Subject: REVIEW: Hewlett Packard DeskJet 400 printer
From: [email-masked] (Francesco Dipietromaria)
Date: 11 Mar 1996 14:50:23 GMT
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.reviews

PRODUCT NAME

	Hewlett Packard DeskJet 400 printer

BRIEF DESCRIPTION

	Inkjet printer

AUTHOR/COMPANY INFORMATION

	Name:		Hewlett Packard
	Address:	1150 Depot Road
			Singapore 0410

	Telephone:	Different for every country (HP FIRST)

	World Wide Web:	http://www.hp.com

LIST PRICE

	I found this printer sold for about 500.000 Italian lire
(about less than 500 DM)

DEMO VERSION

	None.

SPECIAL HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE REQUIREMENTS

	HARDWARE

		An Amiga. :-)
		The printer itself.

	SOFTWARE
	
		A printer driver for your Kickstart. The printer comes
		without any kind of software for Amiga computers.

COPY PROTECTION

	None, but the printer itself.

MACHINE USED FOR TESTING

	Amiga 2000/A2630
	1 MB Chip RAM, 2 MB Fast RAM 16 bit, 4 MB Fast 32 Bit
	1 internal 880K floppy
	ALF3 SCSI-II Controller
	Fujitsu 512 MB internal Hard Drive
	SVGA Monitor
	AmigaDOS 3.1
	HP_DeskJet printer driver (form WB 3.1)
	HP_Control 1.63 (shareware by Guido Mersmann,
			 text/print/hp_control.lha, evaluation copy)

INSTALLATION

	The printer comes in a small box. Inside you will find the
power supply, one print cartridge, documentation stuff, two HD disk
with WC software and drivers and the printer itself.  You must already
own a Centronics cable to connect the printer with your Amiga.

	The installation is easy and quick: just connect the cable and
the power supply with your computer off. Then install the print
cartridge (just turn the printer on, press the change cartridge button,
open the front panel and insert the new cartridge).  You will find
everyting stated on the manual.

	The second part is not so easy: you mush set up you computer
to work with this new printer. A small manual, titled "DOS Printer
Driver Information Guide," suggests which kind of driver you should
install if you cannot find a specific one for this printer.  I
installed the HP_DeskJet driver that comes with AmigaDOS 3.1, but this
is a generic one, and you will probably find a better choice soon.

	To have a better control of this printer I also installed a
shareware software I took from Aminet: HP_Control. It is able to setup
and configure many HP printers. I set it up for the HP540, because it
does not support HP400 (at least version 1.63).  HP_Control
installation is done via Commodore Installer.

REVIEW

	As all the other HP printers, the DeskJet 400 is very nice. It
is smaller than the others and can print with a resolution up to
600x300 dpi with the back cartridge. On this printer you can install
the color kit too, the same used by DeskJet 320, 340 and 540. The back
cartridge is the HP C51626A, the same used for DeskJet 500C, 540,
550C, 560C, 310 and 320. This allows you to find and use refill kits
produced by a third party (even though HP advises you against it).
The printing quality seems to be very good (I suppose as good as all
the HP printers that use the same cartridge), even if I could not try
the 600x300 dpi resolution (the driver I'm using does not support it).
The printer is not noisy (before this I had an old Dot Matrix printer)
and meets the Energy Star guidelines for energy efficiency.

	The printer does not require any particular kind of paper. It
should be able to print about 2 pages/minute in LQ and about 3
pages/minute in draft mode (167 cps in LQ mode, 330 cps in draft
mode). The printers comes with 3 internal fonts for Portrait printing
(Courier, CG Times and Letter Gothic), and 1 font for Landscape
printing (Courier). Full support for HP PCL 3 with extensions makes it
compatible with many software written for DeskJet/LaserJet printers: I
tested it with GoldED & HiSpeed (both registered) and it worked great.

	Tha paper is inserted via a paper tray tha can contain either
DIN A4 (or HP transparency) or US Letter paper. Other kinds of paper,
such as envelopes and thick paper, can be inserted manually from the
back side of the printer.

	Only a few words about the color kit. I do not have the color
kit (at least yet). You should buy the color kit once (HP C3281A), and
then you will need to change only the cartridge (HP C51625A). The
color cartridge is the same used by deskjet 500C, 540, 550C, 560C, 310
and 320. I could not say how the printer handle color output, but I
think the results will be similar to those of the other printers that
use the same color kit and/or cartridge. Printing color resolution is
300x300.

DOCUMENTATION

	The version I bought came with 2 manuals ("User's Guide" and
"DOS Printer Driver Information Guide") with English, Castellano,
Italiano and Portugues translations. I found another paper with an
addendum for Win '95 users and one paper with labels for the printer
(Deutsch, Francais, Nederlands, Espano, Italiano and Portugues).
On-line manuals sould be available for Windowze users... :-D

	The "User's Guide" itself is very vell done. It explains how to
install and use the printer with different types of paper and labels.
Here you will find everything about errors and problems.  Information
about the HP PCL 3 language is missing.

	The "DOS Printer Driver Information Guide" seems to be
dedicated only to DOS users and do not suppose (or mention) you could
be using other kind of OS (neither Mac, Amiga or Unix).

LIKES

	It's an HP.  This means it supports HP PCL and can be used
with hundreds of programs that support PCL. The look, the quality. The
manual too are well done. The printer is small and easily fits on every
desk.

DISLIKES AND SUGGESTIONS

	Missing information about HP PCL 3 in the manual.  HP does not
have any driver for Amiga, and shareware or PD drivers are not
available (yet), due to the fact the printer is quite new.  The
manuals only talk about PC & Windos :-(

COMPARISON TO OTHER SIMILAR PRODUCTS

	I have not tested any other InkJet printer of this kind. I can
only say that I had to choose between the Canon BJ 200ex and the HP
DeskJet 400. The BJ 200ex does not support any kind of color kit, but
Canon provide its own driver for Amiga too (via Internet).  I cannot
make any quality comparison.

BUGS

	None found.

VENDOR SUPPORT

	Support is done directly by Hewlett Packard. I contacted HP
for problems with a LaserJet 4L. They are very nice and will help you
(if they can).

WARRANTY

	1 year directly from HP.

CONCLUSIONS

	I think this printer is a very good choice in its class. I
would say 4 stars out of 5.

COPYRIGHT NOTICE

	Copyright 1996 Francesco Dipietromaria
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      ///                Francesco Dipietromaria                     /// 
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