Recommended Printer

What printer would you recommend that has the best combination of high quality output, features (scanner, etc) and cheap ink. Thanks for the help.

 

HP makes good printers.

 

Any other recommendations.

 

Most Canon printers. Just got myself a Pixma MP460 along with the original ink cartridges for under £50 (USD74). Have yet to try printing high res pics or test out the scanner though.

Either it's just me, or are Canon ink cartridges cheaper than HP ink cartridges?

 

Hp does cartridges cool. They separate all the actual primary colors so you just have to buy the primary color you run out of for like 10 buks.

 

Any printer will do. They are all produce good results. Ink is what costs you. Kodak printers claim to use the least amount of ink. You could look into that.

 

i just bought 2 canon pixma MP210's, one for me and one for my step sister. cheap all in one printer scanner copier.
shes already run out of ink within a month. the cartridges are tiny, and they cannot be refilled. it will cost you a fortune in ink. ive barely used mine, but results seem good enough. takes ages to actually start printing though. 20 seconds or so. and its not too quick on the printing either. scanner is ok though.

 

Brother MFC-845cw Color Photo Inkjet Flatbed All-in-One with 5.8GHz Cordless Handset

http://shop3.frys.com/product/5122416

100-50MIR + S&H

The MFC-845CW’s elegant design and heavy on features that are really something to show off! Setting a new standard for all-in-ones, the truly wireless MFC-845cw features a 5.8GHz cordless handset, digital telephone answering machine and wireless (802.11b/g) and wired (Ethernet) interfaces as well as a USB interface.

Main Features


5.8GHz digital cordless handset. Expandable to a total of 4 handsets.
Wireless (802.11b/g) and wired interfaces‡. Allows you to share the MFC845cw on your network for printing, scanning, faxing from your computer and access to your digital camera media cards.
Fast color printing. Speeds up to 27ppm black and 22ppm color.‡
Print rich, vibrant borderless photos. Resolutions up to 6000 x 1200 dpi and a minimum droplet size of 1.5 picoliters shows the fine details of your photographs.
Flip-up 2.5" color LCD display. Preview and print received faxes and your photos directly from your digital camera's media card without a computer.
Built-in digital answering machine. Holds up to 29 minutes of messages. It also includes a telephone handset and full duplex speaker phone.
Auto document feeder for fax, copy and scan. The automatic document feeder holds up to 10 pages for unattended fax, copy and scanning of multi-page documents.
4x6 photo paper tray. Bypass tray holds up to 20 sheets of 4x6 glossy paper without removing standard paper.

IF the printing does suck, still worth $50 + shipping for the fone, scanning, faxing, and answering machine.


Veno(V)

 

My brother just got a Kodak ESP 7 Printer today for Christmas. The ink for that is dirt cheap! It can print wirelessly, has a built in office grade copier, and is also a photo printer. It uses very cheap ink, I mean, the black ink for it is only $9 and color is only $13. Very nice quality and great printer!

 

Canon and HP make great printers at decent prices.

It's the ink cartridges you have to watch out for...Sometimes, the refills themselves can cost more than the printer within a short period of time.

Tri-Color refills..for me, tend to have a better cost savings..vs. individual ink refills

You can usually snag some great buys on printers at your local B&M store, or office supply store. And, if you can find one online w/free shipping..you will also get a great deal!



Cin

 

do you plan on printing black and white only? i have a Brother 7420 laser printer and it's a workhorse. i get around 2,000 prints from it before i have to buy a new toner which is like $60 compared to ink which is like $30 for 700 prints. ink is terrible compared to toner. toner doesn't dry up, it's much more cost effective and the machines will last longer. if i need anything printed in color i just head to officemax where i work and print it out for free lol

hp officejet series suck. we put 6 on display and 4 already have errors within 3 months. 2 have the "please close ink cartridge door" error when it's shut and the other won't turn back on
brother ink jet printers suck but their laster printers are outstanding
epson ink jet printers are pretty bad too and their ink is getting more expensive
we only had 2 canon printers and they were decent but the ink system is weird on some of them
lexmark printers are terrible in general

it all really depends on what you are looking to print

 

I would agree that the low end epson printers are lousy, but the higher end workforce 600 and artisan 800 are very good printers in regards to reliability, quality and ink prices.

 

The Canon scanners on their MP printers are AWFUL. It's a real shame because Canon makes an awesome printer AND and awesome scanner, but for some reason they can't put them together in a good package. Still gives good print quality though. I was really happy with my MP500 print quality until ditched it for a separate printer plus scanner package. Scanner was never usable to me.

Right now I have an iP4500 which Canon classifies as a photo printer but it prints text great. That's uncommon for a printer to do both so well. Quite a gem. Then I have the 8800F scanner. Printer has since been replaced with the iP4600, that would run you less than $100. Scanner was about $150. For an all-in-one you might look at the MP620 ($120) or the MP980 ($220), but far as I've read the scan quality hasn't improved.

Canon ink lasts me forever.

Some of Epson's higher end photo printers are very nice but they suck ink like CRAZY and they're not really suitable for text printing. Canon is the only one I've found that does both to my satisfaction.

 

the artisan 800 is nice because of its touch screen but our display model got the screen permanently stuck up. some idiot probably didn't press the release button next to the screen and it broke.

