HP Photosmart 8750

Upside

HP thinks it's on a winner with the new Photosmart 8750, the first in the world to use nine different inks to produce a photo. It's even got endorsement from National Geographic veteran photographer Mike Yamashita, who HP flew out for the Sydney launch of the printer to help spruik its qualities.

The 8750 can produce borderless photo prints up to A3 size, and utilises HP's proprietary nine ink system. The nine HP Vivera inks comes in three cartridges --  the HP101 Blue Photo Inkjet which has light cyan, light magenta and a new blue ink; the HP 97 Tri-colour Inkjet which contains cyan, magenta and yellow; and the HP 102 Grey Photo Inkjet which contains dark grey, light grey and photo black inks. The addition of the new blue and the two shades of grey, according to HP, allows the 8750 to produce outstanding vibrancy, contrast and realism to its prints because it more closely matches the sRGB colour space.

In terms of connectivity, the HP Photosmart 8750 plugs into a PC via USB 2.0, and has four built-in memory card slots that can take CompactFlash Type I and II, SD, MMC, Memory Stick, xD and USB flash drives. And since it is able to print up to A3, it's not the smallest printer in the market, measuring in at 642.6 x 613 x 254.7 mm and weighing 11.8kgs.

Downside

This HP's rather big, so unless you're really fussed about the quality of your photo prints then it might be better to look at smaller and cheaper alternatives. Nine inks in three different cartridges may also mean more replacements and more cost.

Overall

We've seen some prints from this big HP and the results were quite impressive. But considering the price for both the printer and replacement cartridges, this one seems more suited for home photography enthusiasts and professionals.