New HP Ink Advantage printers target home users

MANILA, Philippines -  As printing at home becomes more prevalent thanks to the rise of home offices, Hewlett-Packard sees it fit to launch a new line of printers that answer this special market’s twin requirements for high-performance and low-cost printing.

A full suite of HP Ink Advantage printers was launched recently by top local and regional HP Imaging and Printing Group officials who have no qualms declaring how the new HP printers could reduce printing costs by as much as 50 percent.

The new HP Deskjet Ink Advantage 2010, HP Deskjet Ink Advantage 2060 All-in-One, HP Photosmart Ink Advantage e-All-in-One, and HP Officejet Advantage 4500 All-in-One are among the new HP home printing solutions that offer lower printer running costs and purchase price.

HP launched its first batch of Ink Advantage printers last year for small businesses that need to print affordably without compromising the quality and reliability of their printers and what they print.

HP didn’t expect the new line to also resonate well among home users, many of whom also run small businesses in their homes. In fact, based on a third party survey commissioned by HP, over 70 percent of users who purchased Ink Advantage printers were home users.

“It shows us that many home users are looking for great value printers with low running costs, so, now we have a full line-up of Ink Advantage printers for home users,” said Erwin Creencia, HP-IPG market development manager for inkjet and Web solutions.

HP’s value proposition is a 50 percent savings versus other inkjets with cost-per-page from as low as 63 centavos and ink cartridges starting at P390 only.

In addition, HP brought the entry price point for an Ink Advantage printer down to P3,599. HP IPG regional director Viswanath PV said the Philippines is also getting the full line-up ahead of other countries in the region.

Conscientious printing

HP’s Ink Advantage printers take consumers another step closer to conscientious printing. Aside from promising lower running costs, each of the new Ink Advantage printers has smart features to conserve energy and materials and to support easy recycling and reduce wastage.

Viswanath said the Ink Advantage printers for the home were designed following the HP Eco Solutions specifications. This means the new printers are Energy Star qualified, use less than one watt of energy while in off mode, feature a paper-saving print mode, and carry the HP Eco Highlights label, which summarizes features such as reduced energy consumption and ease of recycling. All HP Ink Advantage printers also come in a 99 percent recyclable packaging.

The HP Deskjet Ink Advantage 2010 printer, which offers up to 40 percent savings on printing costs using new low cost inks, is made of 45 percent recycled plastics.

Designed for everyday use, this standalone printer powers up in seconds and shuts down instantaneously. It can print on both sides of the paper at a speed of 20ppm (page per minute) and at 600dpi (dot per inch) for black and 16ppm for color at 4800x1200 optimized dpi for color. It’s also the cheapest model in the current line with an SRP (suggested retail price) of P3,599.

Two other Deskjet Ink Advantage printers — the K109a and K209a — continue the better performance and savings theme. Both models use only two ink cartridges that cut printing costs by half without affecting print quality, Viswanath said.

The HP Deskjet Ink Advantage K109a is a basic yet high-yield printer capable of printing up to 28ppm for black and up to 21ppm for color pages. It retails for P4,699.

The HP DeskJet Ink Advantage K209a, on the other hand, is a multi-function printer that can print at 29ppm for black and 23ppm for mixed text and color graphics. It costs P6,999.

Rounding up the new HP Deskjet Ink Advantage family is the 2060 AIO printer. This model delivers laser quality prints as quickly as 20 seconds a page in draft mode and also claims to cut printing costs by up to 40 percent compared with other inkjets. Its print speed stands at 200ppm for black and up to 16ppm for color. This model is priced at P4,999.

Printers for every user

HP knows printers are not one-size-fits-all so they made the latest Ink Advantage more comprehensive to cover all possible user types from the home segment, Viswanath said.  

The HP Photosmart Ink Advantage e-All-in-One K510a holds the biggest promise, literally, as it boasts of 50 percent print cost savings compared to other inkjets in the market today.

Offering print lab-quality photos that dry instantly, resist smudging and could purportedly last for generations, the HP Photosmart Ink Advantage K510a can print up to 29ppm and up to 600dpi in black and up to 23ppm and 4800x1200 dpi in color.

The HP Photosmart Ink Advantage e-All-In-One K510a also features the company’s ePrint technology that allows users to print from across the room or across the country using any mobile device running the HP mobile printing application.

With additional built-in wireless connectivity, users of the new HP Photosmart Ink Advantage All-in-One K510a can print from the Web without a PC and print documents anywhere, anytime.

Targeted for frequent or moderate color photo printing, this model costs P7,999 and uniquely ships with its own innovative and reusable tote bag.

Finally, there is the HP Officejet Advantage 4500 All-in-One, an affordable flatbed that likewise offers savings of up to 50 percent with the use of Original HP 703 inks and features Ethernet connectivity to support small workgroups or networked set-ups.

This model offers a way of reducing wasted paper by printing only the content needed with the help of the HP Smart Web Printing tool. It can print and copy documents quickly — up to 28ppm black and 22ppm color. It also prints documents at speeds equivalent to a laser printer with up to 6ppm black and 4ppm color. The price for this model is P8,999.

Ink Advantage cartridges

A printer is only as good as its ink. To make sure the new Ink Advantage printers can deliver what they promise, HP also introduced new high-capacity ink cartridges.

The HP 703 Black and Tri-Color Ink cartridges used in the new HP Photosmart Ink Advantage e-All-in-One and the HP Officejet Advantage 4500 All-in-One offer up to 600 pages in black and 250 pages in color, delivering finely detailed graphics, laser-quality text, and archival-quality output, HP officials said.

The new HP 704 Black and Tri-Color Ink cartridges used in the new Deskjet HP Ink Advantage printers offer up to 480 pages in black and 200 pages in color and is made of up to 70 percent recycled plastic.

Viswanath said HP’s New Ink Advantage cartridges use the same dual-drop volume technology found in other Original HP inks and can perform normally even in extremely hot, humid or dusty environments. All cartridges returned through HP Planet Partners are recycled responsibly, he added.

The new HP Ink Advantage printers are available starting this month and HP expects them to soon become part of any home and home-office environments.