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CNET editors' rating:
stars
Very good
Detailed editors' rating - Average user rating: 2.0 stars out of 74 reviews
- See all user reviews
Product summary
The good: The HP Photosmart 3310 is Wi-Fi and Ethernet ready; has built-in storage card slots; scans film negatives and slides; and delivers excellent text quality, good photos, and fine graphics prints.
The bad: Lacks an automatic document feeder; scanning could be better; the HP Photosmart 3310's paper capacity is small for office use.
The bottom line: The HP Photosmart 3310's many useful features make it a good fit for a home office.
Specifications: Office Machine Functions: Fax , Copier , Printer , Scanner ; Printing Technology: Ink-jet ; Scanner Optical Resolution: 4800 x 4800 dpi See full specs
Price range: $248.35 - $479.99 check prices
See all products in the HP Photosmart 3000 All-in-One series
CNET editors' review
- Reviewed on: 11/07/2005
- Released on: 08/15/2005
The HP Photosmart 3310 shares many features with earlier all-in-ones from HP, but this model ups the ante in a couple of important areas. Like the HP Photosmart 2710, the 3310 features stand-alone copying, faxing, scanning, and printing, plus wired and wireless networking, built-in camera card slots and a PictBridge port. The 3310's individual ink tank system, featuring two dedicated photo inks, is superior to the 2710's dual cartridge system, plus the 3310 adds scanning for negatives and slides. If you like the scanning adapter but don't require networking or faxing, check out the sibling HP Photosmart 3210 or the rival Canon Pixma MP760. But if you need an automatic document feeder for frequent photocopying, check out the pricier HP 7410 or the Canon Pixma MP780, which better fit small offices.
The shiny gray HP Photosmart 3310 measures a compact 18 by 20 by 20 inches (WDH) with the scanner lid open and the paper trays extended. This machine weighs 26.5 pounds, heavier than its slim body may appear yet easy to lift. Unlike more business-oriented all-in-ones, the HP Photosmart 3310 lacks an automatic document feeder; instead, the detachable flatbed scanner lid houses a built-in adapter for film, negatives, and slides to serve photo hobbyists.
A large, 2.5-by-3-inch color display dominates the center of the HP 3310's elegant control panel, which you can tilt for the best view. Dedicated buttons cover Photo, Video, Copy, Scan, HP Instant Share, and Fax functions, alongside an alphanumeric keypad, a target-style menu, and a blue-glowing wireless radio icon. Four camera card slots and a PictBridge digital camera port are also in front. Lift up the control panel from underneath to access the six pop-out ink tanks, which include an extralarge black module and smaller cartridges for yellow, light cyan, cyan, light magenta, and magenta.
The HP Photosmart 3310 includes a 50-sheet output tray; a photo paper tray that holds up to 20 sheets of snapshot paper; and a main, bottom paper tray that holds 100 sheets of paper from 3x5 inches to 8.5x14 inches in size. To load photos, you must remove the underside of the output tray, which is easy. But because the photo tray doesn't move, you'll have to grope around to load pages into it. At the back, the HP Photosmart 3310 conveniently locates a USB 2.0 port, an Ethernet port, and an indicator light, as well as two fax ports (1-line and 2-EXT) in one area.
The HP Photosmart 3310 prints, copies, scans, and faxes in grayscale and color, with or without a computer. You can print photos or frames from digital videos directly from a camera card or connected PictBridge digital camera. The LCD on the control panel lets you preview and print images from your camera, digital storage card, hard drive, or scans. You can also use the control panel and LCD to change brightness, remove red-eye, add a border, and make passport photos with your digital pictures.
The HP Photosmart 3310 is easy to set up and install. You can choose from three connection options: direct to your PC or Mac via USB 2.0, straight to a wired network via Ethernet, or wirelessly to a network via 802.11b or g. Plentiful setup documentation includes a four-color, large-format setup guide, a 200-page user guide with a chapter on networking, and a help guide on the included software CD-ROM.
You can choose either the 1,133MB full install with HP's Image Zone Photo and Imaging software or the slimmer, 395MB express install. We recommend the express install unless you need photo-editing software, because Image Zone can eat up a lot of your computer's resources. Although we didn't encounter problems with Image Zone in our tests of the 3310, we have suffered through clunky installation of the same software when we've tested other HP all-in-ones, such as the HP OfficeJet 7410.
The HP Photosmart 3310 ships with starter, or "initialization," ink cartridges. Oddly, the black starter cartridge holds 6ml more ink than its 10ml replacement. Replacing all six of the inks will set you back about $70.
Speed
Inkjet multifunctions are less than speedy, and the HP Photosmart 3310 is no exception. In CNET Labs' performance tests, this printer produced 5.26 pages per minute (ppm) of normal quality black text, slower than the 6.45ppm of the Canon Pixma MP760 but faster than the 2.10ppm of the Epson Stylus RX620. On the other hand, HP 3310 dawdled by printing a letter-size photo in 81 seconds; the Epson RX620 took just 41 seconds, and the Canon MP 760 did the same in 57 seconds.
(Longer bars indicate better performance)
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Photo | |
Text |
Quality
The HP Photosmart 3310's text print quality on HP Premium paper was great for an inkjet, on a par with that of the Canon Pixma MP760. Letters looked dark black and easily legible, even at 2-point size. The 3310's color graphics enjoyed smooth gradients and excellent details but suffered from inaccurate color matching due to an overdose of cyan. Printed on HP Photo paper, CNET Labs' letter-size test photo looked good, with bright colors and accurate details. However, dots were visible up close, especially in skin tones. The quality of the HP Photosmart 3310's grayscale and color scan was only fair, suffering from washed-out or absent light grays as well as halolike bright spots around bold black text. The color scan had a similarly overexposed-looking appearance.
(Longer bars indicate better performance)
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Grayscale scan | |
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Photo | |
Graphics on inkjet paper | |
Graphics on plain paper |
The HP Photosmart 3310 comes with a one-year limited warranty; 90 days only for the software. Free technical assistance is available 24/7, toll-free by telephone, in English and Spanish for the life of the warranty. More assistance is available at HP's Web site in the form of software updates, software and driver downloads, setup help, manuals, answers to FAQs, and e-mail chat.
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User reviews
- Average user rating: 2.0 stars out of 74 reviews
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19 out of 19 people found this review helpful
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14 out of 14 people found this review helpful
"What a machine, Hp has done it again. If the ink yeild is good"
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Where to buy
HP Photosmart 3310 All-in-One:
$248.35 - $479.99
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Amazon.com Marketplace
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$479.99 | Yes |
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$248.35 | Yes |
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