HP - Photosmart C5180 (ITreviews)

HP's all-in-ones continue to march on, yet this generally impressive machine has some surprising omissions that might make you think twice before buying similar models at a comparable price.

In terms of design, it's very similar to the Photosmart D7360, with the same cream, grey and silver tones and the two fixed in-trays at the front: one for conventional paper and the other an automated tray for 6 x 4-inch photos.

Indeed, everything here is arranged for front action, including an extensive fixed control panel, a separate adjustable 2.4-inch QVGA colour image display and four memory card slots (handling CompactFlash, Secure Digital, Secure MultiMedia Card, xD-Picture Card and Memory Sticks).

It's worth noting, though, that some of the memory cards need non-supplied adaptors and for some peculiar reason there's no PictBridge facility for printing straight from your digital camera.

There is, on the other hand, a networking possibility via USB to a single PC or via Ethernet to several. Mac users can breathe a sigh of relief that the Photosmart C5180 software is geared to both Windows and Mac but if you're also hoping to send faxes you will be cruelly disappointed.

The aim here is to be able to do most scanning, printing and copying without having to switch your PC on, and to that degree this machine succeeds admirably. All the control buttons are self-explanatory and the LCD has simple scrolling arrows as well as a help facility as a prompt.

It all links to the software that comes in the package; Photosmart Express, which is for basic operations, as well as Photosmart Premier for editing, organizing and sharing, and Photo Fix which, er, fixes your photos by removing red-eye and adjusting lighting, sharpness and contrast. This all works well but it's a pity you don't have the option for printing four different photos on an A4 page which you do with Epson's Easy Photo Print.

There are no fewer than six HP Vivera ink cartridges, which are easy to load, long lasting and heavily fade-resistant. They are thus economical to use as you only replace the relevant colour when it disappears.

However, copies of text and colour graphics had a distinctly faded look and scanned photos came out with a yellowish bias even though the sharpness was spot on. Photos printed from the computer and memory cards were far superior, retaining the authentic colours and clarity.

HP claims the C5180 has 'the world's fastest photo printing speeds', with 15 x 10cm (6 x 4-inch) images at 'best' quality in 12 seconds, documents at 32ppm in mono and 31ppm in colour. In practice the 15 x 10cm photos averaged around 20 seconds and typical text documents reached 10ppm, which is still admirable.

HP - Photosmart C5180 features - Verdict

The lack of PictBridge capability allied to the faded quality of scanned documents and off-colour scanned photos make this a disappointing addition to the usually exemplary Photosmart series, although you will still have fast reproductions and excellent prints from memory cards.