HP Officejet 7000 Wide Format Printer (C9299AB1H)

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 15.8 x 22.6 x 7.1 inches ; 15.4 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 20.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
• ASIN: B002E1RITO
• Item model number: C9299AB1H
  

Price : $119.99
You Save : $80.00 (40%)

Product Description

Fast, network printing up to 13 x 19 inches with lowest cost per page vs. wide-format inkjets1

Product Featured in Engadget's 2011 Holiday Gift Guide

Learn more at Engadget

Technical Details

• Print on various paper types and sizes from 3.5 x 5 inches up to 13 x 19 inches - plus get stunning borderless photos with HP Officejet inks.
• Maximum letter print speeds up to 33 ppm black, 32 ppm color2.
• This HP Officejet printer consumes up to 40% less energy than letter-size laser printers5.
• Save money by replacing only the individual ink cartridge that runs out.
• Lowest cost per page among wide-format inkjets up to 13 x 19-inch using HP Officejet inks1

Costumer Reviews

Please be aware, before buying this printer, that it uses traditional four-color (cyan, magenta, yellow, black (CMYK)) technology. While four-color printing is the standard for offset color printing (i.e.: the process used by commercial printing plants), this printer is not capable of producing the lifelike continuous tones of a six-or-more color printer designed for printing photographs. That doesn't mean it's bad for its intended use--the speedy printing of typical business documents on plain paper, or getting output that simulates the four-color offset printing process--but it does mean that shoppers looking for photographic-quality output should look for a different printer better suited to that objective.

On behalf of a family member who works as a commercial artist, I wanted a large-format printer to replace a pair of ancient Epsons that constantly clogged. I bought a new large-format Epson (Workforce 1100--see my review) thinking that 15 years of development since my old printers were made would mean Epson had solved the clogging problem. I was mistaken--it clogged almost immediately and took multiple ink-consuming cleaning cycles to clear before it clogged again--so I returned it.

I was somewhat wary of this OfficeJet 7000, since it has gotten some very articulate and feature-specific negative reviews on Amazon. However, I took a chance because A. there are very few large-format inkjet printers available, and B. those that HP sells specifically for graphics users (DesignJets) hover around the $1000 mark--They may be very good printers, but I didn't want to spend that much.

Making sure that the local store I bought my OfficeJet 7000 from had a reasonable return policy, I dragged the large box home and began to unpack it. The first thing that surprised me was seeing that it has built-in ethernet--a rare feature among printers in this price range. While I don't need to network the printer at the moment, and I don't know how well it works, it's nice to know we have that option down the road, without buying additional hardware. I connected it via USB (you'll need your own cable), and got to work.

Installation of the printhead and supplied starter inks was fast and easy, and the software installed quickly on my Mac (OS X). As I recall, the printer then started its own ink priming/calibration routine that took about 15 minutes--a one-time thing, unless you want to manually run it again later (I have not had to).

With its print driver set to maximum quality, output quality on the 7000 (from Adobe Illustrator on a Mac) is very good--Again, for its intended use of printing business documents and graphic designs with solid blocks of color, not photos intended for framed art. In general, output colors are very bright and close to what I see on the screen--and this is on plain paper--although darker colors (like deep browns) appear just a bit washed out, and there is no setting I can find in the print driver to directly fine-tune this density.

Speaking of software, the 7000 comes with a decent CD that not only inserts the usual controls for various basic printer settings into the OS-level print dialog (OS X, in my case), but includes gadgets that let you run utilities on the printer such as head cleaning and additional calibration cycles (haven't needed it) and track what you've printed and how often you've interacted with the printer for such events as ink cartridge changes. Just keep in mind, if you are a user looking for endless print output tweakability, this software doesn't have much--It was clearly designed for the simplicity that business users want. The good news, as I mentioned above, is that I've found its output to be quite color-accurate without a lot of tweaking, even if the dark mixed colors suffer a bit (black is fine). However, if you really want press-proof quality output, check out one of the HP printers designed for the graphic arts.

Like all inkjets, the OfficeJet 7000 is built on the model of selling you the printer relatively cheaply, then making money for the manufacturer on your future ink purchases. I can accept this reality, and the less-than-perfect color calibration (of dark colors) if I know the printer will work reliably, and so far this 7000 has been a champ. After years of dealing with the endless clogs (and unreplaceable printheads) of Epson printers, I am luxuriating in the sheer joy and novelty of a printer that just uncomplainingly puts ink down on paper without clogging every ten minutes. It's been six weeks and not a single clog. And while I would characterize the 7000's actual printing speed as "pretty fast" compared to my retired Epsons, the biggest improvement in overall output speed has come from simply not having to take time out to unclog the old Epsons' finicky heads.

As for reviews that mention paper jams, I can only guess that such reviewers got lemons, because my 7000 has been jam-free from the beginning, even with light cardstock that has to bend around a paper path that starts with the front-load tray. I would have preferred a printer with the option of a straight-through paper path (like the Epson Workforce 1100) for heavier stock, but that's a minor quibble when you consider how much more reliable it has been.

Update from 12/2011:

Everything I've said in the review above remained true until a few months ago, when the printer began having problems feeding the last few inches of a sheet of paper. Remember, this printer is capable of borderless printing, something I use regularly to print designs to the edge of the paper. Suddenly, the printer began stopping its normal paper feed when the print head was an inch or two from the end of the sheet on such a borderless print, while the print head would continue going left and right and laying down ink as if the paper was moving. When it was done with the print, it wouldn't eject the paper, either--It just sat there, and when you physically yanked out the paper, you'd find a muddy mess of ink which reflected the non-movement of paper.

Fortunately, I had purchased an extended warranty from the well-known national office product retailer I had bought the printer from. After horsing around with their online and on-phone tech support and extended warranty claims organization for a few hours, they finally agreed it was something not worth printing, and they refunded my original purchase price. (Although I was grateful for their honoring of my extended warranty, I was less than thrilled with their services. Not to mention any names, but I will say that their extended warranty claims organization did not exactly "Max" out my satisfaction level.)

I applied the refund toward a new copy of the same printer from the same retailer (amazingly, for $100 less than last time), and within hours I was having what appeared to be USB communication issues (switching to ethernet bypassed the problem, but didn't fix it). More importantly, the new printer began to exhibit (within days) the exact same paper mis-feed issue that the old one had! This time, I was obviously within HP warranty and received courteous phone support. After going through their standard firm-grasp-of-the-obvious questions (Is it plugged in? Are the ink carts installed? Did you press print?), they agreed to send a replacement refurb unit if I send the apparently defective (new) one back to them. I will keep you posted on whether the new (refurb) one they send displays the same problems or not.

The printer has very good quality. I like the fact that the software integrates well with the hP solution center so you can go to one place to view things such as ink and cleaning of print heads (I also have an officejet Pro 8000). The only thing I had a problem with was I thought it would print borderless on all formats up to the maximum size (I think it was 13 x 19). I made a custom brochure using Adobe Indesign and built it at 8.5 x 14 to give me a little more area to work with but could not find the setting to print borderless at that size. It supported 8.5 x 11 and 11 x 17 borderless. It would have been nice to have all sizes borderless. Maybe HP could put out an updated driver that would allow for that. Otherwise, it is a good printer for the money.

Chuck