HP Photosmart C4480 Ink Review

The HP Photosmart C4480 includes a lot of the disadvantages you'd be expecting with an entry-level inkjet multifunction printer, including a low feature set and slow print speeds. The caliber of pictures is not particularly appealing nevertheless the C4480 multifunction is effective as a low cost document printer and scanner.

Even though strikingly alike in design to the C4580, the C4480 inkjet multifunction features less attributes. There is a solitary USB 2.0 connection and also a media card reader supporting MemoryStick, SD, xD in addition to MMC cards. Distinguishing the C4480 from bargain-bin inkjet multifunctions is a teeny 3.8cm colour Liquid crystal display screen. The multifunction features fast access buttons for scanning, copying as well as printing. The LCD even demonstrates photographs coming from removable media, and transitions between pictures were remarkably quick. Don't be expecting to edit photos directly from the multifunction, but the LCD's inclusion signifies you'll not need to print and then scan index sheets to choose pictures.

Ink cartridge substitution is hopelessly tricky. A further design quirk is the fact that C4480 inkjet multifunction's sole input tray is situated beneath the output tray and only split by thin plastic protrusions on both sides, which rarely stop input and output media from mingling.

The C4480 prints relatively quickly given its cost; it's actually capable of printing draft mono documents at as much as 18.9 pages per minute. When printing in normal quality, the rate decreased to 6.1ppm. In our assessments, colour documents printed a little more slowly, at 14.1ppm in draft mode as well as 2.8ppm in normal; these rates of speed are nevertheless substantially faster than the business oriented Officejet J4580. It takes 45 seconds to print a normal quality 4x6in picture, and also 2min11secs to print an A4 photograph.

In the event you are not prudent to have the output guide fully extended, the HP Photosmart C4480 will simply spit pages out. Printing is also considerably louder in comparison with the majority of low cost inkjet multifunctions.

Thankfully, the quality is good when using the HP Photosmart C4480 ink cartridges. While draft as well as normal quality text documents tend to be overbold and also fuzzy, text characters whenever printing in the best quality setting are crisp as well as really readable. The quality of colour documents is noteworthy, with text and colours mixed well. Blues tend to be marginally over saturated, however otherwise the quality is certainly commendable. Photos tend to be marred by noise and discolouration within gradients. The comparatively low print resolution ensures that A4 pictures tend to be the much more likely to be afflicted when compared with 4x6in pictures, although we found similar problems in both assessments. If quality isn't extremely important, the C4480 suffices. If not we suggest a more costly printer for printing photos.

Scans may be initiated right from the C4480 and are comparatively fast. Having said that, the default scan options can't be configured and the results are underwhelming; scans frequently had noisy backgrounds and also lacked fine detail.

The HP Photosmart C4480's asking price is unquestionably appealing, and the operating cost all the more so. As a cheap document printer and scanner the Photosmart C4480 behaves nicely, however, you may wish to spend a little extra to get superior quality photographs.

HP Photosmart C4480 printer ink cartridges are available here.