- Now AirPrint compatible. Simply print from iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch.
- Print, copy, scan with a 2.36-Inch LCD (with TouchSmart frame)
- Quickly print from the Web without using a PC
- Print anywhere, anytime, with any device
- Save energy and conserve resources (Energy Star qualified)
This is a decent low-end printer with a few very cool features, and satisfactory but not stellar performance. It would be the ideal printer for a small family, especially with children who like to print things (and what kids don''t like to print things). I''m going to quickly go through the features and mention what I''ve experienced after playing with it for a few days; where relevant, I''ll compare its features to my slightly more expensive Canon printer.
SETUP:
The printer''s nicely packed, and easy to put together. The only trick I had was installing the printer cartridges. Like another reviewer said, the printer cartridges don''t go in exactly the way the diagram or the illustrated video on the printer''s screen suggests. If you make a mistake, it will say that they''re not installed, and then you can''t just go fix the mistake because it doesn''t recognize you''ve fixed it unless you power off and power on again. One other thing I like is that the whole thing comes with a handy canvas carrying tote. That''ll be nice because I may occasionally bring it home.
WIRELESS:
Setting up this printer as a wireless printer was extremely easy. I''ve setup about 5 different wireless printers over the past year and this was by far the easiest. What made it simple was that the instructions on the printer''s screen show you exactly how to connect it to a local wireless point, and then when you install the software on the screen it automatically recognizes the printer as there to be used. Easy stuff.
PHOTOS:
It''s advertised as a photo printer, and it does okay with photos but not great. I printed an 8.5 x 11 glossy of my family on quality photo paper and from far away it looks fine, but if you get close you''ll see evidence of print lines. It''s especially evident on skin, where you can see the little lines that make it almost look like your subjects had been sleeping on corduroy pants and had little fading line indentations left behind.
PRINTING:
For other kinds of print jobs, where fine details are less important, the printer does a good job and things look nice. It''s pretty slow, though. It''s not nearly fast enough for most professional office use, so the speed alone pretty much qualifies this as a home use printer. My Canon PIXMA MX860, for example, is quite a bit faster, and prints better photos. Of course, that one is bulkier than this one, and costs a bit more.
SCANNING:
The Photosmart scans just fine, though if you want any kind of control you have to scan from the software that installs on your computer with the driver. I tried scanning a page of text to send to my computer using just the controls on the printer and it ended up scanning only half of the page, and inverting the layout from the way it was actually placed on the scan bed. You can only scan one page at a time there''s no feeding.
Additionally, it only scans things as images, that it can send either as .jpg or .pdf files. That means you can''t produce an editable text document from a scan unless you have additional software that can convert the images into such. My Canon Pixma MX860 does give me the option to create .txt files.
COPY:
Works fine, exactly as you''d expect.
FAX:
Doesn''t exist. This is not a fax machine, so the "All-in-One" might be a bit of a misnomer then again, who uses fax machines anymore? I have fax capability on all my other printers and I''ve never had the need to use it. When I absolutely need to fax, I use my office''s dedicated machine. One more reason, though, that this wouldn''t work as an all-in-one office printer even for a small office, since sometimes business use requires faxing.
WEB:
There are two web features this comes with. One, apparently, doesn''t work yet (as of June 30, 2010) but is (allegedly) coming soon. That''s the "ePrint" function, that allows a registered user to print to this printer from anywhere on the web, even if they aren''t anywhere close to the printer. I''d love to be able to print out stuff I''ll need the next day from home, so it''ll be ready for me when I arrive at my office, so this is a feature I''m looking forward to.
The other feature is what''s called "Print Apps" basically, you register for print apps online at HPs site (several will be already set up for you if you accept the Web features during setup ... in fact, right now as far as I can tell every one of the available apps is already set up for you, though it looks like they are planning to have a lot more apps.) Anyhow, the webapps allow you to print directly from the web. I kind of like the Sudoku app, that allows me to print Sudoku puzzles directly from the printer. There''s also a Coupon app so far I haven''t found any useful coupons, but this could be nice. My son loves the PBS KIds and Disney apps. Again, this would be cool for families.
OVERALL:
This is a decent, low-end printer, with some novel features that would make it great for some personal and home uses. It doesn''t print the best photos and it''s not as fast as some. At this price, though, it would be a good deal for many users.
