HP's Versatile New Office Assistant

If you're tired of spending time and money at the local copy shop, HP's reasonably priced PSC 2175 can make your life easier--though it's less than perfect. This $200, 8-pound, ink-jet-based all-in-one prints, scans, and copies in color; plus, it has a five-format flash-memory card reader. It does not, however, offer faxing capabilities.

My shipping unit produced business-worthy text, as well as graphics with rich color and fine detail, especially on glossy photo paper. It prints only a little slower than the average MFP in our June roundup.

Unfortunately, printouts of scanned images and text did not look as good as the print results we got from other digital sources. Images had jagged edges instead of curves, murkiness instead of detail, and too-saturated color. The quality of my scanned newsletter was also poor. What's more, the PSC 2175 took significantly longer to scan than other multifunction printers we've tested. For example, it posted a scan time of 51 seconds on a Microsoft Word test page that the $100 Lexmark X75 PrintTrio finished in 31 seconds.

If you're looking to save time, the PSC 2175's flash-media card reader lets you bypass your PC altogether and instead use a proof sheet to select the images you want. The prints I made by using this method looked pretty good, though I preferred the slightly sharper look the same shots had when printed from HP's Photo and Imaging software. (HP says that the 2175 does some automatic image processing when you print directly from the memory card.)

The PSC 2175 is a solid, appealingly priced choice for homes and small offices. If good-quality scans are important to you, however, consider a higher-end unit like Canon's $400 MultiPass MP730.

Buying Information

Hewlett-Packard PSC 2175 3 stars (7/29/2003) Price when reviewed: $200 Current prices (if available) Affordable multifunction device prints better than it scans.

--Rebecca Freed