New laser printers are faster and more versatile

By Zatni Arbi

JAKARTA (JP): There is no doubt that the information technology industry is bleeding profusely these days. If you have been reading the news lately, you will know that a lot of IT companies have been cutting thousands of jobs. Most blame this fairly deep malaise on the economic slowdown in the U.S., which came after a surprisingly long period of economic growth.

However, as we already know, advancements in technology never stop. During the period when business is slow, technology leaders should step up their R&D efforts and come up with innovative ideas and breakthroughs to boost or at least maintain their market share in the dwindling market. This must be true in the case of the laser printer industry's stalwart Hewlett-Packard, whose logo has now become HP Invent.

So, after we looked briefly at several new inkjet printers and scanners from Canon last week, we will take a look at the new laser printers from Hewlett-Packard, which were unveiled here in Jakarta for the first time last week.

The low-end LaserJet 1100 has been replaced with LaserJet 1200. This printer can be equipped with a snap-on scanner, although the setup will make it look more like a tower of toast you usually find in a breakfast buffet in five-star hotels. The scanner companion for the LaserJet 1100, in comparison, is attached to the front of the printer instead of its top.

The LaserJet 1200, which is intended for personal use or perhaps in a small work group, has been improved in many ways. The print speed has been increased to 14 ppm, up from the 8 ppm of the LaserJet 1100. The input tray can now hold up to 250 sheets of paper, in addition to a 10-sheet priority feed tray for preprinted letterhead forms.

When buying a new printer, we need to read the figure of its duty cycle. This figure indicates how heavy the workload is for which the printer has been designed. In the case of this printer, the duty cycle is 10,000 pages per month. If we force it to churn out more that, the printer may break down prematurely.

If we want to use it as a network printer for a small office of two to three people, we can opt for the LaserJet 1200n, which comes already bundled with HP JetDirect 175x to connect it to the LAN. The 8 MB standard memory capacity (the 1100 has only 2 MB) can also be expanded to a hefty 72 MB, which I do not think we will actually need. This printer can connect to the PC using both the parallel and USB port.

It is interesting to know that, although the output is black and white, the scanner is color capable. We can save the image in 8-bit color or 256 grayscale. With a 600 ppi (point per inch) optical resolution and 9600 ppi enhanced resolution, the scanner will not replace a ScanJet 5370C, but it has other useful functions.

With the scanner attached, we can make copies without turning on our PC. The software allows us to manage our scanned documents, scan directly to e-mail or scan straight into the fax software.

Incidentally, instead of buying the scanner separately, we can also opt for LaserJet 1220, which already comes with the module.

Network-capability

If you want to keep your investment down and even be able to manage your staff's printing activities better, you can opt for LaserJet 2200, which replaces LaserJet 2100. It can connect to your PC or LAN via the parallel, USB or infrared ports. I guess the next generation of printers should also include Bluetooth connection, so we can print our documents just by placing our notebook close enough to the printer.

From the outside, there is nothing special about this boxy LaserJet 2200 printer. However, the printing speed has been increased from 10 ppm of LaserJet 2100 to 18 ppm. The maximum resolution is 1200 x 1200 DPI, which can be produced at full speed.

Standard memory has also been raised from 2 MB to 8 MB, which can still be expanded to the extravagant 72 MB. Because it is meant for heavier workload, the duty cycle is 40,000 pages per month. Depending on our requirements, we can choose from different models of the LaserJet 2200 with different input tray configurations.

The most interesting feature of LaserJet 4100, which replaces LaserJet 4050, is probably the so-named Embedded Virtual Machine (EVM), which will enable us to use Java-based applications with HP's e-services, cellular phones and other handheld devices. The cartridge has an embedded chip that will provide us with information on the level of toner inside it, for example, so we can monitor the printer by remote and order a new cartridge before it runs dry.

With a 250 MHz processor, this printer prints at 24 ppm with a resolution level of 1200 DPI. Not surprisingly, its duty cycle is a whopping 150,000 pages per month. Other versatile features include job retention, which allows a user to download a confidential document to the printer's memory (16 MB standard) and walk over to the printer to have it printed so that nobody else gets to read it. The printer will not start printing the document before the user enters his 4-digit PIN on the control panel. Next, the stored jobs feature allows us to keep fax covers, time sheets, calendars and other shared documents on the printer so there will be no more need for preprinting.

And, there are also two new color LaserJet printers, the 4550 and 8550. These printers, while still beyond the reach of most of us, print color graphics at 600 DPI with HP Image REt (Resolution Enhancement Technology). The 4550 prints color images at 4 ppm or black documents at 16 ppm. In addition to an integrated 3.2 GB hard disk, it can be equipped with 192 MB of memory, which we may need as color requires a lot of storage. The 8550, which looks more like a tower photocopy machine, has faster printing speeds- 6 ppm for color and 24 ppm for monochrome printing.

At the moment, I am looking forward to the opportunity to test drive the LaserJet 1200, the printer that I think will be the most suitable and most interesting for the majority of us. Stay tuned. (zatni@cbn.net.id)