HP Photosmart 7760
MSRP $178.00
“This flexible and attractive printer easily adapts to the needs of most users in the home or small office.”
Avg
-
LCD screen for photo editing and controls
-
a computer is not required for prints
-
sytlish appearance
Against
-
Storage cards are sometimes difficult to remove
-
“MyPrintMileage” service is not available
Abstract
Reasonably priced, the HP Photosmart 7760 truly offers high-performance photo printing and is versatile enough to handle small office printing. Whether it’s high-quality color photo prints or fast black-and-white documents, this flexible and attractive printer easily meets the needs of most home or small office users.
The possibility of using it in stand-alone mode is a plus for those users who don’t have a computer or just want to print on the go. Those looking for a stand-alone printer may want to consider the 7760 as HP has included everything the average user will need to edit, sort and print directly from their digital camera or memory card.
Review
Hewlett Packard has delivered another great performer with the introduction of the Photosmart 7760. This home and small office printer can be used with a PC or Mac or as a stand-alone printer with a built-in memory card reader and 1.8-inch color LCD display.
The HP Photosmart 7760 is a thermal jet printer intended for printing black and white documents as well as high-quality images. The unit has 16MB of internal memory and boasts up to 4800 optimized DPI in color prints and up to 1200 displayed DPI in black and white.
The stylish HP Photosmart 7760 has a 1.8-inch LCD screen.
Design and features
The elegant design and beautiful use of colors make the Photosmart 7760 an attractive display for desktop computers. Most interesting is the control panel, which contains several control buttons for use in stand-alone mode. These buttons give the user the ability to email, size, zoom, rotate and save their photos without the need for a computer. An adjustable 1.8-inch color LCD allows the user to monitor the changes these buttons make and also offers guidance during calibration as well as providing printer status messages.
The paper trays on the Photosmart 7760 accept all standard sizes up to 8.5×14 and hold up to 100 sheets. A separate 4×6 paper holding compartment is standard and the user can keep track of the 4×6 inventory via the viewing window.
Our only gripe with the design was the cover for the memory card reader. The indentation along the front of the cover was narrow and shallow and just didn’t provide enough depth to slide a fingernail underneath to remove the cards. Although it’s a minor problem, it could easily become a nuisance for those who want to quickly replace memory cards.
Owners of certain HP cameras can take advantage of a second USB port, located on the front of the unit, that allows direct connection of the HP digital camera to the printer.
Setup and use
Setting up and installing the printer was simple and straightforward. Simply insert the included CD and follow the on-screen instructions, install the printer cartridges and paper, and you’re done. HP has thoughtfully provided two black cartridges, a color ink cartridge, and a photo cartridge, and their installation is simple with an installation sticker affixed to the cartridge bay.
One great feature is the built-in memory card reader, which supports CompactFlash, SmartMedia, Memory Stick, Secure Digital/Multi-Digital/Multi-Media and xD-Picture Card. This flexibility ensures that this printer can support most users.
The built-in 1.8-inch LCD is small, but the screen is bright and adjustable so it can be positioned flat or tilted towards the user for easier viewing. The LCD is primarily used in stand-alone mode to allow the user to view photos stored on memory cards and edit results, but it also provides feedback and status messages during normal use with a computer.
Testing and performance
The printer’s performance was on par with the current crop of home and small office printers, and it printed a variety of text documents from multiple applications (Microsoft Word, Excel, and Adobe Acrobat) with ease.
Obtaining the best print quality may require the user to replace the black cartridge with a photo cartridge. Although easy to do, it can become quite annoying for those users who frequently switch between printing text and printing graphics or photos. To ease the pain somewhat, HP has provided a cartridge holder and a docking area for a spare inside the cartridge bay. That annoyance aside, text was sharp and black with no fading or jagged edges, and graphics have sharp color contrast and sharp lines and edges.
While the 7760 performed well when printing text, it really shines when printing photos. Our printer testing focused on printing photos in stand-alone mode. Using the built-in memory card reader and our Sony 64MB Memory Stick we were able to easily scroll through all the images on the card.
The LCD screen, although small, was good enough for us to crop, zoom and rotate our images without the need for any intervention or enhancements from the computer. Some enhancement features are built in like brightness, contrast and the ability to add frames, color effects and date/time stamp. We were also able to select the print quality and number of copies through the menu interface. Photo editing software is much more powerful than what you can do on this LCD screen; the on-board editing capabilities are quite limited, but work as intended.
HP’s printer documentation states that you can print a 4 x 6-inch photo “in 36 seconds”. Of all the printers we’ve tested, we’ve never been able to back up the manufacturer’s speed claims; they may be using a special test file that is known to give fast results. In any case, the 7760 prints quite quickly.
We printed multiple images on 4×6 paper as well as 8×10 paper using the “Best” print mode and all copies were impressive as colors were very sharp and vivid with good contrast. The average print time on 4×6 photos was 2 minutes 23 seconds, and on 8×10 prints it was a reasonable 5 minutes 45 seconds.
Test scenario 1 was an 8-page MS Word text document:
Sketch – 8 pages 91 seconds Normal – 8 pages 1 minute 57 seconds Best – 8 pages 13 minutes 10 seconds
Test scenario 2 was a 6-page MS PowerPoint graphic presentation:
Sketch – 6 pages 56 seconds Fast Normal – 6 pages 2 minutes 41 seconds Normal – 6 pages 4 minutes 26 seconds
While other HP printers we’ve tested include a “MyPrintMileage” feature that lets you view and track the expected life of your print cartridges online, interestingly, the 7760 doesn’t support that feature. In our previous reviews, we applauded HP’s efforts with this feature. Unfortunately, he did not pass here.
The Photosmart 7760’s monitoring system makes us long for HP’s “MyPrintMileage” feature.
Conclusion
Reasonably priced, the HP Photosmart 7760 truly offers high-performance photo printing and is versatile enough to handle small office printing. Whether it’s high-quality color photo prints or fast black-and-white documents, this flexible and attractive printer easily meets the needs of most home or small office users.
The possibility of using it in stand-alone mode is a plus for those users who don’t have a computer or just want to print on the fly.
Those looking for a stand-alone printer may want to consider the 7760 as HP has included everything the average user will need to edit, sort and print directly from their digital camera or memory card.
Editor’s recommendations
Categories: GAMING
Source: newstars.edu.vn