Weighing in with a cost of $149 (as of March 2009) the HP Photosmart D7560 excelled with its printed color output while using HP photo paper, showing natural, albeit slightly yellow, images. On plain paper, the same photos and graphics exhibited typically graininess and dark colors, but samples of text looked nicely black and very crisp. Print speeds were average or better for all but one test.
The Photosmart D7560 is loaded with features and is easy to use. I particularly like the 3.5-inch, tiltable, color touchscreen LCD. Menus and instructions are displayed on screen in easily readable text and with great colors. The three main, self-explanatory control buttons (Home, Print Photos, and Cancel) are arranged horizontally just below the touchscreen.
The media slots accept all of the commonly used memory cards. The unit supports PictBridge, also. The primary paper tray holds up to 125 pages of letter-size sheets; while a piggybacked photo-paper tray takes up to 20 sheets of up to 5-by-7-inch photo paper. One of the most notable features is the CD/DVD labeler for printing on specially coated CD/DVD media. The disc caddy stores discreetly under the printer, for use with the special input tray located inside the printer's front bay. When you press the labeled lever to lower the tray; a menu pops up on both the LCD and on your PC to guide you through the process. One high-end feature the D7560 lacks however is networking having neither ethernet nor Wi-Fi. In my opinion, not having one of these network option is shortsighted of HP.
The costs of the Photosmart D7560's ink cartridges (at the time of this review) are mostly good. It ships with standard-size supplies: a 250-page black cartridge, plus four colors-- cyan, magenta, yellow, and also a special photo black for greater image depth--with yielding of 130 to 170 pages. Same-size replacements cost $12 for black (a respectable cost of 4.7 cents per page) and $10 each for the others, this results in a rather steep 22.4 cents total for a four-color page (excluding photo black). When you spring for the high-yield cartridges, the prices drop to about 4.4 cents per page for a $35, 800-page black cartridge and 11.6 cents total for a four-color page (each color costs $17 and yields about 750 pages). These are very respectable costs when compared to other manufacturers. A bit of math shows that buying high-yield cartridges will cut the price of your color prints in half.
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