Think twice before you buy! (HP Deskjet 990c)

Member Name: lunyeung

Product:	HP Deskjet 990c
Date:	17/05/02 (566 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: reliable, quiet, fast

Disadvantages: margin when using duplex module, rough paper handling, occasionally does its own thing

I brought this printer in 2001 for just over £200. Even though the price has dropped slightly, there are cheaper HP printers out there, although print speeds may be slightly slower.

Easy to setup, but I soon noticed that the printer was making an indent on every sheet of paper I printed, which wasn't good. After calling technical support, I was told to return the printer for a replacement. The new printer didn't dent the paper, but it still seemed to handle the paper quite roughly and the 'wings' which hold the paper out while printing seemed to operate only when it felt like it.

I've printed over a thousand pages of text and graphics and the printer is a good workhorse, although for some reason the occasional page would be printed in high quality even though I set it to print in draft. The paper feed also isn't perfect. Despite using HP paper, the printer will occasionally pull 2 sheets of paper at once instead of a single sheet, which is irritating if you're printing a long document.

The duplex printing module that comes with the printer is disappointing. The main problem is that the pages will have a very big margin at one end of the paper, hardly ideal. For more reliable two sided printing, just feed the paper back into the paper tray and leave the duplex module in the box...which means the price premium for this feature is wasted.

The ink cartridges are reasonably priced and last quite a long time. But if I could turn back the clock, I'd go for one of the cheaper HP printers without the duplex module and save a bit of money.

Summary: