The placement of the roll in the rear of the printer was not a good call. I understand the reasons for doing so, but the result is a loading process that is annoying at best and for some it will be a major hassle. In almost all production environment’s printers are crammed against walls in crowded small spaces. Another thing to note is that the HP does not use a vacuum system to keep the paper flat when moving under the print path, but instead uses a feed system that includes a star wheel system. On the Z3100 these occasionally produced marks on the print. So far I have yet to see any marks from the star wheels on prints from the Z3200. My feeling is that the marks are a non issues on HP branded media, or when time is taken to ensure the correct settings are used when creating a media set for a 3rd party media. If the marks were a problem even after altering the print setting, you now have the option of lifting the rollers for specific media. I’m fairly confident this will give users enough options at their disposal to allow better support for third party media.
PRINTER CONTROL PANEL
All the printer’s controls on the Z3200 are located on the front of printer, grouped around a large monochrome LCD panel. From here you control all the standard functionality of the printer, such as loading and unloading paper, selecting media types, and performing color calibration. I like detailed information accessible from the display. Everything from the warranty status of the inks, to the amount of ink each head has fired, to the firmware version and connectivity information is easily found and clearly displayed. It’s nice to have this much functionality available without having to move to the computer interface. It’s easy to change and configure the IP address. Even basic color management functionality can be controlled from this menu. I also like HP’s use of animations on the LCD panel to walk you through simple tasks such as loading paper, and changing print heads. This makes the printer a little friendlier in
BUILD QUALITY
Over many years HP has established a track record of building reliable, often overbuilt, easily maintainable printers. Compared to the HP4000 or Z6100, the Z3200 is a lightweight, and reflects the design philosophy of a photo/fine art printer rather than a production printer. When the Z3100 was released there were some problems. Quite a number of users, including Spectraflow, had to have the paper feed sensors replaced. Also some users were troubled by appearance of star wheel marks on their prints due to the roller system used. Since the Z3200 is an evolution of the Z3100 platform, many of these issues have been addressed, and I would expect that this launch will go much smoother. Most of the issues I encountered with Z3100 printers made themselves known very early on, were addressed, and afterwards functioned reliably. The stand is very robust and assembly is elegantly simple. The outer case is almost entirely plastic yet feels solid. The paper basket is also well thought out. This printer gives the impression of being well built, and after having spent considerable time using the Z3100, I have no reason to think that the durability of the Z3200 will not be equaly good, or better.
HARDWARE SUMMARY
The HP Z3200 is a well designed, functional print platform. The hands off approach to maintenance is
