Canon or HP all-in-one?

[candyman]

Seeking your opinion. As Staples is having some pretty good deals on printers, I am looking for feedback on choosing one of these two.

The Canon Pixma MX860 and HP OfficeJet Pro 8500. With the trade-in of my printer combined with the instant savings, I can get the Canon for $100 or the HP for $150. The only substantial difference I see is the HP is almost 4x faster at prints.

I have had Epson products for years but I have not been happy with them since OS X came out. I have always like HP, but have heard Canon works well with Mac as well.

Any thoughts are appreciated!

 

[Icaras]

I don't know anything about the HP model, but we just got the Canon MX860 for Christmas and its absolutely fantastic. To be honest though, I used to only own HP printers before, but now I'm a total Canon nut when it comes to printers and cameras, and its all our household has these days.

That said, I really like this printer. Great build quality and absolutely smooth setup. If you have Snow Leopard, it's even easier. You don't even have to install the drivers from the CD. Though I'm pretty sure it would be the same for the HP as well. We have ours wirelessly setup in our home network and installation was a breeze. You just need to run the printer's network config tool on one machine to get it on the network and then every computer in the house can just simply add it. I've never had an issue with printing wirelessly either. Works 100% of the time, without a hitch.

Print quality is excellent and speed is pretty good, though I'm sure you can find speedier printers. Copying is simple enough. Though I cannot vouch yet for faxing and scanning, as I haven't tried those functions yet, though I would imagine they would be equally straight forward.

I'm not sure about your experience level, but this is our first multi-functional printer, so I was easily impressed. Anyway, I totally recommend the 860.

Don't forget though, Canon did just announce the successor to the MX860 at CES, which I think should be out soon.

 

[Jaro65]

I have Canon MX860 which I've been quite happy with. You can see on Amazon that there is a newer model listed there (MX870), though I don't know exactly when it will be released.

 

[prostuff1]

I have always used canon printers and I have loved them all. I previously had an Pixma MP760 and just switched it out for the Canon MP620 that has built in wireless. I have it hooked up to my wireless network and am able to print to it whenever and wherever I want which is really nice. It is a networked printer without having to run the cables!

 

[Icaras]

I have Canon MX860 which I've been quite happy with. You can see on Amazon that there is a newer model listed there (MX870), though I don't know exactly when it will be released.

Yup, that's it. Should be coming soon. You might want to wait out for a bit.

 

[candyman]

Don't forget though, Canon did just announce the successor to the MX860 at CES, which I think should be out soon.

I have Canon MX860 which I've been quite happy with. You can see on Amazon that there is a newer model listed there (MX870), though I don't know exactly when it will be released.

Thanks guys. I had no idea they just announced a new model. According to the Canon site, it says available in February. We're in February as of today, so I hope it is sooner than later because at this point I would just wait for the new model.

I have it hooked up to my wireless network and am able to print to it whenever and wherever I want which is really nice. It is a networked printer without having to run the cables!

This is how I plan on setting it up in our home too, over our wireless network so anyone can use it.

My only other question would be about the ink use between the brands. HP is touting inexpensive ownership costs in that you save quite a bit in cartridge refills as they last longer. I know my Epson has been quite the ink hog. How have you fared with the Canons?

 

[prostuff1]

Thanks guys. I had no idea they just announced a new model. According to the Canon site, it says available in February. We're in February as of today, so I hope it is sooner than later because at this point I would just wait for the new model.



This is how I plan on setting it up in our home too, over our wireless network so anyone can use it.

My only other question would be about the ink use between the brands. HP is touting inexpensive ownership costs in that you save quite a bit in cartridge refills as they last longer. I know my Epson has been quite the ink hog. How have you fared with the Canons?

One of the things I like about the canons is the individual ink tanks. 3-4 different colors and 2 blacks. This is nice when you only need to replace one of the colors and not the all of them. When using the canon brand tanks they usually last a pretty long time, if I get some off bran tanks they tend to run out fairly quick, but at 3 bucks a piece I can buy 3-4 for the price of a canon brand tank.

