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HP Photosmart Pro B9180 Printer | 
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| Brand: Hewlett-Packard
Category: CE
Buy New: See price in cart
New (34) Refurbished (1) from $497.29
Rating:  48 reviews
Media: Electronics
Autographed: No
Memorabilia: No
Operating System: Microsoft Windows Millennium Edition
System Memory: 64
Modem: None
Shipping Weight (lbs): 48
Dimensions (in): 26.5 x 23.5 x 9.5
Warranty: 1 year warranty
MPN: B9180
Model: B9180
UPC: 882780360518
EAN: 0882780360518
ASIN: B000GWMK8C
Release Date: September 7, 2006
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Features:
| • | Professional-grade photo printer | | • | Enjoy up to 4,800 optimized dpi color (up to 4,800x1,200 dpi) when printing from computer | | • | Windows and Mac compatible | | • | Ethernet network compatible | | • | 1-year limited manufacturer's warranty |
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| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.com Product Description
The HP Photosmart Pro B9180 Photo Printer is an ideal solution for the amateur or professional who demands exceptional image quality. Utilizing HP Vivera pigment ink technology, combined with the printer's professional color selection, the printer provides for accurate and consistent color reproduction. HP's third-generation gray ink is more neutral than ever before, allowing for exceptionally smooth transitions and detail. Eight individual high-capacity ink cartridges enable high-volume printing with efficient printing speeds producing 4-x-6-inch photos in as fast as 10 seconds and 13-x-19-inch photos as fast as 1.5 minutes. Users can print exceptional photos on digital fine art media including canvas, photo rag, watercolor, stiff pre-matte, and film up to 1.5-mm thick, as well as improved HP Advanced Photo Paper. Compatible with Windows 2000 Professional and later and Mac OS X v. 10.2 and later operating systems, the printer features a speedy USB 2.0 data connection and is backed by a 1-year manufacturer's limited warranty. Measuring 26.6 x 16.9 x 9.2 inches, the printer weighs only 37.7 pounds. What's in the Box
HP Photosmart Pro B9180 printer, HP 38 ink cartridges (including black, matte black, gray, cyan, magenta, yellow, light cyan, and light magenta), HP Photosmart Premier software CD, quick start booklet, user's guide, and power cord
Product Description
The HP Photosmart Pro B9180 Photo Printer delivers exceptional image quality and the best photo performance on the market. HP Vivera pigment ink technology, combined with the printer's professional colors, enables accurate and consistent color reproduction. HP's third-generation gray ink is more neutral than ever before, allowing for exceptionally smooth transitions and detail. Eight individual high-capacity ink cartridges enable high-volume printing with efficient printing speeds producing 4x6 inch photos in as fast as 10 seconds and 13x19 inch photos as fast as 1.5 minutes ideal for professional photographers and advanced amateurs. Users can print exceptional photos on digital fine art media including canvas, photo rag, watercolor, stiff pre-matte and film up to 1.5-mm thick, as well as improved HP Advanced Photo Paper. System Requirements - Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional, XP Home, XP Professional, XP64, Mac OS X v 10.2 and higher, USB 2.0 and optional Ethernet Dimensions - Width 26.6 x Depth 16.9 x Height 9.2 inches Weight - 37.7 pounds
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| Customer Reviews: Read 43 more reviews...
 Great if you're not in a hurry and you're a system administrator September 2, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I am running Windows XP Professional with 2 GB of RAM on a Pentium IV 2.4 GHz CPU and Photoshop CS2. I am printing to the printer via Ethernet on a 100 Mbit/s switch.
Pros:
1) I love the consistently good "lab quality" print quality that the printer produces.
2) I love the high level of color controls that are provided through the Photoshop plug-in.
3) I also love, of course, the ability to do borderless printing at 13x19.
4) I also love the fact that the print heads and the ink cartridges are separate, which yields cheaper ink cartridges. According to the documentation, the print heads should last the life of the computer.
5) I also love the eight separate colors, especially the light gray (which isn't found on HP's cheaper Vivera printers), yielding more accurate color shading for both color and black and white prints.
6) I love the intstant drying and automatic alignment when using Advanced photo paper, which is decently priced if you can find a decent store that specializes in such stuff.
7) I love the archival quality, waterproof, pigment based inks.
Cons:
1) I hate that if I wish to print 4x6 photos, I have to wait 5 minutes for the first one to come out, and three more minutes for each additional one, using the "Best" image quality setting, which is recommended, of course, for "lab quality" photos.
I am guessing by the high CPU usage from the print spooler that if I had a faster computer, it might be faster, but a 2.4 GHz CPU is pretty fast.
This makes the use of the printer a point of convenience. I bought this printer because I thought it would be more covenient to print out my own photos than upload them to the local photo processor or burn them to a disk, order them, then go pick them up. However, with how slow this printer is, it's only more convenient to print them out myself if I'm printing a few ad hoc photos here or there. To develop a whole shoot of 15 or more photos, it quickly becomes more convenient to drop them off at a one hour photo, or even, I hate to say it, upload them.
Please note that the advertisements claiming that it prints 4x6 in 10 seconds is for draft mode, which you will never do. If you look at their technical specs, it supposedly prints a 4x6 in best mode in 70 seconds, but even that is not true. It's three minutes on a medium range computer, like mine, with a two minute warm up period. Not to mention, you also have to tear off the tabs.
2) I hate that I don't get the same print controls using any program other than Photoshop.
