HP's Bringing Out All-In-One's For Everyone!
Written: May 22 '03 (Updated Jun 27 '03)
|
Product Rating:
|
|
| Ease of Use: |
 |
|
| Paper Handling: |
|
|
|
Pros: Color Copy/Fax/Print/Scan--at the touch of a button!
Cons: NOISY--clunks terribly, but still worth it.
The Bottom Line: If you need instant access to your memory cards then the price of this one will be worth it.
|
|
|
| briandalsmom's Full Review: Hewlett Packard HP OfficeJet 7130 Printer |
If you’ve read my previous reviews, you know I love HP printers. I think my first was a DeskJet 500—years ago. Checking reliability records, as well as having the experience of all different models (used in all different manners, by all different levels of users) has really sold me on their reliability. I’m still a happy HP user!
Recently I purchased a new all-in-one HP InkJet for home (OfficeJet 6100 – color copier, scanner, printer, and fax) and a new LaserJet all-in-one for work (HP 3320n – networked black and white printer, scanner, and copier ). Both have been fabulous machines, and each has served the purpose for which it was purchased perfectly.
Just today we installed a new HP for Human Resources—the HP 7130. Their biggest need was a fax machine—they’d been using the same one as everyone on the floor, which isn’t such a great idea when confidential faxes are coming in.
After researching a stand-alone fax machine it was easy to see that for the same amount of money (or in their case a few hundred more dollars since they over-bought) they could get an all-in-one and finally have a scanner. After doing some research they settled on the 7130 model. We’re really not sure why, there were other models that were a better fit. For one, this one offers a lot of features they’ll never use. For instance, you can print directly from your digital camera with a PC using the built-in digital camera memory card slots—something they have no use for, nor will they likely in the future. For someone who needs this feature it’s a great addition—the slots are on the front of the machine, easy to access, and easy to use. You’ll be able to print up to up to 4800-optimized dpi—of course, you’ll need to use photo paper for the best results.
The biggest selling point of this machine is that it was advertised as having laser-like quality printing. Sorry, that’s a stretch. As I mentioned we have several other all-in-ones to compare it with. It was comparable to the ink jet all-in-one in print quality, but definitely not laser quality.
The other selling point was the printing speed—up to 22 pages per minute in black, 18 pages per minute in color. Be mindful, this is at the lowest quality (draft mode); high quality will be considerably slower averaging about 4 pages per minute for color.
You can scan or copy legal size documents or photos up to 8.5 x 14-inches items such as books, instruction manuals, and more—I use my all-in-one for eBay. I place the objects on the flatbed scanner and then drape a black sheet over it. Many of my items I sell are small and hard to take digital photos of. The scanner allows me to take images with great lighting every time.
DRAWBACKS
I like to get these out of the way early—for me, they’re the most important part. Specs can be found anywhere, however, only someone who’s used the machine can tell you what drives them nuts. Fore me it’s the following:
• Duplexing can only be done up to letter size—beyond that you’ll have to hand duplex. Also, duplexing is only supported for printing, not copying or scanning.
• The ADF unit only supports plain paper—you won’t be able to fax/copy using the ADF if your paper is heavier than 24#.
• It makes a LOT of noise—weird clunking noises. All of them have and I’m still not used to it. It sounds as though something very wrong is going on inside.
• Slow to start—it says it warms up and is ready in 8 seconds, which is true, but have you ever stood there waiting for 8 seconds to finish? It’s a long time when you’re watching the “scanning bulb warming up” light. It won’t win any speed records for readying itself, but if you know it and expect it, it isn’t such a big thing. I decided that it can’t be excellent at one thing because it’s good at a lot of things. I’d never put up with this in a machine that only copied.
• Set-up didn’t go easy—the software crashed and we had to request an emergency disk from HP. They sent it immediately but it would have been far better to have been able to download it—they overnighted it so it only took 2 business days, but those are 2 days we could have been enjoying the machine.
• The ADF unit makes the printer top heavy—you’ll need to keep a grip on the unit when opening and closing it to access to flatbed.
SCANNER
It’s a flatbed but it also has the Automatic Document Feeder (ADF) for those bigger scanning jobs. You can put up to 50 sheets in and walk away. It can scan up to 1200 x 4800 dpi— and you’ll be able to scan items up to 8.5” x 14” (legal size). All this is possible, however, it is dependant on available computer memory, disk space, and other system factors—you’ll need a Pentium 4 for the best results.
PAPER HANDLING
The standard paper tray holds 150 sheets, however, there’s an optional tray that can be added—use it to increase your input capacity or use it for letterhead or envelopes so you can store two types of media within the machine, ready to print. The optional tray holds an additional 250 for a total of 400 sheets.
It comes with a duplexing unit—two-sided printing is a great way to save money on paper and a way to look professional without fooling around with the printer and manually duplexing. It does have it’s size limitations as noted above.
FAXING
Yes, you can fax in color, but it will only benefit you if the person receiving it has a color fax as well. Remember though, fax quality is always lacking—something about all those little pixels flying across telephone lines just doesn’t make for high-quality faxes. This does an admirable job, but it’s still a fax—both sending and receiving you’ll notice “noise” –that grainy stuff that shows up on most faxes. For faxing you can use the flatbed method or the ADF. The resolution is 300x300 dots per inch (dpi).
It has a 33.6 Kbps modem and features like speed dialing (you can program up to 130 numbers) and it can hold up to a 100 pages in the fax memory (dependant on the complexity of the fax—photos take up more memory than text). Faxing takes about 3 seconds per page—not bad!
It has “ring detect” which means you can set it to check the telephone line when it rings to listen for fax tones—if it doesn’t detect them it ignores the call allowing your regular answering machine to pick it up.
