Hewlett Packard PSC 1210 All-In-One InkJet Printer

As a long-haul Trucker, I quite often need to make Copies of documentation on the loads I haul, and had thus dreamed for years of a small Copier that would fit conveniently in the truck. When the PSC-1210 hit the market in 2004, I was among the very first to buy one - and it, like my Cat (who has rode with me for seven years now) is still a faithful companion on the road.

In its initial mission as just a Copier, the PSC-1210 more than paid for itself. As I've become more heavily involved in using my laptop, it has proven itself as a Printer (same resolution as the big PSC-750 I have at home). More recently, the ability to Scan documents and send them as e-mail attachments, has eliminated the dreaded word FAX (and the $3 a page truckstops charge for them) from my operation - which has again paid for the machine, several times over.

In the latest extension of the Scan capability, I am now able to scan trip documents directly into my company via the internet, in place of the overnight airpack system we were using - which now allows me a Friday morning cutoff (instead of Tuesday) to get paid on Monday, so I am able to get paid a week sooner on many trips. How do you put a value on that? It is certainly well beyond the $99 (or less now) cost of this machine.

The same AC adaptor that allows regular home usage, also works fine off a Power Inverter that plugs into your lighter socket - so if you're considering a mobile application like mine, it will work. And on a big truck, although they're plusher and smoother riding than they were years ago, anything within still gets subjected to LOTS of bumps, jolts, and vibrations - and the PSC-1210 has withstood them all (better than its owner, I'll dare say). So if you're considering a mobile application, be assured this model is 'Trucker-Tough' and has passed every test. In a home/dorm application, it should stand up to 'life's little bumbles' better than any other I've seen on the market.

HP gained some notoriety a few years back for having 'chips' in their print cartridges to limit the life span (I think everybody does it now). In my experience with the PSC-1210 (and my home PSC-750), I believe those chips key into the 'ON' time of the printer. In two years, I've only had to replace the print cartridges ONCE in this mobile application - where I only power up the unit when I'm actually going to use it, then unplug it soon afterwards. Compare this to the home printer, which is powered up all the time when I'm in, where I have to change cartridges about every 4 months (despite being on the road most of the time). I do indeed do more printing in the truck than I do at home, so this is something to think about here: Leaving your printer powered up when you're not actually using it, could be costing you dearly in unnecessary cartridge-chip timeouts.

Despite that, I have found that HP's cartridges go longer than their competitors (of which I have owned several over the years), and the print quality leads the industry. So I don't believe you'll go wrong by entrusting HP for your Printer needs - and the PSC-1210 is a particularly well-engineered model, built to take on the world and survive.