Before you buy an HP Photosmart Pro B9180, you should make sure that you've got enough room for it. The other devices on test here are big, but this printer is massive. Taking it out of the box is a two-man job unless you're fond of hernia operations and slipped discs.
They do, however, say that big is beautiful and the designers at HP have certainly made an excellent job of making this printer a looker. You're hardly going to buy this printer based on it's looks though, which is handy because not only is it well designed, but it's built like a tank. Every part of the B9180 simply screams quality. Big though it is, the plastics are of a high standard, and the flaps and paper trays are sturdy. In addition to USB connectivity, there's an Ethernet port for using the printer on a network.
The setup process is one of the more lengthy and involved, as you have to install the print heads along with eight pigment-based ink tanks. The B9180 then goes into a self-calibration and setup routine that takes, according to the machine itself, between 30 and 60 minutes. It took our model 39 minutes 43 seconds to complete. This is only performed the very first
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time you use the printer, though, and not every time that you turn it on.
The HP is a speedy printer once it's chugging through images - 3 minutes 21 seconds being the fastest. This isn't in quite the same league as the Canon Pixma Pro9000, but it's still fast. It took a little more time with our mixed layout proof, which came in at just over 5 minutes, but the rest of our A3 prints were ready in under 3 minutes 30 seconds.
The quality of those prints was very high too, with the HP a clear favourite overall. The B9180 produced natural colours that were an accurate reflection of the images. None of the prints came out flat or lifeless, with every one detailed and impressive.
The B9180 came second to the fantastic Canon Pixma Pro9500 on our greyscale image test and though it couldn't match that excellent print, it was still very good. In addition, it took 7 minutes less to produce. The fine detail in our portrait shot had us trying to blow a hair off the printed page in the mistaken belief it was real. In short, the B9180 produces very high-quality images.
Take a deep breath though, because you're going to need a small bridging loan to pay for the replacement inks. A whopping £170 to change all the ink tanks is expensive, whether they hold twice as much ink as the others or not. They are individual, so you're unlikely to have to buy them all at once, but it's still a hefty chunk of money to regularly shell out nonetheless.
On the whole, however, this printer is excellent. HP has done a magnificent job at every turn with this device. The B9180 is well designed, especially well built and produces excellent images. It is, however, a bit pricey when it comes to replacing those pigment-based inks.
