HP Photosmart C6380

HP targets the individual consumer. This product is however more suited to professionals and SMEs. Indeed, you won't find this printer (ethernet, Wi-Fi, separate cartrides) in many hypermarkets. Especially as it has a choice of standard and XL cartridges, with ink economy in mind. Note, there is a separate "black photo" cartridge. Good point: the photos are more accurate than on HP printers that aren't equipped with this ink. Bad point: it will gradually get empty (very slowly), even if you only do office printing (see the final table at the bottom of the page).

Office printing: fast and high quality

Going up in the range with HP means you can finally achieve better speeds than the 4480 and 4580. You go from 5.3 ppm in colour to 10.6 ppm on this 6380! In black and white, there is less of a gain but still an appreciable one: around 12 ppm on our test document instead of 7 ppm on the others. And draft mode (excellent quality) goes up to 26 ppm. Do leave it on the default parameters as, although the blacks will be less deep, it's more economical.
The 6380, then, betters the Canon MP630 and its 8.5 ppm in colour and 10.4 ppm black and white.
Ok so it's fast but is this to the detriment of quality? In fact, no. Quality is more than satisfactory. Text and graphs are sharp. The text is a deep black and the characters precise. The tinted areas on the graphs are nice and even and the characters are clear.



Photo printing: rapid and as it should be

Photo printing is also fast: 45 seconds to get a 4x6" print, 1 minute 30 for an A4 format: more than ok. However, although photo quality is a bit better (more accurate) than on HP printers that don't come with the black photo cartridge, we are still some way off "photo quality" on Canon printers (or even HP) with the full photo cartridge (with a light cyan and magenta). If you look at the image closely, you'll still see ink drops. Nevertheless, this quality is more than good enough for your album.

Cartridges

Two different sets of cartridges are available. Standard and the more expensive XL, also much longer-lasting.

Cartridge		ISO lifespan
364 (black)		250
364 (cyan)		300
364 (magenta)		300
364 (yellow)		300
364 (black photo)		1500

With standard cartridges you'll already get a fairly decent yield. If you're not a big consumer, these will be enough. You'll have to change them more often but there'll be less risk that one dries out and blocks your machine. Because HP is following Canon's lead on its separate cartridges: the print heads are no longer on the cartridge itself (in contrast to their single unit cartridges) but in the printer. This necessitates more frequent cleaning so as not to risk blockages.
If you do a lot of printing, best to straight for the XL versions:

XL cartridges

Cartridge		ISO lifespan
364 (black)		800
364 (cyan)		750
364 (magenta)		750
364 (yellow)		750
364 (black photo)		4500

With XL economy is much better than average but still twice what you get with laser printers.