Hewlett-Packard Color Inkjet CP1700 Printer Designed for small businesses, small offices and design houses that demand professional
Hewlett-Packard's CP1700 printer combines wide-format print capabilities with a space-saving design ideally suited for small work areas. Providing both outstanding detail and extremely flexible options, this inkjet easily earns its keep in the home office.
Print speeds exceed those of a typical home printer, with the CP1700 churning out monochrome documents at 16 pages per minute and 14 pages per minute in color. The printer supports single-sheet sizes up to 13 by 19 inches, as well as 13-by-50-inch banners. It can handle transparencies, card stock, and photo papers; the paper tray can hold up to 250 sheets of letter or legal-sized bond paper.
The print quality is stunning, producing impeccably crisp text and color-saturated photos at a maximum 2,400 by 1,200 dpi resolution. Each of the four rich colors resides in a separate ink tank, meaning you only have to replace the specific colors as you use them.
With a built-in USB port for plug-and-play operation with your PC, the printer also boasts infrared connectivity, support for both Windows and Macintosh operating systems, and optional networking and duplex printing capabilities. Hewlett Packard provides a limited warranty, covering parts and service for one year.
What's in the Box
HP Color Inkjet 1700 printer, power cord, setup road map, reference guide, regulatory guide, printer software CD-ROM, HP 10 black inkjet print cartridge 69 ml (C4844A), HP 11 cyan inkjet print cartridge 28 ml (C4836AN), HP 11 magenta inkjet print cartridge 28 ml (C4837AN), HP 11 yellow inkjet print cartridge 28 ml (C4838AN), warranty information
1 terrible service
My wife and I wasted hours and hours trying to get HP service. HP has outsourced customer service to several developing countries, and each time we called, the representatives were unable to locate the record of our previous call. We were told time and again that we would be contacted by a "case manager" but that never happened. After weeks of trying, it became obvious that we need to discard the product (still under warrantee) and buy a new (non-HP) product ourselves.
2 Run away
Listing the litany of problems that I've had with this printer would probably exceed the word limit of this text box. Definately one of the worst computer peripheral decisions that I have ever made. This printer was instrumental in helping me formulate my decision to NEVER buy another HP product again. DO NOT, UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES BUY THIS PRINTER. DON'T DO IT.
3 hp cp 1700 failed for no reason
WARNING!!! Do not buy this printer. When new it works great but from other comments I've read and from my own experience, this printer has no durability and HP doesn't want to help. I got this printer to print maps in large format sizes. I hardly used the printer for anything else over the past two years. Recently I replaced the print heads due to very poor print quality and no color reproduction. The printer stopped working after that and HP technical support couldn't help me. They offered me a trade-in deal for a refurbished printer (same model) for $380.00 or a new CP 1700 for an "upgrade" price of $499.00 plus I would have to send them my printer. Of course, I could send it in to have it repaired in 7 - 10 days for $275.00. Whatever your needs, don't do it. Don't buy this printer. Shame on HP for making such a poor product and not standing behind their products!
4 horrible!!!!
Kaput after 11 months. Said I needed new printheads-- bought them for $100+. I live outside continental US & the printheads took weeks to get here. In the meantime my warranty expired. After replacing the printheads, printer still told me to replace them. I tried to explain the situation to HP-- they were completely unsympathic & unhelpful. Even before printgate, the machine would eat about half the prints I tried to make. I do not recommend & I now feel great animosity toward HP as well.
5 DO NOT BUY THIS PRINTER
One fact about this printer that is very poorly documented is that the ink cartridges expire and render the printer useless you replace them, no matter how much ink is left. If you are a home user and try to conserve color ink to dsave $$$, HP found a way to screw you anyway. The tech guy told me the expired ink would damage the printer. So sorry, B.S.!!! I threw my printer on the trash heap. Can you say Lexmark?
6 Poor choice
My main beef with this printer is the ridicuously large margins it requires you to have. You can't print 1/2" from the bottom of the page, which rules out most page numbers, footnotes, etc. Epson printers, even their older lines, are much better at this. I would not recommend this printer.
