The H.P. Deskjet F4180 printer does all I need.

Len and I always have several printers to go with our computers. I have been really happy with my Hewlett Packard Deskjet 3650 and also my H.P. Photosmart A310 so when we were looking for a replacement for his old printer we checked out H.P. first. We decided on the H.P. Deskjet F4180 Inkjet all-in-one printer as this was priced at Wal-Mart for less than $100. I believe this was around 9 months ago as I really hate to write a review too soon, on any electronic product, because there could always be a problem as time goes on.

Well, I am very happy to say that we are delighted with it. Len uses it for scanning photographs or documents as I don't have that capability with my H.P printer. He then emails them to me for my own personal use.

I only tend to use the F4180 for making copies as my printer is not a flat bed one. The print quality is perfectly adequate for our needs. I am sure if you were doing professional work then this would not come up to your standards but we paid an inexpensive price for a printer which we are happy with.

With my much older 3650 printer I often get problems with it. The main one being that it takes more than one piece of paper at a time. However, in the 9 months or so we have had the 4180 we haven't had a single problem.

The F4180 comes in black, which is my favorite color, and I am not a morbid person. It does all that we needed, scanning, copying, and of course, printing. It sits next to Len's computer and has a flat top. I sometimes tend to put items on top of it while cleaning. However, I never leave them there.

This printer only has one area for paper. It feeds from the bottom tray and then the printed paper returns to the same area. As technology improves it seems to make using the equipment much more straight forward.

I don't do technical stuff in my reviews they are purely for people like me that see a product, want to know the price, if it works good, and my own personal use. However I have put in some of the specifications as it is expected. These come from the 18 page English/French Basics Guide.

Physical Specifications

Height: 7.11 inches
Width: 16.76 inches
Depth: 10.53 inches
Weight: 9.39 pounds

Paper Specifications
Input tray capacity: Plain paper sheets: Up to 100 (20 lb. paper)

Environmental Specifications
Recommended operating temperature range: 59 to 86 degrees F (10 to 35 degrees C)
HP recommends using a USB cable less than or equal to 3 m (10 feet) in length
Humidity: 15% to 80% RH non-condensing

The initial set up
Follow the Setup Guide that comes in the box. It is a separate 8 page leaflet and gives you large diagrams as well as written instructions. This one comes in three languages. It tells you when to insert the CD and how it works with either Windows or Mac. Once installed you can either print from the instructions on your computer or do it manually from the printer itself.

The printer.

On the top of the printer on the left hand side are the following buttons:

Scan, Photosmart Essential, Paper Type, Start Copy Black, Start Copy Color, Check print cartridge lights, Resume, cancel, and the power on button. Len has printed the odd photograph on this printer using Photosmart Essential. However, I prefer to use my 4 x 6 H.P. Photosmart A310 printer which gives me the perfect size photographs to share with my friends and family. We didn't buy the F4180 for that purpose.

The cartridge numbers for this model are Black 21, 54, tri-color 22, 57, and for photographs 58.

The printer comes with a 1 year warranty and 90 days on the software. We never take out an extended warranty, because we buy cheap, and then purchase a more up to date model when needed.

You can check it our at www.hp.com.

If anyone needs more information on this printer just leave a comment or email me. I will be happy to check the answers for you in the basics guide and add them to the review. I don't want to waste yours and my time with excessive facts.