HP Deskjet 460c Printer: In-Depth Review and User Opinions

The HP Deskjet 460 is a portable inkjet printer released in 1998. This lightweight and compact printer was designed to provide convenient printing on the go.

Some key specs of the HP Deskjet 460:

• Print Technology: Inkjet
• Connectivity: USB 1.1
• Print Speed: Up to 5 ppm black, 3.5 ppm color
• Print Resolution: Up to 600 x 600 dpi
• Paper Handling: 50-sheet input tray
• Media Sizes: Letter, legal, A4, envelopes
• Print Cartridges: 2 (black, tri-color)
• Dimensions: 7.5 x 2.2 x 6.9 inches
• Weight: 3.3 lbs

With its portable design and USB connectivity, the Deskjet 460 was aimed at mobile professionals and students who needed occasional color printing while traveling with a laptop. Its small footprint and light weight made it easy to transport.

Design

The HP Deskjet 460c has a compact and lightweight design that makes it easy to set up in any home or office. It measures just 17.5 x 12.4 x 5.7 inches and weighs only 6.6 pounds, so it doesn't take up much desk space.

Despite its small footprint, the printer is made from durable plastic materials that give it a sturdy feel. The flip-up lid allows for easy access to the print heads for maintenance and cleaning. Overall the design focuses on portability and convenience rather than aesthetics. This is a basic, no-frills printer design aimed at home and small office users who need an affordable and reliable machine.

Some key design specs:

• Dimensions: 17.5 x 12.4 x 5.7 inches
• Weight: 6.6 lbs
• Made of durable plastic shell
• Flip-up lid for print head access
• Compact footprint great for tight desk spaces

The lightweight and compact design makes the HP Deskjet 460c easy to move around the home or office. It's a practical design focused on core functionality rather than style.

Print Quality

The HP Deskjet 460c produces decent print quality for an affordable inkjet printer. It has a maximum print resolution of 1200 x 1200 dpi in black and 4800 x 1200 optimized dpi in color. While not as sharp as laser printers, the print resolution is good enough for basic home and office use like printing documents, web pages, and photos.

Print speeds are relatively slow, averaging around 5.5 pages per minute in black and 2.5 pages per minute in color. The printer takes about 20 seconds for a normal text page. So it's not ideal for high volume printing.

Color accuracy is fairly good for an inkjet in this price range. It can print millions of colors and photographs have vibrant, accurate colors. However, since it uses a two-cartridge system with a black cartridge and tri-color cartridge, photo prints may show some color banding in gradients. Solid colors look smooth and even.

The print quality is comparable to other inkjet printers in this class and price range. While not professional-level quality, it delivers decent everyday print results for personal and home office use. The resolution and colors are suitable for printing photos, graphics, documents and other basic items.

Connectivity

The HP Deskjet 460c offers both wired and wireless connectivity options, providing flexible setup for home office or small business use.

For wired connectivity, the 460c comes with a USB 2.0 cable that allows you to connect directly to your computer or laptop. This provides a fast and reliable wired connection at speeds up to 480 Mbps for transferring print jobs. Simply plug the included USB cable into the port on the back of the printer and connect it to an open USB port on your computer.

The printer also supports wireless printing through WiFi, giving you the freedom to place it anywhere in your home or office without being tethered to your computer. It's compatible with 802.11b/g/n wireless networks on both Windows and Mac operating systems. The setup process is straightforward using the HP software installer to detect and connect to your local wireless network.

Overall, the wired and wireless connectivity options on the HP Deskjet 460c offer convenient setup in any environment. Whether you need the speed and reliability of a direct USB connection or the flexibility of WiFi, this printer has you covered.

Printing Features

The HP Deskjet 460c has several useful printing features for both office and home use.

One handy feature is automatic two-sided printing, also known as duplex printing. This allows you to print on both sides of the paper automatically without having to manually flip pages over to print the second side. Duplex printing helps save paper and is convenient when printing multi-page documents.

The Deskjet 460c also supports mobile printing from smartphones and tablets. You can print directly from iOS devices using AirPrint or print from Android devices with the HP ePrint app. This gives you printing capabilities on the go from your mobile devices.