7 Full of bugs and they can't fix it
I bought the CP 1700 because I need a high-quality workhorse printer that is economical to operate. What a joke. After 2 weeks I returned it to the store for a replacement because the paper feed mechanism broke. The new one worked relatively well, but over time it I felt like I was beta testing an early release of not-ready-for-market product.
It spontaneously stops printing to tell me that all four printheads must be replaced. At $33 each, this is an expensive proposition. But even when I follow the instructions and replace them, I get the same message again within a couple of weeks. I have just learned to live with the messages. When they come up, I shut down the printer, start it back up, and it works again for a few weeks.
I could list quite a few irritating bugs, but the biggest one is inconsistent print quality. I print brochures and high-quality photographic prints on 8 x 10, 11 x 14 and 13 x 19 paper, and the paper is expensive. If I print 20 pages, I'm lucky to get 10 or 12 that are perfect. Aside from the fact that large format paper frequently jams or feeds incorrectly, garbage prints on pages at random. Whole sections of the page come out with blurred lines or splotchy color in random places. The only thing that's consistant is that on every print job I have to throw away 40% of the output.
I have a CompUSA extended warranty and they can't fix it. I take it in for repair, they keep it for a month and then call me to tell me it's fixed. I take it home, print a few pages and it's as bad as ever. I've finally decided I don't want it back until it works right... and apparently that will never happen. It's been "in repair" now for 3 months.
Between the $500 initial purchase price, the $150 extended warranty, and untold $ in supplies, this has been a very expensive exercise in frustration, and meanwhile, I'm looking for a new printer... not from HP, and not from CompUSA (CompUSA sales people claim that if they can't fix it, they will replace it... don't believe them. I've escalated this as high as they will escalate it, and CompUSA refuses to do anything but keep it the printer in the shop for months on end).
8 Wow
Works great for 1 year then it started locking up. I think it is something electronic because both the lights blink like crazy then it starts spiting out paper with some symbols on it. have to unplug it to stop it. Let me know if you want one I will send you mine.
9 a solid, reliable printer.
I find the quality of prints to be just perfect...text is the best I have ever seen, nothing else comes even close.
the cartridges are really long lasting, hovewer not too cheap, but on the long run they pay off.
Quality of image printing is just excellent - a comparison to epson 1280 left the epson way behind.
the drawbacks - slightly crooked feed, a bit uncomfortable to insert new paper (especially when you change size), and terrible manual feed - it just grabs the paper without any aligmnemt and prints is crooked every time.
Overall, I love it.
10 Occassionally works well
Strengths: Great when it works, sturdy construction
Weaknesses: Buggy hardware, buggy software, expensive ink.
Summary:
Our HP color inkjet printer cp1700 worked fantastic most of the time, great output, good colors, fast printing but with a slow first page. The 1700ps is the same printer with some added postscript software.
After two months it started making loud high pitch noises with every head-passing, HP support knows the issue; it's not easy to resolve. After six months of regularly cleaning a specific area, the noise no longer appears, the squeeck area must be worn out.
The postscript option, which I bought as well, is not worth its money, since it keeps crashing on Windows XP at system startup.
After six months the printer started complaining that printer cartridges are empty when in fact they are half full, really annoying when you want to print black only but the printer insist that you need to replace yellow.
After 14 months the printer declares that cartridges were missing although they were physically present. I had to replace all cartridges with brand new ones (that is ~$120), only to find out that the printer still claims that black is missing, so I ended with non working printer with expired warranty after 400 days of ownership, because it claims ink cartridges are missing when they are not.
The front feed mechanism works well for regular paper and has good allignment. Using heavier paper in the trays results in a very precise dent being made at a very precise spot on the page. Thicker paper also results in banding in the printout. The single sheet rear feed has less banding, no dents and can handle thicker paper but quite consistenly pulls the paper in sideways.
Also the ink is very expensive, the printer seems to waist quite a lot of it, judging by the mounds of dried up ink under the print heads.
HP has made it near impossible to use 3rd party ink supplies with this printer, with the chips built into the cartridges, so *only* expensive ink as an option.
In short an ill-behaved machine that works great when it feels like it, and in our case it did it only for about a year with some interrupions.
