Hewlett Packard Photosmart 8450 InkJet Printer
- Black Print Speed: 20 ppm
- Color Print Speed: 20 ppm
- Output Type: Color Printer
- Technology (Detailed): Thermal Inkjet
- Printer Type: Digital Photo Printer
- Max Resolution (BW): 1200 x 1200 dpi
Available From
Why are these offers here?
Lowest Price!
- Overview
-
Reviews
- Compare Prices
User ReviewRead All Reviews »
The Photosmart 8450 is another winner!
Pros
Great photo printing in color or black and white.
Cons
Swapping black cartridge with gray cartridge.
Recommended it?
Yes
The Bottom Line:
A great printer for the home or office and for general use and photo printing.
The Photosmart 8450 is made for great photo printing and all purpose printing. It will print borderless on 4 x 6 inch photo paper all the way to a borderless 8.5 x 11 inch photo paper, plus it will print the new 4 x 12 inch Panorama photo paper. Not only is it a great photo printer, it can be used as an everyday printer printing on plain paper, card stock, transparencies and much more. Possible custom selections allow paper sizes from 3 inches wide to 8.5 inches wide; 5 inches in length to 24 inches in length.
The 8450 is an eight color system with up to 4800 dpi. (dots per inch) The eight color combination gives the photos that crisp colorful finish. Print digital photos directly from most digital memory cards, from a computer and directly from the camera if it has PictBridge direct-USB printing.
LCD
The 8450 has an LCD that is 2.5 inches in color. This may seem small, but remember most digital cameras are less than 2 inches in size. The LCD is movable; you can tilt it or move it in any direction you wish. The color is crisp and clear.
The LCD is helpful if you are printing a photo without the use of a computer. With the LCD you can do some editing and adjustment before the photo is printed. Personally I prefer looking at my photos on a large computer screen for the best editing and viewing possible.
Ink
I think HP produces some of the best personal home printers on the market, but I wish they would go to ink cartridges with only one color in each.
The 8450 is an eight color system, but in reality it only holds seven colors at a time. It uses two tri-color cartridges and the HP 100 Gray-photo cartridge; with these colors it produces a black. If you plan to print a lot of documents that need black, then you can get the optional HP 96 black cartridge and replace it with the gray-photo cartridge.
The printer came with the HP 100 Gray-photo cartridge, a HP 97 tri-color and a HP 99 photo tri-color cartridge. These three cartridges produce some amazing photos.
Networking Built-in
A built-in Ethernet card, this is something you don't find on very many ink jet printers. Now you can network several computers to use the same printer.
Other printer connections are made through a USB port 2.0 or 1.1 and an optional HP bt300 Bluetooth wireless adapter.
Memory Cards
The HP Photosmart series are known for the ability to be independent from a computer by providing built-in memory card slots, which enables a person to pop their camera memory card into the printer and print photos. The 8450 Photosmart gives a wide variety of cards that can be used.
On the top left side of the printer is where you will find four slots covered by a protective clear cover to keep the dust out. Even with four slots, only one slot can be used at a time. The following are excepted in one of the four slots; CompactFlash Type I or II, Microdrives, SmartMedia, xD-Picture cards, SecureDigital, MultiMediaCard, and Memory Stick. Memory Stick includes Memory Stick Duo, Magic Gate and Memory Stick Pro cards.
4 x 6 Tray
Another standard feature of a Photosmart printer is the built-in 4 x 6 inch tray made for 4 x 6 inch photo paper. The tray is built-in to hold 20 sheets of photo paper; it will store the photo paper and the 8.5 x 11 inch paper all at the same time. To get the printer to pick up the 4 x 6 inch photo paper; just slide the photo tray slider forward; sliding it back will tell the printer to use the 8.5 x 11 inch paper or what ever size you have loaded in it.
My Printing Times
One thing I always like to do is to check in my time how long it actually takes to print a photo; most of the time this is off from the manufactures suggested times because there are many factors involved. One of the biggest factors is how much white is in the photo; a photo with a lot of white in it, will print faster than one full of colors, because white is a color the printer doesn't have to print.
All printing times are my timings and do very from different photos, but this gives a person a general idea of how long it actually takes to print the photo. All my prints are on the default ink volume and drying time, which can be adjusted and borderless printing.