Advanced features include delayed send (schedule it for when rates are lower), fax broadcasting (the spam of the fax world—not recommended), fax forwarding (have a fax automatically forwarded to another fax machine when you’re away), junk mail barrier (we’re not sure how this works since we’ve not initiated it yet), automatic redialing, and fax/PC interface (you can operate the fax from your computer or from the machine itself—your choice).
COPYING
It prints up to 22 copies per minute, black & white, color copies up to 18 copies per minute. This is dependant on the amount of copy on the paper—something like a photo will take considerably longer time than a stick figure so these times are approximate. You have 3 choices for copy quality (like printing) – Draft, Everyday, and Best.
The copy resolution for black is1200 x 600 dpi and color is up to 4800 x 1200 optimized-dpi color copying and printing (when printing from a computer) on premium photo papers and 1200 x 1200 input dpi – why is this important? The more dpi, the better the outcome (generally). More dots mean better coverage and a more detailed end result.
Advanced features include fit-to-page, poster (enlarges to fit over several sheets that you tape together), 2-on-1 (reduces to fit 2 original pages on one final page), margin shift (use when binding to move the page to the right—will reduce just slightly), and will reduce down to 25% and up to 400% of the original. You can set it for up to 99 copies.
NETWORKING
Used in an office setting you’ll probably want to network it. You’ll need to purchase aHP JetDirect 200m print server/internet connector, HP JetDirect 280m, or hp parallel cable to enable it.
INK
This is where the all-in-ones differ the most—like the rest of the machines I’ve rated, these have 2 print cartridges (1 each black, tri-color), however it has 4 print heads (1 each black, cyan, magenta, yellow). This way you can change the ink without changing the print head which should save money—I’ll let you know if I find this to be true. Installing and changing the cartridges is easy—accessed from the front, there’s nothing that you can do to mess it up and you don’t have to be a contortionist to get them in. The HP Director gives you a way to graphically see the approximate amount of ink left—it’s fairly accurate.
PHOTO FEATURES
As I mentioned before, you can print directly from your digital memory cards, without being connected to your PC. CompactFlash and SmartMedia are supported.
SOFTWARE
HP Director (allows you to control you machine from your computer), HP Scan to Web Software, HP Creative Photo Projects, ReadIRIS OCR (allows you to convert scanned documents that include text to editable documents such as Word)—this is a baseline program and you’re offered upgrades frequently. It can do basic text but struggles with anything contained in a table such as a form.
SPECIFICATIONS
• Built-in Memory: 32 MB (upgradeable)
• Duty Cycle (Maximum Monthly Volume) 5,000 pages
• Standard envelope capacity Up to 22 envelopes
• Media type Paper (plain, inkjet, photo), envelopes, transparencies, labels, cards (index, greeting), iron-on transfers
• Media sizes, std. Letter, legal, executive, No. 10 envelopes
• Media sizes, custom 3 x 8.5 in to 5 x 14 in
• ADF: plain paper, 16 to 24 lb
• Dimensions (w x d x h) 21.9 x 16.3 x 13.3 in (with ADF and automatic two-sided printing and copying accessory)
• Weight 32.4 lb
MINIMUM SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS (PC AND MACINTOSH)
PC: Any Intel® Pentium® II, Celeron® or compatible processor or higher (Pentium III or higher recommended); Microsoft® Windows XP, 2000, Me, 98, 98 SE; 64 MB RAM (128 MB recommended); 400 MB available hard disk space, plus 50 MB for full-color scanning; CD-ROM drive; 800 x 600 SVGA monitor, (24-bit color recommended); available USB port.
Macintosh: G3 processor (G4 recommended) Mac® OS 9.1, OS X; 64 MB RAM (128 MB or higher recommended) for Mac OS 9.1; 128 MB RAM (256 MB or higher recommended) for Mac OS X; 200 MB available hard disk space, plus 50 MB for full-color scanning; CD-ROM drive; 800 x 600 SVGA monitor, 256 color display; local connect requires USB port on Macintosh External I/O Ports, 1 USB.
WARRANTY
Standard one-year limited warranty backed by HP Customer Care service and support. This is one area I think they shine—I’ve had fabulous assistance from HP for all of my machines. You can also purchase an extended warranty—I’ve not done it for any of my machines and I won’t on the new ones as I believe they back their products.
FINAL THOUGHTS
For me, the extras like printing from memory sticks isn’t enough to justify the difference in cost between this machine and the (HP InkJet for home (OfficeJet 6100 – color copier, scanner, printer, and fax). Both are OUTSTANDING machines. Only you can decide if it’s something that makes it worthwhile for you. To help you decide, there’s a great wizard at http://h30071.www3.hp.com/product_advisor/advisor/questions.php?id=6 that will help you decide which machine will best fit your needs.
The basic model is $499. With options on ours to network it and add second tray, it brought the price up to $649 (we get Government pricing so yours could be different). I purchased my home machine directly from HP--the experience was AWESOME! Here's my review on HPShopping.com: http://www.epinions.com/content_98144980612
Not the right printer for you? Then maybe one of these will fit you better:
Another Networked Printer :
http://www.epinions.com/content_94283140740 Hewlett Packard HP LaserJet 3320n mfp Laser Printer
Need Color LaserJet? We're currently running a HP8500 (now discontinued) and we love it! We'll be buying it predecessor soon and I'll rate it as well.
A Colored InkJet with great features - (my personal home printer) http://www.epinions.com/content_98154876548 Hewlett Packard OfficeJet 6110 Printer
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 499.00
Operating System: Windows and Macintosh
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
briandalsmom
|
 - Top 100 |
|
Member: Mom
Location: USA
Reviews written: 249
Trusted by: 192 members
|
|
|
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.