The usual impression we get from HP is that of quality and a certain level of “premium-ness” – be it when discussing features or price. Rightly so, as HP has spent years building up their reputation to the point that most customers will choose HP over other products, even if price premiums are somewhat of a burden. This is however not particularly true when it comes to expensive consumables, and the Philippines have long been a hotbed of vendors hawking “refill” and fake cartridges that proliferate among cost-conscious yet uninformed customers.

HP is out to combat this problem by playing the same ball game as these cut-rate vendors, by releasing the HP 703 ink cartridge that not only sell at a very affordable price, but do so while still maintaining HP’s high quality and many, many technological advances within the cartridges themselves that unscrupulous refillers have no hope in hell to even replicate to any dependable degree.

                                             HP's definition for "Ink Advantage".

                                             Ultra low-cost indeed.

In fact, if one reads the specifications list of these cartridges, one could be forgiven in thinking the described ink cartridge belonged to the top-end offerings from HP meant for the most expensive printers that they offer, but in fact the HP 703 is meant for the HP Deskjet “Ink Advantage” F735 AiO targeted at the SOHO and micro-business segment – hardly professional graphics output-level. Both black and tri-color 703 cartridges have the following features –

Integrated ink level circuitry – tells the F735 All-in-One the remaining ink level. This measurement is reflected on the front panel of the All-in-One, with 5 measurement levels.

4x the number of color nozzles – boasting of 1,248 nozzles, the tricolor 703 cartridge is able to produce finer details with less ink, plus a wider print area per scan resulting in overall faster printing than older cartridges. This also means that refillers with their lower-quality ink will most likely quickly plug up these smaller nozzles, severely limiting these cartridges’ output and producing lower-quality printouts at the same time.

Dual Drop Volume – enables the HP printer to choose between two ink-drop volumes depending on quality requirements, for more flexible and miserly printing.

Durable prints – ozone-resist, light-fade resist, water-resistance and instant dry features usually aren’t something to expect from a budget ink cartridge, but the HP 703 has them – specially effective when combined with HP’s Advanced Photo Paper.

                                             Even these low cost cartridges carry excellent features such as fade and ozone resistance.

The Black HP 703 cartridge is able to output up to 600 pages based on ISO/IEC (i.e. official) testing methodologies, and the color up to 250 pages. With a price of $9 or P390 pesos for the black and the tri-color HP 703, the resulting per-page cost comes up to a minuscule P0.70 for black and P1.00 for color – the black cost-per-page approaches that of laser printing. Although initial cost of the F735 is somewhat more expensive compared to HP’s previous models of this level, the difference is quickly recovered from the low consumable cost.

                                            This pilot program star generated convincing sale numbers, paving the way for furthercost reductions and the F735 launch.

Also presented during the event was the HP 910 – the subject of a nearly 2-year pilot program held locally that pushed the super affordable (original) inks to consumers. Coincidentally, the HP 910 is soon to undergo a refresh to make it compatible with the even-cheaper HP 703 cartridges. These two printers and their ink cartridges will form the basis for the perfect SOHO and micro-business investment, giving these targeted customers best quality without the worry of sub-standard outputs and durability concerns due to low-quality inks.

                                             The perfect partner for HP's low-cost printing movement. All-in-One functionality atbelow P10k.

HP is playing, and winning the contest for cost-effective printing solutions, beating the refillers at their own game. In the end its all to the benefit of the customers – they get good quality official supplies from HP, and HP gets back their sales from consumables. A win-win solution. More pictures to follow.

                                             Jenny Siquioco, General Manager for HP Philippines' Imaging and Printing Group.

                                              Ink Advantage, hardware component - the F735 will soon be followed by the HP 910 single function printer refresh.

                                             Targeted customer type based on daily printing needs. Also for the budget and quality conscious.