Wholly unworthy of even two words, the PhotoSmart C4180 experience is definitely something not to write home about. Forgive me for my forthright prelude, I am a fan of HP. Having owned a Hewlett Packard Pavillion notebook (that is still going strong after 5 years and has helped my sister's coursework enormously), and several small Inkjet printers for home use, I have valued HP as an enduring and affordable brand, whose products stand the test of time.

The C4180 was something we compared alongside other general desktop printers, and we were initially attracted by the price. Maybe that was the first stumbling block. Growing up in a throwaway culture, and where quality is no longer really measured by the expense of a product, most of us are looking for what we can get at the most reasonable possible price. Hence our attraction to the HP Photosmart Printer.
The overall attraction of the HP Printer was the fact that we would have something that took up little space, and performed multiple tasks, thus removing the hassle of having several machines in the house, or paying extortionate prices to obtain photocopies at the local library. The other attraction was the Photosmart bit, the ability to print photo's up to A4 size and in blinding quality, from a memory stick, camera or straight from the computer.
Yes, like most we were looking for a timesaving, space-saving bit of kit that would, inevitably stand the test of time and not need to be replaced for a while. But boy, how wrong could we get!!

The C4180 is a twin cartridge (colour and black) printer, scanner and copier, with the additional capability to print photo’s up to A4 size.

In terms of direct print function the C4180 is as good as it’s word and delivers approximately 24 pages per minute in Mono colour, as opposed to the rather excessive claims of 30 p.p.m. You’ll expect around 12-15 pages per minute for colour as the printer sometimes struggles with web pictures with a lot of detail. Strange, considering the results of photo printing are actually very crisp, clear and the clarity is excellent, even when printing to A4 standard.

The scanning and photo-copying functions can be carried out without the use of your PC, and with a resolution of up to 1200 x 2400ppi, images remain clear and concise, often removing any visible fold lines the original master copy might have. Saying that, the scanner itself does seem quite slow in comparison to a Lexmark, which I personally use at work for day-to-day office requirements.

You may be thinking that the HP C4180 sounds like a good overall piece of machinery, that does what it says on the box. It well might serve it’s purpose, but only for a short period of time. The first sign that something wasn’t quite right was two days after purchasing and setting up the printer. We must have used it for about ten photo’s and eight word documents within two days, so we knew there were no prior visible faults.

On setting up the printer, we noticed that the print carriage (near to the cartridge points) was further along than it should be, and when we tried a test print the thing wouldn’t budge at all. We had gone from no power capability to no print capability. On our return to Argos we were advised we would have to contact Hewlett Packard directly as the warranty was held with them, and as this was the second fault we were experiencing, it was up to them to rectify the problem.
Following two, hour and a half phone-calls and being passed around the service centre because no-one seemingly had a clue what to do about the fact we had just bought the printer, we finally made some headway, and were told that a replacement would be sent within 3 days.

The experience has thoroughly changed my opinion of Hewlett Packard, more specifically the service centre we have spoken to on now nine occasions who have promised to get a Product Manager to call us. It has also altered my opinion of the ‘cheap and cheerful’ market. As with mp3 players, I am now more inclined to spend that little bit extra on quality and a current model!