Daily Hardware Buys

ONE OF the advantages of having a high resolution camera is that you can print correctly on a large format printer. However those babies do not come cheap. With prices of normal print outs becoming cheaper every day - 10p for a 6x4" is pretty common these days, prices of poster size still remain prohibitive. For those looking to print large or supersize, options are limited if you want to go on high street for example.

UK
HP lovers will adopt the new Deskjet 9300 A3 colour printer quickly. Successor to the 2100 and the 1220c, it offers a whopping 4800dpi resolution and a hefty 8MB buffer memory. It retails for £252 on ebuyer but can be found on ebay less than £195 including transport and insurance. The 9300 delivers photo quality printing on a range of media ranging from plain paper to banners and transparencies, as heavy as 280gsm - grams per square meter. Photocopy paper is around a third as thin, in a range of format, from A5 to A3. In fact, you can print up to 330x1270mm, approximately equal to three A3 pages joined sideways.

Its tray can accomodate a third of an A3 ream which should be enough for most small offices. Quality wise, the printer uses four cartridges and on high resolution photos, you should be more than happy. A single text A4 takes less than 15 seconds to be printed while a full A3 in normal mode takes slightly more than 30 seconds. Cartridges might be an issue though but with high capacity ones used rather than smaller ones, they will be still cheaper. PC Plus gave it two thumbs up and said of it that "As an A3 printer, the 9300 is extremely good. And with relatively cheap running costs, it makes a great A4 printer for those that might only want an A3 option". The printer is offered as new with 12 months warranty from HP. µ

USA
Tektronix is traditionally known for its solid ink color printers which can produce stunning glossy pictures without having recourse to expensive photo papers. The company was purchased some time back by Xerox in a bid to increase the market presenceof the later. The Tektronix Phaser 7700DN represents one of the best products born out of this acquisition. It is a large A3 printer with specs to match a four year old desktop PC: 500MHz G4 processor, 5GB hard disk drive and 128MB printers. The recommended retail price of that printer was $6999 though it can be found at $4999 around the web.

However, it will probably go for much less on ebay where it is currently available for $860 on a bid. That particular sale is caused by a company upgrading its printing facilities. The used printer is about one year old and has just over 90000 prints with all consumables having at least 75% of life left. The Phaser 7700 prints at 1200 dpi by default and fires A3 pages at 22ppm, which is impressive by any measures. Moreover, it features automatic duplexing an can handle up to 3150 sheets of various media, enough for the most demanding printing departments. 10/100Base-TX Ethernet, USB and bi-directional parallel interfaces are standard.

Shipping and handling though is pretty expensive on this item at $170. So does the consumable costs which hover around $100 per color for 4000 pages. As you can guess, that printer will work wonders in a network environment and does have some pretty nifty features that will appeal to most sysadmins. µ

France
Printing in A3 format can come cheap. A Deskjet 1220c is on sale on Ebay france for only 185 euros compared to more than twice this price when it came out in 1999. It is fairly big and can handle paper size above A3. The 1220c has an 8MB buffer and a 600x1200 resolution printing using PhotoRET III technology which is a little bit outdated. The resolution goes up to 2400x1200dpi on HP's photo paper. Its sheer ruggedness though is expressed in its duty cycle, 5000 pages per month, more than some entry level laser printers. Interface include USB and parallel port.

In addition to printing in A3, it is a speedy traditional printer - up to 9 paghes per minues, and has a very user friendly software driver. The one on ebay is offered with two new HP black cartridges and two used ones. Cnet was so dazzled by this printer that it was awarded an almost perfect 9/10 and said of the 1220c, "The HP's broad skill set, speed, and precision make it a useful addition to any office that wants to make a statement in print. Photographers, small-business professionals, and home users will all appreciate the advantage of the 1220C's ability to print excellent photos on any size of media in its range" µ

Singapore
Looking for printing something big? Then why not try the six year old Epson Stylus Color 1520. Don't worry about the age, watch out only for the format it can handle. Let alone A3, this monster can handle A2+ sheets, provided you can find them that is... This ye-old printer is on sale at Storagestudio for S$940, around £252+VAT. This printer is the perfect match for those who occasionally want to print large formats. It is not a printer you'll use to print your daily reports. For your information, alternative consumable solutions exists that allow you to bypass the normal cartridge setup and get substantial discounts on printing costs. it offers a 1440dpi super microdot ultra-high resolution, corresponding to the then high end Stylus Color Pro range.. It offers 720 dpi plain paper printing and supports continuous paper printing but has only parallel interface to connect. Finally, the 64kb buffer might prove to be insufficient if you want to print something challenging. µ