This is a photo-quality color inkjet printer for business
users. It supports a maximum resolution of 600x600 in best mode, but can also
print at 2,400x1,200 dpi on photo paper. Sleek in appearance, the printer offers
a host of good features. There’s an infrared port that can be used for
printing from mobile devices like PDAs, notebooks, etc, and it comes with
software for printing from these devices. Another neat feature is that it can
print on both sides of a paper. For this, a two-sided printing unit fits behind
it. Before printing, all you have to do is select double-side printing from the
print screen. The printer then prints on one side of the paper, pulls the paper
back in, and prints on the other side.
HP DeskJet 990 Cxi |
Color inkjet printer. Rs 29,999 Features: 17 ppm in draft mode (black); two-sided printing: IR port; 2,400x1,200 dpi print resolution on photo paper. Pros: Good print quality. Cons: None. Source: Hewlett-Packard India Chandiwala Estate Maa Anandmai Marg Kalkaji New Delhi 110019. Tel: 11-6826000-14 Fax: 6826059 E-mail: princy_bhatnagar@hp.com |
The 990 Cxi supports a whole variety of print media such as
envelopes, greeting cards, labels, transparencies, photo paper, etc. It has a
maximum paper input capacity of 150 sheets, while the output tray can handle 50
sheets.
Installing the printer is hassle free. It connects to your PC
via a parallel or USB port. Windows automatically detects it and it has drivers
for Windows 3.1x, 95, 98, 2000, and NT 4. It has two separate ink cartridges,
one color with three chambers for different colors, and another for black ink.
There’s a print cartridge status indicator on the printer, which starts to
blink if your cartridge is malfunctioning, improperly installed, or the ink
level is low. Another useful troubleshooting feature are ink cartridge status
icons on the printer’s body. If you open the printer’s cover, the cartridges
align themselves next to one of these five icons. Each icon has a different
meaning, for example, one indicates low black ink, while another indicates that
there’s a problem with the color cartridge, etc.
The printer gave an average speed of 10 ppm with our speed
tests. We then used a test file from HP. This time it came out to 17.6 ppm,
which is a touch above its rated speed of 17 ppm in draft mode. The difference
was due to more ink coverage in our tests. Even the text quality in draft mode
was pretty good and readable to the smallest font size of 2 pt.
The printer gives good quality color prints. The quality of
curves and line art was good and it was able to reproduce different shades of
gray without banding. We took color printouts on photo paper at the printer’s
maximum resolution, and although it took some time to print, the wait was worth
it. The quality was very good. The printer comes with a sample paper pack–which
contains gloss and heavyweight papers–for you to try out its quality on
different media.
Overall, this printer gives you quality printouts at good
speeds, along with a host of features that’ll be very useful for a business
user.
Sachin Makhija at PCQ Labs