11 Where's the old HP quality gone?
I am running this on a Mac G4, both OS9 and OSX. The software issues have been the biggest probem for me, margins are not where they should be, --buggy interaction with Freehand, new version of Word -- as examples. It is always something with this printer. A strange thing is that the drivers are not even listed on HP"s web site. It took a call to Customer Service to find out that all the latest drivers are listed under 1220, and you have to do a search to find them. Honestly, I think HP is too intent on coming out with consumer lifestyle products and is not paying enough attention to their base of SOHO type printers.
On the plus side, the ink cartridge life is fantastic, I have not encountered terrible feed problems mentioned here, but I don't use the high capacity lower tray. The rear feed tray is completely wacky. The immediate cancel button is great, especially when the printer doesn't act properly. The text quality is terrific and the speed is also good.
It is a high price to pay for wide format--both the $$ and in instability. My old 895 was as solid as a rock. The answer in the future may well be a) avoid HP and b) have two printers, keeping this when large format is necessary.
12 DO NOT BUY
This Printer is terrible! Don't buy this one. It is constantly jamming or refusing to feed paper. It also prints crocked on the page when it does print. I won't even donate this thing to anyone, it's going into the landfill where it belongs!
13 Good printing, very poor paper handling
We have used the printer for 14 months. Although it prints well, its paper handling is the worst of any printer this office has employed. The most common problem is its failure to pick up sheets. A failure occurs almost every time that one reloads paper. Fixing the problem requires that the operator open the back of the printer, clean and adjust the pickup wheels. Changing paper therefore is very cumbersome. The printer also commonly picks up two sheets simultaneously or mangles a sheet. These occur frequently enough that one cannot leave it working while unattended.
HP's technical support has consisted primarily of offering unsuccessful suggestions and evading requests for a service call or exchange.
14 Great when it can actually feed paper
This sucker has more trouble feeding paper than any printer or copier I have ever seen. I have the lower paper tray, and I have only once ever managed to get the d**n printer to actually feed from it. The top tray actually actually can works (sometimes). The bizarre thing is that once it reads the first sheet from a stack, it is solid! But getting that first sheet to feed is a nightmare. Take the tray out, flip the stack, blow air in, make the stack bigger, smaller, bang on the printer, repeat 10-20 times, and then the first sheet will feed and the whole stack will be fine. Absolutely insane. I'll never get another HP printer after this.
15 bad printer
I really dislike this printer. It's slow, it's bugy-both the software and the hardware and the print quality is not that good. I wish that I could get rid of it but I would feel guilty selling to someone.
16 DIED IN 1 YEAR!!!!
This printer went to the garbage can within 1 year of us recieving it at our small architectural firm. Oh yes, it was a dream come true for the first 8 or 9 months, then slowly started deteriorating little by little, then one day (about 1 month after our warranty ended) it decided to stop working. HP will replace it for $400 (I can buy a new one for that)...not that I would want to. I called Tech Support...they were no help, and after calling several local companies that work on printers I was told to "just throw it away" There goes $500 down the drain....THANKS FOR NOTHING HP....On to EPSON :)
17 I can count on my cp1700
I run a small printing business from my house. I can use remanufactured inks and get my costs down to 30 cents for an 11X17 and sell the output for $1.30. That's cash in my pocket. I do and average of 200 11X17's per week. This printer puts money in my pocket and never fails! Heck I bought some rolled paper and cut it with a saw to 13" width and print 50" banners. This machine has become my printing partner. I can bring in $200 profit a week for hitting the print button and dropping the prints off... I'd say it's a good investment. By the way... I have five printers and have used about 150 different models from all manufactures of printers over the past 5 years (from working in retail selling them) and this printer is the most solid stable printer I've touched.
18 Good, solid printer
Purchased this printed for three reasons (1) variety of paper formats - up to 11 x 17 + banners, (2) individual ink cartridges, & (3) high duty cycle. We purchased this for home but we print a lot of newsletters. Have found this printer to work solidly. Only encountered a small issue with the guide wire causing paper jams - but fixed that.
Have read where some people complain of unreasonably slow printing for photos. There are two high quality modes (Best and Photo). I was unable to tell a difference in the quality and therefore use the Best mode for photos. The Photo mode takes WAY TOO LONG to print. However, we use the Best mode for all our photo printing. As a result, the printing time is less and the quality is great. People have seen our printed photos on glossy paper and can't tell they were developed from regular 35mm film.
