Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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257 of 258 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
In the end, my printer was a dud, June 2, 2009
This is overall a very good printer. I like the built in duplex scanner and printer; it scans 2 sided documents without the need to flip it as well as prints 2 sided. The only drawback is that there is a brief 10 second or so pause after printing one side to allow the ink to dry.
I would give this product a 5 star rating but lowered it by 2 for two reasons.
Reason 1:
I question the quality of this printer. My first one was defective. It had two problems.
First, the key pad would not function properly. It ignored about every other key press and that was when pressing them normally. Pressing the buttons quickly such as to scroll down a menu would result in only a few buttons being recognized if any. Going through the menu with this defect was a chore. I checked the display model at a store which did not have that problem. This defect appeared to affect all the buttons.
Second, the printer registered the ink as installed on December 2008 even though it was installed in May 2009. This did not affect the ink warranty however.
My replacement printer operated normally. The keypad recognized all the buttons. I was able to quickly work my way through the menus. The ink showed it was installed in May 2009. However, the connection piece in the back that connects everything (power cable, phone, Ethernet, USB, etc.) does not appear to be tightly connected to the printer housing (not a big deal).
Reason 2:
In choosing my new printer, I was looking for a low cost printer to do black and white printouts to replace my old HP laser 4si. The replacement black ink cost appears to be much more expensive when compared to the HP Officejet Pro 8500 wireless all in one model. This printer uses the 564XL black ink which is good for only about 800 pages. The 8500 all in one uses the 940XL black ink which is good for about 2200 pages, nearly 3 times more, yet they cost about the same when purchased from Amazon. It would appear the price per page for black ink is more than double the cost of the 8500 model.
The color inks appear to have the same per page cost between this model and the 8500 when purchased through Amazon. The inks for this printer have about 1/2 the page capacity, but are also about 1/2 the price.
While I prefer the 8500 models black ink cost, I decided against that higher end model because of an annoying high pitch noise it emits from where the power cable connects (at least from the one I took home as well as from several store displays).
Good Quality Photos:
The photos look great on HP glossy paper. Looking at them, they would appear to come from a photo lab, there was no graininess. I never believed Ink Jets could print such beautiful images. However, when I printed them through Windows Vista photo gallery, they came out too red. I adjusted the magenta down and increased the cyan and yellow. I still wasn't happy with the results. When I printed them through the HP Digital Imaging Monitor and selected Auto Photo Fix under advanced options, the colors appeared to print correctly under the default settings. So I am guessing in the future, I will need to print all my pictures via the HP Digital Imaging Monitor.
Follow up on 6/17/09 (Revised from 6/7/09 to correct saturation and color tone)
I recommend turning off Auto Photo Fix because it doesn't seem to work correctly on all photos. Instead, I have created a new setting. I use Bright -6, Saturation 0 (neutral), Color Tone -30 (cool), Cyan 12, Magenta -8, Yellow 5, and Black 0. I print on HP photo paper with the automatic settings and run this through the Photosmart software. The default color settings (zero on all) were way off, extremely red and too warm.
The above settings produce amazing lab quality results.
You can move the picture up and down in the HP Photosmart Essential software to crop it as well.
Follow up on 9/2/09
I have had several issues with this printer which I was able to correct:
1) The auto paper feeder would not feed the paper through after a couple of sheets. HP support gave me some documentation how to clean the rollers and that resolved the problem
2) Using Vista 64 bit software, the printer frequently sent my computer a connection error when scanning documents. A July 2009 update on HP's website corrected that problem. It is a firmware update that I highly recommend.
3) The fax would not work with my Comcast ISP phone service. Per HP's website, a solution is to lower the connection speed; I set mine at the lowest, 9600, and the fax now works perfectly using Comcast's ISP service.
I noticed a big difference between this HP printer and my former Epson printers. When my Epson printers thought the ink was empty, that was it, the printers stopped working. This HP printer on the other hand gives frequent notices when it thinks the ink is empty but doesn't shut down the printer. I have gone through all my cartridges at least once, some twice using XL cartridges (I have used the printer a lot), and have ignored the warnings. I wait until I can visually see that the color is gone on my print outs. Replacing the totally empty cartridge with a level one cleaning does the job. The ink indicator is fairly inaccurate from my experience and I can use the cartridges much longer than what the printer thinks I have.
I don't recommend a level two cleaning unless needed as that uses up lots of ink.
I am still very happy with this printer.
Follow up on 10/5/09
I noticed this printer sometimes cuts the bottom line on some of my printouts. After searching the HP forums for awhile, I found a fix. If this also happens to you, go to your control panel, select printer, right click on HP Photosmart C309a series and chose properties, go to tab ports, and uncheck the box that states Enable bidirectional support which is towards the bottom.
