Hewlett Packard Deskjet F4280 All-In-One InkJet Printer

I am a gadget freak, though many people on Epinions might not know that (or even know of me) because I stick to the world of music critiquing, but tonight, the camel's back broke in about a thousand different places at the hands of a devil machine known as the Hewlett Packard Deskjet "all-in-one" F4200 Series Printer. On paper, this printer can do just about anything anybody would want for their home office. Right out of the box, one can notice the sleek white design and smart finish. The buttons are well laid out, and it's an appropriate size for a do-it-all printing setup. This machine can scan, copy, and print (or so it claims), and is compatible with both Mac and PC. Its claims, however, are worthless to me, because the problems that I have run into with this printer get in the way of much your functionality. HP, once again, has failed to make a product other than just pretty. Ironically, I am typing this review from a shiny new HP Mini Laptop (received as a gift, though I am admittedly in love with the little machine), but based on my own experiences HP does nothing but disappoint time and time again.

I setup this printer to run from a desktop PC running Windows XP Pro SP3, which is more than enough for this machine to run. Once things were all set up, though, I immediately began to receive quite a bit of lip from it. In terms of printing, this machine likes to get confused and stop working whenever it faces a challenge. After printing its expected test page (a print-out featuring black boxes, words, and small icons), my HP decided that it had had enough for the day and didn't feel like working anymore. Thus, when I went to print something else out directly after it successfully printed its own test page, I was surprised to see my printer not doing a damned thing. This lead to a very frustrated TJ restarting the printer, which would normally be turning the machine off and on again. Well, no, with this machine, things just have to be difficult. After about fifteen seconds of it thinking about whether or not it would shut down, it began the slow and noisy process. When I turned the machine back on again (and waited another thirty years for it to boot up), it proceeded to print out another test page. This was, at the time, a very little issue that could have been overlooked had this same event not occurred each and every time I replaced one of the rather dinky, little ink cartridges. When I do get this thing to print something out, quality is decent and par for most uses including school papers, resumes, and so on. Just don't expect Mona Lisa quality.

Scanning was far less of a hassle. The lid detaches itself if you are scanning books or things with larges widths, and scan quality is everything I could hope for. Basic setting enhancements like sharpness, contrast, and saturation are available to you, and though it is quite standard, it gets the job done. Immediately compatible with the freeware program Irfanview, it was a no muss, no fuss situation. Copying, though the buttons were a little tricky, was also not a huge problem. The problem lies with the printing as well as the fact that HP is a money-hungry corporation. Now, before you get all "DIE, HIPPIE!" on me, let's look at it this way. The ink cartridges used by this beast are expensive as they often are. This printer sucks up ink faster than Bounty, and it isn't very long before you're finding your papers with gray lines running through them. I know that ink is precious, but I shouldn't feel guilty printing out a two page essay. The light-up meter on the top of the printer is designed to help you tell when you're running low, but it's unnecessary: this printer wastes ink on test pages and just flat out not easier all the ink available in the cartridge (something we all know Epson is no-no-notorious for).

My interest in using this printer has severly waned over the years and makes me long for a commercial one used on college campuses. These dinky home machines just aren't cutting it, and HP is one of the biggest offenders in the business.