HP resets standards with new printers, scanners

By Zatni Arbi

JAKARTA (JP): I don't normally dedicate a whole article to highlighting new products from a single vendor, but this time I've decided to break my own rule. My reason for doing the unprecedented is that the number of new products that HP launched in Jakarta last week was truly phenomenal. The newcomers included four inkjet printers, three scanners, two laser printers, one OmniBook, a CD ROM writer, a server, a family of Pentium PCs and a couple of network products. You need to know about the majority of these new arrivals, particularly if you are working on a procurement plan for your organization.

In the area of laser printers, inkjet printers and color scanners, HP can be regarded as a trendsetter. As I have said before, it is not unusual to see new laser or inkjet printers from HP that carry lower price tags while offering more advanced features.

It would be misleading to say that HP offers the most technically advanced products on the market. In the laser printer arena, for instance, the Optras from Lexmark still holds the title of laser printer champ with its 1200 dpi capability. Optras' prices make this family of high-resolution laser printers not as popular as HP's line.

New lasers

We are very familiar with HP LaserJet 4L, because it has been around for some time and its low price makes it one of the most sought laser printers on the market. HP has replaced this popular laser printer with the LaserJet 5L.

What's revolutionary about this personal laser printer is its straight-paper path design. It looks almost like a food processor. It is the one in the middle of the top row of the accompanying picture. Because of the new vertical design, the footprint is now smaller, 13.2 by 12.3 inch (WxD). As I see it, this design may become the standard in future generations of laser printers.

Rated at 4 pages per minute printing speed, the printer gives us 600 dpi resolution. The straight through input path is particularly good for printing addresses on envelopes, as it doesn't wrinkle the envelopes.

At the network end, HP has introduced 5Si and 5Si MX as replacements for 4Si and 4Si MX. Intended for use in a networked environment, these printers give us 24 ppm with the print resolution of 600 dpi. That's decidedly faster than most photocopiers you see people use in shops.

Both 5Si and 5Si MX also look like a photocopier because they can print up to A3 size. They can get bigger if you add an optional 2000-sheet paper tray, which doesn't force you to load blank paper as frequently as my HP IIIP does.

New inkjet

HP seems to be leaving the era of black and white behind. All the new inkjet printers come with color capability. Being the least expensive of all (its list price is US$ 259.00), DeskJet 400 is the new entry-level personal inkjet printer. Its printing speed is 3 ppm, and the resolution is 600 by 300 dpi for text. Just like other low-end inkjet printers from HP, you have to buy the optional color kit and replace the black ink cartridge whenever you want to add color to your printout.

DeskJet 320, which replaced the Deskjet 300 in Indonesia only a few months ago, has been replaced by DeskJet 340. Two features that I like about the new printer are the optional infrared connection and the portable and lightweight sheet feeder.

Infrared will be the way computers talk with peripherals in the future, thanks to the work of IrDA (Infra Red Data Association) that specifies the standards for infrared communication. If you have a notebook and printer that support infrared data transfer, you no longer need to carry the somewhat bulky parallel cable around anymore or frantically borrow one from the office you're visiting when you need to make a printout with your portable printer. To my disappointment, however, HP makes the infrared accessory optional and sells it for about US$ 49.00.

The lightweight sheet feeder is a welcome improvement. As I said in my review of DeskJet 1200C some time ago, I believe that the price of the cut-sheet feeder accessory for DeskJet 320 is unnecessarily high at between Rp 175,000 and Rp 200,000 in Jakarta. Unfortunately, HP still hasn't listened to my complaint. The 60 sheet cut-sheet feeder for DeskJet 340 is still optional at a list price of US$77. Because using DeskJet 300, 320 and 340 is torture without a sheet feeder, I think HP should simply bundle this accessory with every DeskJet 340 it sells.

DeskJet 660C now has a brother, DeskJet 850C. This color inkjet printer is said to be capable of producing color printouts with the quality matching that of DeskJet 1200C (you will remember that DeskJet 1200C is my favorite). I found out, however, that DeskJet 850C only has two cartridges, one for black ink and the other, a three-chamber cartridge, for the cyan, magenta and yellow ink.

Furthermore, unlike DeskJet 1200C, it doesn't have the heating wires to dry the ink as soon as it is applied to the paper or transparency. Nevertheless, the print quality I saw in the sample printout is still superb.

What will definitely occupy the place in my heart hitherto filled by DeskJet 1200C is the new, high-end DeskJet 1600C or 1600CM. I briefly reported on the latter some time ago. Except for a simpler control panel and rounded body, the new color inkjet printer looks almost the same as DeskJet 1200C. However, it uses a completely different type of ink. HP calls it "pigment- based".

Vincent Vanderpoel, HP Business Development Manager for Asia- Pacific, told me that the DeskJet 1600C is intended for a networked environment of up to ten users. Its 12,000 page a month duty cycle is perhaps the best indication of the type of job it is intended for.

For single users, DeskJet 850C fits the bill better and costs almost a third of what DeskJet 1600C costs. For those who cannot live without Postscript, on the other hand, DeskJet 1600CM is available. In addition to built-in Postscript, it also incorporates advanced network capabilities.

New scanners

I talked about Visioneer's PaperPort scanner some time ago. It is a tiny scanner the size of a 20-watt TL light. HP now has a similar product that it sources from Visioneer, called ScanJet 4s. It even comes with Visioneer's PaperPort V. 3.0 software. In my opinion, this tiny scanner is a better companion for your fax/modem than the typical handheld scanners, as it doesn't require training your hand to produce straight scans.

ScanJet 3C, which entered the market only recently, is now replaced by ScanJet 4C. Can you believe the short life cycles these products have nowadays? The new generation of the flatbed scanner can scan at 600 dpi optical resolution or 2400 dpi enhanced resolution. These capabilities position the scanner as a professional tool for graphic designers as well.

What most of us never thought feasible was the ability to scan across the network. We saw a scanner as a peripheral attached directly to our PC, since most scanners require a proprietary card. HP has shown that you can also scan across the network.

ScanJet 4Si, a black and white scanner, can be used on a Novell NetWare local area network so that your organization doesn't have to buy one scanner for each user. Equipped with an automatic document feeder, it scans at 15 ppm. Resolution is a decent 300 dpi, and greyscale images are scanned at 8 bit (256 levels).

Here is something to keep in mind when choosing a printer and when using one.

I know a lot of HP laser printers have had problems with the scanner motor. Unfortunately, the price of the replacement part is quite hefty. As you can also guess, the problem stems from gross overuse of the printer.

In offices constrained by a limited budget, people buy laser printers that are actually meant for personal uses. Once the printer is set up, however, they start using these light to moderate capacity printers as if they were commercial photocopiers. Such a practice, very common in government offices, substantially shortens the life of the components. The scanner motor usually goes first.

Therefore, when buying a printer, it is imperative to first evaluate your need. If you need to constantly print out, buy the higher rated laser printers. If your budget doesn't allow you to do so, you'd better settle with a fast dot matrix printer. At any rate, don't force a 4L laser printer to churn out reams of printouts day in and day out. You'll definitely end up having to throw it in the dumpster long before it has the chance to pay for itself. Imagine using Mazda Vantrends for the taxi fleet serving the Jakarta to Bandung route. That's why you see heaps of 4L carcasses around.

Printers are rated according to their duty cycle. The LaserJet 5L, for instance, is rated for use to print out 4,000 pages per month. Use this specification to determine which model to buy.