Final recommendation: Great buy and worth the investment if you need the capabilities.
19 CP1700 working for a year and a half.
It has been a good printer for me. I don't use it very hard; it is printing for a family of 4, and this is an office printer. Photo quality is good, although I bet it can be equaled for a lot less. Graphics printing and everyday printing are also good. The 17 inch capability has been nice for a few big jobs, and some folded newsletters. The big ink cartridges really do go for a long time- I'm still on my first set of color cartridges.
My complaint is with the WinXP network compatibility, which is or was poor, and the lack of network setup software.
20 Same technology as the HP 2500C+ ! Get away of it!!
HP insists with this illfated printhead/print cartridges technology. I bought the 2500C+ 18 months ago, before XP was released.
Although the printer could work, with several and quite annoying flaws under W2K, HP failed to release a driver for XP Pro, and we were forced to use the driver written by Microsoft.
It simply does not work and - after countless hours with HP Technical Support WHILE UNDER WARRANTY, HP offered my US$ 100 on a US$ 1350 printer for a trade-in.
What I have now is a white elephant sitting in the office.
SHAME ON YOU, HP! It is an offense to your loyal customers.
21 Nothing but problems
We needed a larger format printer and this "fit the bill". Print quality was great but we had nothing but problems. Ate lots of inks and head cartridges (very expensive to operate). Two weeks after the warranty went out, it quit and HP said it wouldn't cover the cost of repair. We had learned our lesson with HP before but we fell for this one - never again. We've found their quality just isn't there and they cost you with their ink.
22 The Best Yet
I just replaced my Epson 1200 stylus photo printer with the HP cp 1700. I love the HP. When I reprinted some pictures done with the Epson I was surprised to see an improvement. I am using the HP as a personal printer. I do a lot of graphics using CorelDraw. Much of what I do includes photos. I'm extremely pleased at the results. The printer set up with no problems and has given me no problems to date. I just printed a large photo 18.25 X 11.125 and the results were excellent. I've had the HP a little over a month and I have to say this is the best printer I have ever used.
23 Terrible feed mechanism
I purchased this printer last August, and am now on my second replacement. The feed mechanism broke on the first two units, and I suspect it's going on the machine I'm using now. My volume is not all that large, by the way.
Even when the printer is not broken, the ability to feed 11 x 17 paper is pathetic. Yesterday, it took me two hours to get two tabloid size pages printed, with about a dozen jams occuring in the process. I use good quality paper, am careful about positioning in the tray, and have tried all three trays with the same abysmal results. This, but the way, is when feeding one sheet at a time; I long ago gave up on feeding multiple copies!
Another thing: every one of the printers I've had feeds slightly crooked. This seems to be an HP thing as the 1220 I had before did the same thing.
On the plus side, print quality and speed are good, as least compared to other printers I've owned, and the multiple ink cartridges and separate print heads are a plus.
But when you spend as much time as I do clearing paper jams and returning broken machines, it's impossible to recommend this product. If you need large sheet print capabilities, avoid this model at all costs!
24 Solidly built but with numerous quirks...
I purchased this printer for my company, an architectural firm, mid 2002. Upon first glance, this printer seemed amazingly well built with a modern design, albeit a bit of a space hog. I had hoped for the best with this puppy since it was the most expensive piece of printing equipement besides our HP plotter.
Anywhooo, as the puppy has grown out of its early stages of life, I have grown increasingly frustrated with it. For one, I don't understand why, but the dpi resolution just does not compare to other ink jets on the market. Even at the highest quality setting and on premium paper, images appear muddied and bereft of any vividness. I've seen better quality from printers a third of its price. Secondly, this printer can not do borderless prints, which is FINE. I can deal with that; however, I can not tolerate the printer being unable to print less than 3/4 of an inch near the left margin. What the heck is going on here? No matter what software I'm using, Photoshop, Dell Picture Studio, Epson Film Factory, yada yada yada, it becomes tremendoulsy painful to accurately center a picture on a page; in fact, if you don't adjust the printer settings carefully, the printer will willy nilly print straight off the right side of a page as if it suddenly wishes to become like its borderless Epson cousin.
