The HP Photosmart C8180 All-In-One (AIO) almost demands two ratings—one that considers price and one that doesn't. With its touch-screen menu controls, built-in DVD+RW dual-layer drive with LightScribe for archiving files and labeling discs, and—above all—its high-quality output, it's a seductive package. But although it earns high marks for features I'd really like to have in a photocentric AIO, it pairs them with slow speed and weak paper handling. That would be a fine compromise at a lower price, but at $399.99 (direct), the minuses drag the C8180's rating down from the stratospheric levels it would otherwise deserve.

Setup is straightforward. Find a spot big enough for the 8.5-by-17.6-by-15.4-inch (HWD) AIO, remove the packing materials, plug it in, turn it on, and load the ink cartridges and paper. If you want to print from a computer, you can then run the automated installation program. I connected through a wired network for my tests.

The C8180 falls into the subcategory of photo-lab AIO, which is to say that, even if you never connect the unit to a computer, it's worth getting for printing photos. It not only prints photos at high quality, but can also print directly from PictBridge cameras, memory cards, USB keys, and even 35mm slides and film. Moreover, it lets you preview photos before printing on its 3.5-inch LCD.

The LCD also serves as a touch screen for giving commands. Even more impressive: The C8180 is the first photo-lab AIO I've seen with a built-in LightScribe DVD drive, which is both a welcome convenience for archiving photo files on an optical disc and arguably the easiest choice for labeling discs as well.

You can, of course, use the C8180 as a standard AIO for printing, scanning, and copying. It's not a good choice for a home office, however, since there's no fax feature and no automatic document feeder (ADF) for multipage documents. In that context, its worth mentioning that the C8180 is a close cousin to the HP Photosmart C7280 All-In-One, a more office-centric model without a DVD drive or touch screen but with an ADF and fax features added.

Both models offer Ethernet and Wi-Fi connections. Both use the same ink system, with six colors and a separate cartridge for each color—cyan, yellow, magenta, black, light cyan, and light magenta. The two models have nearly identical high-quality photo output. Both have the same low paper capacity, with a 100-sheet standard tray and 20-sheet tray for 4-by-6 photo paper. For printing on both sides of the page, the C7280 includes a duplexer as standard, whereas it's a $79.99 (direct) option on the C8180.

Paper handling is a potential issue, depending on how you use the C8180. For standard printing, if you print more than about 20 pages per day, the meager 100-sheet tray may need refilling often enough to become annoying. On the other hand, if you use it strictly for printing photos, the two trays will let you keep two different sizes of photo paper loaded, so you can switch between sizes easily.

As already mentioned, the C8180 loses points on speed—big time. On our business applications suite (timed with QualityLogic's hardware and software, www.qualitylogic.com), the C8180 limped in at an unimpressive 22-minute total, compared with 20:10 for the less-expensive C7280 and 15:58 for the Canon Pixma MP970 Photo All-In-One, our current Editors' Choice for photo-lab AIO. Speed for photos was no better, averaging 1:39 for 4-by-6s and 3:41 for 8-by-10s, compared with 58 seconds and 2:01 for the MP970.

Fortunately, the output is worth waiting for. Text quality is as good as or better than most ink jets. More than half the test fonts were easily readable with reasonably well-formed characters at 4 points, and all but two heavily stylized fonts with thick strokes passed that threshold at 5 points. Edges aren't quite as crisp as you'll get from a laser printer, but the quality is adequate for schoolwork and most business needs.

Graphics are easily acceptable for any internal business use, though (as with many printers) thin lines tend to disappear. If you stay away from thin lines, the quality is sharp enough to hand out to an important client or customer you need to impress with your professionalism. I noticed a tendency for full-page graphics to make the plain paper in our tests curl, however. If you cover most of the page with graphics, you may want to use a more-expensive, heavier-weight paper.

Color photos handily rank as true photo quality—better than what I'd expect from my local drugstore. I saw a problem with color balance in a monochrome photo, with slight tints at some shades of gray. That won't be an issue if you print only color photos, however. The photos were also reasonably waterproof and scratch-resistant, so you can let people handle them without worrying about them getting ruined. HP claims a 200-year lifetime for photos in dark storage, as in an album, 40 years for photos behind glass, and at least 30 years for photos exposed to the air.

Unfortunately, the C8180 stumbled a bit when printing photos directly from slides, printing soft-focus 8-by-10s with less-than-superb color, and offering no options on the touch-screen menus to correct these flaws. The Canon MP970 did a much better job on this score, making it a far better choice if you plan to print from slides very often.

The LightScribe drive also delivers less than it should. You can easily archive files from a memory card or USB key to a disc using the printer's touch-screen commands, but you may not be able to label the discs as easily as you'd expect.

LightScribe drives use a special type of disc that you can flip over in the drive so you can use the drive's laser to etch a label onto the disc's surface. The C8180 comes with Roxio Creator Basic version 9 for labeling. Unfortunately, Creator—and, indeed, the computer itself—can see the drive only over a USB connection. If you connect through a network, the only choice for using the LightScribe feature is to laboriously enter the label text through the printer's touch screen.

In short, you can either connect to the printer over a network or take full advantage of the LightScribe drive, but you can't do both, unless you also have another computer connected directly to the printer with a USB cable. Even then, Creator Basic will work only from the directly connected computer.

That said, the C8180's DVD drive, touch screen, and overall output quality make it an intriguing AIO. If you're willing to pay a premium price for its Sharper Image–style gadget appeal, the HP Photosmart C8180 All-In One qualifies as a reasonable, if less than totally compelling, choice.

Check out the HP Photosmart C8180 All-In-One's test scores.

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