CNET editors' review
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CNET editors' rating:
stars
Good
Detailed editors' rating
- Reviewed on: 11/18/2002
- Updated on: 11/26/2002
- Released on: 07/29/2002
 Sturdy paper trays. |
 Conveniently located USB port. |
As with similar printers, the 7150 has one posterior USB port (cable not included) for connecting to your computer. Another USB port lies directly beneath the handy Cancel, Resume, and Power buttons on the right-hand side of the front panel and connects directly to an HP Photosmart camera. Since the printer has no LCD, you'll need to adjust your preprint photos on the camera's display. This model also works with both PCs (Windows Me, 98, 2000, and XP) and Macs (OS 9 or OS X 10.1 or above on a G3 processor or greater).
The Photosmart 7150 uses three different cartridges; a tricolor cartridge installs in the left-hand cradle, and the right holds either a photo-print cartridge (for higher-quality color photos) or a black cartridge (for text), which lets you save on ink when you're not printing photos. To use either the black or photo inks, you must swap the cartridges; although the process is quick and simple, you'll have to twiddle your thumbs while the printer runs through its checking procedure. At $20 per cartridge, black ink costs 4.5 cents per page, but color prints cost a sky-high 54 cents per page, thanks to the $34.99 cartridge. The Canon S530D Color Bubble Jet comes in at 2.6 cents per page for black ink and 15 cents for color.
 Extra photo-print cartridge. |
 Pricey ink replacement. |
For those who need to edit and store their digital photos, the driver CD includes a few basic, image-related programs. HP Photo Printing software, for example, creates albums and helps with basic photo tweaking. HP Memories Disc Creator will serve those who have writable CD drives. Lastly, HP Imaging Director provides basic photo-tweaking features and offers a single interface for other HP imaging devices (digital cameras or scanners, for instance) you may own.
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 Mixed test results. |
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As for output quality, our jury found that the 7150 generated fuzzy or smudged black text on both plain and coated paper when using regular black ink. In our unofficial tests, we tried printing the same text page using first the photo-print cartridge, then the standard black tank. Interestingly, the latter came out darker, but the lettering bled more visibly. While the less expensive black cartridge is acceptable for day-to-day text, we'd employ the photo-print module for more important text documents.
Photo prints, on the other hand, appeared crisp and bright in our informal tests, particularly on coated paper. Although we found some redness in its official test photo, our unofficial printouts looked normal. As for our presentation-graphics test, the CNET jury found that, although color gradients left something to be desired, plain-paper color matching appeared accurate, and graphics on coated paper were also satisfactory, though somewhat undersaturated.
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Inkjet printer text speed Pages per minute (longer bars indicate better performance) |
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Inkjet printer color photo speed Minutes to print a color photograph (shorter bars indicate better performance) |
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Inkjet printer quality
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By default, HP provides a one-year limited hardware warranty (a three-year extended plan costs $69.99) and a 90-day term for software. HP's Web site includes FAQs, downloads, troubleshooting info, and e-mail support. If you need to resort to the free phone support (5 a.m. to 9 p.m. weekdays and 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturdays PT), you'll be well served. When we called, the courteous, savvy technician spent as much time with us as we needed and was quite willing to ship us a new printer, if necessary.
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