Need a new printer - any recommendations?

[El_Guapo]

We had a Lexmark X83 that worked very well until it quit printing color. Wasted $30 on a damn new cartridge, too.

Anyway, between the majors (HP, Epson, Canon, Lexmark) does anybody have any particular preference? I've had good luck with Canon cameras and I like that they let you buy individual color jets, but how are their printers?

What about Dell?

We're looking for a multi-function color inkjet, fax capability is optional.

 

[wherzwaldo]

I have been very, very happy with Canon printers. My girlfriend has an i560 and she loves it.

The thing I don't like about HP is that the printer head is included on the ink cartridge itself. Therefore, everytime you replace the ink cartridge, you're replacing the printer head as well, which is usually unnecessary. That drives the cost up a little bit.

As you said, Canon printers use individual ink cartridges - black, cyan, yellow, and magenta. On the higher-end photo printers, I think they even have separate color cartridges for photo-quality printing. Plus, the printer heads are built into the printer, so you're only buying the ink tank. This tends to make Canon ink cheaper, and Canon printers don't guzzle ink at the rate HPs do.

I did a price comparison on BestBuy.com to see what the difference in price was. For an HP, a "standard" black ink and a three-color cartridge would cost you about $60. For a Canon that has built-in printer heads, you would pay about half that for four ink tanks (black tank + three color tanks). You also get more bang for your buck with a Canon printer, as most of the cheap HPs use up ink fast and aren't very high quality.

I would recommend hitting up CNet Reviews and reading up on everything they've reviewed. The editor's rating/review will only tell you so much, however, so use that as a starting point. Be sure to look at the user ratings and read the user reviews too. Anything that has an 80% thumbs up rating or better is generally a can't-miss.

Edit: Just noticed you mentioned the part about wanting a multifunction printer. There aren't many multifunction reviews on CNet, so Amazon and Newegg are probably your next best bet for user reviews.

 

[next2naus]

Dell = low end Lexmark

I just bought an HP PSC 2510. it's wireless, supports 5 wireless devices. It prints great pictures (part of the photosmart line). it's aso and all in one (print/copy/scan<flat bed>/fax). has 4 memory card slots. it's sweet.

 

[free=good]

I've never had anything but good experiences with HP and mostly bad experiences lexmark. Never had a Canon.

 

[YChang]

I have an old HP Photo 1000 for my everyday printing and I use my recently purchased Epson 1280 for my photos.

With that said...I think Canon and Epson leads the way with seperate ink catridge designs. I'm not sure even mid range HP models offer that like Epson/Canon. As someone said Dell inkjets are Lexmarks basically. Just like when compaq used to sell printers it was made by Epson. However for a printer in the $150 to $250 range you can't go wrong with either of the big 3 of HP, Canon and Epson.

 

[BNB]

I think it all depends on how good of photo quality you want. I don't think you will find a multifunction with that good of photo quality, and you could probably get a better printer and scanner for the same price, and just buy a shelf from home depot if you need to. I have a cannon photo printer (top of the line a year or so ago) and love the fact that you can just buy individual carts., but for the best photo output you have to buy cannon paper. I think when I bought mine, I went here for reviews b/c I really wanted a good photo printer.

 

[bozo_casanova]

I'm assuming you need an color inkjet that does photos based on your post.

Stay away from the Dells - they're lexmark cheap, and you can only get your ink from Dell.

You can't really go wrong with an HP in terms of quality and reliability. Epson also makes good devices.

 

[El_Guapo]

Thanks for the tip on Dell. I was wondering why they were so cheap, and if you had to buy ink from Dell. Screw that.

I saw an Epson at Fry's yesterday that caught my eye. I didn't realize Epson was doing the separate color ink jets also. And it appeared that Canon's didn't have the separate jets until you got up into the pricier models. I'm really trying to stay around $150.

 

[KingKoopa]

i have had a lot of experience with all of the 'major' brands, and all of them have their advantages, but i have consistently, and probably will always buy HP. i say this in spite of the fact that my HP 3480 is messing up right now.