HP 990cse Inkjet Printer

Product:		HP 990cse Inkjet Printer
Manufacturer:		Hewlett-Packard
Price:		$299.99
Review by:		Marc Zeedar

When looking for a new printer, most people investigate print quality. But these days almost all printers are of similar outstanding quality and what really separates one printer from the next are unusual features.

The HP990cse is similar to most inkjets: it has two ink cartridges, a black and a multi-color one, and its print quality is excellent. However, it doesn't print photos quite as well as my six-ink Epson photo-printer. It connects to your Mac via the USB port.

The most unusual feature of the HP990cse is that it supports infrared printing. Included with the driver software is a Palm OS utility which lets you beam documents from your Palm handheld directly to the printer!

This feature worked wonderfully, with a few limitations. After installing the included IrPrint application to your Palm OS-based handheld (I used a Handspring Visor Deluxe), you click on the IrPrint button and select the program you wish to print from, such as DateBook or Memo. The Palm will switch to that program, and now the "Beam Document" menu option has been replaced by an "IR Print" command.

The Palm will next present you with a print dialog where you can tell it to print multiple copies or a page range, and when you click okay it beams the document to the printer (obviously, you must place your handheld's IR port in line-of-sight of the printer's receiver).

The printing quality is excellent (though black only), and the software will automatically include a header if you wish. The only real drawback is that because IrPrint only supports a few of the standard Palm applications, you cannot use it to wirelessly print a document from your DOC reader, or any information from your other Palm programs. But for a quick way to print out a client's contact information or your weekly schedule, IrPrint is extremely useful, and far less hassle than HotSyncing to your Mac just for a quick printout.

The other unique feature of the HP990cse is that it includes a double-sided adapter. When you choose double-sided printing on your Mac, it prints the first side, flips the paper over inside an attached unit, and feeds the page back inside to print the back.

The Mac print driver (for OS 9 or Mac OS X) is excellent, offering multi-up options, various quality and color settings, and booklet printing.

The printer also has a unique sensor on the print head that allows it to determine the kind of paper you're using and adjust accordingly. (If you've ever told an inkjet you have glossy paper installed and it turned out you didn't, you know what a mess that creates when it overinks the paper.)

I did run into one minor problem when first using the printer. Via the Chooser I set it up as an HP990, but that option caused the printer to stall before pages were finished printing. An HP technician resolved the issue temporarily by having me set the printer up as an HP970, and then everything worked perfectly. He told me it was a known bug and I needed to download a newer version of the 990 driver from HP's website.

The HP990cse certainly isn't going to set the world on fire, but it's a capable, good quality inkjet with several unique features. If you need infrared printing from your handheld or double-sided printing, you need to check out the 990cse.

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