3) I hate the fact that you cannot use the Photoshop plugin if you are not logged in as an administrator of the computer. This is surprising, as I don't know of any computer administrator that gives everyone else administrative privileges on a workstation. I know that I don't. So, this leaves me with some serious concerns, having to change my policy for my users.
Conclusion:
Overall, I am happy with the printer, as most of my printing is on an adhoc basis, but my wife was looking forward to using it to print out all 4x6 photos in lieu of sending them out to be printed, so she is less satisfied. She'll probably still use it, but will have to commit to the wait. I'm not looking forward to giving her administrative privileges on the computer.
Here are current local prices for me:
100 4x6 Advanced Glossy Photo paper : $12.99
100 8.5x11 Advanced Glossy Photo paper: $29.99
25 13x19 Advanced Glossy Photo paper: $49.99
HP #38 Ink Cartridge: $33.99
 Great Printer, HORRIBLE SERVICE August 26, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
I purchased this printer about 9 months ago and have used it for photo printing. The print quality is good IF AND ONLY IF you can get the right paper profiles. Make sure your favorite papers are supported by this HP product.
After just 9 months, I had a problem with the paper sensor. It no longer prints and just drags paper until it eventually jams. I have been working with HP for over 1 month to get a replacement printer. I've submitted the requested paperwork 3 times, but to no avail. Each call results in at least 3 transfers to different departments, nobody able to get this resolved.
I WILL NEVER BUY ANOTHER HP PRODUCT!!
I have been in the computer software industry for over 20 years and have never experienced such poor customer service. Shame on HP.
 Excellent Printer August 5, 2008
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
This is an excellent printer. One review stated that you can only use "Advanced" paper in this printer...not so. If you want to use different papers you must "tell" the printer what type of paper you are using. It's easy to do from the printer properties menu. When you click "print", then click "printer properties" and several options open up to select all sort of things, type of paper, size, borderless or whatever. It's given me super results on many papers!!
Beautiful prints but expensive to maintain. June 28, 2008
6 out of 8 found this review helpful
I love the excellent quality of the prints it produces, but I had no idea when I bought it how much money I would be spending on replacing the ink cartridges.
It turns out that to prevent the nozzles from clogging, HP suggests you leave the printer on 24/7. When you do this, every 24 hrs or so the printer automatically steps though a head cleaning routine that uses a certain amount of ink. This means that even if you don't print a single print, in several weeks you end up needing to replace some of the ink cartridges anyway, which at about $30 each (and there's 8 of them), you end up spending your kid's college fund just to keep the printer usable.
If you are like me, a casual hobbyist, then it's too expensive. However if you are a professional, or even a serious hobbyist for whom money is no object, then this printer will make you very happy. The results are really outstanding.
Great features, great prints June 18, 2008
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
Background: I've owned and/or used Epson 2200, 4000, 7600, and 9800 printers for prints up to 44x96. Other than laser printers, this is my first deviation from Epson. I'm very happy with this HP.
INSTALLATION
I don't remember the details, but the initial setup had a small problem. The instructions were very explicit, so I called support. In the end, they had me turn it off and on again and the problem went away. I could have saved an hour on the phone.
COLOR
I've been using this exclusively with a 13x19 Hahnemuhle fine art paper for which I had a custom profile made. I'm getting excellent results and a pretty good color gamut. I print photos, mostly color and some B&W.
INK CONSUMPTION
After the ink consumed to charge the printer, I've made about 35 prints (usually 9x13.5 image area) and 10 5x7 notecards and any minute now I'll replace the MK cartridge. The light gray is just showing the low warning now. Since the paper I use is $3 a sheet and ink carts are $30, I'm pressing my luck to get a feel for the accuracy of the warnings.
EASE OF USE
When I installed this, I was using Photoshop CS2 and printed through the "automate" menu. That went away when I upgraded to CS3, perhaps because I uninstalled CS2 first or perhaps just because the printer driver was already installed. It's not a big difference going through the regular print menu. It is, of course, important to have all of the correct settings; I wasted two sheets because Color Management had reset to Adobe RGB from Application Managed Color when I reopened the file.
One convenient feature is the Printing Shortcuts which allow you to save presets for your various paper/size/orientation standards. Overall, the driver is a bit more user friendly than Epson's.
Speaking of Epson printers, this one differs in that you do not control the platen. When you've inserted paper, you press the OK button and the printer grabs the paper and transports it. Anything you load through the slot (all heavy paper) gets pulled out the back and then prints moving forward. This means that you need space behind the printer.
Having been through painful episodes with clogged heads on Epsons I love several features of this printer. If necessary, I can replace the heads. But that's less likely to be necessary because the printer periodically checks itself. Just leave it turned on and you can go on vacation without fear that you'll have to jump through hoops power cleaning heads or even end up choking on the cost of a service call!
SHORTCOMINGS
The paper loading for specialty paper is tweaky. You drop the alternate loading slot door on the front and hand-align the paper. Curled corners of heavy paper catch on the way in fairly often. The good news is the only time I've had the paper skew is with some notecards (7x10 sheet size). I tried loading the Moab notecard stock in the tray and that did not work.
On two prints I notice a faint line rubbed in the ink. Same image, same spot (no, it's on in the image file). I blew out the printer and have not seen it again.
This printer is larger and heavier than many 13x19" printers. I have it on a substantial folding table and it really dances when it prints.
BOTTOM LINE
I don't know what was going on at the time, but I got this printer in March 2008 for $500 plus shipping. Prices are higher now. It would have cost me that much to buy a set of cartridges for the Epson 4000 which this printer replaced. I consider the HP B9180 a fine printer and outstanding value.
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