HP PhotoSmart 1315 : Who needs a computer... but do you need this printer?
Written: Mar 16 '02 (Updated Mar 16 '02)
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Pros: Direct prints from various digital media, good multipurpose inkjet, various features
Cons: Expensive, good photo prints but worse than previous models.
The Bottom Line: Great bang for your buck if you need all the features of the 1315 offers. However, it suffers from slightly worse photo print quality versus other PhotoSmart models (the 1215)
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| yusakugo's Full Review: Hewlett Packard PhotoSmart 1315 InkJet Printer |
The latest model of the PhotoSmart line from HP packs more features than any other photo printer in this price range... Unfortunately, the price range is around the $350-$450 model range.
The PhotoSmart 1315 offers you several perks above the former HP top line PhotoSmart... the 1215. These include a 2.5 inch color LCD to preview picture files prior to printing and the ability to print from Sony's memory stick format. These features are on top of the features offerred by the 1215 model for the same retail price of the PhotoSmart 1215 when the 1215 was released.
The problem is... do you have or want to spend around 400 bucks for a printer?!
PhotoSmart 1315... more MultiPurposeSmart than PhotoSmart!
In reality, the whole PhotoSmart 1xxx line are DeskJet 9xx printers with a few extra features over the original DeskJet line.
The overall exterior design is more boxy looking than the DeskJet 9xx line but the casing is a pitch black and dark grey color. The design of the casing is similar to the rest of the PhotoSmart 1xxx line. The dimensions are 17.6 x 14.5 x 7.7 in (WxDxH) with a hefty weight of 14+ pounds.
As per HP... the print speed specs are
Print speeds draft quality 17 ppm(B&W)/13 ppm(color)
Print speeds normal quality 6.5 ppm(B&W)/5 ppm(color)
Print speeds best quality 1.3 ppm(B&W)/1.2 ppm(color)
Funny that these specs are the same as the DeskJet 995 inkjet eh?
There is also a 100 sheet paper tray (regular copy paper i.e. 20lb paper approx.). The output tray holds 50 sheets comfortably. You can also get the duplexer module (for double sided prints) but it is a $79 option. The printer accepts USB, parallel port, or InfraRed connections to send information to the printer.
The 1315 also has a 2.5 inch color LCD with a full control panel below that. This is on the right side of the printer. The 1315 also sports 16MB of memory!
Since the PhotoSmart 1315 seems to be built over the same print engine as the DeskJet 995 (their print quality is very similar), the 1315 can be considered an extension of the 9xx line. Like the rest of the 9xx line, the printer utilizes HP PhotoRET III and Colorsmart III technologies to produce accurate and realistic photo/color prints and allow up to 2400x1200 dpi prints on photo paper. Regular paper prints and B&W prints are at 600x600 dpi.
Setup
Fairly easy... like always, HP includes a poster with step by step instructions for installation. Plug in the power and the USB cable or parallel port cable and you're ready to go. Okay, the USB/Parallel port cables are optional. Just run the CD to load the drivers. If you want to make double sided prints, unlock the back of the 1315 and attach the duplexer (if you bought it). It just clicks into the back. Note that adding the duplexer makes the printer a tad noisy so add it if you're going to use it.
If you have problems, the manual is entirely on the CD and is rather comprehensive... if you can't find the answer there, HP's web site usually has the answer. You can also see if new drivers are available through the HP web site (www.hp.com).
You can easily insert a Compact Flash card, SmartMedia card, or Memory Stick into one of the three slots on the front right side of the printer. The 1315 will read the media and display some information in the LCD panel. Need to preview a picture? No problem. The 2.5 inch color LCD gives you a bright and clear picture before you print. It's fairly easy to print directly from any of the three media types.
Usability
The 1315 is relatively easy to use whether you are printing from a computer, beaming from your notebook or handheld, or sticking in a digital media card. When you stick in the CompactFlash/SmartMedia/Memory Stick card, the LCD displays a menu and options to scroll through picture files (JPEG and TIFF formats only). After you select your picture for printing (or pictures if you want to batch print them), you can still rotate the photos, crop them, adjust saturation and brightness of the photos... all from the control panel and LCD. It all very convenient for the user.
There is also the gimmicky feature of detecting paper thickness and type with its paper-type sensor. Although I still don't notice any major printing differences here from the paper sensor.
