HP Photosmart Premium TouchSmart Web
Saturday, October 24, 2009
Key Specs | |
| Color inkjet USB 2.0, Wi-Fi, memory-card slots, USB/PictBridge, Bluetooth, Ethernet, RJ-11 8.5x14 inches 9,600x2,400dpi 600x600dpi 4,800x4,800ppi No 4.3 inches 18x19.3x7.8 inches 16.5 pounds | |
HP Photosmart Premium TouchSmart Web Review | |
| Reviewed by: Sally Wiener Grotta and Daniel Grotta Review Date: October 2009 | |
| Lincoln Steffens once famously said, "I have seen the future, and it works!" That same aphorism could be applied to the new generation of all-in-one (AIO) color inkjet printers that come equipped with large, bright Web-enabled LCD touch-screen control panels. The latest of the lot is HP's Photosmart Premium TouchSmart Web. It combines decent print speeds, a state-of-the-art display, very good image quality, and easy installation and setup—and yet, it stumbles over some important details that would otherwise have made this device a must-have printer. The TouchSmart is a handsome silver-and-black device that takes up a relatively small amount of space. The designers attempted to give it some style and panache by embedding geometric swirls and lines in the plastic. HP wanted to indicate that this device is somehow different from run-of-the-mill AIOs from the get-go; when we unpacked the printer, it came swaddled in an oversize, HP logo-emblazoned black canvas carry bag. This made it easy to remove it from the box, simply by lifting it by the straps (though the Styrofoam had to be lifted up at the same time, because the inserts were in the wrong direction to allow unimpeded access). Nice as it is, the bag is too light and skimpy to use as an everyday carrier, especially since it doesn't have a zipper or any other seal to protect the contents from the elements. But HP added even more class to the TouchSmart by conveniently stuffing all the cords and cables in a zippered, shaving-kit-like case, suitable for other uses once unpacked.
 All the cords and cables come in a small, zippered, shaving-kit-like case.
Primarily a photo printer targeted at individual consumers rather than small-office or home-office users, the TouchSmart lacks an automatic document feeder. However, its nicely designed lid is easy to raise several inches, to accommodate oversize originals such as books. If that action doesn't provide enough clearance, the cover itself can also be removed for open-bed scanning. Conveniently clustered together at the left rear of the printer are USB, Ethernet, and RJ-11 ports, plus a detachable power cord (with an in-line brick). Because the automatic duplexer sticks out approximately three inches, the printer cannot be positioned flush against a wall. Paper handling is a mixed bag. The TouchSmart's primary, nonremovable paper cassette accommodates only 100 sheets at a time, and although the paper stop on the discharge tray is small and feels flimsy, it proved quite adequate for accumulating up to 100 printed sheets. For double-sided printing, the TouchSmart features an automatic duplexer. It also has a separate, nonremovable tray for photo papers. (The tray holds only up to 5x7-inch paper; if you want to print larger photos, you have to put the paper in the regular tray.) Unfortunately, the clear plastic cover has no automatic stop when you raise it, so you must hold it open with one hand while inserting blank photo paper with the other. And instead of manually pushing the photo paper into position, the TouchSmart automatically moves it when you press the print button. This not only adds 4 to 5 seconds to print times, but the complexity means more moving parts that can break down or wear out.
 You are able to connect to a limited number of Web apps through the Photosmart Premium’s 4.3-inch LCD.
The TouchSmart's most prominent feature is its black-bezeled, high-resolution color touch screen. The 4.3-inch display folds flat against the silver front of the printer or swivels out approximately 60 degrees for more convenient viewing. Directly to its right are an assortment of memory-card slots and a USB port, for PictBridge-enabled digital cameras. When not in use, the slots and port are protected against dust by a sliding plastic cover. To the right and slightly below the memory slots are two status lights, indicating active Wi-Fi and/or Bluetooth connectivity. And to the right of those lights is an illuminated power button. Setup and installation was simple and trouble-free. Unlike most inkjets, which require some sort of command or maneuver to move the printhead and ink cartridges into position for insertion or replacement, the unit doesn't even have to be turned on—you simply raise the cover and gently push the printhead into the correct position. There's nothing to assemble or install, except for the five ink cartridges, which slip easily into color-coded slots designed to prevent inserting the wrong cartridge in the wrong slot. After the ink cartridges are installed, the touch screen displays a digital time countdown of 12 minutes, while the printer initializes, aligns, and calibrates. It then leads the user through a simple-to-follow installation routine. Our initial Wi-Fi installation failed, but after the touch screen informed us that we should temporarily suppress our PC's firewall, we had no further difficulty.
 The only assembly that is required is installing the five ink cartridges.
