2011 Holiday Gift Guide: HP Photosmart eStation All-in-One Printer

Sunday, November 06, 2011

In this day in age, it's all about staying connected. At least, it is in our household. As the Chief Household Officer in our family, I can't imagine life without my digital devices or *gasp* the Internet. I have become very dependent upon my cell phone, computer and printer to keep track of important dates and events, pay the bills, keep in touch with family, share the latest on my blog or print colour photos and colouring pages. As a teacher, it is imperative that I have a good quality colour printer that is reliable and fast as well. The state-of-the-art HP Photosmart eStation All-in-One printer is the perfect device to help simplify my life and keep my family connected.

The HP eStation comes carefully packaged and because of its size, I appreciate that it comes in a bag with handles which makes it so much easier to remove from the box. It weighs nearly 8 kg.

HP Photosmart eStation All-in-One Printer

The HP Photosmart eStation is a little bit larger than my my old HP Photosmart three-in-one printer (from the C3100 Series) but on the plus side, it is Energy Star rated. And it was easy to connect to our wireless home network so I can put it anywhere I want and print from any device on our network.

It comes with 5 ink cartridges: one pink, one yellow, one cyan, a cartridge for photo ink and a larger cartridge for black. It's pretty straightforward when it comes to installing the ink cartridges. Remove the packaging and take off the orange whachamacallit. It was kind of hard to figure out how to remove it but by the fifth one I was a pro.

The HP Photosmart eStation has provided our family with hours of fun. It comes with the HP Zeen, a detachable, 7-inch, full-colour wireless companion. It allows you to browse and print the web, watch movies, read books and listen to music. You can hop onto Facebook using the app. But I prefer to log on using the web browser since I get better functionality that way. Also, I found that the touch screen wasn't always as responsive as I am used to with other touchscreens.

The Facebook App on the HP Zeen

Facebook view using the web browser

The HP Print Apps has a lot of great content for the whole family. They partnered with Kraft, Mapquest, Disney, Martha Stewart, Sesame Street and Crayola to bring you coupons for your shopping list, maps, recipes, colouring pages and activities to keep your kids entertained – all without using a computer. And both my kids, ages 3 and 6, easily figured out how to print their favourite colouring pages on their own. Which means I need to start collecting reusable sheets of paper. My daughter printed out a whole collection unintentionally! A few weeks ago, we tried using the print apps but we would get a message that the Touchsmart app was no longer supported. I saw there was an update available for the printer and after installing it, the remaining apps still came up with the same message notifying that the app would be removed. I then figured out how to download the same apps and after that, they worked. Phew! My kids have really grown attached to those print apps.

Another great feature of the HP Photosmart eStation is HP ePrint. It lets you print and share your favorite family memories anywhere, anytime. Each web-connected printer has a unique email address, meaning you can send photos and documents from any email-enabled device. It's a feature that model and fashion designer Veronica Webb relies on to stay organized as CHO. I love that I can print photos directly from Facebook using the Facebook app. This picture turned out nicely and looks lovely in the Umbra frame that came with my package.

I also love that I can print directly from the album on my iPhone. It was so easy!

Simply go to your album, find the photo you want to print and click on the arrow in the bottom left corner. Select print and the printer name under Printer Options as well as the number of copies you want. Be sure your phone is connected to your network.

Print from iPhone to HP Photosmart eStation

The HP Photosmart eStation also came in handy when I had to print off baby shower invitations for my sister-in-law. See, I've been keeping pretty busy lately!

Recently, I was invited by HP Canada for an exclusive event hosted by Karen Sealy, a regular décor expert on CityLine and the host and designer for "Summer Home" on HGTV. Unfortunately, I had to miss it since my grandmother had passed away that week. But I just read on the Sealy Design Inc. blog that the event was filmed for CityLine and is scheduled to air November 10.

Now, you can have a chance to stay connected and benefit from all the wonderful features of the HP Photosmart eStation. HP Canada is graciously offering one of these fabulous printers to a very lucky reader. That's a $399.99 value! Doesn't that make you want to belt out, "Ho, ho, ho?"

Fill out the Rafflecopter form below for your chance to win.

Disclosure: I was sent an HP Photosmart eStation package to help facilitate this review. All opinions expressed in this post are my own.