Print speeds... real life
This printer never gets close to HP's rated numbers, in fact, it performed also the same as a DeskJet 995. At normal quality prints, the 1315 averaged about 4 ppm in B&W and a little better than 1 ppm in color. Draft quality got me 10-11 ppm B&W through an uncluttered USB connection (only my keyboard is using the other USB slots) and barely 7 pages with color (not photographs!). A 8x10 photo at normal quality took 3-4 minutes to print. At presentation quality, the same photo took 4 1/2 minutes.
At least the 1315 is faster than the 1215 if only slightly.
Output
Overall good output but photos had a bit of fuzziness to them compared to the older 1215 model... so the quality of the cheaper and older PhotoSmart 1215 was better than the 1315. Colors also seemed darker than the 1215 photo output... so the color reproduction is also superior on the older and cheaper 1215 model over the 1315. The output is still very good but is still worse than many other printers in the same price range and even printers in lower price ranges... it doesn't even come close to other dedicated photo printers in the same price range... like the Canon S900 and S820D. As I've stated earlier, the 1315 output was very similar to the DeskJet 995.
Pros and Cons
Where would my inkjet printer reviews be without this section?
Pros:
1) Accepts Compact Flash, SmartMedia, and Memory Stick. It can also take IBM Microdrives with an adapter.
2) 16 MB memory buffer!
3) 2.5 inch full color LCD for photo previews
4) Overall good quality with photo/color/graphic prints
5) Extremely quiet without duplexer... a tad bit noisy with the duplexer but livable.
6) IR receiver
7) I guess we can count the automatic paper sensor
8) 1315 drivers are very customizable. You can easily set color saturation, brightness, color tone, duplexer features, 2 or 4 pages on a single page, and a few other features from within the driver!
9) Draft mode saves on ink costs
10) Fairly easy to use control panel with many options available to you.
11) Way cool black and dark grey color of printer :)
Cons:
1) Price... $399 is out of the budget for many people.
2) Ink cartridges are expensive for the 1315 since they are the same ones used in the DeskJet 9xx line. 5% coverage in B&W costs ~4.5 cents a page. Color comes in at 30+ cents on 5% coverage.
3) There are only two ink bays... black cartridge and the tri-color cartridge. If you run out of one of the colors in the tri-color, you have to replace the whole thing. This just increases the cost of consumables. A regular black cartridge in a two pack costs about $40-45. A extra capacity color cartridge costs $55 and a regular sized color catridge often costs $32-37 in stores like Staples and OfficeMax!
4) Real life print speeds are slow!
5) Driver speed is entirely based on computer speed. The slower your computer, the slower the print driver. Although the overall printer drivers have improved vastly from the early 9xx drivers, there are still a few speed problems.
6) No duplexer in package!
7) Photo prints are worse in sharpness, clarity, and color quality versus other photo printers in the same price range (Canon S900 and Canon S820/S820D) as well as photo printer is cheaper price ranges (PhotoSmart 1215, Epson C80, Epson 785EPX)
8) Not laser quality text prints... slight fuzziness at normal quality and occassional on presentation quality.
Overall
I would recommend this printer for its overall package. You get alot for $399 as compared to other photo printers in this price range, like the Canon S820D. The fact that you get the color LCD is a big plus for this printer! Canon charges another $99 on top of the $399 price tag of the S820D printer. The ability to accept 3 types of digital media without requiring a special adapter is another bonus. Again, my comparison model here is the S820D which requires you to buy seperate adapters for Memory Sticks and SmartMedia cards. However, if you don't need the digital media slots and print from a computer directly... this is NOT the printer for you. The major strength of this printer is its convenience and as a one stop self contained photo printing solution not the quality of the prints of the 1315...
However, based on the just the quality of the photo prints from this printer, you can get better and more color accurate output from cheaper photo printer like the PhotoSmart 1215. If you need completely faithful printing of your photos without all the other convenience features, you may want to look at the cheaper 1215 or if you really want to spend $400... the Canon S900 (I've written an epinion on that model already). You will love the output of the S900... it has almost no competition in picture quality in the current inkjet market. So if you're looking for the best photo output instead of feature sets then the 1315 will dissappoint you.
I found printing on my DeskJet 990 to give better photo quality prints and color reproduction than the 1315. And yes, for me, I returned the 1315 for a full refund.
I've written a good number of printer reviews which can be accessed through my epinions public profile page. These printer reviews include just about the entire HP DeskJet 9xx line, the Canon S900, Canon S820, Canon S820D, and several more.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 370
Operating System: Windows
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yusakugo
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Member: Rich Go
Location: Somewhere in the NorthEast
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Losing Sleep and Lacking Time... sigh...
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