Product Reviews

HP's embracing of the all-in-one market continues apace with the introduction of a new series of devices aimed at the small and home office market. The officejet d155xi is the top-of-the-range model and, while expensive, it's packed with features.

Similar in style to the PSC 950 (see Reviews, 22 February 2002, p21), the d155xi is bigger with more features. New to this range is the arrangement of printheads and ink cartridges. There are four separate printheads, one for each colour, which are user-installed. Two ink cartridges, one black and one three-colour, are installed on top of the printheads. The print system alerts the user when ink levels run low and new cartridges can be ordered automatically.

Orderly fashion

The d155xi comes with an automatic document feeder and an additional 250-sheet input tray, giving a total of two input trays for four hundred sheets. It also has a duplex unit for double-sided printing. The collation facility ensures multipage documents are output in the same order as the original.

These are impressive features for a desktop all-in-one device and when added to HP's stated print rate of 19ppm for black and copy rate of 18ppm, make the d155xi look like a very capable printer. However, in our tests we found the speed was less than the stated output.

We made five copies of an A4 text document in one minute, with a further five copies taking a further 40 seconds. These speeds were achieved in Fast mode, which prints a draft-quality copy. In Normal mode, copy speeds were about half that rate. Copying a 250mm x 200mm colour photograph in Best mode on to glossy paper took a shade under eight minutes. However, the results were excellent. So if you want a device that's primarily going to be a workhorse for office printing and copying, this isn't it.

However, the d155xi's chief attraction is its versatility, and if relatively modest text output speeds don't concern you, it has a great deal to offer. The digital camera

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slots work in the same way as those in the PSC 950, allowing you to print contact sheets directly from the card. You can then select the prints you want and their print size using just a pen. Placing the contact sheet on the scanner bed enables the d155xi to read your requirements and print the correct photographs. It really is an ingenious system.

If you need to scan documents and photographs, the 1200dpi x 4800dpi, 48-bit scanner is excellent and can be activated via the HP Scan software or from the control panel on the front of the d155xi. Using the direct selection on the device enables you to select where the scan is sent, but it doesn't allow you to make any changes based on the pre-scan. To do that, you have to use HP Scan, which is a reasonably good, if basic, driver application.

The d155xi also features beefed up fax capabilities. The fax modem operates at 33.6K and the speed-dial facility can store up to 130 numbers, with 10 dedicated speed-dial buttons. Faxes can be sent directly from the scanner bed, or from your Mac.

HP's Jetdirect 200m print server and internet connector comes as standard with the d155xi. This allows you to connect the device to an Ethernet network and print to it using AppleTalk or TCP/IP. Setting up the networking features is easy, the Jetdirect 200m slots into the back of the d155xi.

Other than the disappointing print and copy speeds, the d155xi is very satisfying to use. Print quality is identical to the PSC 950 - although it's generally very good, there's a noticeable lack of sharpness in some colour photographs. We were particularly impressed with the output in Best mode when copying a colour photograph on to glossy paper. For an essentially one-touch operation, it was really very good.

Our only criticism of the d155xi is that the output speed in our tests didn't match HP's claims, but it's still reasonable for this type of device. And if print speed is your main concern, you should be looking at laser-based devices.

Jack of all trades

The d155xi's value lies in its versatility and in the excellent additional features. Unlike the PSC 950, which provides comparable quality to dedicated printers and scanners in its price range, the d155xi can't compete with dedicated devices. So if you have £500 to spend on a dedicated printer or scanner, you should do just that.

However, the document feeder, additional output tray, duplex unit and networking features make the d155xi good value for anyone needing a printer, scanner, fax machine and copier for their small office.