HP Deskjet F2480 Review June 27, 2011 11:50 by Matt Bird

Overview

Though it uses consumables that are more expensive than are ideal, the F2480 is otherwise a reliable, no-frills all-in-one printer, with reasonable print speeds and resolution, that would serve many university students well once away from their parents’ undoubtedly more expensive printer.

Ratings

HP Deskjet F2480

Main Review

HP’s Deskjet F2480 is a reliable, cheap multi-function printer, built with similar specifications as other economic all-in-ones, such as Epson’s Stylus SX115. The F2480 is only a couple of months old (at time of writing), and so there are not currently any suitable third-party compatibles or refills on the market. Like this, it might be cheap to buy in the first place, but consumables are more expensive than would be ideal; at 4.15p per standard sheet of A4 (using high capacity cartridges), it’s one of the most expensive cost per page that I’ve come across. In the future, when compatibles are developed or remanufactured are in ready supply, this could drop to a reasonable figure, but until then this printer has something of a false economy. Like most HP printers, the F2480 takes a pair of cartridges (one black, and one tri-colour). Though fine for printing in small quantities, this can further increase the cost of consumables. HP have been kind enough to publish both ‘real’ and ‘fake’ statistics for the print speed of this printer, giving it a speed of 20ppm for draft quality (which most manufacturers measure in as standard), and 7ppm for more average printing. This is no great speed, and is far from office standards, but considering that this will most likely be owned by a student or family, it should be more than acceptable. It might not be the best machine, but kudos to Hewlett-Packard for at least attempting to not be misleading. The flatbed scanner and copier are of the normal sort of quality (48bit colour depth and 1200dpi resolution), so nothing to call home about, however for the price of the original printer this is quite good value for money. Unless copying or scanning high quality photos, this should be quite acceptable quality. HP advertise this printer as having a cpm (copies per minute) speed of eighteen black and white, and sixteen colour, when copying at draft quality. It is likely that these are exaggerated figures, using low coverage pages. The copier is operated from a simple and effective control panel on the front left of the printer’s cover, which fits in nicely with its minimalist design. Though it should perhaps be expected of it, the ways of connecting this printer to your computer are pretty limited – it only has a USB slot at the rear of the machine. Though I wouldn’t expect them to be looking at this machine, homes with multiple computers should steer clear of this non-networkable printer.