HP touts $799 color ink jet printers

Hewlett-Packard today announced a new line of low-cost, high-speed ink jet printers intended for business use.

The $799 HP 2000C ink jet printers offer near-laser-quality print speed and quality, the company said. The machines print three full-color documents in under one minute, which is five times faster than typical full-color ink jet printers, according to HP.

The new line is priced considerably lower than other business-quality ink jet printers the company currently offers. For example, the HP DeskJet 1600 CM, a mainly a black-and-white printer which can output nine pages per minute but uses a three-color ink cartridge, costs $1,939.

The new line of printers features HP's PhotoREt II ink dot technology, which distributes very small size ink dots to create high-quality color images. The printers also monitor when the ink cartridges are near empty and display the information on screen.

The HP 2000C line consists of the HP 2000Cxi, which comes with templates for internal business documents like memos, and the HP 2000Cse, which comes with templates for business documents like brochures and flyers. HP is also offering the network-ready HP2000 CN for $1,199, which comes with an external print server.

The new printers will be available in June, through retail and commercial channels.

In related news, Epson today discounted its Epson Stylus Color 800 business printer from $349 to $299. The Stylus Color 800 also features a digital "fuel gauge" to tell users when ink levels are low.