Want To Make Money With Your Digital Camera?
Then check out Camera Dollars here.
Learn How to Make Money with Photography by Selling Photos
Today’s machine, the HP Photosmart C4480, is just about the cheapest machine with a colour lcd display that Hewlett Packard manufacture . It is aimed at the general purpose home market and allows printing copying and scanning.
The A4 flatbed scanner produces a reasonable scan for a machine in this price range. To the left of the scanner lid is the control panel , which has a built in 38mm colour LCD – modest but usable – together with three colour-coded selection buttons, and three further buttons for Menu, OK and Cancel.
At the top of the printer’s front panel, are twin sockets for the three main memory card formats: SD, MemoryStick and xD. At the back there is a standard usb socket for connecting to your PC .
The Photosmart C4480 uses two ink cartridges, one black and the other tri-colour . These fit behind the fold down front panel .
Print speeds are a little more realistic now that companies have started using the ISO print speed test and HP quotes 8.9ppm and 5.3ppm for black and colour pages in normal print mode, respectively. These are closer to what we saw under test , as our five-page black text document completed in 59 seconds , giving 5.08ppm, rising to 6.09ppm on the 20-page document. Still only two thirds of the rated black speed, but better than some rivals we’ve tested recently .
Colour print speed was slow compared to quoted figures, but HP quote without counting the printers preparation time. Unfortunately you have to wait for this preparation time, so we count it .
Copying a single page, colour document took 50 seconds , which is a little slow and this is true of printing photos , too, with a best time of 1:17. Neither speed was s disaster , though, and for a machine that costs just over £40 it’s not bad at all .
The quality of plain paper prints is astonishingly good, with clear, dense text and very little splashing. Colour business graphics were smooth and clear, perhaps a little pale in places .
Our photocopy was also a little lighter than the original, but not bad at this price point.
Our photo test print is also very good, with smooth colour variation, plenty of detail and good colour balance.
When it comes to the HP ink cartridges, you’re better buying the Value, XL versions of both.
Verdict
The Photosmart C4480 is an easy-to use all-in-one, neat and well-organised, quiet to run and subjectively quick. Print quality is very good for an entry-level machine and if money is tight, it’s a very good buy.