Additionally, the printer includes support for printing borderless photos and brochures. This allows you to print all the way to the edge of the page without any white borders. It's useful for photo printing or creating brochures and flyers with a professional look.

For office use, the Deskjet 460c has a 35-page auto document feeder. This allows you to easily print or photocopy multi-page documents by automatically feeding each page through the printer. You don't have to feed each sheet manually.

Overall, the printing features of the HP Deskjet 460c provide functionality for both home and office needs. Key highlights include duplex printing, mobile printing, borderless printing and an auto document feeder.

Ink/Toner

The HP Deskjet 460c printer uses both a black and tri-color ink cartridge. The included standard cartridges can print about 300 pages for black and 200 pages for color.

This printer uses HP's Vivera ink which provides vibrant colors and sharp text. The ink is designed to be smudge, fade, and water resistant once dry on the page.

Replacement HP 60 black ink cartridges cost around $15 and typically yield about 300 pages. The HP 60 tri-color cartridges cost around $25 and yield around 200 pages. Using HP's high-capacity cartridges can help lower cost per page and require less frequent replacements.

Overall, print quality and cost per page is competitive for this printer class. Just be aware that color pages are more expensive to print than black text pages. Choosing standard or high-capacity cartridges involves a trade-off between upfront cost and longer time between replacements.

Software

The HP Deskjet 460c comes with a suite of software to enhance the printing experience. It includes the HP Photo and Imaging software for editing and printing photos, scanning documents, and more.

Some key features of the software include:

• HP Photosmart Essential - Provides basic photo editing tools and templates for creative projects. Allows you to print directly from the software.

• OCR Software - Lets you scan documents into editable text formats like Word and Excel. Useful for digitizing paperwork.

• Document Removal - Removes backgrounds and blemishes from scanned pages to clean up the final output.

• Red-eye Removal - Automatically removes red-eye from photos.

• Photo Fixes - One-click fixes for common photo issues like brightness, color, and contrast.

• Print Preview - Previews documents before printing to avoid wasted prints.

• Print Management - Options for double-sided printing, multi-page booklets, fit-to-page, and more.

• Media Import - Imports photos from cameras, mobile devices, and social media.

The software provides a robust set of tools while maintaining an intuitive and user-friendly interface. For most home and small office users, it has everything needed right out of the box for high quality photo and document printing.

Reliability

The Deskjet 460c is relatively reliable for an inkjet printer. As with any inkjet, it requires more maintenance than a laser printer to keep the printhead from clogging or drying out. You'll need to print periodically even when not in heavy use, or leave it plugged in so it can self-clean.

The printhead is integrated and not designed to be replaced, so print quality can degrade over time. However, HP offers a standard 1 year warranty which can be extended.

Ink cartridges can occasionally leak or become damaged during changes, so care needs to be taken. Paper jams may happen on occasion as well if not loaded properly.

Overall, customers report the Deskjet 460c can last 3-5 years with proper care and maintenance. For an inkjet, that's fairly typical reliability. Just don't expect the duty cycle of a more expensive business printer. As long as you print regularly and take care of it, it should give reliable service for typical home and student needs.

Pros

• Compact and lightweight design makes it highly portable
• Fast print speeds for both black and white and color printing
• Capable of printing high quality photos with up to 4800 x 1200 dpi color resolution
• Wireless and wifi direct printing provides flexibility and convenience
• Integrated memory card slots allow direct photo printing from camera memory cards
• Automatic two-sided printing helps save paper

Cons

The HP Deskjet 460c has a few drawbacks to consider:

• Small paper tray capacity. The main tray only holds up to 50 sheets of paper. For high volume printing, you'll need to refill the tray frequently.

• No automatic duplexing for double-sided printing. To print on both sides of the page, you have to feed each sheet manually back into the tray. This can be tedious and time consuming for larger double-sided print jobs.

• Mediocre print quality for photos. While text printing is decent, photo printing is fairly low resolution. Photos tend to look pixelated and lack fine detail. The Deskjet 460c is not well suited for photo printing needs.