The HP Deskjet 5740 is a versatile printer with professional color up to 4800-optimized dpi or add 6-ink color. Create standard and custom size photos up to 8.5 x 24-inch, with or without borders. Fast speeds up to 23 ppm laser-quality black, up to 18 ppm color. Enhance black print speed up to 26 ppm with optional black cartridge. The HP Deskjet 5740 offers quick, user-friendly set-up and a convenient control panel with one-touch print cancel button, ink status display and automatic ink-backup printing. Compact design is ideal for small spaces in the home or office, and a 100-sheet input paper tray folds up for storage. Increase value and pages printed with higher volume HP black ink cartridges. With included HP photo printing software you can easily create reprints, enlargements, photo layouts and album pages. Print long-lasting, professional-quality photos with exceptional fade resistance.
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 Fool-Proof Printing
We're running Windows 98SE and the install went just fine. I love this compact reliable printer. We originally had an HP722C and after many years of service it wore out and we got an Epson C82. The Epson printers have the print heads incorporated into the printer itself while HP has them in the ink cartridge. With HP you get fresh heads with every cartridge change but with Epson you clean and clean. We were constantly cleaning the Epson print heads and they would always choke at an inopportune moment. It's such a relief to have this HP unit that just prints reliably every time. While the Epson has multiple color cartridges, they all seemed to empty at about the same time anyway so having just a tri-color cartridge for HP is just fine. The Epson had only one economy mode and you could hardly read the text. The HP offers a usable economy print mode that saves ink, prints fast, and is still very readable.
I'll add that for serious photo printing, I still use the local photo printer but for the everyday 3X5 or 4X6 for the desk at work the HP does an outstanding job even without the special photo-printing cartridge.
My only criticism is that when you display the print status, the page count is off. It will show 60 of 12 instead 6 of 12 which can be a bit unnerving. Otherwise, for basic trouble-free printing, this one can't be beat for the price.
3 Nothing but print problems
I bought two of these machines in January - one for my home office, one for my daughter going to college. Mine was fine, but my daughter's print quality turned poor after about a week. We jumped through all the cleaning hoops and even bought a new cartridge, and it was OK for a bit and then went bad again. I swapped her machine out for mine, brought hers back here, cleaned again and it was OK. For awhile, then the print quality went south again. Did the online support chat thing with HP, and they determined my printer was bad. Send a refurbished replacement, and I installed my cartridges from the original machine. Print quality still bad. Went out and bought ANOTHER new cartridge, and it was fine. Yesterday. Today, the print quality is bad again. HP chat support again, jump through the cleaning hoops again, print quality OK. HOW FRUSTRATING IS THAT? As I've already spent more on ink cartridges than the printer cost, I'm getting ready to throw this in the junk and go buy an Epson or something.
4 Great Value - Don't Forget to buy a USB Cable
We bought this about three months ago for typical home use and it has worked great. It is small, fast and quiet. The buttons on the front of the machine are very basic (On/Off, clear jam, cancel print and an indicator for ink level in each of the two cartridges). We are using this on an older PC that runs WIndows 98. The setup was a breeze, but you have to buy the USB cable separately. The software that comes with the printer is pretty standard. Black and white documents are clean and color documents come out good but not good enough to print high-end photos. For the price this is a great value for home use.
5 Not compatible with XP
Do not buy HP Deskjet 5740 if you have windows XP. I have spent hours on the phone with HP Tech support in India to no avail. They even sent me a replacement, we downloaded drivers from the HP Website. Finally, I go to the Microsoft site and find out its not on the list as XP Compatible. I did not buy this from AMAZON but from Best Buy after receiving assurances from the salesperson that it was trouble free.
6 totally satisfied
Since we already have a scanner and a separate photo printer I just wanted a simple deskjet printer to use for family and school projects. I spent a day or so researching a bunch of different types and decided on this one. I couldn't be happier. The print quality is fantastic and although it wasn't a priority for me I was thrilled with the speed it prints both color and black and white pages. Just had a paper jam this morning (did I mention I have kids?)and rather than spending 10 minutes trying to rip the paper out of the machine, it very nicely rolled the whole stack right out. I *love* this printer - and am amazed we got it for under $100.
7 A fantastic inkjet for Mac OS X!
I have a small desk and that's one reason I picked the Deskjet 5740. Both paper trays fold up neatly when not in use, making this one of the most compact printers I've ever used.
My #1 concern was text print quality as I do a lot of correspondence and not that much color photo printing. With inkjet paper (my favorite everyday paper is HP's Bright White Inkjet which goes for $8 for 500 sheets), the results are outstanding. Text is crisp and black... it looks right out of a laser printer!
The Mac OS X drivers are top notch! It can handle inkjet Avery labels, card stock, envelopes, transparencies, and premium photo paper. Plus it gives you full control over ink density, color balance, and ColorSync (Be sure to download the latest printer drivers from HP's website as the CD was a little out of date).
And when you use glossy photo paper, the color photos are just like film. Really outstanding photo printing from HP's "home office" Deskjet line. It can also use the special "Photo" ink cartridge as well as the standard "TriColor" cartridge. The 5740 also accepts HP's jumbo sized black and tri-color cartridges, which are double the size of a normal cartridge at a much better price.
You can't get a better printer for $99!
8 One Great Printer!
This printer is one great printer in its price range! Fast and well built for its weight. The cartriges last a decent time and the colors are good. It's easy to find replacement cartriges too. I did not find the device drivers for Mac OSX to be a problem or the paper handling like the other review. This is not the best ink jet but it may be for the money.
9 installation problems outweigh value
This printer was bundled (free) when I bought a new Macintosh. Given the time I wasted getting it to run, I should have turned it down.
After running the installation from CD-ROM, the printer setup utility said drivers could not be found. I went to the HP website, downloaded the driver installati0n package, ran it, and re-installed the drivers. Same symptom. I tried uninstalling and reinstalling. No help.
I searched the HP website and finally found a telephone support number. I called them and settled in for a long session on the phone... numerous restarts, deleting preference files, manually deleting drivers, etc. We finally got the printer to work (and the HP support technician was patient and persistent in solving the problem). However, it's unnacceptable to have to spend so much time on what is basically a generic $100 printer. Consumer products in this price range need to be plug-and-play. HP has clearly skimped on testing to get this product to market.
On a related note, we had similar problems with another HP printer we recently bought. We also bought an Epson printer, which worked immediately when we connected it. I've always liked HP products, but after my recent experiences, I doubt I will buy another HP printer.
