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Best brand of inkjet printers?

D

davidg4781

macrumors 68030
Original poster
Oct 28, 2006
2,973
476
Alice, TX
I'm in the market for a new inkjet printer. What's the best brand to use? I've always used HP and liked them, especially since the print heads were new whenever I purchased ink cartridges.

Because of what HP did with Palm I've decided to not use them ever again, which means I have to look at other options.

What's everyone else using? What do you like? I'd want something somewhat inexpensive because I really don't use a printer, but I do need something ready for when I do.
 
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I use an HP 3050A All-in-One, it's detectable by iPad/iPhone/iPod, wireless and has a great feature for printing emails on the go by emailing your content to an email address registered to the printer. All this for £30-40.
 
Hi, it really depends on what you'll be doing with the printer, and what your budget is. Are you going to be using the printer for photography, fine art prints, etc etc?

If it's just for general home use then you can't go wrong with a multifunction like the Canon PIXMA MG6250. The print engine has been very well reviewed and it produces good quality photos as well as decent text. If you'll mainly be printing text then you can pick up cheap laser printers now with AirPrint too. However the only laser that I've seen so far is an HP and I know you're not too keen on those. There may be others but I've not seen any yet.

Come back with some more info and I/we'll try to help more.
 
Totally agree with phonitron's comments. As he says, it all depends on what you want to use the printer for. If you're after photo lab quality (or better) there's nothing really that compares with the Epson Stylus Photo range. However, as with many things, quality comes with a price and it all depends on your budget!
 
Thanks all.

It's mainly for general use. I'd like to have a scanner for pics or documents and when I need to print stuff it'll be there. Just an example of how seldom I use a printer...

I moved here about 2 years ago and brought my old HP printer (gave the new one to my mom). It was out of ink so I haven't used it. The one time I did need to print something I just went to a library.

The reason I haven't bought ink was I found some decent HP printers for around $70 and the ink was going to cost me about $45. In the middle of deciding whether to upgrade or buy ink, I gave up and forgot about it.
 
I use Epson or Canon - currently an Epson AIO, but used to be Canon's A3 inkjets at home. Work has always been Epson's big A1 roll-based printers (3880).

Had a HP years ago, it was terrible. Couldn't even load paper straight.
 
davidg4781 said:
Thanks all.

It's mainly for general use. I'd like to have a scanner for pics or documents...
Click to expand...

Then I stand by my first recommendation the Canon PIXMA MG6250. It includes AirPrint and the photo quality is great for the price. Text quality isn't too bad either and it can do duplex printing etc etc. generally it's been favourably reviewed and not jus by the mags.

All the best.
 
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davidg4781 said:
I'm in the market for a new inkjet printer. What's the best brand to use? I've always used HP and liked them, especially since the print heads were new whenever I purchased ink cartridges.

Because of what HP did with Palm I've decided to not use them ever again, which means I have to look at other options.

What's everyone else using? What do you like? I'd want something somewhat inexpensive because I really don't use a printer, but I do need something ready for when I do.
Click to expand...

Anything but HP. If they can't make a decent computer why would I want one of their printers?

I just purchased an epson wp-4530. Great small office printer. Each ink tank is the size of a deck of cards. 20,000 duty cycles. Super fast. Connects beautifully with my Mac (wirelessly).
 
davidg4781 said:
The reason I haven't bought ink was I found some decent HP printers for around $70 and the ink was going to cost me about $45.
Click to expand...

It's the razor blade model. Give away the razor almost free to get you to buy the overpriced blades!

Whatever you buy look at what it takes for cartridges and price them first. I've found HP and Lexmark to be high on the consumables, Epson and Canon pretty much middle of the road, and Kodak to be the lowest. It's still going to be specific to the printer though.

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ELA2 said:
Anything but HP. If they can't make a decent computer why would I want one of their printers?
Click to expand...

Because printers really are HP's core business maybe? Inkjet's pretty meh, but HP makes a solid laser.
 
ELA2 said:
Anything but HP. If they can't make a decent computer why would I want one of their printers?
Click to expand...
Because one has nothing to do with the other. I have several older extremely reliable HP printers (granted, none are inkjets). HP's computers were not reliable when I bought these printers. Apples and oranges.
 
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