Follow up on 10/30/09
I installed Windows 7 on my system initially as an upgrade. The HP Solution Center no longer worked. I also had issues with other software (non HP software), so I did a clean install of Windows 7. The HP website has Windows 7 software for this printer which I have installed and so far appears to work fine. I suggest that if you install Windows 7, you might want to uninstall all the HP software prior to the upgrade and then install the updated Windows 7 HP printer software.
The other thing is that bidirectional support was re-enabled causing some of my print outs to cut-off at the bottom. The printer was not listed in devices and printers. To remove bi-directional support, you can open up Internet Explorer and select print from the menu. Under select printer, highlight HP Photosmart 309a Series and right click it and select properties. Go to the tab ports and uncheck the box that states Enable bidirectional support which is towards the bottom and click OK. The system will save the setting even if re-booted.
Follow up on 11/12/2009
I am not happy. I noticed some discoloration on my table right next to the printer. I lifted the printer and saw a tremendous amount of ink on my table underneath the printer. I have never seen an inkjet do this before. Needless to say, my small table is permanently damaged. I have returned this to the store I bought it at and replaced it with a Canon Pixma MX860. I decided against getting a third HP Photosmart. I haven't read any other complaints with the printer leaking ink so I will leave my rating at 3 stars.
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110 of 110 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
All the features I wanted, April 15, 2009
I bought this last week after taking back two others in one week (HP C4599 and HP6310 because salesmen assured me they had both fax and wi-fi but they didn't.) This Photosmart Premium (C309) has EVERYTHING I wanted: color fax, print, copy, scan, 50 pg document feeder, very easy two-sided printing, built-in wi-fi and bluetooth, reads from Flash drives and memory cards, has LCD screen, and can work independently of the computer.
Hook-up and software loading took me almost an hour but was fairly simple, I did WiFi setup so it isn't physically connected to my computer at all and can be placed elsewhere in my home office. I DID follow another reviewer's advise to custom install and skip the HP updates and shopping junk that use up space and slow you down. Great advice. My added advice: Be sure to uninstall EVERY piece of HP software you previously had on your computer before starting.
OK, so besides the listed features here are my likes and dislikes:
LIKES: appearance very pretty; instructions very intuitive; can separately pre-load photo paper; unexpected neat little add-on features like Quick Forms to print calendar pages, graph paper, even a few games like Sudokus!; can reproduce photos with one button; color resolution is intense; can even print on CD's (if you buy the right ones); prints fast once it gets started. One other very cool feature: it prints straight from my iPhone using free HP iPrint application.
DISLIKES: takes too long getting started after you press "print" and is noisy doing it (though quiet when actually printing); the black on documents is not quite black enough (though I suspect this may save ink and perhaps can be adjusted in settings); photo paper loading didn't work with Kodak paper (but worked fine with HP paper); ink is expensive...I don't yet know how long it'll last.
Overall there are just too many good features to enjoy on this printer that I can't focus on the few flaws. I'm in love.
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65 of 68 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Real *** All-In-One Printer ***, March 22, 2009
I used this printer about a month ago and all works perfect since installation. Dont use the CD that come with the printer is a waste of time, go to HP Web page and Download the Last and Full Version of the Driver for this printer.
The Printer is a true Full featured pack. No other printers have all the toys that this baby have. When you find fax-scan-copy-printer dont have CD/DVD print, when you find scan-copy-cd/dvd-printer dont have a fax, this baby have all Fax, Scan, Copy, Printer, Print CD/DVD, bluetooth, WiFi Conection, Network, Pict Bridge, USB, 64MB ram, 50 Pages Document feeder, 2 Trays (one for normal paper and one for photo), automatic double sided print (Duplex Printing on both sides of paper), 2.5" Screen, 32 ppm average draft and over 12 ppm Laser Quality, 5 Ink cartridges (1 each black, photo black, cyan, magenta, yellow), 2500 pages monthly duty cicle and over 1250 pages photocopy cicle. This Real All-In-One have all the components that you would have in all the other models of the same brand. Is very robust, dont junk paper and you can buy cartidges of high capacity (XL) than reach until 750 pages average.
What other toy we can have in a printer? ... maybe the same but laser?
Is one of the best and more complete printer in the market, I can print from anywhere in my home and virtually over anywhere printable media.
If you want the Full Featured and most complete printer "take this baby" with Blind Eyes. Worth each penny and have all the stuff in a advanced and high level of Quality and velocity.
... Sorry by my Alien English :o)
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