Apple Reviews

I now have windows XP and as other reviews have said, the software provided with the product does not work at all with XP. However, the critisism in some of the reviews above is not up to date. I have loaded updated software from the Umax site, which was free and works fine with XP. In fact it appears identical in use with the software initially provided.

I still think this is a good scanner, although it is a bit dated and bulky by today's standards.

RA

This is, by far, the best multifunction machine on the market. And, of course, it's an HP. I only gave the printer four stars because the machine is loud and the CD-ROM that came with my machine was corrupt, so I had to download the driver from the HP website. Otherwise, setting up the printer was no problem. I also think it should come with a USB cable (you have to buy it separately). A machine that does everything should include everything you need in the box to hook it up.

NOTE: If you do a lot of two-sided printing, you should consider the HP d145 or d125. Or you can purchase the two-sided printer accessory separately.

ADDENDUM - I had to exchange my first d135 printer because it was leaving streaks on the page and it was putting large yellow drops on the pages. Because of this, I downgraded this printer to 3 stars. Hopefully, this new printer will work better.

Overall the D135 is a great multifunction. All the functions work very well and in many cases rival the quality of individual components. Uses HPs new print engine with separated ink cartridges and print heads. The print heads are user replacable and are rated at 3 years or 50000 pages (not bad!!). This should be an economical machine to use.

The scanner has been upgraded from the G85 and is better in every way. The document feeder is much better than the G series and the scans are now optically 600 x 1200 48 bit color (unless you have a Mac which is limited to 36 bit I believe).

The fax is also 33.6 color (assuming you find someone else with a color fax)....Plenty of memory for preprogrammed numbers and 10 one touch keys.

Overall The D135 is quite easy to use with good ergonomics and tons of usable features. Also watch for the forthcoming D145 and D155 which add CF, SM and Sony Memory stick slots for digital camera users, a duplexer to allow two sided printing and copying and, in the case of the d155, a second paper tray for power users.

Pitfalls, and there's always a few....

1) Typical for HP printers, prints are often skewed just a little bit on the page. About 1mm off when comparing left to right. This seems to be an HP trait. I tried 4 different D135 machines, all with a similar problem.... Many users won't notice the slight skewing, but I found it quite easily when printing borderless photos.

2) The WinXP software isn't ready yet so the functionality is limited a bit right now. PC faxing yet not enabled yet and sone scanning functions don't work yet (including OCR unless you buy an off the shelf Twain compliant OCR program).

3) The scanner head is a bit noisy. No biggie, just thought I'd bring it up. Don't expect to use it in the bedroom while the wife is sleeping!!!

Despite the quirks, overall HP has a winner!!

My wife really appreciates the "stand-alone" copier and fax functions, and we are all impressed with its overall speed and quality. This device makes photocopies in about half the time it previously took to scan (on a fairly speedy scanner) and print on a laser printer ... and the quality is as good or better.

My daughter has fun trying to see if she can spool a school report from her PC to the Brother MFC-9200C and get downstairs before the printed page is in the tray! She's pretty fast, but most of the time the MFC-9200C is faster!

The software that comes with the Brother MFC is easy to install and use. So far, this is one of the best purchases I've made.

I have had the printer for about 2 months now and have not had any problems at all! No issues with paper feeding or ink (in the 785EPX I was having streaking issues), I leave my printer on all day everyday and when I havn't used it in awhile it takes a minute for it to warm up, but otherwise this printer had resorted my faith in Epson! I highly suggest it over the 825 (becuase of the cartridges).

When i called Gravis and asked, the lady with the foreign accent at tech support tried telling me that it was the game and that I needed to try another. I told her this was my only game. She said then that a technician would call me back.... still waiting.

It's going back to the store.

Not Recomended.

The AC power adapter is bulky, and not really needed considering this box doesn't act like a good self-powered USB hub anyway. I was able to disconnect power and it still works fine (and free up some space on my power strip).

The images I printed look good at "Normal." My printouts are only for filing and invoicing purposes, NOT DISPLAY NOR ARCHIVING. (This HP Deskjet 3420 prints "Best" quality at 2400 dpi. What dpi is "Normal?" You know, I'm not too sure but I'm happy with my results!)

The two cartridges are each approxiamately $22 bucks. Find a printer that has cartridges that cost less and it will probably have four or more different cartridges. Right off that's a more expensive printer. And changing all four will likely be the same price.

At "Normal" settings, I've been able to print approxiamately forty 4 by 6 inch color photos with the initial cartridges. Add about 40 pages of black text. If I get 100 more pages of text and 30 to 40 more photos without changing the cartridges, I'll be very happy.

If the printer lasts three years, cartridge prices remain below $25 and print quality does not visibly diminish, I'll be satisfied with this purchase.

In the store just before I made my purchase, the Lexmark salesperson exhibited the Lexmark Z605 printer. It prints best quality at 4800dpi, which is better thant the HP Deskjet 3420. The Lexmark Z605 costs 50 bucks, which is cheaper. But the cartridges, according to the sales representative, cost $30, which is more expensive. (Do they have more ink than the HP deskjet 3420 cartridges? I don't know.) I've never had a Lexmark and don't know about there reliability. The sales rep was not very convincing.

The cartridges cost $22. I've worked with HP brand and I know they make good reliable printers. (They also make products that are very disappointing.) But I was more willing to risk purchasing an HP. Also the HP Deskjet 3420 is not large and doesn't take up a lot of desk space to me. For those reasons, I chose this printer.

Be careful with your decision and good luck!

Pros:
1. VERY Simple to install. Just plug the USB wire from the printer to your pc/laptop or mac (and the power-chord too) and you ready to go.
2. Works great with Windows XP.
3. Compact in space, excelent for small rooms.
4. Prints great photo picture.
5. You can see how much ink you have left on your monitor.
6. Ink easy to install.
7. Black ink cartridge is cheap too. (Which I always buy since I print a lot of documents. Average Cost: $18)
8. Prints really fast in Econofast mode. And the quality is still good.

Cons:
1. Uses ink fast, if you print a lot of pictures.
2. Coloured ink cartrige is expensive for something so small.(Average Cost: $25)
3. Kind of noisy when printing in normal-mode.
4. You have to buy the USB wire separately, (but so does every printer that you buy. Cost about 20 dollars or less.)

Who should buy it?
1. People that lives in dorms.
2. People that prints schoolworks, homeworks, letters, reports several times a week.
3. People who prints photos once-in-a-while.

Who should NOT buy it?
1. Heavy printer uses.
2. Digital Photographers, cause you will end up buying a lot of coloured ink cartridges.

So my overall comment is:
NOT BAD for something cheap and and small.

When I contacted them to advise that the S50 DOES NOT support the audible format that I had initially bought the unit for, I was politely told that they were sorry but they had no plans support any players using the audible format in the near future.

for the money spent on this, it should not have performed like this... poor software and a defective battery. I will be sure not to recommend this to anyone and I will never by another thing from sonicblue.