Best Inexpensive Printer?

D

DWK2

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Nov 3, 2003
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I have heard/read good things about the Canon Pixma 620. I'm not trying to do anything fancy---just print a few articles off the internet or prepare a few letters.

Any thoughts on a better unit in the <$150 range?

Thanks for your advice,

DancesWithKnives
 
If you don't need something immediately, you can probably find a color laser on special for under 150 if you have the time to look around. Konica Minolta are good units and the toner is cheap given the number of prints you can get from it.
 
How good a printer do you need? Whatever's on sale at Walmart or Staples or Best Buy will print articles, letters, even photos, for around $30-50.
 
I'll take a look at the Konica/Minolta units. Thanks!

I don't need a really top-end printer but I don't want something I'll be taking back for warranty replacement. I don't mind buying something of good quality; I just don't want to spend huge bucks on a deluxe unit.

Much appreciated,

DancesWithKnives
 
I've got an HP OfficeJet 5610 and I've been more than happy with. Print quality is great, scan quality is great and it copies pretty quickly. Since I don't have a phoneline, I haven't used the fax feature though.

It was the Thanksgiving special at Staples and I think it was right at $70.

My only concern with buying a really cheap printer is that they're basically disposable these days. If you buy a printer for $40, you're going to spending more than the cost of the printer on replacement cartridges down the road. They're just like razors, you spend $8 on the handle and then $12 to $15 for new blades every month.
 
If you're fool enough to buy new cartridges instead of refilling them or having them refilled, absolutely. That's why printers are so cheap -- they give them away in the hope of suckering you into paying them thou$and$ per gallon for ink.
 
Speak of the devil...

$149.99 before $50 back in rewards:

HP Color LaserJet CP1215

I should mention that the color print speed is fairly slow and this is best for black and white printing with color every now and then. The toner won't dry out and is cheap as dirt compared to inkjet cartridges.

It's in stock at the moment, but that could change very very quickly.
 
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HP printers are alright for the price. Ink cartridges aren't too pricey and the quality's alright. If you want cheap, Epson makes a cheap printer with some cheap ink. Quantity over quality, I guess. Lexmark's quality is really good, but the cost on cartridges will counteract that.
 
You can't go wrong with a Canon Pixma which is great for both photos and text.
I bought a Canon Pixma IP4000 a few years back and it prints amazing photos.
The downside, as mentioned , is replacing the ink cartridges which can be pricey.
 
If you don't need color printing I'd suggest a b/w laser. Tiger Direct has several models under $100. I bought a Samsung b/w laser from them a couple of years ago and I'm very happy with it.
 
One word of caution, cheap printers are often very expensive to run at least ink jets. The reason for this is b/c often times, they have two ink cartridges [1 for colour and another for black]. If you use a lot of cyan, but no magenta ... you can't just replace the cyan you have to replace the whole deal. That's where they get you.

I have an expensive ink jet for colour [which is generally expensive to operate, but output is stellar], but I have a cheap HP laser for b+w printing. It's an HP 1012 and the thing is super reliable and extremely cheap to operate. The 1012 exists no longer, but I'm sure there's another to take its place. I've got it hooked into a wi-fi network and it never skips a beat. Cartridges last f-o-r-e-v-e-r ... it's hard to beat laser for cost effective printing.

Can't speak about this exact product, but something along these lines from HP: http://www.shopping.hp.com/product/printer/LaserJet/1/storefronts/CB411A%23ABA
 
Cougar Allen said:
If you're fool enough to buy new cartridges instead of refilling them or having them refilled, absolutely. That's why printers are so cheap -- they give them away in the hope of suckering you into paying them thou$and$ per gallon for ink.
Click to expand...

I'm with the Coug on this! Save your money for ammo and sharp steel!
 
+1 on getting a laser printer if you don't want color. I have a Brother multi-function laser printer (model MFC-8420: fax, copy, scan, print) that works great and hardly ever needs a new toner cartridge.
 
+1 on the laser if you don't need color. I love my Brother networked 2070 and it was less than $200 when I bought it over 4 years ago. I'll bet they are even less now.

It makes a great printer for rifle targets!
 
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