HP Deskjet F380 Ink Cartridges

Design

Like other Deskjets in the range, the F380 is fairly standard in terms of design. Its frame is compact (17cm/43cm/26cm) and fits nicely in a home office setting. Unfortunately, the plastic shell feels flimsy and less substantial then some of HP's more expensive printers such as the OfficeJet range and the input and output tray is part of the same construction which makes refilling the tray in the middle of a print job awkward. Along the left of the printer sits a number of control buttons. You can use these to run copies, trigger the scanner and cancel print jobs. Disappointingly, the HP F380 doesn't come with PictBridge or memory card support and only connects to your computer through a single USB port.

Advantages

The F380 is an easy printer to use and maintain. Installation is simple and you can be up and running within minutes. Replacing the HP F380 ink cartridges is just as easy, simply open up the front panel and clip in the new ink cartridges and away you go. Print quality isn't bad for a budget all-in-one, text documents are fine but the printer does struggle somewhat with photographs and large colour graphics.

Disadvantages

One area that really brings the HP F380 down is the print speed. Even for a budget printer, the F380 is slow - expect around 8ppm for black and even less for colour documents. The scanner and copier also suffer from the same problem. The inclusion of memory card and network capability would have added much needed flexibility to the printer and may put off people who want to print from their camera or have more than a computer in their house.