All in one for me! (HP Officejet 6210 All-in-One)

Member Name: jayjolynn

Product:	HP Officejet 6210 All-in-One
Date:	11/12/06 (362 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Many features!

Disadvantages: bit tempramental with different size card or paper!

I bought this little friend about 6 or 7 months ago, after my last 'all in one' gave up the ghost, the result of me over working the poor thing!

What comes with this machine?
You get 2 CDs, one for Windows and one for Macintosh. 2 x print cartridges, power cord and adapter, phone cord (for the fax), but no USB cable! That wasn't a problem to me, as I had had a previous cord from my well worn out previous HP 'all in one'!
The bottom paper tray comes detached , as does the top paper tray, and both are easy to fit! (Even I could do that!)
System requirements are Windows 98, Windows 98 SE, Windows Me, Windows 2000, Windows XP1 and Mackintosh.

QUICK INSTALLATION GUIDE

The installation instructions of the copier/scanner/fax/ printer is in easy to understand steps, so I never found it difficult to get it all up and working and the CD keeps you right, all the way through!

I use my HP Officejet 6210 every day in life, and thought well if I can tell you about my life with it then perhaps I can throw in some technology on the way!

I use Windows and this review is based on it being used with Windows PC. There is also the Macintosh instructions that come with this, but cannot comment as to how or if any differences there is between the two!

THE LOOK

Firstly I am looking at this machine as I type and the obvious features I see on my little toy is the control panel,which has all the displays and buttons on it (fax, Scan, copier and printer) When not in use the panel display is lit up with the date and time, which I find terrific as at a glance I can see when my coffee break is due! There is also a camera port near the base of it and the most important bit I nearly forgot about, is the paper input tray, which sits at the base also!.
The top lifts up for scanning documents or pictures, and the top tray is for feeding your documents for faxing!

At the back of this little hard worked loyal piece of machinery is the a door for cleaning out, your rear USB port, your power input, fax input and Phone port ( which has 2 ports).
Its height is 23.4 (9'1''), Width 45cm ( 17.6) Depth, 38.4 cm, (15'') and the weight is 6.8kg (15 pounds), so it is not the smallest of machines, but if you take into account, it is all in one, and not taking up separate spaces for a scanner, printer, fax machine etc!

THE BUTTONS

The menu button, selects fax options such as Resolution ands Lighter/darker.
Speed dial, where you can opt for a speed dial number that you know.
A black button to start a black & white fax ( think this is self explanatory!).
Again, self explanatory, a start colour button ( do I need to explain this?)
Then there is five options of 'speed buttons' where you can dial speed numbers! ( Is this easy?)
The numbers on the front of the Control Panel are for faxing or texts etc...
Attention light indicates, when an error has occurred and will blink and let you know how you've messed up!
There is a button to access the menu system for reports, fax settings. And maintenance. You can also get help from this menu!
There is a little arrow showing to the left , which decreases values on the control panel display.
The 'Ok' button , you can press when you are ready and happy about what you want this machine to do, (sometimes I think this 'OK' button is sitting strumming its fingers waiting for me to get it right most times)!
The right button Increases values on the control panel display ( ha....easy yes? The opposite of the left button?!)
Cancel. Well, even I worked out this one easily enough! This is just to cancel any jobs you want to cancel!
This control panel is easily worked out just by looking at it, therefore so far so good for me!

PHOTOS AND SCANNING WITH IMAGE ZONE

The 'all in one' allows you to transfer, edit and share photos. There are several different methods of doing this. It can print your photos too, (although you can only print the actual photos from the camera, using the PictBridge port which is allocated on the front of this machine. I can tell you though, that if your camera is not Pict Bridge compliant, or is not in Pictbridge mode, this mean machine tells you when you have messed up! An error message will come up on your monitor!

So it keeps you 'straight' which is good news for the non PC literate people like myself! If your camera is not Pictbridge, no problem, just load your pictures onto your PC, save them, then print them out as you would any document.

Now, since I make Greetings Cards for a living, I find this Image Zone not as good as some sites I have been in, but indeed it is not one of the main points I bought my little toy for!
Never the less, I have used it to crop pictures and edit them, and it's perhaps good for imaging the right colour ( when your own digital camera's flash has not been strong enough?) So, yes, I use it, and feel it has its uses but not to the same degree as some photo sites I could mention!

After saying that, I have copied (scanned) many old photos, and I find it prints you out a good quality photo, and I was pleased with the results! Very clear pictures, sometimes even better than the original!

You can also learn how to perform projects and cut the borders on your photo, enlarging the photo ( although I find this perhaps, blurs the image somewhat)! Adjusting the brightness, sharpness & tone are more options here.
There are a few good features here, and it is really 'user friendly' which means most people can learn quickly ! I mean I am basically quite stupid when it comes to technology and I have found my way around easily!

