News
Buyer's Guide: The Best Monitors 
HP Photosmart C4580
| Caractéristiques | |||
| Resolution | 4800 x 1200 ppp | ||
| Speed B&W / color | 30 ppm / 23 ppm | ||
| Ink drop size | N.C. picolitres | ||
| Number of cartridges | 2 | ||
| Number of base colors | 4 | ||
 Show all specifications
|
|||
| Scanner | yes |
| Copier | yes |
| Fax | no |
| WiFi | yes |
 Hide specifications | |
Nilofar Hadjanadjiboudine
Test date: February 5, 2009
Test date: February 5, 2009
Scanner and copier
Scanner speed and quality are satisfactory, but far from exceptional. Fine for basic use, but not for any photo touching up work. Full scan of a 300 dpi 4x6 colour photo takes less than 14 seconds, which is pretty good.
The copier is fast. A black and white copy takes a little less than 14 seconds and a colour copy 22 seconds.
The Photosmart C4580 is comparable to the C4480, with a useful function in addition: Wi-Fi. The speeds are similar and so are the cartridges. In terms of qualty you can’t really hope for better – notwithstanding that the C4480 is already a reference in terms of office work, and a good photo printing model too.
Office printing: ok, but a little disappointing
With such a difference in price between the C4480 and the C4580, you would hope to see something much better. The spec however announces them to be in all points identical, and they are! The C4480 and the C4580 are one and the same: even the real speeds of 5.2 pppm in standard colour mode, 7.3 ppm for black and white and 23 ppm for draft.
These speeds are comparable to the average and come with more than satisfactory quality. With the exception of draft mode, where the black is washed out, the text and graphs are both sharp. The text is a deep black and the characters precise. The tinted areas on graphs are truly nice and even and the characters are clear.
.jpg)
Photo printing: as slow as the C4480
Count on 1 minute 30 per 4x6” print and 3 minutes (!) for an A4. The photos are nevertheless nice, with good contrast and accurate colours (better than Canon). They look really good to the eye, although you can make out the drops of ink if you look really close.
There is an optional photo cartridge but using it makes the cost of prints much more expensive.
Cartridges
Low capacity cartridges really are expensive. We recommend you go for the high capacity (once those that come with it are empty) so that your cost per page drops back down to average.
Office printing: ok, but a little disappointing
With such a difference in price between the C4480 and the C4580, you would hope to see something much better. The spec however announces them to be in all points identical, and they are! The C4480 and the C4580 are one and the same: even the real speeds of 5.2 pppm in standard colour mode, 7.3 ppm for black and white and 23 ppm for draft.
These speeds are comparable to the average and come with more than satisfactory quality. With the exception of draft mode, where the black is washed out, the text and graphs are both sharp. The text is a deep black and the characters precise. The tinted areas on graphs are truly nice and even and the characters are clear.
Photo printing: as slow as the C4480
Count on 1 minute 30 per 4x6” print and 3 minutes (!) for an A4. The photos are nevertheless nice, with good contrast and accurate colours (better than Canon). They look really good to the eye, although you can make out the drops of ink if you look really close.
There is an optional photo cartridge but using it makes the cost of prints much more expensive.
Cartridges
| Cartouche | Autonomie ISO | ||
| 350 (noir) | 200 | ||
| 351 (monobloc) | 170 | ||
| 350 XL (noir) | 1000 | ||
| 351XL (monobloc) | 580 |
Low capacity cartridges really are expensive. We recommend you go for the high capacity (once those that come with it are empty) so that your cost per page drops back down to average.
Pluses
-
Wi-Fi
-
Great quality for office printing
-
Nice photo prints, although drops are visible
-
Not uneconomical if you use XL cartridges
Minuses
-
Slow in photo mode
-
Standard capacity cartridges expensive
-
Small screen
-
Scanner is average, the competition often better
This machine is pretty good. It gives the quality of a 4480, with Wi-Fi on top. Perfect! But HP is charging a very high premium just to get this additional function.
