HP Color Inkjets for 2001

Introduction

It has been interesting to watch how HP has marketed its inkjet products during the past few years. The company has managed to sidestep much of the technical obsession with inkjet drop sizes and resolution and focus instead on the things consumers apparently want: a lower cost per page, great photo output and/or faster page-printing speeds. It has focused on delivering solutions targeting the most common platforms: the PC, Mac and, increasingly, the new generation of set-top boxes such as WebTV, AOL TV, etc. There have been tiny, mobile printer models designed for the needs of portable users, infrared-equipped models designed for wireless data transfers, CompactFlash Card- and SmartMedia-reading PhotoSmart printer family models for digital camera enthusiasts, and other specialized models ranging from the low end (<$49) of the market to the sophisticated networked office environment. HP has even dabbled with "entertainment system styling," with a black version of its now-discontinued DeskJet 812c printer models.

The strategy seems to be working. HP continues to hold the number one position in the inkjet printer market, with a 45 percent share. It's probably no coincidence that, of you go looking at HP's website (www.hp.com) or in virtually any of its marketing materials, that you'll see scant few reference to highly technical terms like picoliters. Perhaps not coincidentally, Epson, which tends to focus heavily on these issues, has seen its marketshare diminish during the past year. As the old marketing adage tells us, consumer confusion is detrimental to sales.

"DeskJet" is HP's brand name for its line of ink-jet printers, much as "BubbleJet" is Canon's term. Although there are literally dozens of different HP DeskJet models available, they can be separated into a few main categories: home, office, photo-quality, mobile and wide-format.

In an effort to avoid the brand-name dilution and quality issues that inevitably surround pursuance of the ultra-low end of the market, HP has spun off its cheapest printers under the separate brand name "Apollo." The least expensive DeskJet model is US$79 -- a significantly higher price-point than those offers by HP's primary competitors in the market.

Most PC Buyer's Guide readers, we hope, already know that buying at the bottom of the market is usually a recipe for disappointment. This axiom holds true as it applies to HP printers, In general, you will find that low-end printers cost more per page and deliver inferior performance. The DeskJet 630c, for example, manages to hit its low price point in part by shipping without a black ink cartridge.

Of course, whether a printer is low-end or high-end is ultimately unimportant, if it is best suited to your needs. HP provides an interactive Product Advisor to help you narrow down your choices. This advisor, however, sometimes gives bad advice, as seen in this screenshot, where it lists only OfficeJet all-in-one multifunction devices as the recommended solutions for those seeking a color printer connected to one computer, capable of printing 1 to 7 ppm on Letter size paper. Pity the poor chump who believes that the least expensive product in HP's lineup capable of this simple task is US$249.

In another test, we got six results the first time we asked the Product Advisor for answers based on this same set of criteria, and nine results (including three inappropriate hits) by simply hitting the "back" button and searching again! This seemed to be a reproducible bug. We also encountered frequent errors on HP web pages and search engine timeouts.

As it's clear that HP's product advisor can't be trusted, we've listed several of the most popular models in a table below, so you can compare the features of each.

* claimed.

Reliability

So, why choose an HP printer? One of the best reasons is long-term reliability. It's no fluke that HP was rated an "A" in customer satisfaction in a recent subscriber survey of printer reliability and satisfaction ratings in PC Magazine. Here at PC Buyer's Guide, we've owned several HP DeskJet models over the years and even our very first purchase, the original DeskJet released way back in 1989, is still churning out pages, albeit at a lower quality than that achievable with today's ink-jet technologies. There have been some models better than others (the 812c, it seems, was one of the more notorious models for paper jams), but generally, we would rate our HP models highest for overall satisfaction, too. By comparison, the most recent Canon model we purchased, the BJC5100, has been practically nothing but trouble, and seems to go through a lot more of that expensive ink, too. Meanwhile, our Epson Stylus Color 740, while less troublesome than any the Canons we've owned, has been prone to more ink clogging than any of HP's models.

Note that lower-end HP printers carry a mere 90-day warranty. In the chart above, the 932c and above carry a 1-year express pickup and delivery warranty. Also, some models are available with slightly different model designations and different software bundles. This is an old trick used by many manufacturers to allow resellers to avoid price-matching hassles. They're different packages, therefore price matching doesn't apply.

Ink and Paper

Part of the credit for reliability must go to HP's long-standing ink-jet cartridge design, which replaces the print-head with every cartridge replacement. Epson and Canon do not do this. We've read arguments for both approaches (fans of permanent print heads note that they are designed to last longer and thus usually result in better results from refilled cartridges), however, we've had poor experiences with ink refill kits (primarily due to our own clumsiness), resulting in inky hands and messy printing.

We will however, give a "thumbs down" to the HP website. This site is slow, confusing (it tells Mac OS X users, for example, to visit www.hp.com/go/Macconnect -- a location that, when we visited, was devoid of useful information - the actual address is www.hp.com/go/mac-connect) and fails to display "found" pages -- or, worse, displays completely bogus information, as in the case of the "Product Advisor" -- on an alarmingly regular basis. Get with it, HP!

Print Speeds

As noted in our Epson printer report elsewhere in this section, it is folly to place too much credence in a manufacturer's published print speed ratings. The top-of-the-line HP 990Cse, for example, claims print speeds of 17 and 13 pages per minute (ppm) in black and colour mode, respectively. However, in one of our tests, a single-page Microsoft Word document took 22 seconds to print. Needless to say, there appears to be a bit of a gap between the claim and the reality.

Our recommendation

Of all the models listed in the chart above, those with the PhotoREt III technology clearly produce the best photo-quality results and, unlike some photo-printers, without incurring a significant speed penalty. We'd recommend one of the 900 series units if you are looking for the best balance between reliability, performance and quality. For those with demanding print requirements, the DeskJet 960cse and 990cse are our editor's choices.

For Further Reading:

• Review: A closer look at the HP DeskJet 960cse
• Epson inkjet printer report 2001
• Lexmark inkjet printer report 2001
• Refilling Inks - a reader report on how to refill ink cartridges.