 

[Cynicalone]

I use an older Canon MX850. It is an excellent all-in-one. I use Canon Ink Cartridges, which are very reasonable at Best Buy, and last a decent amount of time.

I can't personally vouch for the MX860, but given my experience with the MX850 I would feel fairly safe in recommending it.

 

[nanofrog]

HP's supplies are expensive, and are also chipped. That means, that even if you don't use all of it, once the date passes, it's still dead, and has to be replaced.

 

[cube]

The MX860 does not print discs and I'm not sure if it can fax from OSX (it can from Windows).

The HP Photosmart Premium All In One With FAX C309a does everything. It's the only printer I found like that.

If you want to print graphics on plain paper, you should look at the Canon MX7600, which besides the disc and fax caveats, is not wireless.

 

[candyman]

The MX860 does not print discs and I'm not sure if it can fax from OSX (it can from Windows).

The HP Photosmart Premium All In One With FAX C309a does everything. It's the only printer I found like that.

If you want to print graphics on plain paper, you should look at the Canon MX7600, which besides the disc and fax caveats, is not wireless.

The printing on discs is no big deal. The faxing from OS X would be nice, but we don't fax often enough that it would kill us always having to use the front control panel to enter the information.

The MX7600 looks sharp but would be out of my price range, especially considering the deals that are being run on the others this week.

The dilemma now is if it's worth the wait for the MX870 release with the possibility of spending an extra $50-100 for it if the deals expire. I really don't see anything different on the Canon product comparison chart other than 106.x being listed on the OS Compatibility. However, it seems the MX860 works just fine in Snow Leopard according to the responses here.

 

[candyman]

So, I made a quick trip over to Staples on my dinner break as they are the only ones who seem to carry and stock both of these models in store.

The HP OfficeJet Pro 8500 was nice, very quick. Only 4 ink tanks and 2 printheads.

The Canon was sleeker in design and quieter, although much slower. It felt much more solid too in the buttons and build. I like the minimalist design. The automatic door opening when you get ready to copy, print or fax was pretty cool too!

So, between the 2, as much as I like the quick speed of the HP, I think the overall package from Canon is the route I am going to go. Now, I just have to see if I want to wait until the new model (MX870) is released.

 

[cube]

The MX850 would be worth considering, if you find a deal.

It loses the wireless but it adds the disc printing (but also in the US?). Fax from Mac, same caveat.

But I guess you would prefer the wireless, for future-proofing.

More than 4 inks should mean better photos.

Beware the ADF. In the vast majority of printers it's not duplex, so you can't duplex scan or do true duplex copying automatically.

Canon has this already at least in the MX850, MX860, MX870 and MX7600.

The first HP printer I found with this was the C309a previously mentioned. Beware the "a". The C309g does not have an ADF, it has a touchscreen (there's an Epson also with a (big) touchscreen, but I found no duplex ADFs there).

 

[candyman]

The MX850 would be worth considering, if you find a deal.

It loses the wireless but it adds the disc printing (but also in the US?). Fax from Mac, same caveat.

But I guess you would prefer the wireless, for future-proofing.

More than 4 inks should mean better photos.

Beware the ADF. In the vast majority of printers it's not duplex, so you can't duplex scan or do true duplex copying automatically.

Canon has this already at least in the MX850, MX860, MX870 and MX7600.

The first HP printer I found with this was the C309a previously mentioned. Beware the "a". The C309g does not have an ADF, it has a touchscreen (there's an Epson also with a (big) touchscreen, but I found no duplex ADFs there).

I looked at an Epson with a large (7.x") touchscreen, Pretty nice, they are good looking machines. However, I am moving away from them now and wanted to go either HP or Canon. I think it'll end up being the Canon MX870 once it is released.