Yes, I was at Staples yesterday and they were both on the shelf. I
didn't have a chance to use any, but I did look very closely at them and
here is my impression:
The build looks very good. They appear to be rugged and solid, and
there was good sue of materials. They are very white, which is fine as
long as you never need to get into the ink system. However, they are
also glossy which means clean up will probably be easier if ink does get
n the surface.
The design appears to be well thought out, with some interesting paper
handling features. The units I looked at did not have the heads
installed, so can't comment on that.
On element I will comment on is the waste ink pads. On these printers
they are made up of a quite large stack of felt-like sheets which are
positioned with the edges upward. I'm not quite sure how these will
work. They certainly look like they are ready and able to accept quite
a bit of waste ink, but they also look like they could get quite
saturated over time and then the ink could dry out or stiffen this area.
Since I haven't seen how the heads engage or the printer in use, I am
not sure if this is just a head buffing area to clean the head surface,
or if waste ink is ejected from the head into this area, or both.
I am hopeful if a lot of ink gets left there, that these stacks of
material are user replaceable, although the job might be messy.
Anyone currently suing one have any comments about this design feature?
Ink cartridges are about $12 CAN black, $18 Color, or $28 for a pair
(plus applicable taxes). Printers are selling at $230 for the 5300 and
and $330 CAN for the 5500. Canadian $ is very nearly at par to the US
these days.
Art
