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HP DeskJet 648C
Hewlett-Packard Company
(650)857-1501
phone
http://hp.com
List Price $119
Review by Gary Coyne
This serial/USB connection printer is Hewlett-Packard's latest toss toward the low-cost printer market. Sporting a semi-translucent blue-tinted flip-top center area of the printer where one installs and/or changes ink cartridges, it can stand next to an iMac without concern of a color clash. The Mac requires a USB connection only.
Taking the machine out of the box, one finds three ink cartridges (black, color, and photo), and only two ink cartridge slots. There was supposed to be a separate container to hold the open cartridge when not in use, but this item wasn't in the box I received. The physical setup is easy, plug in the USB line (NOT supplied with the printer) and the power cord, install the desired ink cartridges. The software drivers are also easy: after inserting the CD, select the language you want, click on install, restart, and you're done.
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| The HP 648C |
Before printing, be sure to select the printer in the Chooser. In this case, you will need to select the 640C printer, as the driver doesn't show the 648C's number.
The only software that comes with the 648C is the HP DeskJet Utility, which lets you "Test," "Clean," "Calibrate," and "Support." The latter provides an active link to HP's products support web page. Regrettably, what's missing is the opportunity to see how much ink is remaining in the ink cartridges--a feature present in HP's more expensive printers, and sorely missed here.
When you print, you will be delighted at the sound of the printer: there is very little sound. This is not only one of the strong features of this printer, but also good because the printer won't interrupt your reading as you wait for the pages to print.
Ironically, the speed of printing a page (MS Word) at "best" mode is a tad quicker than printing at the "normal" mode (1'36" versus 1'41"). Subsequent pages are a few seconds shorter (1'30" versus 1'35"). Draft mode is substantially faster, at 35 seconds for a 1st page and 25 seconds for a subsequent page. Pleasantly, the quality of the draft mode is very nice and is only slightly grey (as opposed to a light grey draft mode common in other printers). You could hand a draft mode in for a class assignment with little concern.
A one page pdf document (with simple colors) took 3'10" to print in normal mode and 6'31" in best mode. A color photograph (6" x 8") took 9'7" to print. It is VERY strongly recommended that you use the special heavy-duty photographic inkjet papers for printing color photographs. The wetness of the ink really soaked up even the special quality inkjet papers.
Color printing was OK--there was no banding from the passing of print heads, nor were there sharp breaks when printing colors in a gradient. On the other hand, due to the size of the "dots," the graininess was very obvious in everything but photographs. Mysteriously, photographs printed impressively considering the degree of graininess in other color pictures.
However, you may not want to hand in a page of text (MS Word), because unusual gaps of extra space periodically show up in text. It looks as though one hit the tab key instead of the space key. No words were missing, only these bizarre spaces appeared (2 on one page, 4 on another for example). I tried True Type, True Type GX, and Type 1 fonts, with the location of the gap moving. I also tried turning ATM from "preserve line spacing" to "preserve character shapes," with no change in the gap locations. This same document printed fine from the HP 935C, Apple Laserwriter IIg, Epson 670, and creating a pdf--all without these gaps showing up.
If you plan on printing very small text, be sure to print in best mode. Not that the text is that much clearer (the quality of the text is superb even down to 2 point font in either best or normal mode); but in normal printing mode, the feet of serif text get cut off below 4 point font.
Do not let the lack of printer speed cause you to speed up as you grab the pages from the printer, especially if you have sweaty hands. The HP inks used on this machine do not dry immediately, meaning they can smudge if you smear across the pages too soon. If your hands are sweaty or damp from the sides of a cool drink, rubbing across text will just about guarantee a smudge.
Although you can print color with the color and black print cartridge, you are better off if you substitute the Photo cartridge with the black cartridge if you want more accurate color reproduction. When using the Photo cartridge, the graininess was much finer (less obvious) than with the black cartridge. I am unfamiliar with any other printer that uses this third cartridge, but I found it inconvenient--especially with nowhere to store the third cartridge once opened from its packaging.
This is a disappointing printer that could have been better--no, should have been better-- considering the quality that one can usually expect from HP. As is typical of HP printers, the quality of standard text is superb at all sizes (with the exception of very small serif fonts, as detailed above). Colors were fine (when using the photographic cartridge) and the quality of the pictures might be acceptable for the home user. Perhaps the home user won't mind the slow printing speed, and if one is only printing a few pages it probably wont make much difference. But, if you are printing a 30+ page thesis, the minutes do add up. When it comes to HP printers, one should consider spending a bit more--and get a lot more printer for one's money.
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