| For a network-enabled multifunction printer, | | | | images in front of the LCD. |
| the HP Photosmart C5180 All-In-One is | | | | |
| currently available for under £100, which | | | | The HP Photosmart C5180's main paper tray |
| makes it a very interesting propos ion. | | | | holds up to 100 sheets of plain paper. A |
| | | | second tray can hold 30 sheets of 4-by-6-inch |
| The printer uses six individual ink | | | | photo paper. You slide it into place only |
| cartridges, HP363 which includes a light cyan | | | | when printing snapshots, and you can see |
| and light magenta in addition to the primary | | | | whether it's in use through a clear window in |
| three colours. The standard black cartridge | | | | the output tray. The flatbed scanner handles |
| contains 6ml of ink whilst the colour | | | | documents up to letter-size, but it lacks an |
| cartridges contain only 4ml. It is better | | | | automatic document feeder to handle larger |
| value to buy the value pack (HPQ7966ee), | | | | sizes or multiple pages. |
| which contains one of each cartridge rather | | | | |
| than buying them individually, and if you | | | | Film scanning capabilities are nonexistent on |
| intend to print mainly text then the large | | | | the HP Photosmart C5180; however, you do get |
| capacity black cartridge (HPC8719ee) which | | | | HP's excellent Photosmart Premier software, |
| contains 17ml of ink is recommended. | | | | which requires a lengthy installation and |
| | | | takes up a hefty chunk of disk space. |
| As these cartridges are of a small volume it | | | | |
| makes little sense to buy anything other than | | | | Photos printed by the HP Photosmart C5180 on |
| HP original cartridges, as the savings would | | | | HP's Advanced Photo Paper exhibited vibrant |
| be minimal, however shopping around should | | | | colours, sharp detail, and smooth tonal |
| yield some attractive pricing. | | | | gradations, though some shadows looked bluish |
| | | | and skin tones appeared slightly unnatural. |
| These cartridges have been used in other | | | | Scanning quality and copying quality were |
| printers and are now readily available, try | | | | good, but not stellar, across our variety of |
| comparing prices from HP direct with your | | | | tests. However in photos printed on plain |
| local retailer and an online discounter like | | | | paper, colours looked dull and shadow detail |
| Cartcon. | | | | was sparse. |
| | | | |
| The HP Photosmart C5180 has a USB port in | | | | Text and graphics pages printed at roughly |
| addition to built-in ethernet, but unlike | | | | average speeds of 7.3 pages per minute and |
| many other similarly priced multifunction | | | | 2.8 ppm, respectively. Our 5x7in test photo |
| devices, it doesn't have a PictBridge port. | | | | printed in 45 seconds - close to the |
| To print photos from your digital camera | | | | test-group average. Scans completed quickly, |
| without using a PC, you can use one of the HP | | | | with our 4-by-5-inch test photo at 100 dpi |
| Photosmart C5180's four media slots, which | | | | taking just 7.1 seconds (only the Canon MP960 |
| between them accept all the major memory card | | | | was faster, at 6.2 seconds). On the other |
| formats. | | | | hand, plain-paper copying averaged a |
| | | | slower-than-normal 2.1ppm. |
| The 2.4in colour LCD displays images from | | | | |
| your card and lets you see the effects of | | | | The well-priced HP Photosmart C5180 has much |
| various enhancements, including red-eye | | | | to offer for printing photos and for sharing |
| removal, cropping, and the use of frames. HP | | | | on a small network. It delivers high-quality |
| has divided the HP Photosmart C5180's control | | | | glossy photos, but its plain-paper photo |
| panel sensibly by function, placing the | | | | prints are not great. |
| buttons for navigating menus and browsing | | | | |