Before printing, we took the TouchSmart's touch screen for a brief test drive. Navigating through the menus and attractive pictorial icons was easy and intuitive, but at times, pressing on the screen was, well, touchy. Usually, a light fingertip push was sufficient to page through applications and options, but to activate a command, we sometimes had to press repeatedly or even use a fingernail. Like the Lexmark Platinum Pro905's touch screen, the TouchSmart can connect to a limited number of sites on the Web. Among the services it can currently access are the online version of USA Today, Snapfish, Disney Family, Google Maps, Coupons.com, Web Sudoku, and Fandango; HP promises that it will continue to add more apps. But unlike the Lexmark, which permits the user to magnify and read what's displayed on the touch screen, all content on the TouchSmart is "greeked" and cannot be read—you must print it out. We feel that the user should have both options—make a printout or read it on the touch screen—or, at the very least, be able to see a readable preview before printing to avoid wasting paper. Although this is a nice feature and an innovative idea, we were left pondering the true usefulness of it: How often are you really going to want to print a Sudoku puzzle or buy movie tickets direct from your printer? Of course, Web functionality like this is really just a sideshow in this or any printer; what matters is how well it prints. Here, printing is simple and straightforward, but not without a few small technical hiccups. Like other Photosmart printers, the TouchSmart offers three levels of quality: Fast Draft, Normal, and Best. When printing on HP Premium glossy photo paper, we would select the quality setting, print, and then prepare to make another print. Each time, the printer would automatically revert from Fast Draft or Best mode back to Normal mode, rather than retain the last printer selection. The difficulty may be in HP's otherwise convenient auto-detect feature, which senses the type of paper being used and selects what it thinks are the most the appropriate settings. Incidentally, while auto-sensing is designed to work with HP-encoded media, it can also automatically sense and select some, but not all, generic brands of paper. When printing, the touch screen displays a circular flashing light rotating around an HP logo, plus the message “Now Printing,” while on the PC, a brief box appears and then fades, with essentially the same message. We would much prefer seeing more useful information, such as a progress bar, the number of pages printed, or the percentage of the job remaining. On the other hand, both the touch screen and HP's Solution Center will automatically display a low-ink warning when required. (Predictably, the Solution Center allows you to order replacement ink directly from HP.) While we encountered no paper jams, the HP did occasionally eject extra, blank pages, and in one instance, dog-eared a page being printed.
 Prints eject from the front of the printer onto the top of the paper cassette, which doubles as the paper receiver.
The copying and scanning functions were as simple to use as a dedicated desktop copier and flatbed scanner. The user has the option of customizing the settings (for instance, choosing Best mode rather than Normal), or simply pushing the color or monochrome button to begin copying. Scanning is easily triggered from the touch screen, or via HP's Solution Center. While Solution Center lacks advanced scanning tools appropriate for high-powered photo scanning, they are quite adequate for this class of photo AIO. Unlike its competitors, for which Bluetooth connectivity is optional and extra, the TouchSmart comes equipped with built-in Bluetooth. We took a few snapshots around the studio with our Palm Centro, and within 60 seconds, we easily connected to the TouchSmart and printed out a phone-quality snapshot photo. Print-speed-wise, the TouchSmart falls somewhere in the middle of its competitors. In Normal mode, it output our standard 20-page monochrome text file in 2 minutes and 1 second, slightly faster than the $299 Canon Pixma MP990 and the $399 Lexmark Platinum Pro905. However, in Best mode, it slowed to a sluggish 11 minutes and 38 seconds, three minutes slower than both its competitors. Our 10-page text-and-color-graphics file in Fast Draft mode took 42.6 seconds. The slower Canon took about 50 percent longer to do the job, while the Lexmark did it just a few seconds faster. The same file in Best mode completed the job in 5 minutes and 19 seconds, nearly a minute slower than the Lexmark but about 50 percent faster than the Canon. The TouchSmart also had mixed results outputting photos. In Fast Draft and Best modes, it cranked out 4x6-inch snapshots, respectively, in 30 seconds and 42 seconds. The Canon was only slightly slower, taking 2 seconds and 5 seconds longer, respectively, while the Lexmark was much faster, knocking down both times by about a third. Our 8.5x11-inch enlargement took a mere 44 seconds in Fast Draft mode, but extended to 2 minutes and 49 seconds in Best mode. Oddly, it was much faster than the Canon and Lexmark in their Normal modes on this test, but much slower than both in Best mode. Overall, because of variances we saw, we can't make any blanket assessment here regarding the TouchSmart's printing times, other than to say the printer was definitely in the ballpark for an all-in-one at its price. The TouchSmart's scanning and copying performance times, like its print speeds, were in between those of the Canon and the Lexmark. The TouchSmart was slightly faster in Fast Draft mode, marginally slower in Best mode, and about the same in Normal mode. What's crucial, though, is the print quality. Text quality was fair to good on our test text printouts. In Normal mode, characters are sharp, dark, and eminently legible. Fast Draft mode characters are slightly pixelated and thin, but dark and readable. In Fine mode, however, the characters are very dark but not particularly crisp or sharply delineated, because in laying down extra ink, they exhibit a slight fuzziness at the edges. While the print is legible down to 3 points, the spacing between characters is slightly irregular. Color text, however, is sharp, nicely saturated, and quite legible. Though text printing was slightly uneven, photo image quality is this model's forte. Colors are both accurate and pleasing, edges are sharp, and details are clear and crisp. While some bright areas are slightly blown out, there is very good depth and detail in the shadows. Color photocopies are somewhat duller and less sharp than the originals, but to put this in perspective, we rate the overall quality of the TouchSmart's photocopies higher than most made by an AIO printer. The TouchSmart's costs-per-page can't match the 10 cents per 4x6-inch snapshot that Kodak's AIO printers promise or meet the 1.6 cents per page for text we saw with the Lexmark Platinum Pro905. But its 4.4 cents per page for monochrome text and 11.6 cents per page for combined text and color graphics are fractions of a cent less than the Canon Pixma MP990. That makes the TouchSmart's costs about average for printers in its class. The HP Photosmart Premium TouchSmart Web is a good choice for users who value simple setup, ease of use, and high-quality photo printing, and who are intrigued by its innovative (though limited) Web-enabled touch screen. But if you divide your printing between photos and text, and don't see yourself using the productivity apps available for the touch screen, look at the Lexmark Platinum Pro905 or the Canon Pixma MP990 instead. Price (at time of review): $399 (mfr. est.) www.hp.com See all of our HP Photosmart Premium TouchSmart Web coverage | |