HP Builds a Better Printer

By David Em

April 12, 2004

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There are way too many good inkjet printers on the shelves these days for me to cover, so I try to identify the ones that advance the state of the art in a significant way. HP's new $299 Photosmart 7960 and $199 Photosmart 245 printers do just that.

The 7960 creates up to 8.5" x 11" prints, while the diminutive 2.9 pound 245 model is geared for 4" x 6" sheets. Both printers produce lush color, true black and white (I'll get to what I mean by "true" in a minute), and proof sheets. They work with or without a computer and are very easy to operate, making them attractive to professionals and consumers alike.

Overall Functionality

The two all-silver printers share many features, inside and out. They have similar front panel designs and button arrangements, and use the same ink cartridges and papers. Both have four media card slots that accommodate CompactFlash (CF) Types I and II, Microdrive, Secure Digital (SD), Multi-Media Card (MMC), SmartMedia, Memory stick, and xDPicture Card.

Both have LCD menus that let you preview, edit, and print images stored on memory cards. The 7960 has a 2.5" LCD display that rotates forward and back for enhanced viewability. The 245 has a stationary 1.8" LCD that's more difficult to see unless you stand or place the unit on a low table. At 20.9 inches wide, the 7960 takes up considerably more real estate than the 245, which is less than 5 inches wide and 4.5 inches deep.

Both printers come with 16 MB of internal RAM, enabling you to process and print JPG and TIFF images without a computer. With RAM so cheap these days, twice that amount would have been handy for TIFFs captured with an 8-, 10-, or 12-megapixel camera. The 7960 supports the extended Adobe RGB color space as well as the more common truncated sRGB space, so images created in programs like Photoshop or taken with some of the better new cameras may benefit. You can also create up to 63 labeled thumbnails per page with the 7960, and you can print your pictures with or without borders.

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