HP 450CBi Mobile DeskJet Printer

Rating:
Summary: Not bad, but a tad overpriced
Review: I bought this printer to go with my HP Pavilion ze5200 laptop the summer before heading off to college. I knew that in college, I'd be mobile and on the run, so I was looking for a good quality printer that was small enough to fit in a dorm, but wouldn't crap out on me as I was printing a ten page paper half an hour before it was due.

It's been about nine months since I bought the 450Cbi, and I've had a really good experience. It's small enough to fit compactly on my little dorm-room desk, and every time someone walks into my room they say, "Oh! What a cute printer!" It's small and lightweight enough to throw in my backpack along with my laptop as I go to the library or student center to study, and the fact that it can be battery-powered is just awesome--I can be sitting outside in the middle of the quad, with no outlets in sight, tapping away happily on my laptop with my printer chugging out my papers beside me. The quality is fantastic, both photo and simple black-and-white, and one black ink cartridge lasted me eight months, which is amazing considering all the papers a college student has to type.

For the negative stuff: As other people have said, it has a problem with paper jamming. I've had several times where the paper has jammed, and I've had to work like the devil to un-jam it. However, nothing has broken, and all in all, it's held up beautifully considering how much I put it through, always lugging it from one side of the campus to the other. My infrared printing did suddenly stop working on me for some reason--my laptop will detect the beam and begin to print, but an error will pop up and refuse to print anything that's not a Notepad file. As well, I was also disappointed that though the printer is advertised as being wireless, it doesn't actually come with a Bluetooth card. No matter though, a parallel port cable is short, compact, and has worked perfectly fine for me. I do think that it is a little overpriced--I paid $250 for it--but for me, it's been a great a little printer and I don't regret my choise to buy it.

Rating:
Summary: Not bad, but a tad overpriced
Review: I bought this printer to go with my HP Pavilion ze5200 laptop the summer before heading off to college. I knew that in college, I'd be mobile and on the run, so I was looking for a good quality printer that was small enough to fit in a dorm, but wouldn't crap out on me as I was printing a ten page paper half an hour before it was due.

It's been about nine months since I bought the 450Cbi, and I've had a really good experience. It's small enough to fit compactly on my little dorm-room desk, and every time someone walks into my room they say, "Oh! What a cute printer!" It's small and lightweight enough to throw in my backpack along with my laptop as I go to the library or student center to study, and the fact that it can be battery-powered is just awesome--I can be sitting outside in the middle of the quad, with no outlets in sight, tapping away happily on my laptop with my printer chugging out my papers beside me. The quality is fantastic, both photo and simple black-and-white, and one black ink cartridge lasted me eight months, which is amazing considering all the papers a college student has to type.

For the negative stuff: As other people have said, it has a problem with paper jamming. I've had several times where the paper has jammed, and I've had to work like the devil to un-jam it. However, nothing has broken, and all in all, it's held up beautifully considering how much I put it through, always lugging it from one side of the campus to the other. My infrared printing did suddenly stop working on me for some reason--my laptop will detect the beam and begin to print, but an error will pop up and refuse to print anything that's not a Notepad file. As well, I was also disappointed that though the printer is advertised as being wireless, it doesn't actually come with a Bluetooth card. No matter though, a parallel port cable is short, compact, and has worked perfectly fine for me. I do think that it is a little overpriced--I paid $250 for it--but for me, it's been a great a little printer and I don't regret my choise to buy it.

Rating:
Summary: Photo Printing Amazing
Review: I got a new laptop this year, and it came with a free Dell Printer/Scanner/Copier thing, which I was pretty excited about, but it turned out it was HUGE. Took up waaaaay too much desk space in my already cramped dorm room, so at a friend's recommendation I got the HP 450 CBi. It's amazing.

First reason it's amazing is that for day-to-day printing it is just as good, if not a little better, than any other HP inkjet I've ever had, and I've had quite a few.

Second, the portability is great. Not only is it great to be able to bring my laptop to the theatre and update paperwork, etc. on the spot, but it's even better to then be able to immediately print it out and hand it to whoever it needs to go to.

Third, it's photo printing quality is incredible. With HP Premium Plus glossy photo paper, and the #58 photo cartrige, all of the pictures I've printed on it are virtually indistinguishable from film prints.

The only cons I'd say are the capacity of the ink cartriges (and the price, but I suppose all ink cartriges are rediculously overpriced), and the overall price of the unit. However, if you've got a good amount of money to spend on a printer, need to conserve as much space as you can, and could benefit from the portability, I would highly recommend this printer.

Rating:
Summary: Paper Jambs
Review: I heavily use the HP 450CBi daily. Usually print 75 to 100 pages of Docs per day. Battery life is good. Print quality is good. Print speed is acceptable for a portable. Durability is questionable. I keep it clean and in its own protective case. I am on my THIRD HP450CBi printer in 9 months! Paper jambs, multiple sheets feeding, print carriage movement obstructed. I have tried many different types of paper based on quality, brand, thickness of paper, inkjet, multipurpose, etc. all with similar results. When number 3 gives out I think I go for a cheap disposable desk type model and plug into a 12V/110V power inverter in my vehicle. No Bluetooth as advertised. Forget IR. Just plug in a USB cable. Good Luck!

