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Price: $431; Inks: tricolor. $34.95; black, $32.95; photo color, $39.95
Warranty: 1 year limited
Distributors: Ingram Micro, Merisel, Tech Data, others
Hewlett-Packard Co. Palo Alto, Calif. (415) 857-1501 (800) 752-0900 http: /www.hp.com
THE CRN TEST CENTER gave its Editors' Choice award to HewlettPackard's DeskJet 693C. This new printer, which uses six colors of ink to achieve breathtakingly gorgeous photorealistic output, was the runaway winner in terms of image quality. It also was supported by a strong lineup of channel programs.
Several other four-color printers generated outputs that were more or less equal to each other in overall quality. None came anywhere close to the astounding images rendered by the HP printer, especially when using highgloss paper.
Models from Epson, Canon and Lexmark generated excellent text. Printers from these vendors would be a good choice in sites where a monochrome personal laser printer is being considered. Their color abilities, while not as good as the DeskJet 693C, certainly are adequate for any situation in which charts or graphs will be included.
Margins on these printers are razor-thin, but resellers, for the most part, appeared to be unconcerned. These products move in high volumes, and selling high-margin consumables-ink and paper-can garner additional...