A single-function inkjet photo printer simply can’t satisfy the daily needs of today’s amateur photo enthusiast. As users discover more creative ways to get their photos on and off the screen, so too must their printers evolve to match these changing trends. HP is fully aware of the transition, and recently rolled out the HP Photosmart Premium Fax All-in-One, a device that combines an inkjet printer, fax machine, scanner, and copier into one $270 workhorse. Designed with the casual photographer and the work-at-home professional in mind, the All-in-One covers all its bases with an integrated auto-document feeder, double-sided printing, wireless networked printing, and an interactive control panel for direct editing that lets the printer function independently with your digital camera. There isn’t much missing from this all-in-one, and despite the higher than average cost to refill its black ink cartridge, we fully recommend the Photosmart Premium Fax All-in-One for photographers, students, professionals, or anyone else looking for a printer that can do it all. (Source: CNET)

If you own this printer, let me know what you think about it. Thanks!

— CNET Rating: 4 Stars —

The good: Prints high-quality color photos and documents; impressive output speed; attractive design; added extras like Quick Forms, ADF, and an integrated CD drive for custom prints.

The bad: Higher than average cost for black ink cartridge; minor omissions include a hinged scanner hood and speed-dial fax buttons.

The bottom line: The HP Photosmart Premium Fax All-in-One printer makes it easy to increase productivity thanks to its streamlined user interface. The fax, copy, print, and scanning features boast helpful extras like double-sided printing, wireless connectivity, separate photo trays, and quick-access control panel buttons, all while maintaining lab-quality photos and a low cost to print. We highly recommend this printer to anyone who can benefit from its multifunctionality. (Read the full CNET review)

— PCWORLD Rating:  —

Pros: Prints on specially coated CD/DVD media; Produces photos quickly

Cons: Very expensive to purchase; Copy speeds are sluggish

Bottom Line: Well equipped for both photography and light office use, this MFP is capable–but very expensive. (Read the full PCWorld review)

— Consumer Ratings: 3.5 Stars —

A positive comment from Amazon.com:

All the features I wanted

I bought this last week after taking back two others in one week (HP C4599 and HP6310 because salesmen assured me they had both fax and wi-fi but they didn’t.) This Photosmart Premium (C309) has EVERYTHING I wanted: color fax, print, copy, scan, 50 pg document feeder, very easy two-sided printing, built-in wi-fi and bluetooth, reads from Flash drives and memory cards, has LCD screen, and can work independently of the computer.
Hook-up and software loading took me almost an hour but was fairly simple, I did WiFi setup so it isn’t physically connected to my computer at all and can be placed elsewhere in my home office. I DID follow another reviewer’s advise to custom install and skip the HP updates and shopping junk that use up space and slow you down. Great advice. My added advice: Be sure to uninstall EVERY piece of HP software you previously had on your computer before starting.
OK, so besides the listed features here are my likes and dislikes:
LIKES: appearance very pretty; instructions very intuitive; can separately pre-load photo paper; unexpected neat little add-on features like Quick Forms to print calendar pages, graph paper, even a few games like Sudokus!; can reproduce photos with one button; color resolution is intense; can even print on CD’s (if you buy the right ones); prints fast once it gets started. One other very cool feature: it prints straight from my iPhone using free HP iPrint application.
DISLIKES: takes too long getting started after you press “print” and is noisy doing it (though quiet when actually printing); the black on documents is not quite black enough (though I suspect this may save ink and perhaps can be adjusted in settings); photo paper loading didn’t work with Kodak paper (but worked fine with HP paper); ink is expensive…I don’t yet know how long it’ll last.
Overall there are just too many good features to enjoy on this printer that I can’t focus on the few flaws. I’m in love.

A negative comment from Amazon.com:

Printer Problems, Customer Service Nightmare

Although a long-time Amazon customer, I should disclose that I purchased this printer from the HP on-line store. Why, then, is this review here? Because their similar customer-feedback mechanism would not permit the printing of my submission. (“The truth? You can’t handle the truth!”–Jack Nickolson)

This new-model printer turned out to have both software and hardware issues right out of the box. Since I have access to my university’s computer support department, which offers telephone assistance/troubleshooting for non-university-owned computer equipment, I first contacted them. Over the course of several telephone sessions, three different technicians identified a software problem, plus design issues that prevent the printer from operating correctly.

A possible solution to faulty software has already been suggested by another Amazon reviewer–do not use the CD supplied with the printer itself. Instead, download the driver software from the HP download site. This potential solution was never suggested by HP Technical Support, as HP would not concede the possibility that there was anything wrong with the driver in the first place. On my operating system, the driver would continually revert to FAX mode, no matter what I did. With another OS, the bug may manifest itself in a different way. Also, I have not tried the other reviewer suggestion by downloading the web-site version of the driver. That’s because, by the time I saw his/her review, the printer had been sitting in its carton out in the garage for 3 weeks, awaiting some sort of corrective action by HP.

