HP DeskJet 1200C still a champ despite age

HP DeskJet 1200C still a champ despite age

By Zatni Arbi

JAKARTA (JP): Once in awhile we encounter products that remain
the champions longer than anticipated. In the old XT days, for
example, there was this Leading Edge Model D that was surely one
of them. The Consumer Reports magazine recommended it in late
1987, and based on their reports, I confidently suggested to
several friends who were buying their first PC back then that
they should choose it. Today, eight years later, one of them just
told me that his Model D still works flawlessly. Slow? Of course,
compared to today's Pentium 133 MHz. But that does not matter.
He's using WordPerfect 4.2, and he's happy.

The Ford Laser cars that people here in Jakarta use as
taxicabs are another example of a truly magnificent product.
Cruising for about 300 kilometers daily, many of these semi-
compact cars are still worth buying and owning after they've been
in use as cabs for several years. If only we could have more
products with this level of durability in the market.
Unfortunately, more often than not, we have lousy products that
break down even before we use them. Take, for example, the
flickering light bulbs for Christmas trees that you buy in
supermarkets; light up your tree two days before Christmas and
they'll stop flickering even before Christmas comes.

Now, here's a product that I'll definitely put in the first
category, the HP DeskJet 1200C printer. It has been around for a
couple of years, and as of now it seems that Hewlett-Packard is
not going to replace it yet, as it still can easily compete with
other even far less expensive color printers.

Last year, when a friend of mine asked me to help him with his
newsletter, I told him I needed a color printer and I
specifically wanted DeskJet 1200C, because it had won a number of
awards. He bought one, added 8 MB RAM to the 2 MB already
installed in the printer, and let me have a lot of fun with it.

I'm not suggesting that you should grab your checkbook and
rush out to Glodok Plaza to buy this printer. What I'm going to
share with you are the things that make me love this color
printer so much. If you happen to be looking for a color printer,
by all means use these specifications to judge other competing
products. I wouldn't be surprise that, one week after you read
this review, a brand new product from Epson or Canon hits the
market and beats 1200C in every single aspect.

The C in 1200C means, as you can easily guess, that it is a
color printer. It uses four separate ink cartridges for yellow,
cyan, magenta and black. It also has heating wires recessed
inside the printing well that glow before it starts to print. The
heater ensures that the ink dries quickly, so you never get wet
and wrinkled printouts.

Printing speed is one of its strong points. It prints six
pages per minute for black and white text. It takes one to two
minutes per page for full color, full page printing, depending on
the print quality you choose.

Its resolution, however, is not something HP can take pride
in: 300 by 600 DPI for black and white, but only 300 by 300 DPI
for full color. At the back, easily accessed, there are three
slots for additional RAM. It uses 72-pin SIMMs. The printer is
very simple to operate. You can also manually insert stationery,
including envelops, through a slot at the top of the casing.

A number of times I've inadvertently printed documents or
graphics files while the HP LaserJet IIIP driver is selected, but
1200C has no problem giving me crisp black and white printouts.

A postscript version of 1200C is called 1200C PS, and it costs
about Rp 3,8 million nowadays. It comes with 4 MB RAM, and an
autoswitch between the parallel and serial ports. Of course, it
has support for LocalTalk so that you can use it with your Mac.

Criteria

Color computing is definitely the trend nowadays, as color
notebooks and color printers enter the mainstream. When you sit
down at a seminar and notice that the speaker is going to show
you black and white transparencies on the OHP, you'll feel sleepy
even before he starts speaking. Somehow you feel that only when
he uses color can you tell he has something really up to date to
tell you.

Following this strong push toward color printing, HP has
discontinued its least expensive DeskJet 300, a portable printer
that I have recommended to a bunch of happy friends. In its
place, the much more expensive DeskJet portable 320 has been made
available. In comparison, DeskJet 300 used to cost Rp 540,000
complete with its sheet feeder, while DeskJet 320 now costs about
Rp 650,000 without the sheet feeder. The feeder alone costs Rp
175,000 to Rp 200,000. The only justification for the price
difference is its color capability, for which you still have to
add another Rp 50,000 to Rp 70,000.

Fortunately, HP is not the only player in color printers, both
inkjet or laser. In the inkjet arena, Epson Stylus Color has
attracted a lot of people, and so has Canon BJC 600. Both can
also produce printouts with vibrant colors. Epson Stylus even
boast the highest resolution for inkjet color printers, 720 DPI.

Yet I still prefer the 300 DPI HP DeskJet 1200C, although it
still costs almost 50 percent more than Epson Stylus Color. First
of all, it's expandable. Color graphics require a lot of RAM, and
this printer can hold up to 26 MB of RAM (20 MB for 1200C/PS).
That means that jobs can be dumped into the printer and we can
immediately regain control of our computer.

Secondly, the colors are sharp, true and vivid even when you
print on plain HVS paper. During the very recent Computer and
Business Products Expo at Jakarta Hilton Convention Center, I saw
the new portable color printer from Canon. The sample printout
was full of beautiful colors, but it was printed on special
paper. Epson Stylus can print in the 720 DPI mode only when you
use special paper. Special, proprietary paper means higher cost.
This leads us to the third criterion.

Third, 1200C is not expensive to operate. Newer units have
Energy Star feature built in, and consumes only 15 watts when not
printing. During the entire year, in which I've done a lot of
color as well as black and white printing, I've had to replace
the cartridges only twice. The cartridges are expensive (about Rp
65,000 each), but they last a long time. Each cartridge also has
an ink level indicator, so that I can replace only the empty one
(remember that the ink consumption is not the same for all four
colors). The unit I've been using doesn't have the out-of-ink
indicator, but the newer ones do. They will stop printing when
one of the cartridges becomes completely empty. This feature will
prevent you from wasting other inks and print media.

Finally, the 1200C is still one of the fastest color inkjet
printers on the market. That is definitely a welcomed feature if
we usually face tight deadlines.

Criticism to PT Berca is in order though: When I had to
replace the cartridges last year, it was difficult to get them
here in Jakarta. I called several companies that carried HP
products, and none had them. Berca should make sure that these
cartridges are more readily available.

To Hewlett-Packard, I'd also like to suggest the following:
First, it's time to increase the printing resolution of this
excellent printer. Even 600 DPI no longer sounds right today.
Second, make the printer bigger so that it can print A3 plus
size. Another friend of mine, a DTP professional, has been
mulling whether to buy the HP 1200C or not, but he's hesitated
because this printer cannot print on sizes larger than A4 or
letter. Third, keep its price low. The price increases seen in
DeskJet 320, DeskJet 600, DeskJet 660C in Jakarta are a little
bit atypical for HP, and therefore a little bit disheartening to
me.