For a photo print I use no less than the normal quality print, there is a Best quality print and a maximum dpi print. For 4 x6 inch prints I find the normal quality to do an excellent job on color and clarity, on an 8 x 10 inch print I like the best quality setting. The maximum dpi does an excellent job on both sizes, but it is so slow!
I printed three different photos in the 4 x6 inch normal quality and the printing times are; 1 minutes & 2 seconds, 1 minutes & 14 seconds and 1 minutes & 8 seconds.
I printed three different photos in the 4 x6 inch best quality and the printing times are; 2 minutes & 1 second, 2 minutes & 14 seconds and 2 minutes and 9 seconds.
In the maximum dpi I only printed one 4 x 6 inch print and it took 4 minutes and 29 seconds.
Printing the 8.5 x 11 inch photos, I only printed one photo (the same photo) in all three modes; the normal printed in 3 minutes and 27 seconds, the best printed in 5 minutes and 42 seconds and the maximum dpi printed in 11 minutes and 2 seconds.
Bottom line; this give you a general idea of printing times. The maximum dpi setting is slow!
My Final Thoughts
The Photosmart series printers have always provided the leadership in home digital printing with improvements to every new model that comes along.
Connecting and hooking up the printer is simple and easy to uses weather it is hooked to a computer or not. Though my preference is to view my photos on a large computer screen verses the small 2.5 inch color screen.
Photo quality is good; my only gripe is having to swap the black cartridge in and out depending on what you want to print more of, photos or documents today. I find leaving the 100 Gray-photo cartridge out and using the black cartridge instead produces about the same quality in photos; so I leave the black in. HP needs to add a fourth slot to accommodate all four cartridges all the time; even better yet, do like the competition and use eight separate color cartridges.
For black and white printing I only printed one 4 x 6 inch photo; it turned out very good in quality, but I prefer color myself.
For photo printing and general printing the HP Photosmart 8450 is a winner.
Read about some of my other Printer reviews.
Canon S 9000 Personal Printer
Canon i 950 Ink-jet Printer
Epson Stylus Photo 825 Ink-jet Printer
Epson Stylus Photo 2200 Ink-jet Printer
HP PhotosSmart 7550 Photo Printer
HP PhotoSmart 7350 Photo Printer
HP PhotoSmart 1315 Desktop Personal Printer
HP PhotoSmart 1215 Personal Printer
Hewlett-Packard HP PhotoSmart p1000
HP LaserJet 1000 Personal Printer
Hewlett-Packard HP LaserJet 4100n
Sony DPP-SV77 Digital Photo Printer
Sony Digital Photo Printer SV55 Desktop Printer
The 8450 is an eight color system with up to 4800 dpi. (dots per inch) The eight color combination gives the photos that crisp colorful finish. Print digital photos directly from most digital memory cards, from a computer and directly from the camera if it has PictBridge direct-USB printing.
LCD
The 8450 has an LCD that is 2.5 inches in color. This may seem small, but remember most digital cameras are less than 2 inches in size. The LCD is movable; you can tilt it or move it in any direction you wish. The color is crisp and clear.
The LCD is helpful if you are printing a photo without the use of a computer. With the LCD you can do some editing and adjustment before the photo is printed. Personally I prefer looking at my photos on a large computer screen for the best editing and viewing possible.
Ink
I think HP produces some of the best personal home printers on the market, but I wish they would go to ink cartridges with only one color in each.
The 8450 is an eight color system, but in reality it only holds seven colors at a time. It uses two tri-color cartridges and the HP 100 Gray-photo cartridge; with these colors it produces a black. If you plan to print a lot of documents that need black, then you can get the optional HP 96 black cartridge and replace it with the gray-photo cartridge.
The printer came with the HP 100 Gray-photo cartridge, a HP 97 tri-color and a HP 99 photo tri-color cartridge. These three cartridges produce some amazing photos.
Networking Built-in
A built-in Ethernet card, this is something you don't find on very many ink jet printers. Now you can network several computers to use the same printer.
Other printer connections are made through a USB port 2.0 or 1.1 and an optional HP bt300 Bluetooth wireless adapter.
