Home :: Cameras :: Printers & Scanners :: Photo Printers  

Flatbed Scanners
Photo Printers

Slide & Photo Scanners
HP PhotoSmart 1315 Printer

HP PhotoSmart 1315 Printer

List Price: $399.99
Your Price: $129.88
Product Info Reviews

<< 1 2 >>

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Excellent, just excellent photo printer
Review: ********************************************************************************************************************************
With the write digital camera this printer will produce prints that is identical if not better than those of a photo lab. I use mine with a 3.0 MP digital camera and the outcome is pleasing and you don't have to purcha$e 3 different ink catridges like some other modern photo printers. A+++++++++

********************************************************************************************************************************

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Don't buy this Printer
Review: Don't buy this printer! There are much better printers out there for the money. If you can get it to print, the quality is pretty good, but the software is unbelievably bad. We have spent hours and hours and hours just getting it to print a 4x6, using every program we could think of. Frustrating beyond belief. Try the new series of HP Photo Printers.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Too slow - picture quality not that great
Review: I am very dissappointed with this HP product. I runs extremely slow and picture quality was okay, but not all that great. Tech support was not helpful at all. I returned it and will wait for Dell's printers. Never had any problems with Dell products or tech support.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Pretty Nice Unit
Review: I bought this unit to replace a HP 1218. At first, like many other reviewers, it seemed much slower than the 1218. I'd start to print text or a picture and the cartridge would swipe across the page then pause, then swipe across and pause again for 2 to 3 seconds each time. When I questioned HP support they sent me a few options to change the spooler settings and it helped the speed significantly. I can't say that it's fatser than my old 1218, but it's pretty close. The print quality for both text and photos seems superior.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Satisfied - great quality pictures without problems
Review: I had to return the first 1315 I bought because it was super-slow (a complaint echoed by another reviewer). Fortunately, this replacement is much better. After putting it through the paces, I can recommend it to those who want photo-quality printing, however if you don't have a digital camera, many of the features of this printer are going to waste and I'd look for a less-expensive model.

I'll get the gripes out of the way. First, the software installs fine but doesn't allow any customization. Instead it shoves all these programs down your (hard drive's) throat and throws three extra icons in the system tray. As a firm believer of "less is more" when dealing with Windows, I'm not sure I needed a program to tell me I have a printer connected, another to tell me if I have a memory card inserted, and yet another to tell me if any other devices are connected.

Next, I've been running into problems with left and right margins cutting off almost an inch. HP says the borders should only be a 1/4-inch but depending on the program stuff gets cut off. Printing from Word works fine, but printing from MS Internet Explorer cuts off the edges. Go figure. On this note, HP's tech support is responsive, but I've frequently run into problems trying to use their site. Nothing more exciting then spending half an hour detailing your problems just to get the "page not found" error and have all that work disappear.

Finally, I agree with the other reviewers who complain about the tri-color cartridges. It seems like such a waste to throw away all this ink just because one color ran out. On the plus side, the software has a nice feature of letting you know how much ink is left.

Now for the good stuff. First off, the printer is silent but fast. The LCD screen works great and is well integrated with the function of the printer - serving to tell you each step of what you are doing instead of having to guess. You can print directly from the printer without even having to have the computer turned on. The only printer in this price range I compared this to was the Epson 785, but you have to spend extra to get the LCD display plus I would have had to order an adapter to get my SmartMedia cards to load. It detects and prints envelopes without problems and I haven't run into any problems with paper jams, regular paper, photo paper, or otherwise. Finally you can print via infrared, but I haven't tested it.

The main reason to spend the extra money is for printing photographs and this printer does the job. When I first got my digital camera I was setting it to lower resolutions as I couldn't tell the difference on screen. The printer prints so well I now need to up the resolution to a higher quality setting. Even printing photographs on plain paper is acceptable but high-quality digital photographs on photo paper is where this printer shines. I'm not seeing any difference between this and developed photographs. Goodbye Kodak!

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Let's Jam
Review: I have had nothing but trouble since I installed this [printer].
I could never get it to print on photo paper, it kept jamming and destroying the paper. Gets expensive. Also, on plain paper, it always jams on the first sheet, then I clear it and it works. I don't know if I have a lemon or if this is common. I would check into it further before I bought one, if I were you.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Slow, outdated, overpriced to start with
Review: I have had one for 18 months. It is ok, but I wish I had never bought it.. The little display is useless and only added to the purchase price, but that is what I get for being easily impressed. The colors are good but the ink is not permanent, as in, a drop of water, a slightly moist finger --- by by print it smears. The card reader does not work well with Windows XP, it is excruciatingly slow, literally 30-60 seconds/3 mb photo. I spent [$$$] on a separate USB card reader and it flys. ...

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: hpphotsmart1315
Review: I have not been able to print a multi page doc yet. I have not been able to print a decent photo either. I have had a qualified tech in to troubleshoot but I still cannot print more than 4 sheets at a time. The printer is constantly going offline and has constant error messages.
Evan

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: An exceptional printer for the price
Review: I have purchased 2 of these-one for myself and one for my wife. Setup is simple and the included software package is very good. Printing photos from my HP 850 camera gives results that are hard to distinguish from 35mm prints. The real keys to making this printer work are:

1. Using the best quality photo paper.
2. Letting the printer autosense the paper and adjust itself to the paper.
3. Printing from high resolution digital photos.

I recently printed a photo of my nephew sitting on a new Harley Road King. I printed it and took it to work and no one realized it was not a 35mm print. The chrome and detail on the bike were rendered perfectly and the quality was outstanding.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Slowest Printer yet
Review: I have read good reviews on this printer but when it came time to purchase it, I had a hard time finding this printer in stock. When I finally got one and installed it, I was impressed with the print quality and features but it was the slowest printer I have ever seen. I talked with HP tech support and they tried to help, by suggesting re-installing the drivers etc. I tried the parallel port and the USB port but it was still slowwwww (taking 2-4 mins to print a page of text). It was even slow doing the self test print job. I finally concluded that it was defective and returned it.


<< 1 2 >>

© 2004, ReviewFocus or its affiliates