Our latest test  machine, the HP Photosmart C4480, is just about the cheapest machine with a colour lcd display that HP make . It is intended for the general purpose home market and allows printing copying and scanning.  

 The  scanner  produces a   reasonable  scan for a machine in this price range. To the left of the scanner lid is the  control panel  , which  has a built in   38mm colour LCD – modest but usable – together with three colour-coded selection buttons,  and three further buttons for Menu, OK and Cancel. 

At the top of the printer’s front panel, are  two  sockets for the three main memory card formats: SD, MemoryStick and xD. At the back are just a single USB socket for data connection and a low-voltage socket for power from the supplied black block . 

The Photosmart C4480 uses two ink cartridges, one black and the other tri-colour . These clip into place in a slightly awkward way, as you slide them back and clip them up into place, once you’ve folded down the front panel of the printer, behind the paper tray . 

Print speeds are a little more realistic now that companies have started using the ISO print speed test and HP quotes 8.9ppm and 5.3ppm for black and colour pages in normal print mode, respectively. These are closer to what we  found in our test  , as our five-page black text document completed in  a fraction under a minute  , giving 5.08ppm, rising to 6.09ppm on the 20-page document.  Not as quick as stated, but  nearer  than many other quotes of printer speeds out there  . 

Similarly, the colour speed we saw was only 2.10ppm, less than half the rated speed, but part of this is due to preparation time, which is excluded from the ISO tests, but not from ours. It’s part of the print process and you can’t do anything with the completed document until the last page hits the output tray . 

Copying a single page, colour document took 50 seconds , which is a little slow and this is true of printing photos , too, with a best time of 1:17. Neither speed is a deal-breaker , though, and for a machine that costs just over £40 is not too bad . 

The quality of plain paper prints is surprisingly good, with clear,  black  text and very little splattering. Colour business graphics are also smooth and clear, perhaps a little pale in places . 

Our photocopy was also a little lighter than the original, but not bad at this price point. 

Our photo test print is also very good, with smooth colour variation, plenty of detail  and good colour balance. 

When it comes to the HP ink cartridges, you’re better buying the Value, XL versions of both.

Verdict 

The Photosmart C4480 is an easy-to use all-in-one, neat and well-organised, quiet to run and subjectively quick. Print quality is very good for an entry-level machine and if money is tight, it’s a very good buy.