Memory Cards
The HP Photosmart series are known for the ability to be independent from a computer by providing built-in memory card slots, which enables a person to pop their camera memory card into the printer and print photos. The 8450 Photosmart gives a wide variety of cards that can be used.
On the top left side of the printer is where you will find four slots covered by a protective clear cover to keep the dust out. Even with four slots, only one slot can be used at a time. The following are excepted in one of the four slots; CompactFlash Type I or II, Microdrives, SmartMedia, xD-Picture cards, SecureDigital, MultiMediaCard, and Memory Stick. Memory Stick includes Memory Stick Duo, Magic Gate and Memory Stick Pro cards.
4 x 6 Tray
Another standard feature of a Photosmart printer is the built-in 4 x 6 inch tray made for 4 x 6 inch photo paper. The tray is built-in to hold 20 sheets of photo paper; it will store the photo paper and the 8.5 x 11 inch paper all at the same time. To get the printer to pick up the 4 x 6 inch photo paper; just slide the photo tray slider forward; sliding it back will tell the printer to use the 8.5 x 11 inch paper or what ever size you have loaded in it.
My Printing Times
One thing I always like to do is to check in my time how long it actually takes to print a photo; most of the time this is off from the manufactures suggested times because there are many factors involved. One of the biggest factors is how much white is in the photo; a photo with a lot of white in it, will print faster than one full of colors, because white is a color the printer doesn't have to print.
All printing times are my timings and do very from different photos, but this gives a person a general idea of how long it actually takes to print the photo. All my prints are on the default ink volume and drying time, which can be adjusted and borderless printing.
For a photo print I use no less than the normal quality print, there is a Best quality print and a maximum dpi print. For 4 x6 inch prints I find the normal quality to do an excellent job on color and clarity, on an 8 x 10 inch print I like the best quality setting. The maximum dpi does an excellent job on both sizes, but it is so slow!
I printed three different photos in the 4 x6 inch normal quality and the printing times are; 1 minutes & 2 seconds, 1 minutes & 14 seconds and 1 minutes & 8 seconds.
I printed three different photos in the 4 x6 inch best quality and the printing times are; 2 minutes & 1 second, 2 minutes & 14 seconds and 2 minutes and 9 seconds.
In the maximum dpi I only printed one 4 x 6 inch print and it took 4 minutes and 29 seconds.
Printing the 8.5 x 11 inch photos, I only printed one photo (the same photo) in all three modes; the normal printed in 3 minutes and 27 seconds, the best printed in 5 minutes and 42 seconds and the maximum dpi printed in 11 minutes and 2 seconds.
Bottom line; this give you a general idea of printing times. The maximum dpi setting is slow!
My Final Thoughts
The Photosmart series printers have always provided the leadership in home digital printing with improvements to every new model that comes along.
Connecting and hooking up the printer is simple and easy to uses weather it is hooked to a computer or not. Though my preference is to view my photos on a large computer screen verses the small 2.5 inch color screen.
Photo quality is good; my only gripe is having to swap the black cartridge in and out depending on what you want to print more of, photos or documents today. I find leaving the 100 Gray-photo cartridge out and using the black cartridge instead produces about the same quality in photos; so I leave the black in. HP needs to add a fourth slot to accommodate all four cartridges all the time; even better yet, do like the competition and use eight separate color cartridges.
For black and white printing I only printed one 4 x 6 inch photo; it turned out very good in quality, but I prefer color myself.
For photo printing and general printing the HP Photosmart 8450 is a winner.
Read about some of my other Printer reviews.
Canon S 9000 Personal Printer
Canon i 950 Ink-jet Printer
Epson Stylus Photo 825 Ink-jet Printer
Epson Stylus Photo 2200 Ink-jet Printer
HP PhotosSmart 7550 Photo Printer
HP PhotoSmart 7350 Photo Printer
HP PhotoSmart 1315 Desktop Personal Printer
HP PhotoSmart 1215 Personal Printer
Hewlett-Packard HP PhotoSmart p1000
HP LaserJet 1000 Personal Printer
Hewlett-Packard HP LaserJet 4100n
Sony DPP-SV77 Digital Photo Printer
Sony Digital Photo Printer SV55 Desktop Printer
