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Reviews: Printers
HP Deskjet 6980
B&W Pages per Min.: 36 • Color Pages per Min.: 27 • Max. B&W dpi: 1200-by-1200 • Max. Color dpi: 4800-by-1200 • Tray Capacity, pages: 150 • Price When Reviewed: $150
HP Deskjet 6980 (Front)
HP Deskjet 6980 (Front)
74.0 Good
Last updated
October 19, 2007
Test Center Reviewed by
Melissa Riofrio
Pros
  • Fast print speeds
  • Good print quality and documentation
Cons
  • Control panel is hard to use
  • Output tray is flimsy
Pricing: Expensive: $150 (3/20/2008)
Performance: Good: 79
Features: Good: 78
Design: Good: 71
Pricing
Expensive: $150  
Standard-Capacity Black Cartridge - $29.99
Standard-Capacity Color Cartridge - $34.99
Performance
Good: 79  
Text Printing (Plain Paper, Normal Settings)
Tested Text Speed (ppm) 9.1 
Three-Page Word Document (secs) 50.68 
Ten-Page Word Document (secs) 86.17 
Text Output Quality Very Good 
Color Printing (Plain Paper, Normal Settings)
Tested Color Speed (ppm) 2.5 
Two-Page Excel Document (secs) 50.01 
One-Page Webpage (secs) 25.45 
4 by 6 Color Photo (secs) 19.87 
Color Output Quality Very Good 
Color Photo Printing (Glossy Paper, Best Settings)
Tested Glossy Photo Speed (ppm) 1.4 
Sports Action Shot (secs) 43.81 
Color Photo Quality Very Good 
Grayscale Printing (Plain Paper, Normal Settings)
Tested Grayscale Speed (ppm) 2.9 
4 by 6 Grayscale Photo (secs) 20.61 
Grayscale Output Quality Very Good 
Lineart Printing (Plain Paper, Best Settings)
Tested Lineart Speed (ppm) 2.4 
300dpi Line Art Image (secs) 24.53 
Line Art Output Quality Fair 
Features
Good: 78  
Memory (in MB)
RAM Installed 32 
Maximum Amount of RAM 32 
Dimensions
Dimensions 17.7-by-14.5-by-5.7 
Weight (pounds) 14.04 
Vendor Rated Speeds
B&W Pages per Min. 36 
Color Pages per Min. 27 
Resolutions
Max. B&W dpi 1200-by-1200 
Max. Color dpi 4800-by-1200 
Language & Emulation
Printer Emulation Type GDI 
Interfaces
Parallel Port No 
Serial Port No 
USB 1.1 Yes 
USB 2.0 Yes 
Ethernet Yes 
PictBridge Yes 
Other Interfaces 802.11b/g 
Drivers
Macintosh Yes 
Windows 98 No 
Windows NT No 
Windows 2000 Yes 
Windows XP Yes 
Linux No 
Power
Maximum Power Draw (watts) 50 
Standby Power Draw (watts)
Multifunction Printer Specs
Fax Memory (pages)
Paper Handling
Number of Input Trays, Standard
Number of Input Trays, Maximum
Tray Capacity, pages 150 
Maximum Sheets With Optional Paper Trays 150 
Manual Feed Slot No 
Maximum Paper Size Legal 
Output Tray Capacity 50 
Warranty & Support
Labor Warranty (years) One 
Parts Warranty (years) One 
Weekday Support Hours 24 
Saturday Support Hours
Sunday Support Hours
Toll-Free Support Yes 
Cost of Operation Inside of Warranty
Cost per Page, Black 0.04 
Cost per Page, Color 0.09 
Vendor-Supplied Data (in Pages)
Monthly Duty Cycle 5000 
Monochrome Ink/Toner Yields 850 
Color Ink/Toner Yields 590 
Bundled Items
Included Hardware Ethernet cable, power supply, power cord 
Included Software HP Photosmart Premier software 
Reliability & Service
Summary of results for all of brand's products in this category More bad news for HP: below-average grades for out-of-box problems and significant problems with its printers. Readers aren’t thrilled with HP’s phone support either. 
Reliability of brand's products in this category
Reports of products arriving with problems Worse than Average 
Reports of products with any significant problems Worse than Average 
Reports of problems that render a product unusable Average 
Buyers' rating of products ease-of-use Average 
Overall satisfaction with reliability of brand's products in category Average 
Service & Support Quality
Time spent holding for phone support Average 
Overall quality of vendor's phone support Worse than Average 
Reports of problems unresolved after contacting service Average 
Overall quality of service Average 
Design
Good: 71  

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