Question Someone help me pick out an SOHO printer?

[jaydee]

I need a printer for home. I am working from home and we are schooling from home. Anyone have any suggestions?

Max budget is $500, but lower the better. Will gladly pay closer to $500 if the "Strongly prefer" and "Nice to have" items are present. I can go either way on Laser or Inkjet. Also, needs to be available now (online or in store)...

Needs:
-Color prints
-Auto double-sided (duplex) printing
-Scanner / copier function
-Auto-feed scanner

Strongly prefer:
-11"x17" printing capability (don't need to scan that size)
-USB port to print from storage

Nice to have:
- Auto-feed double-sided scanning
- 3" or larger GUI screen

Do not need:
Photo-printing capability

Also
Print speed is not a huge factor
Smaller footprint and lighter weight is appreciated

Any thoughts?

 

[dave_the_nerd]

A few years ago I bought a Brother MFC-J6920DW which ticks most of those boxes. (Duplexing 11x17 color inkjet with an auto-feed 11x17 scanner and fax capabilities.) It was like $275 at the time (I think it had just been discontinued or something.)

I bought it mostly to scan larger sheet music (9x12 and 10x13 are really common) and the scan-to-dropbox feature is awesome. But honestly, it's been a general purpose workhorse. (I scan basically EVERYTHING now. Fax machine works fine. I don't do a lot of printing with it though - I have a laser printer I do my bulk stuff with.)

Like most Brothers, it's more oriented towards affordable home office work, so the photo quality is balls. And like most color printers, if it's out of yellow ink it will refuse to print black and white. But otherwise it's a decent enough printer. Current version is the MFC-J6945DW, which by the looks of the photos, may have a front USB port? But I don't know what additional features it has.

MFC-J6945DW | PrintersAIOs | PrintersAIOsFaxMachines | By Brother

Up to 1 Year of Ink In-box‡;Print, copy, scan and fax up to 11" x 17";Two paper trays with 500-sheet total capacity

www.brother-usa.com