Multifunction pros and cons

  • Thread starter Thread starter lordy
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lordy

My mate is setting up a business and needs some printing and fax
capabilities. Another mate has sold him on getting a multfunction printer
with stand alone fax capability(ie doesnt need PC) for £200 (HP 2410).

All his printing is black and white so I reckon he should get a cheap
laser (£100) , and seperate fax (with copier function) (£80-100). becuase
I've always prefered a tool that does one thing well than one that does
lots of things averagely.

I'm drawing up a final list of pros and cons. Anything I've missed, or am
I not appreciating multifuntions enough?


Pros for Seperates.

Cheaper printing, document feeder on fax., spam faxes dont ty up your
printer.
One point of failure.

Pros for Multifunction.
Pretty
Compact.
Flatbed Scanner. (which he doesnt really need)

Lordy
 
lordy said:
My mate is setting up a business and needs some printing and fax
capabilities. Another mate has sold him on getting a multfunction printer
with stand alone fax capability(ie doesnt need PC) for £200 (HP 2410).

All his printing is black and white
Click to expand...

I just googled on the 2410 and see it has flash card reader and color
monitor for picture printing. He could get an equivalent model for less
without those features. Maybe put the money to a model with a stack
loader on the scan/copy/fax.

Pros for Seperates.

Cheaper printing, document feeder on fax., spam faxes dont ty up your
printer.
One point of failure.
Click to expand...

Separates tend to be better supported in that drivers are available for
other operating sytems (linux, mac, the next version of Windows) and
netowrk sharing. HP is pretty good on those counts, but I have a Canon
all-in-one that is forever stuck on windows 98 with no sharing due to
lack of driver support... at least it works well as a standalone fax.

There are combo units with laser print, so that would give you the
cheaper printing.
Pros for Multifunction.
Click to expand...

There is the convenience of being able to send faxes directly from
your word processor, etc without printing out. Incoming faxes can go to
the hard drive and you can skip printing the cover sheets and spam
faxes. Most brands have some program so you can do markup/annotation on
an incoming fax and send it back out with no paper print.



Your separate solution gives him no scan capability, though you can
certainly add that to the separates list, or get a separate fax and
"almost all in one" with scan/copy but no fax.
 
There are a number of all-in-one lasers! Look at Canon,Brother,Panasonic and
HP units.They start at about the same price as the 2410.The 2410 will cost
much more per copy.The fax speeds do vary,so look at that also when choosing
the unit.
 
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