 

I have a HP C3100 at home that has performed well. The ink isn't too expensive (around $13 to get a new cartridge), but it seems to run out faster than I would like. I plan on printing in black mostly, but will print in color every so often. It may be best to have a colour option as the location I will be in, colour printers are hard to come by.

@angelicvoices,
For the iP4600, how much does the ink cost you, do you have a rough estimate as to the number of prints before the ink needs refilling? Thanks.

@s2odin,
I was considering a laser printer, but most are too big and wouldn't fit in the location I need to have the printer. Do you know of any smaller laser printers?
Also, for the Canon printers, how is the ink system weird? And are the Brother ink jet systems just bad quality prints or is the hardware build quality also suspect? Thanks.

@all,
Thanks for the continued help, much appreciated.

 

yea you're lucky with the cost of that cartridge. most cost $30 now, and only last 700 prints or so.

a small single function laser printer could be the Brother 2140, or the Brother 2170W (wireless) but a small multifunction laser printer... the Brother 7420 is probably the smallest i've seen and least expensive

on canon printers customers always ask me about large and small black ink tanks and i'm just like ? apparently they have 2 black cartridges and one is large and one is small, like on the HP 7560, HP B550, etc but i'm not sure lol

the brother ink jet systems tend to stop working after a while (granted everything has a chance to fail). they just seem to break sooner than others. their ink is also pretty expensive but one thing i like about them is they all come with 3 color cartridges, not a tri color. so if you print photos with a lot of yellow/magenta/cyan you can replace just the color you need, not the whole tri color cartridge. there is a decent brother ink jet... i think the 6490 or something, but it is much larger and prints wide format, and is basically the size of a laser machine

 

I have a HP Printer, I got at Walmart last year on Black Friday!
I paid no more than $25 for it, and it's a great ~ economical little printer.

It does everything I need it to. And, because I don't print daily from it, I am able to save on the ink refills (which of course, cost more than I originally paid for the printer)!

So for me, HP has proven to be a great brand!

Let us know what brand/model you have decided to go with!


Cin

 

I'll let you know, I should have shopped around during black friday or cyber monday, always great deals then.

@all,
Thanks for the continued, much appreciated.

 

So I looked on Amazon for printers and came up with the following spreadsheet (attached). Which do you feel is the best bang for the buck? Couldn't find # of prints for all the cartridges, so the price of the cartridge may be deceiving.

HP J3680 Officejet All In One Printer looks nice, low price for ink, has a fax as well, but s2odin said officejet printers aren't that great.

HP PhotoSmart C4480 All-in-One Printer also looks good, already have used a Photosmart for awhile and have gotten good use from it.

Canon Pixma MP530 and MP480 look to be good quality, but the ink price is high for the former, and looks about average for the latter.

[edit] Canon Pixma MP470 looks to be a great buy, low ink price and generally good reviews, anyone else have one of these?

Thanks for the continued help.

 

is that the small officejet with the corded handset on the left, the white and black kind of case that fold down?

yea i've had 3 people complain about how their feed rollers took all their paper instead of 1 sheet and then it jammed the machine and they couldn't get it unjammed since they were old lol

just letting you know

as far as the photosmart goes i think the 4480 uses 74/75 cartridges which are the most common, they're $32.99 for the two pack and the cartridges themselves have a high refill rate
there's also the 4580 which is like $30 or $40 more and it's wireless and half the top is grey

 

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/t...t_shr?_encoding=UTF8&m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&v=glance

For the HP C6380, does it include Bluetooth? I can't get a clear answer from this as most places say it has 'optional Bluetooth'. What does that mean? Can you add bluetooth connectivity later or does it have it built in from the get-go?

Also, for the HP Photosmart C4580 here:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/t...c_mri?_encoding=UTF8&m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&v=glance
Can I connect directly with my computer wirelessly or would I have to go through a router? The reason I ask is it will most likely be installed on a college campus with a public network, don't care for putting my printer on a wireless network just to access the wireless capabilities.

Also, does anyone know of a printer with both 802.11b/g and bluetooth?

Thanks.

 

me and my friend had an argument about bluetooth on the 6380 and i think it does but i'll be heading to work in an hour and a half and i can let you know within a couple of hours.

and the wireless on the 4580 is through a wireless router

 

Thanks, that would be most appreciated.

Also, for the HP Photosmart C5580 can you can connect the bluetooth directly to a computer and print text documents (most of the sites seem to indicate you can only print pictures using this feature) to it?

 

on the 6380 you need a bluetooth usb adapter to enable the bluetooth capabilities. so you would need to make an additional purchase (unless you currnetly own one) if you want to enable the bluetooth option

 

take a look at the epson workforce 600 if you are considering the j3480

For the same price you get faster print speeds, a 2 year warranty and better cost per page. The printer comes with full color cartridges and an extra-high capacity black cartridge that will yield approximately 800 prints.

A few reviews... of many
http://www.printercomparison.com/default.asp?newsID=382
http://www.testfreaks.com/blog/review/epson-workforce-600-all-in-one-printer-review/
"As I mentioned I tried to find something wrong with the Epson WorkForce 600, but I couldn’t, it does everything exactly the way it’s supposed to and it does it with quality and efficiency. "

 

Thanks for all the suggestions

Ended up getting the HP Photosmart C6380 ( http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16828115253). It seems to have the best mix of price, features (and the possibly ability to have bluetooth), and quality (HP printers have treated me well). I will write a mini review if anyone wants once I have spent some time with it.