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The Business Ink Jet Printer Guide: Vendor & Product Profiles

sells for $299, while the Deskjet 9800d sells for $399.

They can print on pages up to 13" x 19". However,they

print slowly and hold little paper.The 9800d comes with

automatic duplexing standard.

Pros: PCL, poster printing.

Cons: Meager paper handling (150 sheets input, 50 out-

put), slow speed.

Hewlett-Packard Deskjet 6940

Hewlett-Packard Deskjet 6940dt

Up to 6ppm full color (600dpi, normal mode)

Up to 10ppm black & white (600dpi, normal mode)

Sum-up: Good paper input and decent speed for a low price.

The Deskjet 6940 is priced at $130, while the Deskjet

6940dt comes in at $180. These new models (upgrades of

the discontinued Deskjet 6840 and 6840dt models) have

some good features for the price: up to 400 sheets of

input (standard on the dt model), duplex (also standard

on the dt model) and standardEthernet. This family’s

claim to fame is its standard built-in support for the wire-

less protocol IEEE 802.11g. That’s a faster version of the

now-common IEEE 802.11b protocol. Of course, you’ll

be limited to IEEE 802.11b speeds unless you have a

sending device that offers the newer protocol. Also, the

printer design is elegant and compact.

Pros: Ethernet and IEEE 802.11g standard, automatic

duplexing optional, decent 400-sheet capacity.

Cons: 50 sheets of output capacity.

Hewlett-PackardDeskjet 6540

Hewlett-Packard Deskjet 6540dt

Up to 6ppm full color (600dpi, normal mode)

Up to 10ppm black & white (600dpi, normal mode)

Sum-up: Inexpensive models with pretty good features.

These models, the $130 Deskjet 6540 and the $180

Deskjet 6540dt, are similar to other HP models at this

level. They have decent enough features and can be

shared among a few users.

Pros: PCL 3 standard, Ethernet and 802.11b optional,

automatic duplexing (standard on the dt model), and a

decent 400-sheet capacity (also standard on the dt

model).

Cons: Slow at normal speeds, only 50 sheets of output

capacity.

Hewlett-Packard Business Inkjet 1200d

Hewlett-Packard Business Inkjet 1200dn

Hewlett-Packard Business Inkjet 1200dtn

Hewlett-Packard Business Inkjet 1200dtwn

Up to 8ppm full color (600dpi, normal mode)

Up to 9ppm black & white (600dpi, normal mode)

Sum-up: Inexpensive machines with some interesting fea-

tures.

This family is priced from $200 to $350. A full range of

networking is available, and auto-duplexing is standard

for all models.

Pros: External Ethernet server option (standard on

three models), wireless connectivity, automatic duplex

standard, 400-sheet capacity.

Cons: No PostScript.

Hewlett-Packard Business Inkjet 2300

Hewlett-Packard Business Inkjet 2300n

Hewlett-Packard Business Inkjet 2300dtn

Up to 8ppm full color (600dpi, normal mode)

Up to 9ppm black & white (600dpi, normal mode)

Sum-up: These models have good paper capacity and a strong

duty cycle.

Priced from $499 to $899, these are capable models with

(for ink jets) decent paper capacity and speed along with

good features. But they are not inexpensive.

Pros: Ethernet (optional on Business Inkjet 2300), ade-

quate memory (up to 320MB), good maximum paper

capacity (900 sheets), duplexing, PCL, and PostScript.

Cons: Purchase prices comparable to color laser

printers.

Hewlett-Packard Officejet Pro K550

Hewlett-Packard Officejet Pro K550dtn

Hewlett-Packard Officejet Pro K550dtwn

Up to 10ppm full color (“laser quality” mode)

Up to 15ppm black & white (“laser quality” mode)

Sum-up: A revolution in office printing.

The Officejet Pro K550 family is a winner. It combines

real-life speed with features good enough to surpass those

of many of the bargain color laser printers in this guide,

and atmarkedly lower prices.Even better, it has consum-

ables costs that are remarkably low for an entry-level

office printer. Frankly, it makes almost all of HP’s busi-

ness ink jet line that we have documented above irrele-

vant.

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