Major changes

Advantages: You use new print heads with every new cartridge. In the long term, print quality will be better, and you won’t have to buy a new printer if your nozzles become plugged. It also saves 10 to 20% in ink compared to Canon and Epson. Unlike the Japanese printers, HP and Lexmark don’t necessitate automatic print head cleaning to avoid blocked nozzles.

Disadvantages: Adding print heads to every cartridges increase product costs. Even if it saves up to 20% in ink, it still costs more. Manufacturers also have to change their cartridges when they want to increase the number of print heads, resulting in numerous accessory products that can be complicated to find. In addition, HP and Lexmark usually offer two types of cartridges, economical (with less ink included) and normal (high capacity).

The number of nozzles on black cartridges has increased from 416 to 672, on color cartridges from 300 to 600. With an increased ink ejection frequency, HP is able to double the number of ink drops ejected on the paper in a single passage. One surprising detail is that HP has reduced the amount of ink included in the cartridges (compared to the previous generation) but not the price. Their explanation is that they produce the same amount or that it prints with less ink. Even if this is true, we think that Hp could also have reduced their accessory prices.

The situation is equivalent for Lexmark. They also released new cartridges for new printers, claimed as better than last year’s. We tested their best product the Z815. This printer is still on the market and you will find it in this product test.

We also reviewed Epson’s basic models. Actually, this is more of an update than a real review. The C66 and C86 are clones from the previous C64 and C84. Epson believes they don’t have to improve this printer line, because its purpose is to provide the most resistant ink. It’s possible to take a document right after printing and dip it in water. The print won’t be altered. Of course, you don’t need to do this, but the main interest is no ink on your hands. One good aspect of Durabright inks is its good color quality. Colors are duller, but more accurate than competitors’ because they are closer to the original. Other manufacturers tend to oversaturate their colors to provide nicer pictures.

The photo printer line is unchanged. The R200 and R300 remain their standard products.

And last but not least, Canon introduces two new products, the iP3000 and iP4000 equipped with an auto-duplex unit that automatically reroutes the page for two-sided printing and a CD printer tray (not on US products). We tested these products this summer as well as the more economical iP1500 and iP2000 in this article.

Tests

Printers have to be able to perfectly print any type of document whether it’s text, graphic or a picture. We tested them in all modes and with many types of documents.

Texts were printed with MS Word, web pages with MS Explorer 6, and pictures with Photoshop 7.

Modes tested and type of documents evaluated for speed and quality: