Just a few days ago, the HP DeskJet 940c that had been chugging away happily for almost five years started bleeding. The 940c had never been too happy with any kind of photo paper; it just wouldn't acknowledge the fact that paper was in the tray and when I force fed it some a few days ago, the paper got jammed. When I lifted the printer out to extract the stuck paper, I noticed that something black was leaking out on to my pajamas. The entire thing was spurting out something that could either be Orc blood or black printer ink - I'm inclined to think it was the latter. Basically, in my opinion, enough was enough, the printer was five years old and, even though it still printed adequately (even with the leaking), I could afford to get a new one.
So it had to be Nehru Place. It's the place in Delhi if you want to hunt for the best prices in computer stuff. It's also a most disgusting place - physically, that is - and especially so because it's a computer shopping area and computer shops are usually expected to be pristinely neat, clean and shiny. Nehru Place shops (and the area itself) are basically the antithesis of an Apple Store. They're not beautiful, they're not elegant, and they're not necessarily over-the-top expensive. However, you will find some amount of cowdung there, some evidence of the fact that visitors enjoy eating paan and also hawkers who're shouting "Software leylo, Games leylo, CD leylo" as if they were selling fruits. Nehru Place is basically the Sarojini Nagar for computer stuff. There're even these people with little carts on which they line up ink cartridges in a disturbingly similar to the way in which chaatwalas line up potatoes and lemons on theirs.
Anyway, choosing a printer isn't easy. For one thing, all these printer companies don't sell very many models in India. HP is disappointing, so is Epson. So you can't do much review research online before going to Nehru Place as the Indian models are different from the ones sold in America. So, Sir Altitude and I went all over the place asking for printer models, then their prices. Then we would go to the stationers and find out the details about their ink cartridges. When buying a printer, it's extremely important to take the capacity, type and price of the ink cartridges. The DeskJet 690c I had from 1997 to 2001 had 40ml ink cartridges; the DeskJet 940c which started bleeding recently had 25ml ink cartridges and the equivalent printer today comes with 5ml ink cartridges. Printer companies have discovered that the real business is in the printing supplies and not the printers themselves and so they've been making the cartridges smaller and smaller in capacity while keeping the prices high. 5ml cartridges, by the way? Most ridiculous things I've seen. Sure, the printer's only Rs. 2000-3000 but you'll be changing a Rs. 400 cartridge twice a month. So, after much research, we finally found our perfect match - the HP Business Inkjet 1000 which cost me a cool Rs. 5000. However, it's got a couple of big advantages. First, it comes with individual ink cartridges for each colour - Black, Cyan, Magenta and Yellow (your standard CMYK printer). Second, although it ships with a 28ml black cartridge and 14ml colour cartridges (28ml/14ml), it also accepts the 69ml/28ml variety which is what I intend to use with the printer eventually.
Ah… there's nothing better than a well-researched purchase. Another five years hopefully.
So it had to be Nehru Place. It's the place in Delhi if you want to hunt for the best prices in computer stuff. It's also a most disgusting place - physically, that is - and especially so because it's a computer shopping area and computer shops are usually expected to be pristinely neat, clean and shiny. Nehru Place shops (and the area itself) are basically the antithesis of an Apple Store. They're not beautiful, they're not elegant, and they're not necessarily over-the-top expensive. However, you will find some amount of cowdung there, some evidence of the fact that visitors enjoy eating paan and also hawkers who're shouting "Software leylo, Games leylo, CD leylo" as if they were selling fruits. Nehru Place is basically the Sarojini Nagar for computer stuff. There're even these people with little carts on which they line up ink cartridges in a disturbingly similar to the way in which chaatwalas line up potatoes and lemons on theirs.
Anyway, choosing a printer isn't easy. For one thing, all these printer companies don't sell very many models in India. HP is disappointing, so is Epson. So you can't do much review research online before going to Nehru Place as the Indian models are different from the ones sold in America. So, Sir Altitude and I went all over the place asking for printer models, then their prices. Then we would go to the stationers and find out the details about their ink cartridges. When buying a printer, it's extremely important to take the capacity, type and price of the ink cartridges. The DeskJet 690c I had from 1997 to 2001 had 40ml ink cartridges; the DeskJet 940c which started bleeding recently had 25ml ink cartridges and the equivalent printer today comes with 5ml ink cartridges. Printer companies have discovered that the real business is in the printing supplies and not the printers themselves and so they've been making the cartridges smaller and smaller in capacity while keeping the prices high. 5ml cartridges, by the way? Most ridiculous things I've seen. Sure, the printer's only Rs. 2000-3000 but you'll be changing a Rs. 400 cartridge twice a month. So, after much research, we finally found our perfect match - the HP Business Inkjet 1000 which cost me a cool Rs. 5000. However, it's got a couple of big advantages. First, it comes with individual ink cartridges for each colour - Black, Cyan, Magenta and Yellow (your standard CMYK printer). Second, although it ships with a 28ml black cartridge and 14ml colour cartridges (28ml/14ml), it also accepts the 69ml/28ml variety which is what I intend to use with the printer eventually.
Ah… there's nothing better than a well-researched purchase. Another five years hopefully.
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