The Hero 5.1 slots in at the bottom of Kodak's latest upmarket range of all-in-one inkjet printers. Priced at around £100, it's relatively expensive, but it does offer a decent range of features, including Wi-Fi, a colour screen, automatic two-sided printing and a card-reader slot.
Design
As with the other models in the Hero range, this one features a bold new design. The main body of the printer is matte black, but there are glossy highlights on the control panel and the band across the front. Kodak has also added a red accent on the lip of the scanner lid and slapped brushed-metal paint on the panels that flank the paper tray. Overall, the 5.1 isn't quite as attractive as the higher-end Hero 7.1, but it still looks pretty flash.
The front is home to a memory-card reader that accepts Memory Stick, as well as SD and MMC, cards. Next to this, you'll find the PictBridge-compatible USB port, so you can plug your camera directly into the printer. The colour screen is handy for choosing photos that you want to print from your camera cards, but it's on the small side, so you can't make out very much detail in your snaps.
The Hero 5.1 has a combined colour ink cartridge, so, when one colour runs out, you'll have to replace the whole shebang.
The paper feeder takes up to 100 sheets at a time, and the printed results are spewed out into a telescopic tray that sits directly on top of the feeder. Unlike the 7.1, the 5.1 doesn't have a separate photo-paper tray, so, when you want to print photos, you have to remove your A4 sheets first.
Set-up
The 5.1 is quick and easy to set up. The instructions provided with the printer are easy to follow and the software installer automatically checks for new updates before installing the driver software and Kodak's Home Center application.
Home Center includes various creative tools. For example, it lets you print 3D pictures that you can then view with the included anaglyph 3D glasses. Home Center also allows you to configure the printer from your PC, and set up cloud printing, using either Google's cloud-printer service or Kodak's own email printing option.
Scanning and copying
The flatbed scanner has an optical resolution of 1,200dpi and you can scan to a computer, memory card, USB drive, network drive or email address. Scan results retain plenty of detail and colours are quite accurate too.
There's also a copier function. The printer took just 20 seconds to produce a good-quality black and white copy of our test document.
Print speed, quality and cost
The 5.1's main weakness in comparison to its rivals is its slow print speeds. It took 2 minutes and 50 seconds to produce our ten-page black and white text document, whereas Epson's cheaper Stylus SX425W managed to complete the same task in 1 minute and 48 seconds. As you'd expect, selecting the two-sided printing option increases the print time by a significant margin.
The 5.1 was also slow to print our ten-page colour business presentation, taking 3 minutes and 36 seconds, while printing ten copies of our colour graphics test document took 3 minutes and 58 seconds. Photo printing is much faster, though, rivalling other manufacturers' models. The 5.1 produced a 4- by 6-inch snap in 49 seconds.
Thankfully, the 5.1's print quality is very impressive. Black text looks dark and detailed on the page, with no nasty smudging. Colour documents also look excellent -- there's little or no banding in large blocks of colour and images are strong on detail. Photo prints also look great, with vivid colours and impressive levels of sharpness.
Most impressive of all, though, is this model's low print costs. A black and white page works out at just 2.5p, while a colour page is far cheaper than the competition, at 4p per page. Both these prices include 0.7p for paper costs. Regardless of these low costs, it's slightly annoying that this printer uses a single colour cartridge, as, if one colour runs out, you have to replace the whole thing.
Verdict
The Kodak Hero 5.1 certainly isn't the printer to buy if speed is your primary concern. But, if you're more interested in achieving low print costs and good-quality output, this stylish machine will be a good bet.
Edited by Charles Kloet
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Milesius 17 May 2012
Good: Prints wirelessly, Prints are great if you use Kodak Paper
Bad: scanner is garbage at any dpi
Comment: I got this unit for my family for Christmas 12/20/11 last year from Target. On Fri 5/11/12 I never used that scanner before but when I did, I got lines across the print I just scanned. Customer Service is a joke, especially the Chat part if you decide to chat with someone. They don't listen to you, they are not attentive when you ask them a question, they are always saying sorry for your ordeal, bit not really sorry because it happens again and again and the pictures I sent them for examples is a joke too. The scans I sent showed lines and the first Indian Customer Service Dept person I chat to said the picture is beautiful meanwhile there was lines 90 degrees across the scan on my end. She told me she sees nothing and I said you need to get a better monitor because I have a brand new 27 Inch imac that clearly shows those lines. She also was instructing me to do things in the menu of my printer that was not there and told her twice and I ended the chat because she kept cutting and pasting instructions that did not pertain to my unit and would not listen to me. I called instead and got another Indian Woman who I complained about the first one what she said and she hung up on me when I was explaining my problem with the scanner. I called again and asked for a manager and the new woman who answered the phone said I can help you, but I declined because I already explained my problem two times already and wanted to talk to a manger. She said she will got someone and it will be 5 minutes. 13 Minutes later, no one, not even are you still there and sorry for the delay. I hung up and went back on the chat portion. I got an Indian man who I talked to and I rescanned a different photo normally and the same one at 45 degrees, both had lines scanned across them from the scanner at the angles I scanned them at. I sent him the Original same Digital Shot from the camera and the two scans I did for him and named them Scan Regular, Scanned at 45 Degree angle and Digital Camera Shot and asked, do you see what I am talking about with the bad scanner. He said, well the one scan is beautiful, meanwhile it was not a scan and I told him that it was from my wife's phone camera and it was labeled that too. Idiot! He was also not there some of the time when I was asking him questions. I would say hello and 1-2 minutes later say the same thing back. I have been doing scanning for a very long time because I am a graphic designer and I have sold scanners at CompUSA and know the ins and outs of them. I told him I have a defective scan head possibly. He said he would send me a replacement Hero 5.1 and this is a very rare issue and this would not happen again. 5/15/12 I get my replacement refurbished printer and when I hooked it up it was noisy than the first one I had. I scanned in a picture and it did it again with the lines. I called up to complain and they said they are sorry and this is a very rare thing. Mind you this is the second time they are telling me this. I said to him, your scanners are cheaply made and he said these are great units and this will not happen again and we will send you a new one. 5/16/12 I get another one over-nighted and it scanned in lines again! I called and they keep saying their sorry and I am not buying it. The woman over the phone offered to refund me my money and then she wanted me to buy a great unit made from a "HP" All In One Unit and not a "Kodak" one. What? I was surprised. I said no, because I have to do research and if you are saying it is great I can't believe you because all this time ALL of your customer service people were saying the Kodak All in one Unit was Great. She transferred me to another person who I thought would be on a higher technical side, but I got an American on the phone from the Digital Camera and Print Department. He told me she transferred you to the wrong department and he gave me the correct number and transferred me. Surprise, surprise I get to India Tech support again. I asked for the manger and when I got him was AGAIN was apologetic and said he will send me a Hero 7.1 All In One Unit because he said the 3.1 and the 5.1 Unit were for homes and the & 7.1 and the 9.1 Hero is for business and you should not get the same problem. Better quality he says and assures me I will not got lines on this scanner. So all this time Kodak is not doing a recall on the Hero 5.1 Unit? I get 3 in a row that are bad. No matter how hard I try to complain to Kodak, I can't get an American on the phone about this issue who can help me in corporate where I get bounced around India. I sent a email on 5/11/12 about my customer service experience with the first day of calling customer service and get a Deepika Naga from Kodak Information and Technical Support saying, We are sorry that you are not happy with the printer and the customer service. No wonder Kodak is in trouble!
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