My old printer, an Epson C42 which came free when I bought my first PC almost 4 yrs ago finally gave up the battle and has gone to that great printer heaven in the sky…ok slight exaggeration I donated it to the computer department of my college, for the students to practice fixing or to use ... Read review
Advantages: Quiet, Good quality prints, Inexpensive cartridges, Disadvantages: None I have found!
...But when I saw the HP Deskjet F380 and the HP PSC 1410 all in one printer/copier and scanner for only £49.99 I was hooked!
I called out to one of the sales assistants only to be asked to hold on and he'd get me another assistant as they had a known shoplifter in the store. The other assistant came over within a minute or two, and asked how he could help, I asked about the 1410 all in one first, to which he replied he had none in stock ... ...at £14.99 and £17.99 respectively. HP recommend you use HP no 21 (black) and HP no 22(colour) with this, and HP no 58 for photo printing (I'm using 21 and 22 and getting good quality photos, I will try 58 next time I need to renew!
I hope this review has been of some use to anyone looking to get a new printer!
My old printer, an Epson C42 which came free when I bought my first PC almost 4 yrs ago finally gave up the battle and has gone to that great printer heaven in the sky…ok slight exaggeration I donated it to the computer department of my college, for the students to practice fixing or to use as spare parts!
So off I went on Saturday afternoon to find a replacement…I knew I wanted something cheap but not a Lexmark as the ink cartridges are extortionate! My choices therefore left me with another Epson model or opting instead for a Hewlett Packard model (HP) before I left home I checked the Argos website and found a few that were within my budget but thought I'd shop around in case there were any better deals.
So off I trotted to my local Curry's store to find a pretty dismal amount of printers on display, with only 3 of those in my price range (I didn't want to spend more than £50) The lady who helped me (some of the printers weren't visibly priced so had to ask for help) told me that they would price match any printer I saw anywhere else. To be honest I didn't see the point of this, better still if they beat the price instead of matching it? Anyway I popped across the street of my local retail park to Comet where there was more printers on display, each with the price clearly stated…I found three printers which were in my price range, an Epson and 2 HP's, Originally my plan was to buy a basic printer capable of coping with light domestic use. But when I saw the HP Deskjet F380 and the HP PSC 1410 all in one printer/copier and scanner for only £49.99 I was hooked!
I called out to one of the sales assistants only to be asked to hold on and he'd get me another assistant as they had a known shoplifter in the store. The other assistant came over within a minute or two, and asked how he could help, I asked about the 1410 all in one first, to which he replied he had none in stock but the F380 was basically the same model, (he didn't say what the difference between them was but they certainly looked the same) I asked a couple of questions about the printer, ie ease of use etc and once satisfied with the promise that it was simple to use and set up I told him I'd take it, only then did he inform me that it also came with one black ink cartridge and one colour included in price! Even better!! He also said there was no USB cable with it but if I already had one then it would fit nicely as it takes a standard USB (my Epson one fits perfectly)
Anyway the box wasn't that heavy, perhaps a little awkward, the nice salesman asked if I would like him to carry it to my car….what a lovely touch….but useless as I have no car and was nipping to Tesco before going home in a taxi…
I got it home and couldn't wait to get it out of it's packaging. Another easy job. I lifted the printer from box and picked up the quickstep guide to starting it up. This is a brilliant addition as it meant I didn't have to trawl through the manual to work anything out.
What's in the box?
You of course get the printer and the packaging, but you also get the quick step guide, the manual and 3 cd roms (one for windows, one for a mac and a copy of the manual on disc.) you also get the power cable and both colour and black cartridges.
Getting Started
WARNING DO NOT CONNECT USB UNTIL PROMPTED! The first thing you have to do is open the paper door and the printer cartridge door, remove the items stored within (cartridges and cable) then close it again, you then connect the cable to your printer and to power source. Then it tells you to load some paper to the feeder tray (every action you do is illustrated to help you know where to put paper, which buttons etc to press) After loading the paper you are told to switch the power on button. After that is done you open the print cartridge door, this will make the cartridge holder to move to the middle enabling you to place the cartridges in easily. There are diagrams on the guide to make sure you insert the cartridges the correct way. A real guide for dummies (perfect for me then) Then you close the door, waiting a couple of minutes whilst the alignment page is automatically printed. After that is done you have to place the alignment page on the scanner bed which is located on the top of the printer. Close the lid and press SCAN. Only after all this you are told to insert the Green Windows CD (if you are using windows) This runs through the installation and you will get a prompt to ask you to connect the USB cable at this stage.
All in all it took about 10mins to get my printer up and running…which for me is excellent! It is very easy to use and I defy anyone not to be able to do it themselves.
