Who makes Dell's printers?

[mshan]

Does Dell just rebadge other companies printers under their own name?

If so, could someone tell me what the OEM for each of their current printers is?

Also, which is the best printer for home use (probably inkjet that doesn't cost to much to purchase and use and puts out high quality prints)?

 

[Trader05]

i'm pretty sure it's lexmark, not 100% though. As a choice for inkjet, i'll give a vote for HP, great quality but their ink is $$$$

 

[mshan]

Those all-in-one Lexmarks seem nice.

How's their print quality?

Also, are they reliable and is replacment ink cheap?

 

[Macro2]

RE:"
Also, which is the best printer for home use (probably inkjet that doesn't cost to much to purchase and use and puts out high quality prints)?"

Canons with BCI-6 and BCI-3 carts are prefered. Even the all in ones with BCI-24 carts are good.

forget HP'S if you want to print cheaply. Also forget Dells and Lexmark. Dell has the lexmark carts modified so you have to buy the carts from them at a higher price.

For an all around printer look for the Canon IP3000 for about $50 after rebates. This is a 4 color printer. Does nice photos too. For a smidge better photos get the ip4000 or ip5000. $80 to $130 after ebates at times. They add a photo black cart.

You can buy generic carts for these for $2-$3 which are as good as originals if you know what to buy.

 

[mshan]

Are Canon PIXMA 3000/4000 the best budget inkjet printers?

And how do they compare to the older Canon i860 inkjets?




EDIT:

"You can buy generic cats for these for $2-$3 which are as good as originals if you know what to buy."

My dad own's a Canon i860, which uses the same inkjet cartridges. Can you provide a link to those cheap replacement cartridges that are just as good as the Canons?

 

[Macro2]

The ip4000 took the place of the i860. duplexing was added. Also speed.

The ip3000 replaced the i560. Duplexing was added. Some speed.
They are not budget printers.

The ip1500 and ip2000 are Canons budget printers. they use a different cartridge. BCI-24. The colors are not seperate, have less capacity and are not see through. The print quality is good though.

For carts call these guys and ask for arrowjet carts with sencient ink. Ebay price.
Alotofthings.com
1-951-694-6300

Also try tylermartin - USA brand ink.
http://tylermartin.com/Canon%20USA.htm

They have an ebay store as well. Price may be cheaper there.

 

[ProviaFan]

Not that you're going to get accurate colors with an uncaibrated printer anyway, but from what I've seen of third party inks (excepting the expensive custom B&W printing systems), color accuracy and longevity suffers - which I why I refuse to use them. I also refuse to use Lexmark printers because of the spyware in the drivers (did they ever eliminate that) and the stupid DMCA lawsuit against third party ink manufacturers.

 

[Tostada]

HP and Lexmark have both gone from "among the best" to "among the worst" in my book in the past 5 years. As far as quality, I wouldn't give any of them particularly high marks. I've seen plenty HPs and Canons break (and I haven't really used enough Lexmark/Epson inkjets to say one way or the other for them). HPs replace the print head with every cartridge, so they don't have the issues that cheap Canons eventually do, but HPs still seem to just go bad a lot. I've seen tons of them just act like they were running out of ink no matter how many times you replace the $30 cartridge.

Lately, I really like Epson for cheap inkjets, and they have the $90 model that prints CD/DVD printable media, too. Canon is good and recommended by tons of people, but I think their sub-$150 printers are particularly flimsy (a little more than your average cheap filmsy printer). The people who really love Canon are generally getting the nicer ones.

 

[mshan]

Do the Canon IP3000 and IP4000 (i860 also) have print heads that have to be eventually replaced?

If so, how much do they typically cost and how frequently do they have to be changed?

 

[Macro2]

RE:"Do the Canon IP3000 and IP4000 (i860 also) have print heads that have to be eventually replaced?"

Unlike HP the printhead stays in the printer. It's ceramic and tough as nails.
For the lower priced printers it's cheaper to buy a new printer on sale than replace the printhead.
You might even get the next generation printer. If you're worried get the extended warranty exchange plan where you buy it.


RE:"If so, how much do they typically cost and how frequently do they have to be changed?"

From experience about 15,000 copies. And I print a lot of color photos.


PS...Epsons tend to clog more than Canons.

 

[bluemax]

Lexmark is the most expensive of all printers for ink replacement. That's why their base models sell for practically nothing.

I'd go with Canon any day of the week. HP is a moderate second choice.
Canon's also been much faster at printing fullpage photo-quality stuff. 6x that of HP a couple years back.

And the cheapest ink by more than half!