Buy HP Photosmart D110A Wireless Printer (CN731A#B1H) Now
: 7:34 Mins
UPDATE Oct 2010: I printed probably about 4 or 5 4x6 prints, and maybe 6 or 7 8x10 prints and now it''s out of ink. While I''m fine with using this printer for printing snapshots for photo albums in the 4x6 size(or black and white normal documents), when you get to 8x10 size photos, I wasn''t happy with the sharpness, color or detail. My camera is an SLR, so they can be blown up quite big. As I pointed out in the video review, the colors will vary widely from what you see on your monitor before printing. And this is a whole ''nother bag of worms based on your monitor being in RGB and printers being in CMYK color calibration. But it seemed like a bigger difference then I''m used to.
UPDATE June 2010: An Amazon staffer has informed me "I work with Amazon and wanted to confirm that the paper included with the product does not come with every printer. This was only for the trial versions." That was something I thought was so great about this particular product, but please disregard it in my video review.
I just got this HP photosmart printer and while it has some aspects of it I don''t personally like, I think it will be a nice basic photo printer for those with limited computer abilities, or who just want something easy to use that''s an attractive looking machine. It''s all about having realistic expectations for the price point. If you have a point and shoot you use for fun, this just may be up your alley. If you''re into DSLR cameras and editing photos, this might be a little lowbrow for your taste.
Pros:
IPHONE USERS: right after finishing this review, I went app surfing, and found the motherlode. It''s called HP iPrint 3.0, its fantastic and free! Printed photos instantly over wifi, I also used it with my grocery IQ app and printed coupons. Another app features is you can scan directly to your phone for emailing documents.
Beyond easy to get started. The wireless setup was a pinch in comparison to the hassles I had connecting my brother printer wirelessly.
scanning black and white documents and photos worked fine. Copying black and white was also as expected.
it prints out photos fast.
attractive and will match nicely with other HP products.
Besides the reusable little zipper bag in my video, there was another larger one that the printer was in. Nice to have a new reusable for the grocery store, and I really admire the effort HP made with making the packaging as eco friendly as possible.
Eprint feature is now working, and working very well with no problems. You can print to your printer from anywhere based on the printer having its own email address assigned to it.
Cons:
noisy!
doesn''t have a lot of settings you can customize to your taste directly on the printer. I like to be able to change DPI for different projects, or color contrast, choose PDF or JPG etc if needed. You can pick the paper type and "normal, best" quality printer on your computer when printing to it.
the color cartridge is just one, instead of separating into three cartridges.
It''s hard to tell over video, but the colors just weren''t what I was hoping for. The photos I printed had more yellow/orange/green tones then the original photos. Recently I was doing my own passport renewal photo. I finally got it right and went to print. I was wearing a pink shirt, and it blew out the pink and overly saturated it. I had to change and start over because I knew that wouldn''t be acceptable.
a couple things the software installed that are unnecessary and you''re not given an opportunity to pick and choose when you start the software. For instance: a weird extra internet toolbar, etc. I hate extra things that have really nothing to do with the product and are just used to shove the brand in your face, or that HP partnered with or got paid to add to sneak it in and put it on my computer.
Read Best Reviews of HP Photosmart D110A Wireless Printer (CN731A#B1H) Here
I''ve owned tons of HP Deskjets/Inkjets over the years as well as a Photosmart, so I feel right at home with this printer. Printers are difficult to review because opinions of them vary so greatly from person to person with regards to print quality and desirable features/functions. I will try to keep my impressions short and only comment on the ones that need more explanation.
The good:
-The printer is small and the design is very stylish
-Photo print quality on photo paper is excellent/exceptional on 4x6 HP Advanced Photo paper.
-Printing on regular paper, text, is fine/ok/typical
-The software install on PC was simple/straightforward/easy
-The printer works reliably on wireless and is pretty seamless doing so
-ePrint will be available soon, which opens a whole world of printing possibilities
-Scanning/printing/menu use on the printer is simple after initial setup
-It shipped with a big box of photo paper and nice carrying cases/covers instead of plastic in the packaging
-Being a wireless printer allows everyone in the home to print to it without any complications!
-Registering the printer online was very easy because it automatically filled in the serial number! Awesome!
-It fits a scanner in the same size package that the average printer takes up, saving you desk space
The bad:
-The printer is a little loud and makes some plastic clanking sounds at times
-The initial setup required on the printer menu system was not intuitive. The touch buttons didn''t line up how I thought they should with the options on the screen.
