Main Review

The HP Photosmart C5180 is reasonably compact and very stylish in its white finish. The C5180 was tested using Windows Vista. This usually means having to replace the supplied XP drivers with downloaded Vista drivers but with the HP we were unable to get the full TWAIN scanner driver to work under Vista, though the simpler WIA drivers worked. Vista print functionality was unaffected.

There was an unusually long pause after pressing the go button when printing photos. Though the mechanical speed once printing starts is above average, this is only advantageous when printing an image several times in one batch. Though the scanner is mostly near silent, it’s very loud when parking the scanner head. Scan and print speeds are above average; just over a minute for an A4 borderless photo and 21 seconds for a 300ppi A4 scan. Photo print quality on HP Advanced photo paper is good, but not quite as punchy as Canon and Epson printers in this price range. Plain paper text is good, but colour density in copies is poor.

Verdict

Overall the C5180 is a competent all rounder, but excels nowhere. If network plug ability is a must, it’s worth a look.

Reviewer: WDC Team