Printer suggestions for IBM T43

I'm looking for a small printer, below $150

not gonna print a lot of pictures.

 

Stick with canon or hp. Stay away from epson. And on another note, I don't think it was necessary for you to mention which laptop you wanted it to work on.

 

I'd go with HP. I have had nothing but HP printers and scanners. Great tonal color, fast and reliable!

 

I am assuming you are looking at regular (not laser) printers, because of your price range.

As mentioned HP and canon are real good. Haven't tried other brands. The difference between the 2 is the price of ink. HP are a bit more expensive when it comes to ink, because each time you change the ink you are infact also changing the head, which ensures better quality. While canon you only add ink ... so if the heads go bad you have to change the heads on their own (not sure how easy that is, never had to do it in a over a year of use of my canon)

 

yea...i have an HP printer since 1997..and it still works great ..and i might be getting a 4-in-1 HP printer soon

 

Best Buy has the 1610 Model Printer for about 120 now i believe so thats a pretty decent price for that little unit. Prints about 23 ppm black and 17 for color.

 

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...bop=and&description=1610+Printer&InnerCata=38

New egg has it cheaper but you pay about the same since shipping is about 7 bucks.

 

Actually Epson will generally give you the best results for photos. Their inks are superior to HP. In fact HP is better suited for small offices where your primarily printing text and light graphics. All the HPs will bleed really badly if any moister gets near the paper. Some of Epsons printers use what is called DuraBright ink (pigment). You can get a photo or regular printed document and run it under water and it will not bleed or fade. It was tested by an indepenant lap and shown to last over 100+ years in normal conditon, or over 200 years if kepted in an album.

Another thing is most Epson printers are cheaper on the cost per page. Example the Epson C86 and RX620 (Pigment & Dye ink respectively) both print a 4x6 print at an average cost of $0.29 cents (max photo setting). In fact with the portable Epson Picturemate epson will print on average 120-150 4x6 prints (again max setting) using the $28 ink cartrige which comes with 100 sheets of photo paper.

The downside, and I've talked to Epson reps about this, is unlike HP the print-heads are built into the actual machine not the print cartriges themselves (exception is the portable Epson PictureMate). So if you leave your printer on 24-7 for a month, you run a high risk of drying out the print heads which would require service. However you can avoid this by shutting down the printer using the power button (never using the button on the surge protector) and doing a single draft print at least once every other week to clean the heads. If you do get a clog, use Windex (don't bother buying that expensive clearer sold on Ebay). Really though this should be done with every printer as part of regular maintence.

When choosing a printer, deside if you want pigment or dye based ink. Pigment will last longer but don't have that extra pop. Dyes look the nicest but will only last around 10-30 years depending on ink, paper, and envirnment.

Canon is a mix of both worlds. You get the same negatives as the Epson (print heads built into the machine) yet you don't get the photo quality. You do however get cheaper inks - but you also get less actual ink in the cartrige so it doesn't really come out to be a better value. Quality on Canons is all over the spectrum, some offering fantastic prints while others just plain suck. Build quality on them is pretty good - equal to Epson.

I test printers all the time, and this is one the area where I find myself disagreeing with PC World and PC Magazine all the time; unlike the big mags and because I sell and repair them, I get to test for months at a time and really see how they live up. For example a Brother MFC-210 got a best buy award a while back but its ink cost and waste is among the highest. The ink is so bad even if you don't use it, because it's so watered down it after a few months it will evaperate on it's own. Also it's build quality is horrible - their always breaking. I replaced three Brother MFC printers (same machine) within a 2 month period. Their absolute junk. Odly though this only applied to their inkjets. Their lasers and fax machines are awsome.

If at all possible, get some photos and put them on a memory card. Go over to your local retail store and ask if you can do test prints. I know OfficeDepot will bend over backwards for you and if you ask they'll even let you choose the paper. Use the paper recomended by the manufactor (e.g. Epson paper for epson printers, HP paper for HP, etc.). Or use OfficeDepot's Professonal series paper - I did some tests on that paper and it's actually really good. Kodak paper is crap - it's way to warm and the prints lean towards the Reds.

www.dpreview.com/ is an awsome forum that's dedicated to Photography. It's like Thinkpads.com, but it targets camera buyers. Check on their forums, they have a section for printers. That way you can ask real photographers.

 

Cheap LaserJet:

http://www.newegg.com/product/Product.asp?item=N82E16828112035

If you add one of the combo special keyboard/mouse sets below, you can apply coupon code "sam2010" for another $40 off. Making it $99 at least for my zip code. Plus there is another $50 rebate making it $49. I have had a Samsung ML-1710 laserjet for a couple years. It works quite well. About three weeks after the warranty expired it started to malfunction. Samsung fixed it for free. A laserjet will be much cheaper usually 1-2¢ versus 6-8¢ on an inkjet. I always thought Canons were the most miserly on the ink for inkjets. Good Luck.

 

thank you very much for all your responses

I had decided to get a Canon IP 6000D from Newegg.com

This printer has 4800 times 1200 for both black and color printing, Plus I got a free key board and 20 dollars rebate from Newegg.com,printer+keyboard = 117(shipping included). I think that s a pretty good deal..