The hardware issue is twofold. First, the smaller of the printer’s two paper trays cannot detect the presence of paper in the tray, gives an “out of paper” message on the little printer screen, and halts the printing process. I experimented with full paper trays, half-full, and just a couple of pages. No dice.

Secondly, I was initially able to override the error stoppage by pressing the OK button, and thereby printed a number of 4X6 prints. After making a couple of prints in a row, however, I found that the feeding process caused the plastic fence (meant to keep paper in the tray aligned) to become looser and looser, allowing paper to be fed into the printer slightly crooked, with the result that the borderless prints I made came out with white (unprinted) slivers along opposing edges of the print.

At the time I was having multiple problems with this printer, others were (apparently) giving the unit rave, 5-star reviews on the HP store’s web site. I thought “Why just me?” and submitted a negative review that was rejected by the powers that be at HP. Now, however, the two printer design issues noted above have finally appeared, in reviews on the last and next-to-last page at the HP site. These appear to be genuine reviews by actual purchasers of the product.

This review already exceeds the desired length requested by Amazon, but I feel that an explanation as to why this dreadful printer still sits in my garage is in order. The technicians from my university felt that the problems I was experiencing were inherent in the printer’s design (and its driver software), and therefore cautioned me not to accept a replacement printer, but instead insist on returning it for a refund.

This type of problem is handled by HP Customer Care via a lengthy (2+ hour) process that includes a mandatory independent review of the product by one of their own experts from HP Technical Support. Without knowing what I’d previously been told by university technical staff, this person came to essentially the same conclusion.

However, when I was eventually able to speak directly to the decision-maker (who had access to notes recorded by the 6-7 other people I had to go through in order to speak to her) she elected not to allow the return, offering only a replacement unit, as I’d been warned. The reason? Some sort of ongoing beef with HP Technical Support, whom she regarded as a bunch of incompetents.

So that was my choice, a replacement or nothing. When I continued to press my case for a return, as I had for more than two hours, this person (called a “case manager”) hung up on me.

Having said all this, I feel obliged to point out that a (single) test of the printer’s 8 1/2 X 11 printing capability yielded a perfectly acceptable print. The scanner’s operation was less than ideal, as it required several attempts to produce a complete scan without having it stop 1/4 or 1/3 of the way, but when it finally produced a complete scan the quality was top-notch. I never attempted to use the FAX function.

With regard to the product reviews printed on their site, those on the first two pages are clearly suspect, with uniformly rave reviews accompanied by 5-star ratings. (Being subtle is apparently not the author’s strong suit.) A couple of later submissions do provide a glimpse into the printer’s shortcomings. I believe that HP’s unwillingness to print the review I submitted derives from its conclusion/recommendation, which was phrased something like this: “potential purchasers of this printer would be well advised to delay buying it until a number of outstanding software and hardware issues affecting its performance have been rectified.”

I believe that it was probably this recommendation, more so than the operational issues per se, that doomed the submission to the “round file.” It was (and is) based on several well-substantiated operational issues, and it comes from someone who has been and will continue to be a big fan of HP printers. As the owner of 5 HP printers (including 4 currently, including the one in the garage) I believe that HP produces the finest monochrome printers in the world (their LaserJet series) regardless of price.

Last year I purchased two LaserJets (from Amazon!) to replace a LaserJet III that seemed like it had lasted practically forever–requiring replacement toner cartridges at intervals nearing two years. I was wary of the smaller, plastic printers ordered from Amazon, but the one that at the time was HP’s cheapest printer (Model 1020) produced 1st-class results, and continues to do so 1 1/2 years later. Further, HP’s dismal customer support isn’t an issue, as nothing ever seems to go wrong with the LaserJets.

Color printers, on the other hand, appear to present difficulties for all manufacturers. Certain models targeted toward the professional market appear to be well-regarded. But for those of us who don’t have the thousands of dollars these printers cost, shopping for a quality, reliable color printer or all-in-one seems all but hopeless. Pick any (affordable) make and model of color printer, run a search on it, and the search is likely to reveal scores of unhappy owners.

So my review is not meant to demean HP, just to sound a cautionary note as a counterpoint to the many positive reviews I see–particularly in view of my newly-developed cynicism regarding authorship of product reviews. However, if some product failure were to occur, I think customers deserve far better treatment than they now receive at the hands of HP personnel. And if they or any seller opts to solicit and present product reviews on their web-site, I feel that they have an ethical obligation to inform the reader when the reviews reflect anything other than (1) all submissions, or (2) an honest random sample of those submissions. Reviews by people affiliated with the company, or which have been chosen in such a way as to exclude some or all negative comments should be accompanied by a clear disclosure of these circumstances. (Read all Amazon.com user reviews)