Have you ever wondered if your printer is actually the best quality for the money? I know in the past when I have purchased printers, I bought based on price and features, but never had the chance to compare one brand to another in terms of actual print quality.
I was lucky enough to get selected to participate in a 6 week virtual focus group for HP.
HP sent me 2 printers to compare head to head on overall print quality and value. I will be comparing the HP Photosmart C6380 and the Kodak ESP 7. Both are photo printers in the same price range.
Along with the printers I was sent enough supplies to print and compare 100’s of documents and photos.
Over the next 6 weeks I will be reporting my comparisons of each printer.
This week I am reviewing setup and initial print quality.
Week 1 – Setup
HP Photosmart C6380
The first printer I set up with the HP Photosmart. The whole process took about 45 minutes, which was actually a bit longer than I had expected. Other printers I have used in the past it seemed to only take a few minutes, but they were not photo printers.
The most time consuming portion of installing the HP was the ink. The are 5 different colors of ink that need to be installed. The ink packages also took awhile to open and insert. When I saw all the ink I wasn’t sure if I would like it. The first thought in my head was “this ink is going to be expensive to replace, who wants to buy 5 different inks?”. I still have yet to explore the actual ink cost and that will be updated in another post. Needless to say, the ink takes a while to install.
Both printers have wireless connections, but I opted to do the regular USB installation. The reason behind this was I am using these printers primarily at my desktop and didn’t want to mess with that connectivity. I do have a laptop that is on a wireless network if I ever decide to switch. I do like the option of having the printer wireless.
After loading the ink and paper I used the installation CD to get everything connected. The installation took maybe 10 minutes and I liked the fact when it was over it asked me to print a picture right away. I printed a picture of my husband and I from vacation, and honestly, I was blown away by the results. The picture quality was as good as any lab. I wasn’t expecting this printer to be that good. I thought that even with the hassle of the ink installation, if it prints this good all the time, this printer is totally worth it.
Kodak ESP 7
The Kodak ESP 7 took less time than the HP printer to install. The ink was similar to the type I was used to, a cartridge with multiple colors and a black cartridge vs. the individual color cartridges of the HP.
Setup for the Kodak ESP maybe took 30 minutes total. The installation CD setup was about the same as the HP however it took me longer to figure out how to print my first picture. I printed the same picture as I did with the HP and the differences were obvious.
While Kodak might of won the round on easy setup, the HP won the round in initial print quality. Here are the 2 pictures side by side. The Kodak is on top, HP on the bottom.
You can tell that the HP gives a true black color where the Kodak is slightly faded. It also seems like the Kodak did some focusing where the HP did not. I printed on the same default settings for each.
I also noticed from the Kodak printer that even when printing the same photo multiple times, the colors from photo to photo were slightly off. I am not sure why this happened, maybe just because the ink was brand new.
As far as the printers look visually, I am partial to the HP, while my husband likes the look of the Kodak printer better. We both agree that the Kodak printer has a nicer, larger display screen.
Kodak on left, HP on right.
This wraps up week 1. Next week I will be digging in deeper with more print jobs, and the true printer test…8×10 color photos and copies.
Follow the other HP virtual focus group testers on twitter with hashtag #printwithme
Mardi Gras Feb. 13th-16th 
{ 1 trackback }
{ 0 comments… add one now }