Compact Printer

[SpAtZ]

Could anyone reccomend a small/compact printer for a dorm room? I don't need it to print photos, just need reliability. Anything under $100 would be great.

 

[mdickson]

just go to office depot and look around, i'd recommend an HP

 

[iKwick7]

While I personally don't like HP printers (had abd experiences with 2 of them), I strongly recommend the HP 3180.

It's cheap, it's pretty small, it's under $100 ($99 on apple.com but you can get it for around $80 in stores), and it's an all-in-one. My cousin got one with the free printer deal and I am pretty impressed with it.

 

[crazycat]

Dont get an HP, i always had problems with them. I had an HP printer here setup for my network and we always had problems. I got rid of it and got a Canon and i have 0 problems. I would never buy anything HP in my live me and HP dont get a long at all.

 

[SpAtZ]

I am still having a hard time finding a compact printer. I am looking for something like a PIXMA iP90, which is 12.5 inches wide. Most of the inexspensive printers are 17-18 inches wide.

 

[woodydr]

printer

pc world £39 canon put cd in sat up and go

 

[weg]

While I personally don't like HP printers (had abd experiences with 2 of them), I strongly recommend the HP 3180.

HP charges a premium for ink, and since the ink cartridges are protected by a chip you can't get third-party cartidges.
I also had some problems with the OS X driver of my HP, there was always a margin a the bottom of the paper, so some of the forms I wanted to print out were cut off. HP support suggested to rotate (!) the document before printing (no need to fix the driver, nay..).
Furthermore, some versions of the drivers only allow to specify the paper size in inch, which is pretty annoying if you are European..

 

[Atlasland]

I am still having a hard time finding a compact printer. I am looking for something like a PIXMA iP90, which is 12.5 inches wide. Most of the inexspensive printers are 17-18 inches wide.

Well, I got the ip90. Had it for a year so far. Good little printer.

The cartridges are expensive, so I just bought non-Canon cartridges, and they work fine (and are about 1/5th of the cost).

I also got the Bluetooth dongle, so I can have my printer on the other side of the room to my iMac . I tried to get the battery, but couldn't find it anywhere.

Anyway, I'm guessing the ip90 is a little out of your price range. If not, then I'd recommend it.

The only thing I don't like about it is the fact that I can't scan or photocopy with it, but that's hardly Canon's fault - just the limitations of its size. [Also, if you do get the Canon ip90, be sure to download its drivers from its website - it won't work out of the box without that.]

If you're interested, I think there's a very slim "brother" model that scans & copies. It is pretty small.

 

[PaulinMaryland]

...since the ink cartridges are protected by a chip you can't get third-party cartidges.

Not so. Many 3rd-party refilled cartridges are sold on eBay, at a fraction of the HP price. I stay with genuine HP for my black cartridge because it's pigment-based formula is more waterproof than dye-based inks. However, I routinely refill my HP color cartridges with 3rd-party inks.

The problem I've found with 3rd-party inks is that they send false "low on ink" messages.

Before buying a low-cost printer, check out the total cost of ownership. I suspect that HP and others lose money on the sale of low-end printers, calculating that they'll make it up in ink sales.

My daughter just started college. I bought her an HP 2300D (duplex), a business inkjet that uses four ink cartridges. The color cartridges are 28ml, but the black cartridge is 73ml, greatly lowering the cost per page. Unfortunately, the 2300D is neither small nor cheap. We got it because she wanted automatic duplexing and I wanted a low cost per page.