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December 1, 2004
HP PSC 1350 Multifunction Printer Review
Yay! A printer that works like it's supposed to! (Unlike the HP Deskjet 5850.) The HP PSC 1350 is an all-in-one, multifunction printer that does color printing, copying, and scanning. After the fiasco I had with the HP wireless printer, I went back to the Apple store and bought this simple machine for $129. No, it's not wireless, but for the same price I get a photocopier and a scanner as well. It really is plug-and-play (though you do have to buy the USB cable separately to plug it into the computer; had to go back to the store for it.) And the best news? It works! Pretty well actually. The printer prints fine quality color and black-and-white files, photos onto photo paper. It's not slow. It is really easy to set up. And it is so practical having a copier around the house. Not useful for large amounts of copying, but perfect for the one-off jobs that comprise 95% of our copying needs.
When I upgraded to MacOS X a while back, my scanner didn't work with my Mac anymore (I think Umax has yet to update its drivers.) Actually, my scanner did work, but it meant launching Photoshop in Mac Classic, just to make a scan, a real pain. Today I tested out the scanning function on the new printer and it's a breeze. HP must be taking lessons from Apple on how to make user interaction intuitive. There is a button that says "scan" on the printer. You press the button and the printer does a preview scan which shows up on your computer desktop. You can further refine your scan to higher resolutions, rotate the image, and output to email. The scan resolution can go up to 19,200 dpi which at that level picks up every minute scratch on the source document.
Apparently you can print photos without a PC by just putting your digital camera memory card into the slot provided. I haven't tried that feature as I edit all my photos in Photoshop before printing.
PC owners have had their choice of all-in-ones for many years. I'm delighted that the manufacturers are beginning to make these that work with both PCs and Macs. The HP PSC 1350 is available at Amazon.com, the most recent price that I saw was $119. For that price, it's a great value.
Posted by elise on December 1, 2004 to Computers
| Comments (4)
Comments
Hi, I have finally upgraded from an old PC (on which I used this printer without any trouble) to a new iMac G5. Since I made the move, I am having troubles with the above printer. I've tried downloading new drivers, troubleshooting in the manual, the HP support site, resetting the machine.....
Has anyone experienced this and does anyone have any advice please?
Thanks in advance.
Posted by: alex at March 30, 2005 10:23 PM
Hi Alex - that's weird. Have you tried calling Apple tech support and asking what might be going wrong? Often when I encounter strange behavior like this the Apple tech support people tell me to boot up from my Panther program disk (holding down the C key) and using a disk utility to check and repair the permissions on the hard drive. Perhaps a conflict with something else you have installed is occurring.
Posted by: elise 
at March 30, 2005 10:54 PM
Have a PSC 1350 for several years. Excellent service, low cents/page large ml ink cartridge.
Problem occured, spent 2 hrs w/HP Chat service with no software or local manual resolution but to take to service center for mechanical/parts repair/replacement: PROBLEM:: red CHECK INK CARTRIDGE came on an remains on even after disconnecting from computer. My experience with"approved service centers" is dismal. Everybody seems to send it out to someone else with no user input, no performance nor cost control. Is there anyone in metro Detroit or other area with on-site diagnostics/parts if reqired and warranted performance..?
Posted by: Hank at April 24, 2006 10:03 AM
I've had one of these for about 4 years. Worked alright for maybe a year. Tried using their expensive photo cartridge for better quality, but it never worked. Colors would stop working even when it said there was plenty of ink left. Randomly spit out alignment pages when I turned it on. Limped along with only b&w working for serveral months. A couple weeks ago, it died for good. I turn it on and every light flashes. Won't scan, won't print, won't even work as a cardreader. HP support has been useless. I got my 8-year-old Epson out of the closet, and it works better with cartridges that haven't been touched for half that time.
Posted by: dokein at September 10, 2007 10:10 AM
