- Average user rating: 1.5 stars out of 110 reviews Back to product review
- My rating: 0 stars
Full user review
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97 out of 100 people found this review helpful
2.5 stars
"Not as good as you'd think"
Pros: see comments below
Cons: See comments below
Summary: This is my first 'real' review on a product. I have been trying to create a very comfortable ergonomic home office with top notch equipment for the past year. I wanted an AIO for space saving capabilities, and because I figured my usage of various functionalities would not tax the duty cycle too hard. My most important function is the scanner (I am trying very hard to go 'paperless'). I've owned the Colorjet 2840 for over a month now, but haven't had time before this week to get it set up because it definitely isn't plug and play. I spent the last 3 days (Vacation time) really studying it and getting it to work. Here are my thoughts.
The pros include great print quality for text, and not bad for pics (near the top for a laser product). Lots of features available in terms of reduction, contrast, etc. that you would expect from a stand-alone copier. Happily, it has a relatively small footprint given the size/wt of this product (75lbs). The slots for SD/CF/etc. cards are a real plus, and seem to work well. Haven't played with the fax, but it will allow you to have the fax answer the phone on any number of rings you want (I recommend a separate phone number if you have voice mail through your phone company).
Now for the downsides. I hate to badmouth anyone, and I hope this is taken as constructive criticism by HP if they read it... but there is a little false advertising going on here. Some grievances:
-Just BARELY Mac compatible (Luckily I own both a PC and a Mac that I keep networked), but I thought I would be able to use both comfortably. I can do only about half of the scan functions with a Mac that I can on the PC, and many of the buttons on the AIO won't work at all if the AIO is cabled only to a Mac (HP freely admits this). The only reason I can see for this is pure laziness on the part of HP. Some advice to HP Marketing: Don't go after the Apple customers unless you are willing to give them comparable functionality with PCs (or be up front about it in the product literature).
-Very noisy and long warmup, primes itself very loudly every few hours if you leave it on (woke me up from a deep sleep in another room in the middle of the night). They should have put a 'sleep' or 'powersave' function on it. Not a great choice for a home office because of the noise factor, unless you plan to turn it on and off as needed. Those long warmup times will drive you crazy if you choose to do that, though.
-The setup was time consuming and not straightforward, although there is a video on the setup CD that helps a great deal.
-Self diagnostics is poor. There is no diagnostics window on the main system if there are problems. The little 0.75" x 2.5" window is all you get, and trust me- the error messages are less than helpful on that tiny screen.
-ADF is extremely slow, and jams easily.
-On/off switch should be up front with the other buttons. This thing is WAY too heavy to move around if you need to check cables or need to fit into a tight space.
-Wireless networking won't work with this product and keep full functionality (I tried using an Apple Airport as a print server, and was willing to use any wireless server as a hub, but HP support said it won't work). Why won't HP commit to being truly wireless in 2005?
-Finally, the '24/7 support' is really 9-5 Pacific time. The 24hr support is for its other products, but this product's experts are apparently few in number, and definitely not available at all hours (haven't tried weekends yet, but not holding my breath either).
In summary, I had a lot of expectations of this product and purchased it because of the CNET editor's stellar review as well as the HP brand name. I proceeded without my usual caution- Big Mistake! I'm on the verge of returning it and waiting for the next generation AIO product. Even if I get all the bugs out (the copier portion STILL isn't working properly), it isn't the product that it could be or claims to be, so giving it 5/10. Not sure how the CNET editor who reviewed it could have such a widely different opinion.
HP had the chance to really blow me away if the product simply worked as well as you would expect from comparable HP component stand-alones, but it didn't.
- 6 replies to this review
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We received our 2840 this past Tuesday.
Even after a long day of work I was able to
set this printer up in about an hour.
The CD that comes with it has video demos of
each step of the process. I follow this and
I was up in about an hour.
The staff was able to start using this
machine (Fax, Print, Copy) with no training
and no manual.
At this point I'm quite impressed. I almost
bought another machine until I realized how
much faster the HP 2840 was printing the
first page.
Happy so far. -
Looking for an AIO that is Mac compatible, this, ain't it. I'm glad you took the time to write about the Pro's & Con's. Even your old (dated) review helped a lot. Thanks!
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Sure glad I did some research. Thank you for your review, and yes, it was very helpful. I'm having trouble with my current HP OfficeJet for the same reason - trying to use it with my Mac. When I hook it up to my laptop with Windows XP, it is better. So, back to the drawing board to find a printer (and company) that is interested in providing something I can use!
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I am gald I read this. I was going to buy this machine, but did not becuse of this review. I use a iMac G5, and need a AIO that is commmitted to Mac.
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I was interested in purchasing this multifunction printer for my sister who uses a Mac. The main draw for me on this product is the ADF because we plan on scanning many documents at a time to her mac. You mentioned that half the scanning features don't work on a mac. Do you know if this one works? Also she currently has an HP scanner, and after every scan there is a communication error between the mac and the scanner. Do you also experience this with this multifunction printer?
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I'm so dissapointed in CNET and H P for not providing us with good information. more so H P
at least CNET let us vent.
Where to buy
HP Color LaserJet 2840:
$399.00 - $1,401.99
| store | price | in stock? | rating |
|---|---|---|---|
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Amazon.com Marketplace
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$1,401.99 | See Site |
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$864.00 | Yes |
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$698.26 | Yes |
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GreatPrinterDeals.com
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$399.00 | No |
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$499.99 | No |
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