Review Of HP Photosmart Premium TouchSmart Web Printer

Printers — on November 1, 2009 at 3:45 am | Comment Now

The first touch screen printer to enter the market promises the dawn of a new era, changing the way a mundane printer is looked at. Is it feasible? Or is it just a marketing gimmick? Read on to find out.

Sum and Substance:

Thumbs Up:

The printer looks good to compliment its breakthrough technology in terms of the touch screen. The printer is shipped in recyclable bags. There are separate photo and paper trays, and the printer will automatically detect and pick up the right kind of paper for the job. This is the first technology to implement the touchscreen technology. Wireless connectivity to the internet and eliminates the hassles of messy wiring.

Thumbs Down:

Accessing the onscreen applications is a little tedious and takes a long time to access and navigate. The need for the touchscreen is still not justified. Working on a small screen, with limited navigability seems the last choice when you would have either a desktop or a laptop with much bigger screens and with quicker response times. There is no autodocument feeder, making scanning a pile of paper a very tedious job. This is pioneering, but, HP should’ve spent a little time in the lab instead of rushing be first in the market.

Inside The Trunk:

The first thing that strikes you about the Hp Photosmart Touchsmart Web is that it comes in recyclable bags. We have to applaud this green stance as printouts maybe the biggest cause of deforestation. So, when you buy the Touchsmart Web, you are reminded to save and recycle. Hp hasn’t just stopped at the bags; it has also added the autoduplexer to help you print on both sides of paper without hassle. This saves you money, and you save paper. Quite a win/win situation, isn’t it? The second thing that one notices about the all-in-one is the touchscreen. Definitely, most of us haven’t seen one on printers as yet. We have them on phones, in cars, as monitors, and in video games. The touch screen is 4.3 inches diagonally and is crystal clear. Surprisingly, the screen looks like an iPhone. You can access Hp applications store, download directly to the all-in-one and print them. The scanner works well, but the lack of an autofeeder could hit sales hard. Google maps can now be directly printed from the printer itself, though it takes time to do so.

The Whiz Kid Speaks:

The Hp Photosmart Premium Touchsmart Web is the first home printer and all-in-one with a touchscreen. Now, the use of this touchscreen beats me, because I would use the computer to blast through with my work, rather than sit by the printer tapping away to glory. It seems far too tedious and slow, but it is a new technology, and I do understand that it will take time to iron out the creases. I am no skeptic, but the application of touchscreens in printers is still in an infancy stage. It will take more than just one printer to determine whether it is viable. Certainly, it is a good thought, but practically, I found it too cumbersome. As a printer, scanner and fax, the Touchsmart Web is a good performance, but certainly no class leader. The lightning fast printer spews out pages at 8 pages a minute. The print quality photos and graphics is pretty good. We would’ve liked to see the autofeeder tray and were surprised that in spite of it being on the other printers in the Photosmart range, Hp omitted it on this one.

Razzle Dazzle:

The main feature of the Touchsmart is obviously the touchscreen panel that dominated the front of the printer. In itself, the panel is beautiful to look at, but operating it is a little tedious. The screen may lag on occasions, making us wonder if we had entered the input or no. The printer looks good and has been styled to suit the touchscreen. Multi-card reader sits behind a plastic sliding hatch. A Pictbridge port is also located with the cluster of card slots. The printer can be pretty independent, or connected to any network via the WiFi or the Bluetooth. The printer functions well, with the test prints showing good color saturation and details. Black pages showed uniformity and sharpness. But this is what anyone would expect from a $400 printer. The printer is fast and the autoduplexer helps in saving paper.

HP photosmart premium printer

Inside Dope:
The Hp applications can be accessed through the touchscreen. Here you can download printable content like children’s coloring pages, games etc. You can also print news, maps and tickets. All said and done, the question of viability again pops up. And how many times is a person going to use this technology in daily life today? Maybe a couple of years or a couple of generations in printers this will become an easier and user friendly option. Even then, with the screens today are getting larger, how often are you going to use the touch panel on printers? Soon enough the touchscreen monitors will become a craze, will the printers just wither and accept defeat? Well, questions about future aside, we’ll talk about things at hand, and it just happens to be the Touchsmart Web! The 4.3 inch screen on the Touchsmart is where you can organize your favorites, but movie tickets and print them. All the applications on the Hp App Store are free, and further more, Hp is planning to release a Software Development Kit for engineers to develop more applications for the store. Maybe things will get brighter then on.

Nitty Gritty:

Hp has forayed onto new grounds with the new Photosmart Premium Touchsmart Web. While we applaud the effort, it also leaves many of us scratching our heads, wondering about the practicality of the application of touchscreen in printers. While Hp has maintained its quality in terms of printing and scanning, the touch panel is a tad slow and cumbersome. It takes a lot of time to achieve what could be done in a jiffy on your bigger screens. The bottom line is that if u fancy the latest, snazziest gadget on the shop floor, you may pick up the Touchsmart Web. If not, it would be wise settling for a cheaper printer with equal printing capabilities as the Touchsmart Web. The technology is still taking its baby steps, and sometimes watching from the sidelines is an equally exciting sport!