Help buying a printer...

[jagr10]

Ok, what should i be looking for in buying an inkjet or bubblejet printer? I'm looking for a colour printer with good quality results and that isn't too slow.

I'm also considering a decent laser printer, but don't know what i should be looking at. I'm assuming laser colours are too expensive.

Is there a site that reviews alot of printers? What do you guys recommend? I'm in Canada so i'm looking to spend about $300 cdn (~$200USD) for the colour printer.
thanks.

 

[snidy]

I just got the Canon i850 and it's great. Great photo quality and pretty fast compared to others in same price range.

 

[jagr10]

Is there any particular brand that's known for being better at printing? Out of HP, Epson, Lexmark, and Canon, which would you guys recommend? (ie. customer service, quality, etc)

 

[xXgambitXx]

i work at OfficeMax so i hear a lot about these things from the reps.

HP: Most user friendly, best driver support, easiest cartridges to find, print quality is decent
Epson: Most NON-unser friendly, best print quality in the high end models
Lexmark: Ass
Canon: don't know much about them

Don't spend $200 on a laser....if you find one for that much it's going to suck.

personally, i prefer HP. Their new printers have great print quality. get the 5550 for a deskjet.....2110 for an All In One

 

[viper118]

I personally have the Canon S600 and it's perfect for me. It has very good quality and is very fast. Can also be connected using parallel port or USB so it's more convenient. Another nice feature is that it has separate ink tanks. So you just replace whichever one has run out instead of replacing the entire cartridge of colors. Its resolution is 2400x1600 and prints at about 12 pages per minute... (check Canon's official site for full specs)

HP's are also good printers. I hear that many people use this company as well and it's quite nice... however, i have never used it so i don't know much info on it. One feature that i did notice was that it accepts memory cards so it's kinda convenient instead of hooking up your digital camera up. You can just print directly from your card to the printer.

Stay away from Epson and Lexmark. I use to have a Epson printer and the printer head dried up so i got rid of it. Also wasn't too happy with the quality and ink cartridge design...

 

[ZloyChuvak]

hp has good photo printers for uner $200. they last forever too. ink is a lot, but so is with everyone. all around HP is the best.

just look and see what deal you can come up with, but aim for hp

 

[rb56]

Originally posted by: jagr10
Is there any particular brand that's known for being better at printing? Out of HP, Epson, Lexmark, and Canon, which would you guys recommend? (ie. customer service, quality, etc)

I have owned them all and I will take a Canon hands down. My next choice would be an Epson.
rb56

 

[madthumbs]

HP is great if you don't weigh in the ink cost or the speed of printing.
Epson are great if you don't mind that the inkjet heads aren't easily replaceable, and your priority is on speed.
Lexmark is great if you want a printer for the price of the ink and don't care if the print is faded or doesn't withstand aging too well.
Canon should be looked into, they've made improvements and have become popular over the years.

 

[jagr10]

Seems like it's down to HP and Canon. Now, i'm wondering about the "all in one" models. I believe that all in one's are not as good as the individual components bought separately (ie. fax machine, scanner, printer). Is that true?

Aside from price, do you think i'll get better quality from an "all in one" or an individual printer? I had a bad experience with an all in one Canon machine which was bought 4 years ago.

 

[Spyro]

Originally posted by: madthumbs
HP is great if you don't weigh in the ink cost or the speed of printing.
Epson are great if you don't mind that the inkjet heads aren't easily replaceable, and your priority is on speed.
Lexmark is great if you want a printer for the price of the ink and don't care if the print is faded or doesn't withstand aging too well.
Canon should be looked into, they've made improvements and have become popular over the years.

I've also found that epson printers tend to live much longer under heavy use.

 

[techfuzz]

Canon i850 photo printer. 20+ pages bw per min. Ink well replacement is very cheap compared to other brands like Lexmark and HP.

techfuzz

 

[DrVos]

In response to your inquiry about an all-in-one

The quality you get in an all-in-one will not be as good as buying a separate scanner and printer (there isn't much of a cost savings either). With that said, there have been notable improvements in the deisgn of all-in-one's and they are much better than they were 4 years ago and the new ones seem to have some realll nifty features. I bought a PSC750 for my GF about two years ago and for her purposes, is great. With her all-in-one, she can easily make copies of pictures, scan images, and print. IMO, the quality of scans and prints isn't all that great, but she isn't the geek guru I am. 😛

A nifty thing that the new HP all-in-ones have is the ability to print out a contact sheet of your digital pictures. You can then, with a pencil, mark what pictures you want to print out, at what size, etc. You stick it on the scanner portion, scan it, and the printer prints out the pictures you want! Tres Cool.

In any case, if you have the space and the money, and care about quality qo with the separate scanner/printer (go with any of the printer's mentioned and a Epson Perfection series scanner. YUM!)

If you care about saving space and convenience, go with the All-in-one

 

[Dreadogg]

I have had good luck with HP but recently I have been having troubles with some colors not printing well, could be that I dont use color much and the end of the cartridge maybe dried up. But I have had horrible luck with epson printers, they seem to always give me a big head ace.