HP OfficeJet 7310 All-in-One Printer

My "real" rating would probably be 4.5 stars out of 5, but since I can't do that, I'll round up.When my old printer died, I decided to look into an all-in-one since my scanner was getting up there in age and I had begun to notice how convenient having a fax machine in the house would be. I also wanted built-in two-sided printing (since I'd been spoiled with that feature on my last printer), and good print quality (especially photos). I also thought it would be nice to have each color in separate ink tanks so I wouldn't have to replace anything more than what I had used. With this printer I got everything I wanted except for the separate ink tanks.I've been very impressed with the scan quality and copy quality. I have sent and received faxes with absolutely no problems. I've printed pages of great looking sharp text and impressive looking photos just using the default black and tri-color cartridges (i.e., without putting in the optional photo cartridge). The color LCD and the menu system it uses is great and easy to navigate.If you're trying to decide between this printer and the 7410, I did some research and emailed HP to confirm what exactly the differences are. The only differences are: 1) The 7410 comes with the extra 250-sheet tray that attaches to the bottom of the printer and adds an extra inch or two to the total height of the printer. 2) On the machine itself, the 7410 has a 'collate' button and an option to collate within the 'copy' menu. HP also calls this 'reverse order printing' and they say it can be activated on the 7310 through the driver (although I have not done it). The same button on the 7310 is 'Lighter/Darker' and the 'collate' option is not in the copy menu. 3) While both printers have built in networking, only the 7410 has built-in wireless networking. This was not an issue for me since I already have a wireless router and I just ran an ethernet cable from my router to the printer. Now any computer that connects to the wireless router is able to print to the printer without having to go through another computer. The printer is basically its own device on the network and relies on nothing other than its network connection (i.e., no usb cables connected). If I had the 7410, the only difference is that I wouldn't have the ethernet cable coming from the router, but the functionality is the same.I had no problems actually installing the software on any of our computers and have no problems using or accessing the printer from any computer on the network ("accessing" includes accessing any flash card in the media slots). There was a little complication with the software upsetting XP's Data Execution Prevention (DEP), but there is an update on HP's website that took care of that pretty easily.My complaints:- If you don't pull out the tray extender, anything you print will fall on the floor. This is kind of annoying if I'm printing from my laptop downstairs, go up to retrieve my print job, and find it all over the floor. Simple solution: If you just leave it pulled out (but not 'flipped' all the way out) it will still catch pretty much everything without having to deal with the thing jutting too far into space.- As I mentioned before, I wish HP's ink cartridge system was different so that each ink color had its own cartridge that could be replaced as the individual color ran out. On a related note, I wish I could leave the photo cartridge in without having to swap out the black cartridge.This is a great printer that is the first all-in-one that I have used that could perform all of its many functions really well. It is a little on the expensive side, but you get what you pay for. I have never regretted buying this printer.

I'd love to tell you how this thing works, but Amazon fails to advise buyers that a printer cable does not ship with the product and must be purchased separately, so I still have not seen it work. (A rating was required to post this, but it is more reflective of my annoyance than it is of the product.)Update: After obtaining a cable, this product works very well. Its successor models should be just as useful, since they also incorporate a wireless internet card allowing you to print anywhere in the range of the wireless router. Four stars.

The AIO works very well (fax not tested) and networked fine but as with other HP systems carries a huge and totally unnecessary softwae overhead. there should be an option to install a minimalist printer driver

After using the printer for about five months, I guess it's time for me to write a review about my dear all-in-one. I will spare the details and give you an over-view.First of all, we use this in a home-office environment. While we do print a quite a bit of stuff here and there, I am not sure how durable / efficient this unit will be if one is to print 100+ pages on a daily basis- The hardware & console interface is great. All the basic copying, faxing functionality can be easily done, computer-free from the on-board panel in a clear, organized fashion. I want to get a lot done without booting up my PC and this unit does it well. This is great for guest and kids.- We got a defective document feeder out of the box, and had to make couple calls to the customer service to get them to ship us a new one. While the customer service is not ideal, it is less painful than most- Another reason we got this machine is the build-in networking. You can print to this machine any time you want without a computer. Since this thing have 64 MB of memory, you don't bump into any reset/buffer issue that some of the cheap print servers have.- This brings us to the wireless/wire networking issue.... Chances are, if you have a wireless networking hub out there, you can free up one of the hardwire ports for your printer... Unless you can't stand the sight of a wire, and are willing to pay another extra $100 for it - you can't really take advantage of the build-in wireless network by moving this ~20 LB unit around.- To be honest, today's inkjet printing and scanning technology is a bit beyond what the average homeowner needs, but this unit can do it! (and fast!) While this may not be the unit with the best print quality analytically speaking, it is up there. Sometimes, the difference is the specialty paper that one would be willing to spend money on.- Read your manuals! Yes, this machine have a lots of functionality, and if you try to set it all up by your intuition - that's not going to happen. It took us a few try to figure out how the fax functionality works with our answer machine.- Now the software - I hope that HP will come up with a better software update. Yes, it's big, ugly, and not very user-friendly - in spite of the cutesy, family friendly looking graphics. I tolerate it and it does get things done, but it is definitely the weakest part of the package. Come to think of it, the software also added extra seconds to boot up my computer for a boatload of stuff to initialize; I will have to look into this.- Bottom line is, if you never fiddle around with your router's setting or never dare to touch your computer's control panel, I understand why one would have problem setting up this unit, so grab a friend to help you out if you are not tech savvy. It does take a bit of time to set things up the way you wanted, but the result / space saving is definitely worth it

When I recieved the 7310 it would not work and I quickly came to the conclusion that the ethernet connection was bad. I spent a considerable amount of time on a chat session with an HP rep and got nowhere. I emailed support the next day and never got a reply to the email. I spent at least an hour on the phone with a rep who came to totally rediculus conclusions. He told me I had to have the ethernet connection directly to my router, no switch could be tollerated and he told me the max length for the cable was 10 feet. I was always told the cable, switch, or router were bad, or I had screwed up settings on the unit or did not have my router settings right. The next day I spent another hour plus on the phone and finally was bumped up one level of support. I told the guy I have an electrical engineering degree, explaind the symptoms (again), explained what had been tried (again) and in under two minutes he told me I would get a new unit with return shipping for the one I had. The new one came and worked fine but I would be totally incensed if I were trying to use it in a business.