Product Reviews

HP printers are rather like Bond movies. Not in the sense of Sean Connery tackling fiendish bad guys hiding in volcanoes, but in that you know exactly what you're going to get. Hi-tech action adventure from one; a solid all-round printing experience from the other. For while Epson concentrates on producing the ultimate photo printer, HP's expertise lies in good text quality, good graphics reproduction and good photos - not brilliant, just good.

So when HP told us that the Top 50 resident 959C was to be replaced by the cunningly named 960C, we felt we knew what to expect. But we weren't entirely right. You see, we've come to expect a hassle-free installation for HP printers, with a big poster guiding you through each step. And there's one here, at least for Windows 98, Me and 2000 users. But then we made the foolish mistake of using Windows XP - admittedly, not officially supported by this printer, but surely a new HP offering wouldn't have any problems?

It starts off well enough, as XP installs the basic drivers without intervention, but to use HP's advanced controls - such as the automatic paper sensor or photo-enhancing PhotoREt III technology - you have to install HP's own software. And for some reason, HP's software can't detect the printer when connected via USB, so you have to say it's on the parallel port and change the printer's properties afterwards. Not a challenging mission, but annoying nonetheless.

Still, it's great to see the automatic calibration take place - as this saves the hassle of checking to see that all the colours are aligned correctly, an exercise Epson and co still persist in. Heavy inkjet users - if they'll pardon the expression - will particularly appreciate this, as the DeskJet re-aligns each time you change a cartridge.

As the price indicates, this isn't a professional inkjet, but one for the home or small business user. Consequently, we weren't expecting blistering speed, but the 960C

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performed well enough with our plain five-page document. The first page emerged after 30 seconds (including the time taken by the paper sensor) and after this we only had to wait 15 seconds per page. The DeskJet's draft mode is even faster - this cut the time to eight seconds per page. For our more complicated report document, which includes line drawings, tables and graphs, the wait lengthened to three minutes. And if you plan to print newsletter-style pages with photos and shaded headings, be prepared to wait over four minutes at full quality - so that a four-page circular for 20 group members will take well over five hours to complete.

We don't mind photos taking a few minutes to finish, though, as few people will be using the 960C to churn out albums and albums of their loved ones. In fact, using HP's PhotoREt III technology, our A4 print was ready for unveiling in five minutes. Not bad at all. And providing you're not going to analyse the photo with a magnifying glass, you'll be pretty pleased with the results. The 960C picks up details pretty well, and while it can't equal the Epson Stylus Photo 810 for skin tone matching, it's still more than good enough to frame and hang on the wall. Be aware that HP only guarantees colours to be fade-free for two-and-a-half years, though.

Where HP continues to outgun Epson is with its text printing. On plain copier paper, the default setting produced nice text with little sign of bleeding, while draft mode also gave decent results. Text became even sharper on HP's own Bright White paper, which proved perfect for our business report, where blocks of colour turned out solid, with no obvious sign of banding, and curves had sharp edges rather than the blurred look you may be used to.

As with all HP inkjets, you have to replace the print heads each time you refill. This means print quality never deteriorates but it does tend to hike running costs. Nevertheless, 4.4p per A4 colour page (with a light 15 per cent coverage) and 3p per mono page, is quite reasonable. With an asking price of just £135, you'd have to print a huge amount of reports to make this a bad investment. What's more, the 960C is quiet and compact - another hallmark of HP DeskJets.

The 960C is a worthy successor to the 959C and, as such, takes its rightful place in the Computer Buyer Top 50 Best Buys. There's no doubt that, if Bond was looking for an all-round inkjet for printing letters, reports and the occasional photo, it's the 960C that would find its way into the boot of his Aston Martin.