Hewlett Packard Photosmart 8150 InkJet Printer
- Black Print Speed: 20 ppm
- Color Print Speed: 20 ppm
- Output Type: Color Printer
- Technology (Detailed): Inkjet
- Printer Type: Digital Photo Printer
- Max Resolution (BW): 1200 x 1200 dpi
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Quality photo printer for the home - HP Photosmart 8150
Pros
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Cons
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Recommended it?
Yes
The Bottom Line:
Quality photo printer for home use.
I loved my HP 7350, but it was running out of ink and we started to have a problem with an indent line showing up when printing photos on glossy paper. Since it was after the warranty ran out, we started looking at other printers. I really liked the HP 8150, but it was close to Christmas and with three kids we needed all the extra money for Christmas presents, so we decided to wait since we could still print with the HP 7350, just not photos and forgot about it for a while.
A while went by and to my surprise, the Epinions gift that arrived was the very printer we were looking at buying, the HP 8150 and I haven't been disappointed, it is even better than my HP 7350 and I was very happy with that one. The quality of print, even in draft mode, is excellent and photos are like those you can get from the lab. It's a bit bigger than my old printer, but it still fits on the shelf fine.
What it comes with
In the box you will find the HP Photosmart 8150, power supply, power cord, user's guide, Quick start booklet, software, HP 95 (Tri-color cartridge) and HP 99 (Photo inkjet cartridge). You will have to buy the USB cable to hook your printer up to your computer or use the one you used for your previous printer like we did.
Size
Depending on where you keep your printer, the size of the printer does make a difference and this one is a little bit big, but not too big. Our desk has two shelves off to the right side of the desk and the printer fits fine on the first shelf. If size is an issue, the printer measures about 18 inches wide, 16 inches deep and about 7 inches tall, so keep this in mind if you only have a small space to put the printer.
Installation
Installing the HP Photosmart 8150 is very simple, just follow the instructions on the CD and you'll be up and running within a few minutes. It is important that you not hook the printer up to your computer until the software prompts you to.
Printing
Now here's where the big test was and this printer passed with flying colors, or should I say vivid colors? We print a variety of things at home from school projects, miscellaneous information on things we find on the Internet and even coloring pages for my youngest son, and of course, photos that I have taken with our digital camera. The HP Photosmart 8150 does a great job in printing photos, so good that they are suitable for framing and for sending out to family members. I thought that the HP 7350 printed good photos, but HP outdid themselves with this one.
Print quality with black is 1200 x 1200 dpi and it goes all the way up to 4800 x 1200 optimized for color when printing from a computer. I also love the fact that you can print directly from a media card, no more wasting your camera's batteries. It's compatible with CompactFlash Type I and II, SmartMedia, Secure Digital, MultiMedia Cards, Memory Sticks XD and USB flash drives, so if you have a digital camera, chances are you will be able to print directly from your media card.
Speed
HP made improvements in print speed with the HP Photosmart 8150 over the HP 7350. According to HP it prints up to 20 pages per minute in black and in color. They claim that it will print a borderless 4 X 6 as fast as 27 seconds. It's not quite as fast as they say, but it's not that far off and of course you have to take into consideration that most of their claimed speeds are in draft mode and as you go up in mode, you will lose some speed.
Most of our photo printing is 8 X 10's and it takes about 4 minutes to print out a borderless 8 X 10 on the highest quality and it turns out great.
Noise
The printer isn't really that noisy, my son can be sleeping in the same room where I'm printing and it won't bother him. The only thing that I don't like is that when it first loads the paper and starts to print, it does shake the desk a little bit.
Other Features
Paper Trays - The IN part of the tray will hold 100 sheets of standard paper, the OUTPUT tray will only hold 50, of course for a home printer, I don't see the need to have an output tray that holds more than 50.
Media (paper) types - You can use a variety of paper and/or envelopes. Plain paper, Inkjet paper, photo, glossy, transparencies, labels, index cards, iron-on transfers, and banner paper.
Windows and Mac compatible
16 MB built-in RAM
Control Panel - The control panel is on the front of the printer and you can various things from the control panel instead of using the software. The 2.5 inch LCD screen is great and is very useful when you're printing directly from a media card instead of using your computer.
Six ink color cartridge - Makes for vivid colors in photos and graphics.
Borderless printing on 4 X 6 and 8 X 10 sizes
View video on the LCD screen and then freeze to print - I haven't tried this yet.
Print from a camera phone or other Bluetooth wireless device - If you buy the HP bt300 Bluetooth wireless printer adapter. This does not come with the printer, but it's nice to know that it can be used.
Adjust and organize your photos - Using the HP Image Zone software. I admit, I use other software for this and haven't really played around with it.
Ink Monitor - Although what is shown is only an estimate, it gives you an idea of how much ink is left in your cartridges.
My Thoughts
I am very happy with my HP Photosmart 8150, thank you Epinions! I have used the printer to print out emails, coloring pages, word searches for the kids, other miscellaneous things from the web and of course, photos. I am very happy with the quality of print from the printer, the color is so vivid and crisp, photos look like they were done at the lab, not at home. There have been a few times where the picture looked a little blurry, but then upon closer inspection, it was actually the picture itself, the printer just picks up those fine details that the human eye may miss.
The printer is fairly quiet when printing, I mean you can hear it printing if you're next to it, but you would never know it if you were in another room. It does shake the desk a bit when it starts printing, like I mentioned before, so make sure it's not on an unstable surface.
The fact that it takes so many different kinds of media cards is great. Now I usually don't print directly from the media cards, I like to adjust the photos before printing, but you can use the media card slots to transfer pictures from your cards to your computer also.
I honestly thought that the quality of print wouldn't get any better from the HP 7350, I just assumed they would add more or improve upon the features, but I was wrong. The quality of photo printing is just great, the printed pictures are not grainy or anything like that, unless the pictures themselves are that way. As long as the picture is of good quality, the printed picture will be too and it will be suitable for framing, it's that good.
So far, ink consumption seems to be good too, we have printed various things, including a few photos at the highest quality and the cartridges are still more than 3/4 full. What you print, quality of print and how much you print will all have an impact on ink consumption.
All in all, I am very happy with my HP Photosmart 8150 and I definitely recommend this printer if you are looking for a photo quality printer, you won't be disappointed.
A while went by and to my surprise, the Epinions gift that arrived was the very printer we were looking at buying, the HP 8150 and I haven't been disappointed, it is even better than my HP 7350 and I was very happy with that one. The quality of print, even in draft mode, is excellent and photos are like those you can get from the lab. It's a bit bigger than my old printer, but it still fits on the shelf fine.
What it comes with
In the box you will find the HP Photosmart 8150, power supply, power cord, user's guide, Quick start booklet, software, HP 95 (Tri-color cartridge) and HP 99 (Photo inkjet cartridge). You will have to buy the USB cable to hook your printer up to your computer or use the one you used for your previous printer like we did.
Size
Depending on where you keep your printer, the size of the printer does make a difference and this one is a little bit big, but not too big. Our desk has two shelves off to the right side of the desk and the printer fits fine on the first shelf. If size is an issue, the printer measures about 18 inches wide, 16 inches deep and about 7 inches tall, so keep this in mind if you only have a small space to put the printer.
Installation
Installing the HP Photosmart 8150 is very simple, just follow the instructions on the CD and you'll be up and running within a few minutes. It is important that you not hook the printer up to your computer until the software prompts you to.
Printing
Now here's where the big test was and this printer passed with flying colors, or should I say vivid colors? We print a variety of things at home from school projects, miscellaneous information on things we find on the Internet and even coloring pages for my youngest son, and of course, photos that I have taken with our digital camera. The HP Photosmart 8150 does a great job in printing photos, so good that they are suitable for framing and for sending out to family members. I thought that the HP 7350 printed good photos, but HP outdid themselves with this one.
