[sgiitk]

Depends on your use. if you are looking at 300+ pages a month then a laser makes sense not otherwise. a laser cartridge goes bad in about 1-1/2 years. You get black/dark grey on light grey.

My own devices at the moment are Epson 3700 (inkjet + scanner) at work, and Samsung 4300 (laser + scanner) at work. I also have Canon Pixma iP5000 ink jet as a higher end colour printer.

[amitoj]

I dont think my usage will cross even 200 per month. A color laser printer would be a bit of an overkill for my kind of usage.

Any idea about HP printers? How good/bad are they? Are they at part with the likes of Canon and Epson?

[sgiitk]

@amitoj: I have used HP for the past 20+ years. Only now I have switched to Epson / Samsung / Canon. I think these are better value for money. Quality wise all are equally good. You should seriously think about the inbuilt scanner - hardly adds 1.5 to 2k to the price!

[amitoj]

Originally Posted by sgiitk

You should seriously think about the inbuilt scanner - hardly adds 1.5 to 2k to the price!

Do you mean i should consider a printer that has a built in scanner? Sorry i didn't understand this, because i AM looking for an all in one, which includes scanner. What i have noticed while comparing different printers of Canon is that some of the have a price difference mainly because the scanner has a higher resolution. Is that something to consider vis-a-vis quality of copies of documents?

[SirAlec]

for B&W prints you can go for samsung scx4300 or xerox docuprint. both refillable.

[sgiitk]

Originally Posted by amitoj

Do you mean i should consider a printer that has a built in scanner? Sorry i didn't understand this, because i AM looking for an all in one, which includes scanner. What i have noticed while comparing different printers of Canon is that some of the have a price difference mainly because the scanner has a higher resolution. Is that something to consider vis-a-vis quality of copies of documents?

yes, an all in is what I mean. Only some include a fax as well.

As far as the quality is concerned the rule of thumb is that 300 dpi is what you really need, unless you want to blow up psitage stamp size pics from photographs (hopefully old when they did not do digital printing from negatives). In fact if you calculate 3MB is enough for full quality A4 prints. So all scanners are good enough.

I had an HP 4130/3140 (?) which I replaced with the Samsung 4300. I cannot tell the difference in the scan quality.

[ashthedivx]

Originally Posted by sgiitk

I had an HP 4130/3140 (?) which I replaced with the Samsung 4300. I cannot tell the difference in the scan quality.

Well, with naked eyes you can never tell the difference between two scans.. however for differentiating you need to dig deep into specifications and settings of scanner.

However, for me Samsung SCX-4300 ain't the best.

[Thad E Ginathom]

I have been happy with my Canon Pixma ip5000 for last few years.

One of my favoutite things about it is automatic two-sided printing. Having said that, the duplex unit has jammed and I am yet to take it for printing.

The cartridges are not chipped. The print head is a separate unit. This has advantages for cartridge cost, ease of using 3rd-part/refilled cartridges, but has a potential serious disadvantage. If you do not use the printer for a while, the head will dry out, and it costs nearly 4,000 to replace :(. Print something with all colours at least every week or so, and you won't have this problem.

Oh... I never use it, but it will print "printable" CDs too!

[bblost]

This is a req for my Dad.

He has a desktop.
Sometimes needs a printout.
That would be like a page or two about once or twice a month.
Always in b&w.

What is a good option for such a usage?

Currently he emails the doc to someone who prints it for him.

Are there any small sized printers that are not expensive.

[aaggoswami]

Originally Posted by bblost

That would be like a page or two about once or twice a month.
Always in b&w.
What is a good option for such a usage?
Are there any small sized printers that are not expensive.

I will suggest that you go in for HP Laserjet 1018 which will cost around Rs. 5K or HP Laserjet 1020 priced at around Rs. 6.5K.
I think that 1018 is sufficient for the requirement.

[SirAlec]

Originally Posted by aaggoswami

I will suggest that you go in for HP Laserjet 1018 which will cost around Rs. 5K or HP Laserjet 1020 priced at around Rs. 6.5K.
I think that 1018 is sufficient for the requirement.

^^^^

both the model mentioned are discontinued about a year ago. IF you find some old stock, you are lucky as new ones are painstakingly hard to refill.


If your dads needs no color prints, I would suggest, you go for Samsung 1640. Its not refillable as such in stock form, but its hackable. you can get the hack done for about rs.100/-

and yeah cost of the printer is also very reasonable at about 4300/-.

[shamanth]

Never go for Inkjet printer seeing advertise that it will print that much pages and all. I had purchased Epson 6900F inkjet printer with scan-fax-xerox for 10k. It turned out it was printing maximum of 100 pages for Cartridges worth Rs 2000. After reviewing in net i found out that is what it prints if you print periodically. If you start and stop Inkjet printer it cleans the head and most of the ink get wasted there.

After that i purchased Samsung ML-2240 laser printed for around Rs 4500. I am very happy with it. Haven't changed cartridge after 6 months also, might have printed around 500 pages. Samsung laser printers are much better than latest HP laser printer in terms of cost per page.

Now i am using Epson Inkjet only for scanning and sending fax.

[EssYouWe]

Hi! I want to pick up a basic printer. Cost effectiveness is the main criteria along with ease of ownership (I really don't want to run around trying to get cartridges filled)
I'll be printing about 10-15 pages a month. B/W and text only.
Can not exceed 4k.
Please advise, in a bit of a hurry!

Thanks

[vigsom]

Originally Posted by EssYouWe

Hi! I want to pick up a basic printer. Cost effectiveness is the main criteria along with ease of ownership (I really don't want to run around trying to get cartridges filled)
I'll be printing about 10-15 pages a month. B/W and text only.
Can not exceed 4k.
Please advise, in a bit of a hurry!

Thanks

I got myself a HP4488 All-In-One for 4.1k just last week.

There was a Canon 2900B Laser also available for 6k,but then I wanted an all-in-one.

Having used both forms of printers at Office,I can safely say that the inkjet gives no issues even with non-usage of upto 15 days ,but the cost/print is high given that cartridges are expensive.

My reco to you is to pick up a low end laser printer.

[EssYouWe]

Thanks for the reply.

The problem is that at times, I might not use it for a month at a stretch. Would that kill the cartridge?

Also, with the sparse printing pattern how long will the whole thing last before I am sent scurrying for a refill/new cartridge. An indication of the costs involved in refilling or buying a new cartridge would help as well.

I was also thinking of picking up a low end laser, can you point out some of the models I should be looking at?