You can designate which applications you would prefer the scan to go to, using the Image Zone. A preview comes up on your monitor, where you can edit it (as above) and then save it to your Documents.

The scanner has various speeds, according to how complicated the document is, but the resolution is 1200 by 2400 ppi optical, and up to 19,200 DPI enhanced.

FAX

Now I have to be honest here, and explain I have only used the fax perhaps a couple of times, but it's so straight forward, and as I explained there is the option of sending Black and white or colour.

To fax I would not recommend feeding your original photo into the top feeder, as this may ruin your photo! The fax feeder is ok for documents (and holds up to 20 sheets of paper at once) but for photos I would recommend scanning them one at a time, then faxing the copies of the scanned pictures, or indeed you can fax them straight from the scanner glass,but only one at a time.

All you need to do is dial the fax number using the keyboard and if you are sending from the scanner press 1. Press Start Fax Black, or StartFax Colour, and hey presto, it's sent!

It gives you up to 100 speed dials, up to 100 page memory, confirmation and activity reports. It has 33.6 Kbps transmission with 3 seconds per page speed.
There are many more features to this fax, but as I have never used them yet, can't really comment on how good they really are, but for me the couple of times I used it, it worked fine for me!

PRINTING

Now, to the actual printing side of it! Print speeds vary according to the complexity of the document, and the specifications for printing are 1200 by 1200 DPI black, and 4800 DPI Optimised colour, 4800 DPI with 6-ink printing.

Well, my main use for this reliable old machine (apart from the few documents I print out) is for making Greetings cards, so the colour output is good, the sharpness is good, but perhaps if I was to have a little niggle at something, would be, because it is inkjet, you have to be a little careful of what type of paper or card you use. The ink (especially if you use black) can sometimes smear, or if you touch it too quickly after printing, it can smear. So, you must be sure that your paper is not too thin, and if card, not too embossed (as this can make the colour paler or bleed).

I found I just learnt what the printer likes in the way of paper/card materials, and you learn to work with it! We came to a compromise somewhere, and I promised it I would use only materials it liked in return for a good output for my cards!

I do large cards too and the 'A4' size cards (double thickness) sometimes gets jammed, and certainly the envelopes for an 'A4' size card (obviously larger than A4 itself) does not fit into the feeder!

I do realise that not everyone is making large A4 size cards everyday, so that is only a minor point from my side of things, and I am sure not everyone will want to put in an oversized envelope every day of the week either, so this is just a little niggle to me, and overall this printer takes up to and including A4 size paper and card, but perhaps because of its acute turn on the rollers when printing, cannot cope with too thick a card.

I love this 'All in One' Printer with all it's extras, even though I have probably not used ever single one of it's functions to its full extent!

USER GUIDE

This booklet often repeats itself with the functions etc....and I feel not very user friendly for the idiots like me who hate reading instructions, and hate anyone mentioning anything more complex than the on and off switch! So perhaps the booklet could be a 'no no' for me! I learnt more about the machine by just finding my way about by pressing buttons! It soon lets you know when it wants you to do something else, and the onscreen help is there for you, and really does tell you when you have put the wrong match of envelope in, or wrong size of card (in my case) in! It is an idiots guide how to use this machine, it is so easy to understand, even for me!

So I would recommend not looking at the
'User guide till you have time to go into the more intricate settings of this machine, as if you look at this booklet, it will put you off even buying it! It makes it look so complicating and technical (well for me anyway!) and the 'Quick Start' instructions are more in line with my way of thinking! Plus the CD for installation is much more 'user friendly' than this 173 page of repetitive mind boggling jargon! Ha, I can hear all the PC buffs out there, saying I am just not clever enough to decipher it all, and yes, I put my hands up!

CARTRIDGES & COSTS

On the Hp site the HP 344 Tri-colour Inkjet Print Cartridges (C9363EE) comes at a £25 price tag, but other web sites sell it for between £13 - £23.

The black just now is on sale at http://www.euroffice.co.uk for £10.62!
I bought new cartridges not long ago and since I needed them urgently bought them from a local shop.
I got 'Alphajet' for £14.99 and it does the trick, though I think if I was printing photos I would opt for the superior cartridges!

The price for my work colleague? I paid about £135 for it a few months ago from Currys, but I was just shocked and amazed as I looked up the cheapest price quoted on the Internet for this product, and PC World, are selling it for £99.97!
This is in their clearance line, so if you fancy this little gem, I would snap it up now at PC World, as other companies I noticed were selling it, ranging from £130 -£180!

Summary: Simple yet effectve machine!

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