Print quality with black is 1200 x 1200 dpi and it goes all the way up to 4800 x 1200 optimized for color when printing from a computer. I also love the fact that you can print directly from a media card, no more wasting your camera's batteries. It's compatible with CompactFlash Type I and II, SmartMedia, Secure Digital, MultiMedia Cards, Memory Sticks XD and USB flash drives, so if you have a digital camera, chances are you will be able to print directly from your media card.
Speed
HP made improvements in print speed with the HP Photosmart 8150 over the HP 7350. According to HP it prints up to 20 pages per minute in black and in color. They claim that it will print a borderless 4 X 6 as fast as 27 seconds. It's not quite as fast as they say, but it's not that far off and of course you have to take into consideration that most of their claimed speeds are in draft mode and as you go up in mode, you will lose some speed.
Most of our photo printing is 8 X 10's and it takes about 4 minutes to print out a borderless 8 X 10 on the highest quality and it turns out great.
Noise
The printer isn't really that noisy, my son can be sleeping in the same room where I'm printing and it won't bother him. The only thing that I don't like is that when it first loads the paper and starts to print, it does shake the desk a little bit.
Other Features
Paper Trays - The IN part of the tray will hold 100 sheets of standard paper, the OUTPUT tray will only hold 50, of course for a home printer, I don't see the need to have an output tray that holds more than 50.
Media (paper) types - You can use a variety of paper and/or envelopes. Plain paper, Inkjet paper, photo, glossy, transparencies, labels, index cards, iron-on transfers, and banner paper.
Windows and Mac compatible
16 MB built-in RAM
Control Panel - The control panel is on the front of the printer and you can various things from the control panel instead of using the software. The 2.5 inch LCD screen is great and is very useful when you're printing directly from a media card instead of using your computer.
Six ink color cartridge - Makes for vivid colors in photos and graphics.
Borderless printing on 4 X 6 and 8 X 10 sizes
View video on the LCD screen and then freeze to print - I haven't tried this yet.
Print from a camera phone or other Bluetooth wireless device - If you buy the HP bt300 Bluetooth wireless printer adapter. This does not come with the printer, but it's nice to know that it can be used.
Adjust and organize your photos - Using the HP Image Zone software. I admit, I use other software for this and haven't really played around with it.
Ink Monitor - Although what is shown is only an estimate, it gives you an idea of how much ink is left in your cartridges.
My Thoughts
I am very happy with my HP Photosmart 8150, thank you Epinions! I have used the printer to print out emails, coloring pages, word searches for the kids, other miscellaneous things from the web and of course, photos. I am very happy with the quality of print from the printer, the color is so vivid and crisp, photos look like they were done at the lab, not at home. There have been a few times where the picture looked a little blurry, but then upon closer inspection, it was actually the picture itself, the printer just picks up those fine details that the human eye may miss.
The printer is fairly quiet when printing, I mean you can hear it printing if you're next to it, but you would never know it if you were in another room. It does shake the desk a bit when it starts printing, like I mentioned before, so make sure it's not on an unstable surface.
The fact that it takes so many different kinds of media cards is great. Now I usually don't print directly from the media cards, I like to adjust the photos before printing, but you can use the media card slots to transfer pictures from your cards to your computer also.
I honestly thought that the quality of print wouldn't get any better from the HP 7350, I just assumed they would add more or improve upon the features, but I was wrong. The quality of photo printing is just great, the printed pictures are not grainy or anything like that, unless the pictures themselves are that way. As long as the picture is of good quality, the printed picture will be too and it will be suitable for framing, it's that good.
So far, ink consumption seems to be good too, we have printed various things, including a few photos at the highest quality and the cartridges are still more than 3/4 full. What you print, quality of print and how much you print will all have an impact on ink consumption.
All in all, I am very happy with my HP Photosmart 8150 and I definitely recommend this printer if you are looking for a photo quality printer, you won't be disappointed.
