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HP 3380 All-In-One


Real People Reviews by Daniel M. East

HP's small office solution for fax, color scanning and black laser/copier with all of the bells and most of the whistles. Enough RAM and speed for nearly any office or home office.

Two things stand out for me with the 3380; first, the ease of setup and use was nothing shy of plug in and go. In fact, before I even downloaded the latest drivers and software, I was able to just print clean looking output right out of the box (a nice testimony about OS X as well). Second, once the software was loaded up, HP's director makes every function a snap to use. Whether using the Director or right from Photoshop to scan or whatever, the 3380 does a fine job with nearly any output job.

With 32 Mb RAM, performance is really great from this all-in-one. The copier is really excellent with very good quality output from all resolutions. The fax is all HP with true 33.6 transmissions and 4 Mb RAM - both send and receive work exactly as they should. The 24 bit scanning is color accurate within about 3% of yellow and red with green tones appearing very accurate and saturation is spot on. In fact, scans of a variety of originals (old photos, new photos, magazine covers and original sketches as well as text to OCR) were clean and clear from edge to edge. The only mild distortion was in the upper right corner that appeared to be from how the lid sat on the upper edge of a larger original.

DISLIKES: My only issues with the 3380 are that the printing from PDF, text docs and web pages all produced a slightly top-heavy intensity on the text; however, after tapping out the toner and recalibrating the printer, the issue was resolved. Also, like other HP products, this is a large device that may overwhelm a desktop in a small home office, but is ultimately going to take far less space than a scanner, office fax and copier if placed separately.

How does this product compare? The only thing really close to the 3380 is the Brother 8840D at $599.00 and, while less costly, has PostScript Lev. 3, but only 32 Mb of RAM (the 3380 maxes at 96 Mb). The 3380 offers more capacity and, in terms of ease of use, HP wins out with user friendly features and operating costs.

For those who need a stand-alone fax as well as a black ink laser, this is a great option when you consider the features and costs. Small offices will love the combination and simplicity.

Personally, I have mixed feelings about such combo devices; however, I find them very effective for those specific situations where such a device is needed. Given the cost of the individual items (scanner, black laser printer, copier, fax) vs. this unit and its cost factors, HP delivers a competitive and good quality product with little to complain about.

HP 3380 all-in-one Printer

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CREDITS:
Daniel East is the founder and president of The Mid-Atlantic Macintosh User Groups Team (MaMUGs); a member of The Apple Consultants Network (ACN); a member of The Apple Developer Connection (ACN); a panelist on "PC Talk Radio;" a live speaker/presenter and a freelance columnist for Mac publications. This review may be reproduced with proper attribution. Please notify author of placement and provide a copy/URL for reference. All trademarks are property of their respective owners. (c) 2004 Daniel M. East for The Mid-Atlantic Macintosh User Groups Team (MaMUGs) ... Event dates are subject to change. Some products, programs, or promotions are not available outside the U.S. Prices are estimated retail prices and are listed in U.S. dollars. Product specifications are subject to change. Apple, the Apple logo, Mac, Mac OS, Macintosh, Power Mac, Velocity Engine, FireWire, AirPort, Safari, Sherlock, QuickTime, iLife, iTunes, iChat, iPhoto, iMovie, iDVD, iCal and Apple Store are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Apple. Other company and product names may be trademarks of their respective owners. Mention of third-party products is for informational purposes only and constitutes neither a recommendation nor an endorsement.

 

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