need help picking a printer

  • Thread starter Thread starter lordmajax
  • Start date Start date
L

lordmajax

I'm interested in a inkjet printer combined with a scanner. I don't want fax
on it. I'm wanting to buy the printer from Dell as they have many to choose
from. I would be printing homework assignments as well as color pictures.I
would like the printing to be of good quality. Could someone recommend some
printers I could take a look at?

lordmajax
 
: I'm interested in a inkjet printer combined with a scanner. I don't want
fax
: on it. I'm wanting to buy the printer from Dell as they have many to
choose
: from. I would be printing homework assignments as well as color pictures.I
: would like the printing to be of good quality. Could someone recommend
some
: printers I could take a look at?
:
: lordmajax


For the money Epson's CX5200 nice all in one.. I wasn't a all in
one fan, this ones selling point for me was the individual color carts on
it..
 
Dell's printers are rebadged Lexmarks. Read as much as you can about
Lexmark printers before purchasing one (and that's all I have to say on the
subject!)

Cari
www.coribright.com
 
Dell's printers are rebadged Lexmarks. Read as much as you can about
Lexmark printers before purchasing one (and that's all I have to say on the
subject!)
Click to expand...


I've owned lexmark printers for years. My last printer was a Z65. It
wasnt the best for pictures and was pretty slow and noisy on high
resolution as compared to my recent purchase which I received today, A
canon I850.

For a few extra bux, I would definately recommend the 850. Its much
cheaper to maintain. Ink is relatively inexpensive as compared to the
lexmark 80 dollar replacements if you do not refill.

I must say, this I850 with photo paper in standard mode prints better
than the lexmark with the highest quality setting. It is very
remarkable. I'm not that old but I need to use a 10X glass to see any
ink dot from this canon. Very very nice for pictures and very fast for
text.

I just purchased this for $138 shipped to my door. I definately can
see owning this for the next couple years as technology improves, this
one has some staying power on my desk.

All around , this is a very well built, solid peice of equipment.
 
Interesting. Dell said they were getting into Printers to take advantage of
the lucrative "Ink" market.

They sure chose the right brand !

Larry
 
[This followup was posted to comp.periphs.printers and a copy was sent to
the cited author.]

I'm interested in a inkjet printer combined with a scanner. I don't want fax
on it. I'm wanting to buy the printer from Dell as they have many to choose
from. I would be printing homework assignments as well as color pictures.I
would like the printing to be of good quality. Could someone recommend some
printers I could take a look at?
Click to expand...

I used to run an 855 under 98, and used the HP drivers. It's possible
it's a bit confused due to the Plug and Play. You might need to install it
twice. Let Windows install it's crappy PnP detected driver, then install
the HP driver and set it to be the default.
 
Newsgroups1 said:
Dell's printers are rebadged Lexmarks. Read as much as you can about
Lexmark printers before purchasing one (and that's all I have to say on the
subject!)
Click to expand...

Be aware that the Dell-branded printers use DIFFERENT cartridges than
the Lexmark printers. These cartridges are available ONLY through Dell.
You better keep a spare or two on hand, or you will have to wait a few
days or pay through the nose for next-day shipping.
 
so, are there any printers/scanners on dell's website somebody can recommend
or could someone give me a website that rates printers?
 
Others have already mentioned that Dell's units are a) rebranded Lexmarks
and b) you need to buy the expensive cartridges from Dell. You'll be better
off getting your multifunction printer somewhere else. The best allround
colour MF units available are those from Canon. They are not the cheapest,
but most of them use the same type of ink cartridges, one black and three
separate colours, meaning you only need to replace a single ink tank if your
black, magenta, cyan or yellow runs out, and these tanks are fairly
inexpensive (to the extent that there is not even much difference between
the originals and the clones, at least here in Europe) - or shall we say
less expensive... Colour multifunctionals tend to use a lot of ink as they
do both printing and copying and/or faxing jobs, so ink price is very
important.
Canon have a wide range of models, with and without fax option. In Europe
they are called the MPC range. Generally they have a flatbed scanner, copier
and printer, the copier in most cases being independent of a PC. Those with
a fax option are always independent faxes (Lexmarks never are; they always
need your PC to do the faxing and copying, meaning they are only
printer/scanner combos with added PC software to let you use them as a
copier through the PC, or as a fax using the modem of your PC, which takes
some of the fun out of it).
Some Canons also have built-in memory card readers that will read the most
popular types of card (CF, Multimedia, Memory Stick, etc.) to print photos
or contact sheets directly from your camera's memory card.
The more expensive the model, the higher the resolutions of the printer and
scanner parts, and the higher the maximum print speeds. Some top-of-range
models also come with an automatic document feeder on top of the flatbed
scanner part, so you can drop in a 20-page report, press the copy of fax
button and forget about it until it's finished.
The fact that the ink tanks are indentical on most Canon units is the most
important advantage, I think. It means they are widely available and if your
printer ever breaks down and you have to replace it, you may well be able to
use the remaining ink tanks you had in stock in your newer printer.
One possible alternative might be Brother, who have a few nicely compact MF
models on the market, also with separate ink tanks for all three colours
plus black and with a built-in card reader.
HP tends to be very expensive in terms of ink, with a bewildering variety of
ink tanks, print heads etc. for each model. Similar with Epson, although
they do make very good photo printers.
Hope this helps.

Frank
 
lordmajax said:
I'm interested in a inkjet printer combined with a scanner. I don't want fax
on it. I'm wanting to buy the printer from Dell as they have many to choose
from. I would be printing homework assignments as well as color pictures.I
would like the printing to be of good quality. Could someone recommend some
printers I could take a look at?
Click to expand...

I suggest separate units of decent quality.

I don't have the best equipment, but I can confidently say that my
Canon i850 printer and Epson Perfection 1250 scanner will get a much
better output than any combo (Lexmark) unit from Dell. These combo
units are not known for printing decent photos.

The Canon i850 is affordable, prints lab quality photos, and can
easily be refilled with quality bulk inks for peanuts (refill all
4 cartridges for around $5). And the Epson 1250 scanner is a nice
piece of equipment, works flawlessly, and is very affordable. This
is my third scanner, and the first to actually work properly, first
time every time.

-Taliesyn
 
Back
Top