PRINTING
I wanted to get started with some printing to see how it worked straightaway, so I went to a word document I had saved for college and clicked on print, initially the machine made a quick noise as the cartridge was obviously moving back to start printing, but then it was very quiet during the actual printing process, I could barely hear it, which was great considering my old printer was a noisy machine. The whole A4 page only took less than 10 seconds to print, and that was black on white writing.
I then put it to the test of printing a photograph of my daughter, this was about half the size of the A4 page and took an amazing 10-15 seconds and the colours were perfect! Almost as good as the original photograph I had printed from. Perhaps If I had used actual glossy photo paper the quality would have been perfect. I tried again, this time with better paper, and the result was fantastic! I would have been hard pushed to get better quality from anywhere else.
I let my children use Paint to "draw" some pictures on PC and then let them print them out and again the quality was superb.
SCANNER
Make sure machine is turned on, Press SCAN button on the top, and a box will appear on screen, asking if it is a document or photo, you can also choose where on your computer you want to send the scanned photo/document to, you can opt to save these settings so that you don't need to be asked every time. I'd rather be asked though in case I want to change anything at any time. At the left side of this box is an option "scan picture settings" pressing this can enable you to choose the resolution of your picture, change the output type , ie millions of colours or black and white plus many more…. The other good thing I found here is that you can choose to scan single photo, or scan multiple photos to individual files (single selection for each photo found on scanner bed) so basically you can have 5 small photos on the bed and scan them all in at same time and they will all be individually filed. Or you can scan all the photos to same file. Or just scan the entire scanning glass as it seen (great for collages)
Once you have scanned your picture in you can preview it and make any adjustments to size etc all done easily with no problems.
The copier works in a similar way and can be used without needing to turn PC on, You simply press the SCAN BLACK or SCAN COLOUR buttons on the top of the printer and it detects the item placed on scanner bed and prints it out for you..this is quick too, taking about 10 seconds for black and white, and about 15 for colour.
All in all this printer really was an excellent buy, I would highly recommend this as a first printer too as it is so easy to use and the quality is by far better than my old Epson prints.
Size wise it is not much bigger than my old Epson, and takes up less space than my old printer and scanner took up. It is about 16" wide by just under 10" deep and 5.5" high.
I'm not technically minded at all so reading the list of specs doesn't really do anything for me…but I will include it for anyone who deems it necessary.
It claims to print up to 20 pages per minute (black) and up to 14 (colour) Scan at 1200 x 2400 DPI (dots per inch?) Print at 4800 optimised DPI
PC specs XP, 2000, SP3, 98 SE, Me Pentium®II 128MB RAM 475MB HD CD-Rom drive USB
Also compatible with Mac computers.
I bought mine from Comet store for £49.99 but is available from their website for £5 cheaper, good if you can wait a few days for delivery. Argos also have it for £49.99.
Printer cartridges are available from Comet for £9.99 (black) and £11.99 (colour) which is reasonable as far as cartridges go, I forgot to ask if you could use compatible cartridges with this printer but I doubt they would be that much cheaper, and I'm sure if you shop around you would find a better deal somewhere anyway. Argos is more expensive at £14.99 and £17.99 respectively. HP recommend you use HP no 21 (black) and HP no 22(colour) with this, and HP no 58 for photo printing (I'm using 21 and 22 and getting good quality photos, I will try 58 next time I need to renew!
I hope this review has been of some use to anyone looking to get a new printer!
Advantages: Good Printing Results and An Economic One Disadvantages: -
...my PC-Shop, I used my HP Inkjet 3744. It was a durable one as I had been using it for about 2 years. Day by day doing my activities, I realized that I needed a better printer. Finally I choose HP DeskJet F380 because it comes with several nice features, such as a printer, a copying machine and a scanner.
Here I am going to share about it with you in general.
Why HP Printers?
Though there are various brands of printers in the market nowadays, I ... ...Cannon inkjets are poorer than Hp inkjets, but I just want to share my experiences of using the printers.
Personally I always print software programming manuals which I download from internet. The manuals usually come with illustrations and graphics. It consumes much ink, and I cannot stand buying new ink-cartridges as recommended by most manufacturers. That is why I love refilling my cartridges instead of buying the original cartridges.
Facing ...
djohan 11.12.2006
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of HP Deskjet F380
Advantages: Quality prints, Good scanner, quick and reasonaby priced Disadvantages: annoying low ink pop ups
...I came across this model HP DeskJet F380.
