It’s very convenient for HP that the ISO speeds quoted allow it to exclude this initial preparation, though as a customer, of course, the delay is very much part of the overall print time. This is after all the setup tasks have been completed and we have already printed several other test documents. The first is that the printer can spend a lot of time ‘preparing’ to print – we measured a maximum of 30 seconds before starting to print our black and colour test. There are two speed problems which detract from these generally good test results, though. These are not bad speeds for an inkjet all-in-one. The five-page black text and colour graphics test returned a speed of 4.00ppm. Our five-page black text print returned a speed of 7.89ppm, but this increased to 9.84ppm when printing 20 pages. HP quotes normal print speeds of 12ppm for black and 9.5ppm for colour, but under test we didn’t get quite that fast. There’s driver support on the supplied CD for Windows from XP onwards and OS X from version 10.4. The rest of the software installation provides the usual basic file management and OCR, as well as useful applets like HP Smart Web Printing. Installation of the support software then finds the networked printer and connection is painless. Wireless setup is also very simple, as the firmware wizard hunts for available networks and the touchscreen presents a keyboard for entering a pass code. Hardware setup is a cinch just clip the five cartridges – there are pigmented and photo blacks – into the print head and away you go. At the back connections include USB and Ethernet, but the Photosmart Premium C309g also supports wireless networking. Two memory card slots, for SD, MemoryStick and xD cards are set next to a dual-purpose USB socket, which connects to PictBridge cameras and USB memory drives. A pull-out paper stop prevents printed A4 sheets from sliding onto the desk, but increases the printer’s footprint quite considerably. The printer draws the photo tray into itself when you select photo media. It has a 7:5.5 aspect ratio, which is better for photo previews than a widescreen.īelow the control panel is the usual paper tray arrangement, which can take both plain paper and photo blanks. It’s very easy to use and is a bit more sensitive than Lexmark’s. This is a capacitative screen, with a bright backlight and large icons. ![]() The screen itself is surrounded by six, single-function touch buttons, which illuminate when their functions are available. ![]() The fixed, angled control panel has a raised rim with the touchscreen set almost as a separate unit on a five-position hinge. The top cover, gloss black with a series of embossed geometric lines, is reminiscent of some recent HP laptops and lifting the lid gives easy access to the flatbed scanner, though there’s little allowance in the hinge for scanning books. HP has gone out of its way to design this machine with very smooth, simple lines. HP’s Photosmart Premium C309g, aimed at the home enthusiast with a taste for photo printing, has an 89mm touchscreen which, along with its surrounding touch buttons, is the only control on the machine, apart from its physical power button. Although it may have attracted the most coverage for its new range of inkjet all-in-ones, Lexmark is not the only printer maker to include large LCD touchscreens in its new models.
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