HP Photosmart D7160

After 5 years of printing photos, my HP Photosmart 1115 had pretty much died. Since it served me well, it generated a repeat purchase of an HP product. I read the Sunday ads and then went comparison shopping.

I narrowed my choice between the D7160 and the D7360. The printers are identical with the exception of the D7360 having a 3.4" touchscreen instead of the 2.4" regular screen of the D7160. I personally didn't feel replacing four buttons with a 1" larger touchscreen was worth the extra $30. A majority of the local stores had the D7160 on sale this week for $30 less than retail (lists for $149, on sale for $119) so I made my purchase.

The packaging
The printer is packaged inside a plastic bag and secured between two recycled cardboard forms in the box. HP didn't want to risk damage during shipping as they used 9 pieces of tape to secure various doors and parts.

Overall Description
HP has broken away from their standard black and gray with this printer. The body of the unit is a very light gray and the cover of the printer is white. The power button is back lit with a bright blue light. At first glance, one can easily think MacIntosh. Sitting a printer that is designed like an iPod next to a Windows machine might look a awkward for some people.

The 2.4" display screen has four selections:
- View & Print allows you to view photos on a memory card using the built-in slots for XD, CF, MS or SD cards
- Save allows you to save an edited photo back to a card. The printer allows you to zoom, rotate and "photo fix" an image.
- Share which allows you to share photos using HP Photosmart Share
- Settings which allows you to set the printer's settings

Below the LCD are buttons for returning to the home menu, the previous menu and a directional and OK button. To the right are buttons to print, print preview and cancel a print job. Finally, the last set of buttons allows you to zoom, rotate or "photo fix" (color correct, remove red eye, etc).

The printer has a standard 8.5" x 11" paper tray as well as a dedicated 4" x 6" tray. The 4" x 6" tray automatically slides in when printing a 4" x 6" photo and then slides back out when finished. This reduces user error of forgetting to slide the photo paper tray in. The manual states that the printer can print from 3" x 5" to 8.5" x 24" panorama images.

With the built in capability to edit photos prior to printing, this printer can easily be used stand alone without a computer. The size, however, severely limits its portability.

Installation
Installation was an easy process and took about 45 minutes to complete. This included finding space on the desk for the printer's large footprint of 18.2" wide by 15.25" deep by 6.8" high. This larger size is something to consider if desktop or printer stand space is limited.

The first step is to plug the printer in and turn it on. The printer walks you through the steps of installing the 6 ink cartridges and then running a 4-minute initial setup. This setup process is repeated whenever a new ink cartridge is installed.

Finally, install the software on the computer and then connect the USB cable to the computer when prompted.

Print Quality
Don't let the advertising on the box fool you. Several places on the box state that this is the world's fastest photo printer available, printing a borderless 4" x 6" photo in 12 seconds. If you want a photo in 12 seconds, you'll need to use the lowest quality setting and you'll get what you wait for. Spend the extra minute or two and print the same image using the highest quality setting and you'll be looking at a print that is fairly close to a photo lab print.

Don't forget that the quality of the print is only as good as the image file. If the image is grainy or out of focus, the print from any printer or photo lab will be the same.

Ink Cartridges
Previous HP printers only used two ink cartridges; black and multi-color. The D7160 uses six HP Vivera ink cartridges. These cartridges are considerable smaller in size to previous ones and have several benefits. To begin, HP advertises that they will be fade resistant for 200 years based on some "under glass" study. Second, the photos will withstand some minor water on them although I personally haven't tested this statement yet. The main benefit that I see is that the ink is broken down into six separate colors: blank, yellow, magenta, light magenta, cyan, light cyan. With the previous multi-color cartridge, you could run low on one color and have to the cartridge wasting the remaining ink of the other colors. With this new system, you only need to replace the one color. I price shopped for the ink and all local stores sell the blank ink for $17.99 and the color ink for $9.99. I did see both two-packs of the same color for around $33 and then a combo pack which had a full round of ink and a sample of 4" x 6" paper for around $35.

An Additional Spiffy Accessory
HP offers a Bluetooth adapter for this printer for an additional purchase (lists $50) which will allow you to print photos from your Bluetooth enables cell phone. Some may find this a big benefit while others may find it easier (and less expensive) to e-mail the photo from their cell phone to their personal e-mail account and then print from their computer.

Overall Opinion
After printing several images with the D7160 I am very pleased with it's performance. The print quality is similar to my older Photosmart 1115 but having the ink colors broken out into separate cartridges is a big benefit. Having the world's fastest photo printer doesn't matter to me as I prefer quality greatly over speed. The D7160 was a good purchase for me and one that I would make again.