This week's review is about a new printer from Hewlett-Packard and any time you see an HP review you can guarantee it is going to be about as much fun as laundry night.
You see, as a reviewer, it's important to point out where a product stands out above competitors, but it's not important to tell you how wonderful it is. That's the job of the company's marketing department and shop salesmen.
Between those two straight-talking groups of people, the average consumer should receive more than his or her fair share of 'wonderfulness' without me chiming in. More important is the need to point out where a product falls short, to point out the minuses the people at HP marketing don't want you to know. Don't get me wrong, they're not trying to pull the wool over your eyes. It's just that they're so filled with warmth, love and broad smiles that, well bless their little cotton socks, they miss a thing or two.
Now, when you've reviewed more HP Deskjets over the past four years than you can count on your fingers and toes you have to understand it can get a little tiring when you hear the same old marketing talk from HP.
The company's continued insistence on flogging its Photo RetII technology is frankly beyond my comprehension. No one in his right mind is going to believe that a 300 or 600 dpi printer can possibly print better photographs than a 1,440 dpi machine. For that reason, you can never see an HP beating an Epson colour inkjet printer in output quality.
There are so many other good things HP could point out that pushing Photo RetII over and over again like a broken record seems terribly undignified.
For example, HP Deskjets are always reliable. Every HP product I have ever tested worked with mind-numbing efficiency. So it's not surprising that the HP 810c worked without a hitch. Beginning with the make-up of the machine, the 810c is a well-designed and well-constructed piece of equipment. A fair portion of the chassis is actually metal.