Printer Scanner Copier All in One (HP psc 2355 All-in-One)

Member Name: Deru

Product:	HP psc 2355 All-in-One
Date:	26/01/08 (1750 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: All in One, Great Printers

Disadvantages: Pricey Ink, Model is pretty old now

The printer is an all-in-one multifunctional printer that's also a scanner, card reader, and photocopier. I really do like the look of this. It's a multifunctional printer but I think the design makes it look quite sleek and small. When I compare it to my Epson CX6400 (also a multifunctional printer), I can only think of how bulky my Epson looks in comparison.

I think this printer/scanner has an impressive array of features. It even has a colour screen to view pictures.

There's a built-in card reader and USB port! The card reader is great for those who don't already have a card reader. It reads SD, MMC, CF, XD, Memory Stick, and Smart Media cards. You can print pictures straight off your memory cards. It also has a USB port for you to plug things into which I think is a good idea on a printer since it uses one of your computer's so giving you one in return means you wont' run out of ports as quickly. Also, if your computer only has them in the back, the port on the printer makes it more accessible.


INSTALLATION

Installation is so easy, even my dad could do it. In fact, he did because I couldn't be bothered. It's the usual, install drivers from the driver CD provided. Plug in the power and the USB cable from the printer to the printer. USB cable is not supplied though, which is normally annoying but luckily, I had a spare.


PRINT QUALITY

High resolution pictures taken with a digital camera, scanned pictures, etc printed on high resolution glossy papers look excellent. I've printed colour photos from this printer and they look even better than original film camera developed ones! Funnily enough, photographs look sharper once they've gone through the PSC2355. This may have something to do with the printer's ability to enhance the pictures you print.


USING

I must say that I think it is extremely easy to operate. Turn on the printer and send your print jobs to the printer and it'll print. You don't even need a computer to use this as you can put a document in the scanner and press the copy button or print pictures directly from a memory card.

As mentioned earlier, the printer can enhance pictures. Some of these features include removing red-eye, changing colour balance, brightness, etc. as well as the ability to enlarge images like you find with a good photocopier. These things can easily be done by pressing the 'Setup' button and then following the step-by-step onscreen instructions.

When you want to print straight from a memory card, you can select which pictures to print by 'ticking' them while you scroll though them on screen. If that's too much work, you can print out a 'Proof Sheet' with thumbnail prints of all the pictures. This is better since you can see more at once and see how they look once printed out. You simply fill the bubbles below the pictures that you want to print (a bit like how you fill in your lottery ticket), and then select the print style by filling the bubble below the layout you want.

You then place the filled out proof sheet into the scanner and select the '2. Scan Proof Sheet' option. Your selected pictures will print. I've tried this using an XD card with 5 pictures, then I printed the proof sheet and marked picture 3 and 5. The correct ones printed so this feature works perfectly. I think it's very easy to do this, especially since step-by-step instructions are printed on the proof sheet.


PRINT SPEED

Print speed is very impressive. Printing colour photographs take a little while but if printing black and white, it prints a full page that's filled with text in around 10 seconds. Of course, it all depends on quality settings, etc. Photocopying black and white document speed is also very impressive in terms of speed. The speeds are pretty good when using normal to lower quality settings. High quality takes a lot longer and if you require quick high quality prints, then it might be best to go for a colour laser printer.

RUNNING COSTS

I think this is the main problem with this printer. I think the ink is a bit expensive and the ink can run low quite quickly. Especially if you photocopy a lot or print a lot of colour pictures. If you were thinking of getting this printer as a photocopier, you may be better off getting a proper photocopier since it would probably work out cheaper in running costs in the long run.

Considering the cost of the PSC 2355, being £150 at the time, I would have expected the ink to be a bit cheaper. The printer itself now costs a bit less though, which is good news. A single official black cartridge costs £16.99, or around that price depending on where you shop. Colour cartridge costs around £26.99! Cheapest I found was online at around £22. You could buy compatible cartridges though, which I think are more reasonably priced.

A disadvantage I've found is that the printer takes two ink cartridges. It takes a single black and a single colour cartridge as opposed to taking three separate colour cartridges (Cyan, Magenta, and Yellow). I would have preferred to have separate colour cartridges so I would just have to replace the cartridge of the colour that ran out rather than replace all colours even if only one colour was used up. I find this to be very wasteful and not very cost effective.

OTHER

The printer has crashed where it was turned off and would not turn back on. I don't know what caused it (other than my mum), as I was not around when it happened. I pulled the power plug out and plugged it back in to resolve this problem. This has only happened once though.

I was unable to find any ink level indicator in the printer's menu. However, after looking it up and reading the support section on HP's website, I found the option. It is quite well hidden away and they emphasize that the ink level is only an estimate. I think they could have done a better job of this. With the Tri-colour cartridge, it doesn't tell you which of the three colours is low, although I guess it doesn't matter as you'd have to change all three even if only one colour runs out!!

The support is quite good through their website since you can download the drivers and software as well as find answers to questions quite easily. You can also contact them but I've not had to do this since I managed to find the answers. Beware though that the drivers and software are quite big for dialup users. The basic software and driver is around 25MB and the full works is over 500MB. They can be ordered on CD through the HP website if you lose your original or want an update though.

QUICK SUMMARY

PROS

- Easy to set up
- Easy to use
- Print quality is EXCELLENT.
- Print speed is very good.
- Card Reader and USB port
- 1.8 inch Colour screen
- Space Saving

CONS

- Ink cartridge costs
- Single cartridge for three ink colours instead of separate cartridges
- No USB cable included (although standard practice with printers).
- Big driver downloads


VERDICT

It does everything a printer and scanner does and more. It's a very good multifunctional printer/scanner aside from the running costs. It doesn't take up much room, looks great, print quality and is very easy to use as well as having plenty of features. I recommend the printer to those who want a high quality ink jet colour printer for light to medium use. However, this one is getting on the old side now so might be harder to find but I must say that the one I'm using is still going strong! This shows the quality of HP printers so I would be happy to recommend any of the newer HP All-In-One models.

Thanks for reading!

Summary: HP PSC 2355