Today's best printers?

[Tab]

I am interested in getting a good printer. Quality Text, Quality Graphics and Quality Printer. I am pretty much looking for a solid machine. Anyone have any suggestions under $200? Some of today's printers are okay, but have poor printing speeds. Some have good photos, but moderate text. Should I buy now or wait?

 

[PCHPlayer]

Try various printer review sites. I believe that HP's are the best balance between photos and text. The 7150 may fit your bill.

 

[rugby48]

Check out the Canon i850. Sam'sClub used to have it for around $150.00 with a USB cable. Best Buy was $199.00 with a $30.00 rebate from Canon. Text speed is about 22pm and photo's were under a minute for a 4 x 6. Steve's Digicams has a review out which is very good. It is a 4 color printer but he states the picture quality is very close to the new i950. The printer has pretty good user opinions at dpreview.com.

 

[Doh!]

For under $200, there's really no contest at the moment. Get a canon i850 as suggested by rugby48. Very high quality printouts, incredibly cheap replaceable ink cartridges, replaceable printhead, does not clog up, super quiet, fast and a very good looking printer.

 

[Tab]

Uh, I only see digital camera's at Dpreview

 

[madthumbs]

HP's are good, but expensive on ink and slow.

Epson makes one that can print on cd's as well (with template), but it runs ~$300. The only problem with Epson's is that the heads aren't easily replaced (HP's heads are on the cartridge). Printing quality should deteriorate over time with Epson, but they're still pretty kickass. Canon has all of the sudden become popular for printers also... don't know much about them though.

 

[clicknext]

Lots of Epsons, including mine, seem to clog easily! I'd recommend that you buy a brand other than Epson to avoid a potential headache.

 

[Crappopotamus]

laaaser. i got an ml1430 and i love it. its fast as hell and was pretty cheap too!

 

[Pauli]

Epson's do have problems with clogging, but I've had no problems with using the utility cleaning procedure. It seems to work Okay. Epson photo printers have the best quality. So I guess you can't have everything...

 

[clicknext]

They do indeed have very good print quality.

 

[BurnItDwn]

I have a little Xerox Laser .... Awesome for text ... prints tons of pages on one toner cortridge ... very cheap to operate .... but its not color ... so you probably wouldnt want to use something like it for graphics.

 

[Peter]

Originally posted by: clicknext
They do indeed have very good print quality.

With Canon's latest babies (i850 and i950) improving dot size from 4 picoliters down to the same 2 Epson uses, the gap is closing ... and Canon is still not using those clog-friendly, wallet-killing, permanently mounted Piezo technology print heads.

 

[Mattster]

I'll vouch for a Canon S750, if you don't want to spend too much money and just need a basic printer for everyday use. It's fast as hell for text and has pretty good speed for color as well. Everything I've printed so far (mixture of reports and photos) has looked great and people have complimented me on some of the things as well.

Just my .02
Matt

 

[LED]

Another alternative would be the i550 from Cannon which is low cost and prints pic's and text in a decent fashion. I don't know about the S750 but I installed a S820 and the text is slow but for $50 couldn't be beat and then you could add the likes of a low cost Laser B&W (ie. Samsung, Brother) for under $200 and live in Both worlds

 

[Agent004]

Canon's current offerings are pretty good. Epson printers has a habit of being very noise during the warm-up.

 

[saber800]

Get a Canon printer. The Canon printers don't have the IC chip crap on their ink cartridges like Epson, HP, Lexmark. If you don't know about the IC chip - these chips try to limit the user to only buying their brand of ink cartridges (ie. only Lexmark ink or only Epson ink, the expensive ink). You wouldn't be able to buy compatible cheaper cartridges because the printer will reject it.

I had these problems with my Epson so I sold it on ebay and got a Canon. Canons have cheap ink, fast, and no IC chip in the cartridge (its just plastic and ink).

For under $200 I would get the Canon i850 or i550. Either one will suit you fine.

 

[Mem]

The Canon printers don't have the IC chip crap on their ink cartridges like Epson, HP, Lexmark. If you don't know about the IC chip - these chips try to limit the user to only buying their brand of ink cartridges (ie. only Lexmark ink or only Epson ink, the expensive ink). You wouldn't be able to buy compatible cheaper cartridges because the printer will reject it.

Actually I`m using a Epson C70 in the UK and have been using for over a year now with compatible IC ink carts,all that happens when you install them and go through the Epson ink change utility software is that it says that they`re not the recommended original Espon carts,you have the choice to accept or cancel the replacement ink installation,so far I`ve had no problems with them and I`ve changed them quite a few times now.

 

[Spyro]

I have an Epson 880, that I think is pretty good. It's under $200, its quick (for the price range), and its dependable.

But its also extremely loud.

 

[Tab]

So far, the i850 Canon looks like its going well.

 

[Pardus]

check bensbargins hot deals, i saw a hp 5550 for under $100 shipped.