Rating:
Summary: Paper Jambs
Review: I purchased a 450 CBi so I could use the Bluetooth technolagy with my HP ipac 2215. The printer is clearly advertised as having Bluetooth connectivity. Upon receiving the printer the information included indicates that a HP Bluetooth printer card is required priced at $97.00. After spending 3 hours on line and on phone I find the item can't be bought. HP's last instructions were to search on google for it. I did only to find only one reseller listing the item. They were out of stock.

Rating:
Summary: 450 CBi misrepresented by manufacturer.
Review: I purchased a 450 CBi so I could use the Bluetooth technolagy with my HP ipac 2215. The printer is clearly advertised as having Bluetooth connectivity. Upon receiving the printer the information included indicates that a HP Bluetooth printer card is required priced at $97.00. After spending 3 hours on line and on phone I find the item can't be bought. HP's last instructions were to search on google for it. I did only to find only one reseller listing the item. They were out of stock.

Rating:
Summary: Not what is advertized
Review: I spend a lot of time on the road and I use a lot of different types of printers. The HP is over priced for what you get. Keeping in mind you can buy a pretty nice printer for $300 today. It is much slower that advertized at 9 PPM black. It is more like 1 minute per page. That is with 30% text on a page. This is NOT good. The duplex printing requires one to manually flip the pages over. What is up with that? Print quality is good. Portability is OK, but not as nice as the Cannon i70. Ink cartridge size is good, but expensive. Infrared printing is glitchy. Quality and syle is OK. Unfortunately when a company tags a printer as a portable then the price goes up by a multiple of 200%. This is a mediocre printer that is worth about $50.00.

Rating:
Summary: Not what is advertized
Review: I spend a lot of time on the road and I use a lot of different types of printers. The HP is over priced for what you get. Keeping in mind you can buy a pretty nice printer for $300 today. It is much slower that advertized at 9 PPM black. It is more like 1 minute per page. That is with 30% text on a page. This is NOT good. The duplex printing requires one to manually flip the pages over. What is up with that? Print quality is good. Portability is OK, but not as nice as the Cannon i70. Ink cartridge size is good, but expensive. Infrared printing is glitchy. Quality and syle is OK. Unfortunately when a company tags a printer as a portable then the price goes up by a multiple of 200%. This is a mediocre printer that is worth about $50.00.

Rating:
Summary: A Great Desktop -- and Portable -- Printer!
Review: The HP 450 cbi is an extremely versatile printer which I use as much in my office as I do on the road! It prints both text and digital photos every bit as sharp as my larger HP Photosmart 7550. It's extremely compact for traveling. And with its dual wireless capabilities (infrared and Bluetooth), I can output to it from my laptops - as well as from my PDA's.

The portable 450 uses HP's new six color ink system which, when printing digital photos, trades out the black cartridge for another three-color unit. The flip-up paper tray feeds well and holds up to forty-five pages. There's a special slot for 4" x 6" paper which makes printing snapshots as easy as making 8" x 10" enlargements. But the kicker for me was HP's claim of a 73 year photo life using HP's Premium Plus photo paper - which was verified in independent testing by PC World magazine in their November, 2002 issue! (Gee, what's not to like?)

The HP 450 has a built-in infrared port on the front (and is the only model in HP's new lineup so equipped). But contrary to what's written, connecting via Bluetooth requires purchasing an optional Bluetooth Compact Flash Card directly from the Anycom.com website, which is then installed via a handy slot in the back.

I use a USB cable to print from my desktop, and very reliable 3Com Bluetooth PC cards to output from my laptops.

I print via infrared from my Sony Clie using Docs To Go and IrPrint (available from iscomplete.org). And I output from my Palm 515 by using a Toshiba Bluetooth SD card - and Docs To Go and BtPrint (also available from iscomplete.org).

Even my daughter, not to be left out, prints directly to the HP 450 (via infrared) using her Palm OS-based Alphasmart Dana word processor, and she loves it!

I've carried the HP 450 with me on several business trips where it's performed flawlessly. I've taken the printer (with its portable battery) to meetings - where it was also a big hit. I've even used the HP 450 - in my garage -- to print labels and identify all of my stuff! The capabilities of this printer are truly amazing!

The HP 450, incidentally, is a much better portable printer than the HP 350 cbi or the Canon BJC-55 I owned previously. The HP 350 was much bulkier and could only accept a single ink jet cartridge (either a 3-color or a black & white unit) at one time. The Canon BJC-55 had extremely small ink tanks; and printing from my Palm (due to very weak print drivers) was rudimentary at best.

If you're in the market for a new printer, be sure and check out the new 450 cbi from HP. It is, without a doubt, one of the most versatile printers ever invented!