First impressions
-------------------------
Great design and looks absolutely fantastic, HP have opted for a Mac look to follow the recent trends of the Ipod and the growing sales of Apple Macs. Its appearance is curved, glossy white top and grey matt sides. Approximate size of the printer is 16" wide by 10" deep and 5.5" high. It does seem a little bulky but for an all in one printer was actually on the ... ...475MB HD
CD-Rom drive
USB
HP Cartridge 21 (Black)
HP Cartridge 22 (Colour)
HP Cartridge 58 (Photo)
Cartridges
--------------
I have found that in the past the cartridges for certain printers are almost the same price and sometimes exceed the price of the actual printer itself. I thought it would be a good idea to look at the price of Cartridges before I took the plunge and purchased the printer.
Black Ink Cartridges are HP No 21, HP say ...
adamalewis2002 17.02.2007
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of HP Deskjet F380
Advantages: small, sharp printouts, excellent value for money Disadvantages: USB cable not contained in box, installation can be tricky, scanning doesn't work yet
...PCWorld's website I discovered the HP DeskJet F380 - an all-in-one printer, scanner and copy machine reduced to 39,99 pounds and coming with free delivery.
The decision was quickly made. When I read through the product page I came across a note saying "You will need a USB cable to operate this printer" - well great, another 10 pounds for a USB cable since this isn't included in the box content of the printer. Overall price then 49,99 which was the ... ...this problem since I bought HP because I was hoping for a quality difference to inferior (?) brands.
~~~Copying~~~
After the disappointment of scanning the good news is that copying worked just fine. You put your document on the glass, choose whether to copy black or in colour, press a button and a few seconds later you'll have a decent copy of your original document.
The good news is also that copying is much faster than printing even though ...
Achtel 25.01.2007 (26.01.2007)
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of HP Deskjet F380
Advantages: An all-in-one, Inexpensive. Disadvantages: None.
...hour, we came across the HP all-in -one F380 which is a printer,scanner and a copier. This was on offer for £39.99, it had £10 off, we thought this was good value for money so of it went in the trolley.
>*>*>*>DESIGN>*>*>*>
The HP deskjet F380 has a boxy body which measures around 420mm wide, 260mm deep and 170mm tall and only weighs 4.7 kilograms.
The body is light gray and white in colour and is made of lightweight plastic with a glossy white ... ...and a scan button.
The HP deskjet F380 also has indicators for paper jam and low ink.
The HP deskjet F380 is designed for light home use, this printer is small and light enough that it looks good and fits nicely on a home or home office desk.
>*>*>*SET-UP>*>*>*
Set-up is mostly standard, after taking everything out of it's box, open the transparent blue plastic tray and inside should be the ink carridges and one cable which you should remove.
...
Hollie25 22.01.2007
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of HP Deskjet F380
Advantages: Extremely cheap, quick to print, good quality, nice appearance! Disadvantages: You need to purchase USB lead seperately
...my old printer, also a HP all-in-one, I decided it was time to stop scamming ink and paper off all of my friends and to make the plunge into buying a new printer. It took me a long time to get round to it and I wasn't very happy about spending fifty quid or so on a printer, probably a lot more with ink and cables, which is why I put it off so long! However! Then I discovered the HP Deskjet F380, which certainly cheered me up!
It's Appearance
****************
... ...of, and having had a HP PSC previously, I knew how this one would work - perfect!
It's Features
**************
Ok, so once I'd found the prettiest printer that also looked easy to use, I thought it was best that I checked what it did first. It's OK choosing one because it's sexy, but I didn't want to get home and realise I'd actually bought a load of rubbish, so, I had a chat with the lovely shop assistant.
This printer prints up to 20 pages ...
ice_pink 30.08.2007
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of HP Deskjet F380
Picture quality
Printing speed
Colour sensitivity
Ease of use
Value For Money
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The cartridge price depends on where you purchase them from, but range from £7.00 to about £13.00. As I have already mentioned, you will get approximately 150 pages from the cartridge, which if you take the middle of the road price, works out at about 7 pence per page. I have found that buying the cartridges online actually works out cheaper ...
Advantages: GOOD PRINT QUALITY Disadvantages: EXPENSIVE COMPARED TO OTHERS
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This is a tri-colour cartridge, with the following colours: - cyan, magenta and yellow.
PRINTER COMPATABILITY
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The cartridge price depends on where you purchase them from, but range from £10.00 to about £15.00. As I have already mentioned, you will get approximately 165 pages from the cartridge, which if you take the middle of the road price, works out ...
Advantages: Cheap, contains ink cartriges. Disadvantages: No instructions, Unhelpful "help". never got it to work.
hours as the pc had to restart after most of them and had to start from the first one again each time to find where I got to last time)
Cut a long long story short still didn't print took it back and the man in Currys took one look at it and said "this ones faulty I'll get you another" not that that one worked either so I've now bought a HPDeskjetF380 which is installing as we speak so a future review will be up soon for that one if you're interested cost me £50 but as I just discoved you get what you pay for so hopefully this will be much better. ...
