Photo gallery: HP Photosmart C5380Currently, the printer market is saturated with all-in-one (AIO) machines and it can be difficult for manufacturers to make their products stand out among the competition. HP's latest range of Photosmart printers can be hard to differentiate from its rivals, but they come with attractive price tags, such as the Photosmart C5380. If you print a lot of photos at home, you will find the colour LCD and five-ink system useful. However, it doesn't come with fax and network capability, so it's a consideration if you're looking for a multifunctional printer for your home office.
Upside
Colour LCDs on printers seem to be all the rage these days, especially more so for those primed for photo printing. This is why the Photosmart C5380 has a 2.4-inch colour display which will be useful when you want to output straight off memory cards or a USB flash drive.
The C5380 has good specifications, but unfortunately it lacks a fax function and an Ethernet port.
Supported by five individual Vivera ink tanks, we expect more vivid photo printouts from the ink box. For heavy-duty users, there is the option for high-capacity XL cartridges which the company claims will help drive down costs.
To meet the needs of home offices and small businesses, the C5380 is able to churn out draft-quality documents at a speed of 31 pages per minute (ppm). This speed is typical of most inkjet AIOs, so what will probably set the HP apart from the competition would be its print speed for photos. In draft mode, HP said the AIO can output an A4-sized photograph in 18 seconds.
An AIO is nothing without its standard functions of scan and copy, and the C5380 boasts both. It also sweetens the deal by including an on-board memory card reader that supports most common flash media, as well as a USB port to plug your thumb drive into for stand-alone printing.
Downside
Oddly, for a printer that is targeted at home office and small business users, the C5380 is not equipped with a fax function. Although this is quite typical of AIOs in this price range, we would have liked it better if it was more of an all-rounder.
This may sound demanding, but we expected to see more connectivity options on the printer considering its audiences. Not everyone prints through a Wi-Fi network, but the lack of an Ethernet port can be a deal-breaker for some potential buyers if they want to share the printer.
Outlook
At AU$199, the C5380 is one of the more affordable AIOs on the market with a colour LCD. Small businesses will find the choice of XL ink cartridges tempting as it yields more pages, which can subsequently drive down the cost per page. However, if you don't need a colour LCD and can live with fewer colour choices, you can get the Epson Stylus CX5500 for AU$99.
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