DeskJet 940c Hums – Quietly

When my HP 660c color printer finally died recently after more than four years of faithful service, a trip to the office superstore both settled and frazzled my already-worried nerves. I was thrilled to see color printers starting around $50. But their reliability came into question sharply when the sales rep offered, "If you don't like it, you can use it for skeet." That was no glowing endorsement of today's technology.

Obviously, he wasn't talking about the HP DeskJet 940c. At $129, the unit sits squarely in the entry-level segment of the color printer category. But this unit rivals anything the 660c was capable of producing. Compatible with Windows 3.1x al the way to XP - or Macintosh machines, the design, bundled photo software and marketing materials of the 940c say "home." With a 150-sheet paper tray and performance, this home officer says, "Home Office." There's certainly a place in both worlds for this machine.

For example, imagine the quiet home office - where mom or dad are burning the midnight oil, while the spouse or kids are sleeping. With my old 660, I had to close the printer cabinet door - and even my office door - to stifle the sound of the unit, lest I wake the family. When I warmed up the 940 and sent a doc to print, I had to look to see if it had actually printed (it had), because the unit was that quiet.

All the while, it cranked out 12 pages a minute in black and white with 600 dpi resolution, and 10 ppm in color, with 2400 x 1200 dpi on photo quality paper.

Its small footprint is ideal for the space-starved small or home office (SOHO). And if you're not churning doc after doc, it's price, reliability -and yes, quiet performance - make the 940c a perfect fit for the home office, even if it doesn't fit in the skeet thrower.

Jeff Zbar, the ChiefHomeOfficer.com, is a speaker, writer and expert on alternative officing. He is the author of Teleworking & Telecommuting: Strategies for Remote Workers and Their Managers (Made E-Z Products, 2002); Safe@Home: Seven Keys to Home Office Security (FirstPublish 2001) and Your Profitable Home Business (on CD-ROM from Made E-Z Products). Visit his Web site to subscribe to Home Office Success Stories, his free electronic magazine on home business and teleworking.