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Whats a good printer?

J

jmcoreymv

Diamond Member
Whats a good inkjet printer for around 100-200 that doesnt eat up cartridges really fast, usb compatible, no waiting for wet ink, and most important, high quality (with win2k drivers).
 
I set up a friend with the Epson stylus 860 which has gotten high praise and has good specs for the price. It has a $50 rebate right now. $115-$50=$65. Hard to beat.
 
Epson 860 for $60, they are giving it away, I paid around £210.

It is a really good printer, nothing to fault
 
Yep, just got Epson 860 in yesterday. Compared to my old Epson (its like 6 years old), I couldn't get over how fast it prints... it just spits out the pages. But is it just me, or is it a tad on the noisy side (especially when it rollers move that take in/push out the paper.
 
I have a Hewlett Packard 612c and have had no problems with it at all and it only cost me $100 and that was about 8 months ago. You could get an even better one for under $200 like you said. I'm sure there will be more people who will support me on my claim that Hewlett Packard makes one of the best inkjets for the price compared to the rest of the market.
 
Maybe you can spend $50 bucks more and get the NEC Superscript 870. It should be available with deals or rebates around $250-$275. You will be MUCH happier with the speed, quality and economy that a laser printer offers. I hate inkjets. Only advantage is the color printing but you can always go to Kinkos to print color the few times you actually need to. Inkjets suck.

EDIT: Unfortunately it is parallel port only, but maybe you can use a parallel to USB converter or just the parallel port.
 
Whatever you do, don't buy a Lexmark Z51! It is the biggest piece of junk I have ever used, bad quality, and very sssllllooooowwwwwww.... I just picked op the HP 970 at Costco, it's over $200 though, but it is a great printer so far (Fast and high quality), even does double sided all on its own!
 
wezal, it all depends how much you have to pay for it... i was very satisfied being paid $5 for using my z51 😀
 
My Epson is the noisiest printer on the planet. They can suck some major ink, too. I've had good luck with HP inkjets, but for a budget printer -- a higher end Lexmark or Canon isn't all bad. My dad loves the Lexmark 5700 I got him (I think the Z52 replaced this one) and my $30 Canon 6000 is really speedy and the quality is acceptable (It's discontinued now, I think the S540 replaces it.). It also has individual color ink cartridges to save on print costs. There is an article/review of inkjets in this month's PC World.
 
BrotherMan, Someone pays you to use that piece of junk? Or they paid you to take it off their hands? Either way, do you get the same speedy color performance I do, I think it's about a page of minimal graphics and text avery 10 minutes, while in low quality mode! I am thinking of putting mine in the trash, some unlucky soul will find it and think they hit the lottery, wait until they use it.....lol! Maybe I should put it on E-bay and see if anyone will pay more for it used, than I paid for it new, like so many people on E-bay seem to do???
 
I like my HP 932C. $200 is the most you should spend on an inkjet unless you really need extra speed. HP's 9xx series offers their best quality, the 8xxs are less crisp in text quality and graphics output. Low maintenace costs too. Check out www.pcworld.com for some inkjet reviews.
 
Just did some quick comparisons by specs and MSRP.

The new Epson models look great. The Stylus 777 and 880 are better than the equally priced Lexmark Z32 and Z42, respectively. Lexmark's Z52, however, offers a far better price/performance ratio than the Epson 980.

Cannon seems to be lagging behind lately, and HP is overpriced as usual.

Modus
 
Just to let you know, I still have my trust HP LaserJet 4L, works great, it prints like 5000 pages on a cartridge, but I needed an inkjet printer for the occasional color stuff.
 
Hey Modus,
How do you consider HP to be overpriced? They seem to be the only printers that not only last forever, but they also can actually perform to spec. This Lexmark Z51 I have sitting in front of me claims to print 5ppm color!! more like 1 page every five minutes of just color text, try a picture and you might as well go to lunch. Get back....and the picture looks like crap! I have tried everything to fix it and nothing helps. I have a NEC superscript, that NEC does not support anymore (Win 98 or linux drivers would be nice) and I had a cannon that had an ink cartridge blow chunks all over its flex pcb and fry the printer.... I have 4 HP 1100, a 970, an 8## and some old lasser jet IVs and IIIP that are still clunking along like they were just bought. So in my mind HP is the only way to go, at least if you had to choose between the four. Just my opinion, we all have our favorites.
 
wezal,

<<How do you consider HP to be overpriced?>>

They're overpriced because for equivalent performance and print quality, you have to spend more on an HP than, say, a Lexmark. HP is more of a high end brand -- they're better suited to rugged laser printers made for enterprise environments. There's nothing wrong with their inkjets, it's just that other brands offer better bang for your buck.

<<They seem to be the only printers that no only last forever but they also can actually perform to spec.>>

Obviously a laser printer can last a long time if you maintain the drum unit properly and replace it when necessary. Inkjets are not really meant to last that long, and all brands are pretty much the same in the longevity and reliability department (at least nothing has shown otherwise). Actually, the printer manufacturers would gladly give away the printers for free, if they had to. They make all their profits on the consumables, which are deliberately engineered to make third-party refills difficult and dangerous.

Modus
 



<< Lexmark Z51 I have sitting in front of me claims to print 5ppm color!! more like 1 page every five minutes of just color text, try a picture and you might as well go to lunch. >>


wezal,
Most likely your Z51 is not configured properly. It could be a problem with the cable, port mode configuration, or some driver issue; because the Z51 doesn't normally print color THAT slow. It SHOULD print full-page high-quality color graphics (photos?) in ~2mins according to recent reviews. At the pace you are describing, the Lexmark 3200 (older model, I own one) would print faster. That's not going to happen though considering Z51 is factory rated at a higher PPM than the 3200.
 
Modus,
You may be right, but like I said, I have had no luck at all with anything but HP, maybe just bad luck, maybe I just don't know jack, but I have a %100 record with HP and that covers over 10 different printers, so they must be doing something right? I would pay a little extra for that any day. (Watch all my HP printers melt down and break on me tomorrow 😛)

hey 180, I bought a new cable, tried USB and used new and old drivers and tried other printers on the same port, and the Z51 seems to be the culprit. It's a work printer, so I am not going to spend much time on it. I figure that if I need to baby it that much to get it to work well, it's not worth it. Plus I am very happy with my new HP 970, plugged it in and it worked perfect right off the bat!
 
I prefer HP has well, although Epson's newest offerings aren't too shabby. Lexmark cornholes you in terms of ink costs. Read a review for almost any Lexmark printer and they'll tell you about the high cost per page. I'm not saying they are bad printers, but you only buy the printer once. You marry the cartridges.
 
Well, my personal experience is that HP is the ONLY way to go (primarily due to the fact that that's what Momma insists on!)
Currently have 5 different ones in use in my family (2 820Cse's, 1 672, 1 712, and 1 695) So far, in the 2-3 years we've had these, I've had 2 malfunctions- on the 672 in a EXTREMELY dirty enviroment- give a quick cleaning and a drop of sewing machine oil on the cartridge bar - back in business!)
Not to say that the others aren't good, just as far as ruggedness &amp; quality are concerned it's hard to beat the HP, IMO
 
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