Reviews

HP PSC 1510 All-in-One - a very mixed blessing

HPâs latest All-In-One device, the $99 PSC 1510, and I got off on the wrong foot. I faithfully followed all instructions, yet found myself sitting on the floor for 20 minutes, trying to find a way to insert the two ink cartridges. I was about to give up when the device shifted its insides so that finally in they went. I have used many printers in my life and wondered if this was my fault or HP's. The printer then refused to produce a print cartridge alignment sheet the instructions said it would, and only did so after I turned the printer on and off several times. Now I had to scan that sheet and wait until the ON light stopped blinking, which it eventually did. Quite involved.

The problems continued during software installation. Our unit came without a Macintosh disk. The driver section of HPâs website returned hundreds of products when I entered "PSC 1500" into the search, but not the 1500. I began downloading the driver for the similar PSC 1400 Series, but the 80+ MB file trickled down at a leisurely 8 kps pace. No thanks.

So I did the install on a PC. The installer gave me two choices: A) "everything your device needs to work" plus HP Image Zone÷850 MB worth of stuff÷or B) "Express," also "everything your device needs to work," plus Image Zone Express÷403 MB. I checked to see what Image Zone was and found it included a full dozen applications. I didnât want any of it, but since I had no choice, underway we went. A pop-up then asked for permission to install ăHP Extended Capabilities (ăIf installed, you may receive benefits and programs designed to improve your future HP experience, including opportunities to receive special offers, awards and enhanced technical support.ä). I declined. Then the Microsoft AntiSpyware Alert said the HP installer was trying to add startup programs. I blocked that. Then a slideshow on how this software would allow me to manage all of my HP products. Then more alerts from Microsoft AntiSpyware about attempts to install startup programs. I blocked them all. Finally, the installer connected to HP. Without my permission. I now had almost a gigabyte of HP stuff on my computer when all I wanted was a driver for a $99 printer. If you get the idea that all of this frustrated me, youâre correct. I wanted a driver, not engage Hewlett Packard as my business consultant and spiritual guide.

So how, without resorting to any of the HP software, does the PSC 1500 do the jobs I want it to do -- printing, copying, and scanning?

Printing÷I was not surprised to find that the installer had indeed added the PSC 1500 as a printer. It had also made it the default printer, without my permission. Documents printed quickly and very crisply.

Copying÷I put an image on the platen and pushed the "Color" scan button (you can also scan in black). No problem. Fine black text reproduced a bit thicker than the original, and colors were markedly less vibrant but fairly accurate. After all, I used standard copy paper and the standard HP color cartridge and not the also supplied Photo cartridge.

Scanning÷For that I went directly into Adobe PhotoShop and tried the Import function. The TWAIN source found the PSC 1500 and I could preview and scan from within Photoshop. The quality of the scan was outstanding. I then printed the scanned picture from Photoshop, again using the standard color cartridge and copier paper. It printed very quickly and looked very good. The color was off a bit÷greens looked blueish÷but there was no streaking at all. Clicking on ăPrinter Propertiesä opened up a very extensive control panel with numerous options. You can even remove red-eye, sharpen the picture, change the contrast or apply a ădigital flashä to brighten pictures right from inside the print menu.

PictBridge÷The PSC 1500 has a port for direct printing from a PictBridge-enabled digital camera. I connected a Sony Cyber-shot DSC-V3, but the PSC 1500 didnât recognize it as PictBridge compatible. Apparently the camera must be set into the proper PictBridge mode first. The PSC 1500 should realize that. The image printed without any streaking or lines, but the paper got all wet and the picture came out dark. The difference between the good print from Photoshop and the wet, dark print from the camera illustrated that working the settings is the key to good prints. I also found that the PSC 1500 can print without any border at all. And the special Photo print cartridge, by the way, replaces the black cartridge, thus expanding the PSC 1500 to a high-quality six-ink color printer.

As for all the software, the ăHP Solution Centerä is actually a nice one-stop control panel for scanning, copying, printing, and utilities. The HP Document Viewer lets you look at all documents on your computer, and then either view them, print them, fax them, or even recognize scanned text into wordprocessing text. HP Image Zone is a One-Stop image management/printing/emailing system. It can search for and then catalog pictures on your computer similar to what iPhoto does on a Mac.

Itâs too bad that this excellent $99 printer/scanner/copier tries to force you into organizing your life the HP way. That should be your option, and not up to HP. You can, of course, ignore it all and simply use the PSC 1500 without all the software. Or you might like the HP software and end up buying more HP peripherals and devices. Which, I suppose, was HPâs plan all along.

Postscript: Amazingly, three months after my initial review of the HP PSC 1510 I actually have not one, but two of them in my home. This turned out to be one of those devices that initially rubs you the wrong way and then you end up liking it a lot. So I admit it: after I started using the PSC 1510 in our office I liked its small size, its versatility, its speed, and its performance so much that I bought two of them. They've been working flawlessly in my home office and in my wife's studio. Even the cartridges aren't very expensive, but that's because they do not contain a lot of ink: when my nine-year-old needed to print out the instructions for the Lego set he received for Christmas (Lego no longer includes instructions in many of its rather expensive kits), a new color cartridge wasn't enough to print all 120 pages of the Lego manual. Else, the PSC 1510 is a big hit.

Postscript 2, August 2006: Sadly, the PSC 1510 again displayed its finicky nature. One morning it decided that the color cartridge in it was not a genuine HP cartridge and refused to print. Well, the cartridge IS a genuine HP one, so being denied printing by my own printer is totally obnoxious. As is the conjecture that you can continue printing with just the black and white cartridge. You can't. I went on the HP website and this is apparenly a well-known issue. There is no real fix, and so people have no choice to either buy a new HP cartridge and hope it will pass muster, or ditch the printer. HP's greed in all this is amazing.

HP PSC 1510 All-In-One
Price: $99.00
www.hp.com

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