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.