-Registering the printer in the ePrint center gave me problems. I finally was successful by using a new email address not registered with HP elsewhere.
-The "on printer screen" tutorial for inserting the ink cartridges is a little misleading. If you do it wrong, then fix, you''ll have to power cycle the printer so it "realizes" you installed the ink properly.
Conclusion:
I could recommend this printer for any person who is the casual printer but also would like to print some really high quality photos at home. It fits in well where there are multiple computers on the same wireless network, and even will work with wired computers as long as they are on the same network as the wireless. It seems like HP tried to make things easy, but I''d call this printer more "feature rich" than "dead simple," but I do think all but the most tech averse will be able to work his/her way through any issues.
Compared to other printers out there in this price range, this printer has a lot more features for the money.
Want HP Photosmart D110A Wireless Printer (CN731A#B1H) Discount?
I''m actually a big fan of HP products...every piece of computer hardware I''ve owned in the last ten years or more has been HP, and at my house that means at least 3 HP computers and a full range of accessories at any one time.
That''s why I''ve been so stunned by the lousy quality of the HP Photosmart D110 I bought a few months back. I knew when I bought it that the tray which catches printed pages is just a fold-out extension of the feeder tray, but I never imagined it was so poorly designed that it would grab printed pages and run them back through a second time if I didn''t monitor every print job. Don''t even get me started on the incessant "phantom" paper jams I''m glad others addressed it here already.
I also knew when I bought the D110 that the little ink cartridges wouldn''t last long but I''ve never had a printer blow through ink like this one does, and I''ve never had a printer that required so much force to install and remove cartridges when they (constantly) need changing. Not only does it eat ink at an alarming rate, but the print quality is horrible once you get down to 1/3 of any cartridge certainly not good enough for photographic prints and the machine wants to recalibrate the ink delivery system every time a cartridge is changed, wasting time and paper.
The final insult is the regularity with which this printer becomes magically invisible to my computer, which is connected directly to this unit via cable. If I turn the printer off and on again, it tries to reinstall another copy of itself, wasting up to ten minutes at a stretch.
And yeah, it occurred to me early on that I might just have bought a bad unit, so I exchanged it, but the replacement has the same issues. Tried pairing it with another, equally new HP computer. Nope. And wireless printing is a crapshoot every time. Neither the retailer nor HP has any advice, though you can bet HP acts like they''ve never heard of any of the problems I''m having.
I didn''t buy my D110 from Amazon, but since I wouldn''t want anybody else to go through the nonsense I''ve dealt with since I brought this nightmare home, I thought I''d put my two cents in where I know a lot of people will see it.
We finally bit the bullet and got a new printer the old hp deskjet 3220 just would not die, so we donated it to a school. We switched because we wanted better photo printing and speed, and the scanner was USB 1.1 only.
I''m a Mac person, but more and more HP products are truly impressive. The laptop I most recently set up was the simplest ever. This unit was more of that simplicity. Just unpacking it was comparable to the Apple experience. One booklet, and the packaging was two pieces of foam and a tote bag instead of plastic wrapping, cords and ink were in a zippered reusable pouch. Both were of the same material used for reusable grocery bags. Minimal waste. Suggest they move from styro to compressed paper like others.
Setup was done without so much as a USB cable. All was done by loading the software, first into the Mac, then later into the HP. Power up the printer, tell it to find your WiFi router and it appears as a Bonjour (zeroconf) item. No issues with Mac or Win setup. Alignment is done by printing and then scanning an alignment page. No more squinting to discern the most-lined-up raster.
Printing is darn good on plain paper and knockout on photo paper. A 4x6 guide on the tray is convenient. There is an extended paper support that I don''t even see using.
Scanning was the big question. I''ve used Ed Hamrick''s VueScan for years, it''s a wonderful tool. It warned that I''d need to install HP drivers in order to use VueScan, which would contribute to bloat. Since we sent off the USB cables with the printer and scanner, VueScan didn''t see the cable-less WiFi scanner when it booted. I figured we were stuck. Well, we weren''t as there is a web interface to the scanner that can scan jpg or PDF at up to 600 dpi from a browser.
*** Correction VueScan now sees the printer and scans as always. ***
Printing and scanning over WiFI is wonderful, much improved over similar devices from just a few years ago.
ePrint gives you an email address that lets you print common document formats via email attachments.
The web interface lets you double check remote print jobs.
Amazing for $99 retail, $79 at HP, $55 here. Available XL ink also saves.
