HP Photosmart C6180 – Photosmart In Name, But An Office Printer

Pros

The HP Photosmart C6180 offers media card reader and ADF; and in addition to it the printer comes with in-built networking, together with wireless. It also has PictBridge port, which can further be used for connecting storage devices. The printer delivers print quality and high-quality scans and comes with out-and-out photo paper tray.

Cons

The HP Photosmart C6180 the offers comparatively slow task speeds; the photo print feature of the printer needs to be fleshed out and the color prints from the printer could be expensive.

Introduction

The HP Photosmart C6180 priced at $300 might be a photo printer by name, but by function it’s completely office-printer. The printer gets an automatic document feeder, built-in networking (counting wireless), and fax functionality which makes it rather attractive office printer, but the sluggish task speed of the printer makes it too slow even for the smallest of office task. Though, the printer offers decent print quality, but still it doesn’t have the expected photo features. Though, the printer excels in neither of the functions, but it still is a decent all-around all-in-one printer for all the home users who wants a machine which can do everything. If you are looking for a printer for your office needs and also wants faster task speeds, then the comparatively pricey Canon Pixma MP830 surely is a decent option. Although, you’ll have to lose fax functionality option and also will have to compromise a bit on the print quality; Or, if you actually are looking for a really photo centric all-in-one printer then go check out the $200 Canon Pixma MP600.

Design

The HP Photosmart C6180 is a rather compact multifunction printer with a flatbed scanner. The Photosmart C6180 measures 15.2 inches deep by 9.2 inches tall by 17.5 inches wide and weighs around 23 pounds. The printer has handwell-like grooves on its either side, but considering the fact that those grooves are too shallow to serve as handwells, it won’t be fair to call them handwell.

Positioned, on top of the scanner lid is the automatic document feeder (ADF), which can store around 50 letter- or A4-size paper sheets or 35 legal-length paper sheets. The flatbed scanner of the printer can only accommodate A4 size originals, but you can scan legal size documents with the help of ADF.

The printer comes with four media card readers and a PictBridge-enabled USB port, which all are mounted on the frontage of the system. The media card slots of the printer are compatible with a wide range of cards, though some of the cards might need adapters. The PictBridge cameras can be connected to the printers used the USB port for directly printing the photos, or at the same time you can attach some USB storage device like a hard drive or a thumbdrive.

The Photosmart C6180 AIO makes use of HP’s combined paper system. The primary input tray pulls out partway for easier loading and adaptable paper guides to let you align everything from envelopes to legal paper size. Positioned above the main paper cassette are dedicated photo paper trays which hold sheets smaller or equal than 4×6. Finally, positioned above both the inputs of the printer is the output tray, which flips open and provides access to the input trays. There is a small window positioned in the output tray of the printer which lets you check the status of the output tray, like whether it’s empty or not.

The control panel of the C6180 is rather busy, with every printer function having its own array of buttons, together with start and menu buttons. Additionally, there is an alphanumeric keypad, some photo shortcut buttons, menu navigation buttons, including zoom, reprints, preview, and Photo Fix. Completing the control panel for the printer is a 2.4-inch color LCD display, which can be adjusted to almost 90 degrees, so as to get the best viewing angle for you.

The Photosmart C6180 comes loaded with features which blends a photo oriented printer with a business oriented printer. The printer can be connected directly through USB or could be mounted on a network, so as to make everyone share it.

System Configuration

Price: $367.00
Manufacturer: HP
Part Number: Q8181A#ABA
Printer Type: Ink-jet Color Photo printer
Operating System Supported: Microsoft Windows XP, Apple Mac OS X 10.3.9, Apple Mac OS X 10.4, Microsoft Windows 2000 SP3 or later
Copier Type: Digital
Dimensions (W x D x H): 17.7 x 15.2 x   9.7 inches
System weight: 23.4 lbs

Supported Flash Memory: CompactFlash, miniSD, IBM Microdrive, Memory Stick, SD Memory Card, MultiMediaCard, Memory Stick Duo and xD-Picture Card
Inkjet Technology: HP Thermal Inkjet
Ink Palette Supported (Colors): magenta, Cyan, black, yellow, light magenta and light cyan
Features: Automatic redialing, Fax forwarding and Distinctive Ring Pattern Detection (DRPD)
Software Included: HP Photosmart Premier
Direct Printing Specifications: PictBridge
Microsoft Certifications: Certified for Windows Vista
Service & Support Details: Limited warranty – 1 year

Performance

The HP Photosmart C6180’s performance figures were right at the middle of the charts, in comparison to all the other all-in-one printers of this price range. The printer printed black text at a decent rate of 5.36 pages per minute (ppm), which was faster than the Lexmark X9350 with the speed of 4.93 ppm, but was slower than the Canon Pixma MP830 with 7.70ppm. The printer delivered 4×6 photos at the rate of 0.6 ppm, which was twice as slow as the Canon Pixma MP830 with 1.83ppm.

The slowness in the task speed was made up by the C6180 in its print quality. The text prints delivered by the printer was clean, sharp and dark. The color graphics print displayed pleasing color saturation, smooth color gradients, overall sharp detail and decent handling of photo elements. Though using the regular copy paper brought some degrading in the print quality.

The scan quality for the printer was generally very decent, though the grayscale scan showed some compression and the color scan was a tad soft.

Support

The HP Photosmart C6180 gets one year standard warranty from HP, which is equivalent to the warranty offered by its rivals. Though, you can pay extra and can get additional warranty. Under warranty period you get 24×7 free, toll-free telephone support. For online support there is HP’s Web site offering downloadable software, manuals and drivers; there also is online chat and e-mail tech support available; other online support tools includes FAQs and a troubleshooting guide.

Word from the Experts

The HP Photosmart C6180 is an all-in-one printer which tries to offer almost everything to everyone, but fails to meet this superior goal. Though, it is a decent printer at good price, for the home users who wants everything in just one machine.