable husband talking about this printer to someone on the phone. That means something.

HP should refund my money, as I've told everyone I know how much I love this printer. I'm sure other photo printers are excellent too, but the benefit of NO TRIMMING makes this one stand apart. I read Amazon reviews all the time, especially on video games, but I have never loved a product so much that I wanted to post a review.

You really need to SEE to BELIEVE these excellent pictures!

I had been struggling with my computer to print out pictures for several months when I found an ad for this little printer. I had no idea that there was anything like it out there! I wanted something that would be fast and easy and could just print out a set of pictures without having to go through a photo program. This printer has made printing SOOOO easy for me! The quality is terrific and I absolutely love it! The fact that I don't have to hook it up to my computer at all is a huge bonus. I just plug it in when I want to print something out and I get an instant photo. This comes in real handy when you are traveling or want to just print out one picture real quick without going through the computer hassles. Of course, if I have a picture that I really like and want to enlarge or crop, I can still work with it on the computer to get just the shot I want. I don't want to do that for every single picture though. This great little printer has changed the way I feel about my digital camera. It has made it so much fun and not a chore. I highly recommend it for anyone who wants fast, easy, quality photos.