Hewlett Packard Photosmart C6180 All-In-One InkJet Printer Review

I recently went to Office Depot to buy some extra "HP 14" ink jet cartidges for my HP Office Jet 7130. The two packs of black ink and color cartidges were $50.  I don't like to run out so I was going to buy three.  I then was going to buy refills for my Canon ip8550 photo printer which has individual cartidges for each of the eight colors it needs.  I realized I was going to spend nearly $300 on ink, which really seemed crazy to me.  So, on my way out I noticed the HP Photosmart C6180 All-In-One which is a printer, fax, scanner and copier.  It was about 2/3 the size of the HP Office Jet 7130 that I had at home. (see the side by side picture I uploaded for this review)  The sales person told me that the reason my ink was so expensive was that the Office Jet 7130 had technology that was several generations old.

Soo... much to my wife's surprise, I bought this.  It cost $299 and an extra set of print cartridges cost $40. 

Although I have not tried to get it working yet, the priner says that it is 802.11g compatible which is a huge advantage for us at home where we have four computers on the wireless network.  It also has a second but smaller paper tray meant for photo size paper.   This is a very nice convenience.

I have printed a photo and the quality seems to me just as good if not better than the Cannon ip8550 which I bought for just that reason.  

We have printed a few documents and they printed very fast with good quality.

Bottom line?  If you have an old ink jet priner, think about upgrading.  You will get better quality, cheaper ink and more features.