HP 30 Ink
Designjet 30 Ink Cartridges

HP 30 Printer Review

The HP DesignJet 30 is an enormous printer, weighing in at almost 30 pounds. Its large dimensions of 38.5x17.4x8.8 inches make this inkjet device an awkward fit in small or overcrowded spaces. It produces sluggish speeds, 17.5 pages per minute using black HP 30 ink and 11.9 pages per minute using color. A lack of fax and copy functions and a small monthly duty cycle cause this plotter to be more apt for home and personal use.

Perhaps the best feature of this unit is its 6-color DesignJet 30 ink system. Colors cyan, magenta, yellow, light cyan, light magenta and black each come in a separate HP 30 ink cartridge. This tank system is less wasteful and helps users save money on DesignJet 30 ink cartridges because they can be replaced individually.

Another exceptional feature is this inkjet printer's high color resolution. A maximum of 2400x1200 dpi using color HP 30 ink produces beautiful photos and quality graphic documents. Black printer ink has a resolution of 600 dpi, capable of producing satisfactory text documents.

An assortment of connection options makes this device highly versatile. It has a standard USB 1.1 port, an EIO slot, and an optional HP Jetdirect EIO internal print server. The box comes with 6 standard tanks of printer ink, 6 printheads, an input and output tray, Macroinstaller, a setup poster and Quick Startup Guide that help make installation easy.

Consumers who can get past this machine's immense size, inconvenient weight and downright slow printing speeds may have no issues owning it. Its few useful features like good color resolution and efficient 6-color tank system aren't really enough to outweigh all the negatives. The DesignJet 30 should only be recommended to low-volume capacity users who have a large, sturdy desk to put it on.