I would expect a printer to recognize the paper edges and halt printing if the paper isn't there. Nope, that's not the case here, it will just dump ink inside the machine to soak deep within. I thought this was a driver problem at first and I even upgraded the firmware and drivers; result: same [stuff], different day....
One other gripe: This printer is by no means fast, especially when printing high quality on premium glossy paper. The other Hp 5550 I also just purchased for my office is at least twice as fast when printing regular color text pages and it cost a quarter the price.
So, the pluses to this printer is that it is extremely well built and looks terrific in a nice corporate environment. In terms of functionality, look elsewhere folks. I've had it with this model.
***MAY 15, 2003 UPDATE***
The printer died a few weeks ago, so I traded it in... The new one seems to not have the margin problem which is a needed relief. All other factors remain the same.
25 Could be better
I purchased this printer 8 months ago(used on a Mac) and am now wishing I'd decided on the Epson1280 instead. The printer has given me problems from the start when I try to print on custom sized paper sizes. Tech support was unable to find a solution either. Another issue is the inaccurate colors. Even with much tweaking most colors end up too green, also the colors lack brightness and vividness. And forget about the rear feed. I only got it to cooperate once. What it does is grab the paper and feed it through the printer without printing on it. I've seen some amazing stuff which was printed on the Epson printer and that is what I'll be replacing this one with.
26 Amazing Printer - If I could, I'd give it 6 stars
I am a graphic professional and I recently purchased a CP1700 for my work. The printer was very easy to set-up via a USB connection, and the print quality is incredible - even when using plain paper. I previously owned an Epson Stylus Color 3000 that sells for several hundred dollars more, and it did not have the speed or print quality of this printer. The CP1700 prints on paper up to 13" wide, and has a 1200 dpi resolution. Anyone looking for a fast, very high quality wide-format printer should not hesitate to purchase this printer.
27 Exceptional value for the price
Great printer all around and I love the wide format ability. I have worked w/ a lot of printers over the years and I have to say HP is the best. Tech support is awsome, prices are good, and the printers are always workhorses.
Separate ink tanks (and print heads) save major $ over the long run. Has a kill switch to stop printing (another big $ saver). I love it and doubt I'll need another printer for a very long time. Both the print quality and color resolution are excellent.
28 The ONLY colourr laser replacement
... Until I saw this printer and realised I could have everything that the magicolor had in A3+. This really is a workhorse of a printer. Consumables are reasonable for an office printer and it's great to have not only separate ink tanks for each colour but also separate print heads for each colour also. The duplexing is great. It will print on 300gm card and also prints up to 3mm from the edge of the page (I have an edge bleed design on my stationary design and now print all my own). The final win is the 250 page second tray and the upcoming addition of an HP sheet feed scanner which converts my system into a full-color/duplex/A3+ photocopier/faxer. Brilliant
29 Duplexer works after all
I posted an earlier review complaining that the Duplexer didn't work with Win 2000 or later. That turned out to be incorrect. I was misinformed by an HP tech who didn't have all the facts. When I was finally able to talk to and HP Mr. Wizard type, we were able to solve the problem. Now everything works fine -- two-sided and all. This really is a great printer. It prints well and fast and even two-sided. The best thing is that it has separate cartridges for each ink color. the only negatives are that it takes up a lot of desk space and, of course, the replacement cartriges cost almost as much as the printer
30 Where's the sixth star????
After trying 2 Epson 785EPX's and having trouble with the USB driver install, system locks and unacceptable white dot tracks all over the photos - cursing like I never have before, I decided to try HP & their brand new cp1700. Died and went to heaven! The results are STUNNING!! Printer sets up in 10 minutes, my entire computer runs three times faster (for some odd reason the Epson slowed everything down)and the photos are brilliant! (The paper feed on the new Epsons have real problems, that's what creates the white dot tracks, read other consumer reviews on the 785) This HP was up and kicking like no other hardware I've ever seen, amazing. Agreed that the price is more, but guess what? More than worth it, much more! Way to go HP, if there was a 6th star, you'd get it! Let alone the ability to print crystal clear 12 by 16's. Wow!
