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I am surprised that nobody has yet mentioned HP inkjet printers and the RFID chip embedded in the refill cartridges.




Why do they use RFID instead of exposing the contacts (like on a SIM card, or other ISO7816 card)?


Physical contacts are usually the flimsiest part of a system aren't they? Probably costs more as well to have connections! RFID is so cheap they put them in paper clothes tags.


> Physical contacts are usually the flimsiest part of a system aren't they?

Sounds like a great way to sell some more ink or another printer early.


Not necessarily.

I used to always buy genuine HP cartridges, sold by Amazon (not a third-party seller,) with official packaging, non-tampered unbroken sticker on the box, and yet one day my printer reported a cartridge as "non-genuine" and absolutely refused to accept it. Maybe the chip malfunctioned. But since that day I have stopped buying genuine and I replaced them with recycled third party cartridges. A third of the cost. And they never caused this problem. A defective system caused HP to lose a customer.




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