The introduction of new printers, especially ink-based ones never seem to slow down. Here we have HP’s latest Photosmart printer, the D5360 which is a mid-range photo printer aimed at home users who do a fair bit of photo printing. With the proliferation of digital cameras nowadays, home photo printing is getting increasingly popular, so the Photosmart series is ideal, in terms of performance and cost per print.
Unlike low-end models, the D5360 comes equipped with a 1.5 inch color display which makes printing from memory cards a lot easier. This display is quite small and doesn’t have that many pixels, so don’t expect to be able to see much detail. Rather, the preview function helps ensure that you don’t accidentally print out the wrong picture, wasting paper and ink. The D5360 has a two cartridge system consisting of a black and a tri-color cartridge. Those who want better color accuracy with their photos can use a special photo inkjet cartridge which replaces the black cartridge. This 6-ink color printing allows the printer to output a wider range of the color gamut, giving more true to life color.
A convenient multi-format flash card reader makes it even easier to print from your camera’s flash card. This reader supports CF, Memory Sticks (and its variant), SD/MMC, Mini-SD and also the XD-Picture Card formats. There’s also a PictBridge compatible USB port for connecting your camera directly to the printer. The paper tray takes up to 125 sheets of A4 paper, more than enough for the average home user. A separate 4R photo paper tray provides additional convenience, as users do not need to remove the A4 paper when switching to photo printing.
In our tests, drafts text speed was 5.5 pages per minute (ppm). For A4 color prints, it managed 2.1 ppm while a 4R photo takes 1 minutes 32 seconds. The print quality is acceptable and most users would be more than pleased with the results. We also found that HP’s Premium Plus paper gives much better printouts. Therefore, if quality is important, be sure to use HP’s own media as this guarantee the best results. HP also sells ink-and-paper packs for certain types of cartridges, so if you can find these they would be the most cost effective.
Overall, the Photosmart D5360 is good value for money. Features like the built-in duplex unit ( for double sided printing) is a real paper and time-saving feature. The ability to print on CDs is another plus and the front-loading tray makes it easier to feed non-standard media. Everything considered, the Photosmart D5360 is a very capable photo printer at an affordable price.
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