With the introduction of the new AXP2CN1733AR firmware for the HP T120, a lot has been approved for the T120. Better color handling, better paper advance, less grain, faster printing, and  reduction of 17mm to 5mm border on the long end of a print. All of which is extremely good news.

After the firmware has been installed (mine came over the air), all my custom paper advance setting where gone resulting in bad banding on normal print mode. However, the auto paper advance feature seems to be fixed with this update as my HP T120 did an extremely good job in getting the paper advance right after the auto paper advance alignment run. Just make sure you re-calibrate for all your different media types.

As a likely result of the much better paper advance calibration, prints now have much less grain in them. This means better image quality following from better color reproduction (dots are more accurately placed) and sharper prints (again because the dots are placed more precise).

You should ignore the color differences (my bad) and focus on sharpness and grain. The Hp T120 is now very close to the HP B8550. Previously, the B8550 had the HP T120 for breakfast. Also the blaclevels of the the HP T120 are noticeable better now, again providing a bump in quality.

And if we look at the build in demo image (which cannot be altered so is a good reference) we see very low grain, much improved sharpness and much better colors and fairly deep blacks for a non photo black. Printed on HP Premium Satin roll after completing the auto paper advance feature and with the new firmware AXP2CN1733AR.  

Not sure what HP has done but printing is much faster with firmware AXP2CN1733AR. It is clear that new printing routines have been implemented. Especially black and white printing in draft mode is now super fast. However, also best quality printing is now faster. Thi is good news again as the HP T120 was very slow before the update with the previous firmwares. Speed has increased for both paper tray and roll. I estimated that the new firmware close to doubles the speed.

I really have no idea why HP suddenly implemented 5mm printing borders as opposed to 17mm on the top end and 5mm on the sides and bottom when it has been technically possible to print with 5mm borders on all sides. As I have a huge stock of A3+ and A2+ cut sheet paper, the 5mm border feature is a very welcome addition. 

The HP Click software is a very simple package to print JPEG and TIFF files with the HP T120. Since its release, I exclusively use this app to print - it is the only app that gives a preview of your print on media roll that in fact is correct. The software is easy to handle but make sure that all your files are in sRGB color profile (the default of the HP Click app) and that you use best quality for printing (yes, in the past normal gave better results, but that is no longer the case with the new firmware). The results are very good and printing is much less a hassle or hit and miss as with others apps (including Photoshop). 

HP Click app printing to HP Premium Plus A3+ paper from tray with clip content by margins enabled (which I normally have disabled).

HP Click app showing the paper sizes it can resize your print to. All photo paper sizes are supported and custom settings are available. Well done HP! The only thing that is missing is color space handling, but it must be said that colors in sRGB are handled exceptionally well by this app!

Enjoy your new HP T120!