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Printer Comparision

R

rockandrule

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Aug 3, 2004
448
0
Jacksonville, FL
Alright guys,
I'm looking at buying a printer for college tomorrow. I already have an HP Photosmart 2610, but the trek over to my girlfriend's dorm to print out simple text is a little too much, especially for late night printing. So, the competition is between the HP Photosmart 8250, HP Deskjet 6620, Canon iP4000, and Canon iP4200. I'm looking at the print quality, speed, and cost-effectiveness of these printers. What are your guys' suggestions?
 
rockandrule said:
No, I love my 2610, it's just not located in my dorm. It's about a ten minute walk if I want to print anything. Inconvience is evident.
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Oh, ok. Sorry didn't realize that was the printer at your gf's house. I think the Canon printers will save you on ink and I think they have better print quality as well. Either one you mentioned should be fine.
 
See, I know Canon cartridges are typically cheaper, but the yield is what worries me. Unless, HP posts completely incorrect data about their catridge yields, a 96 cartridge should print out a maximum yield of 800 pages with a 5% spread. That number is insane compared to the supposed 500 on the Canons.
 
Ip4200

Get that one. You won't regret it. Highest dpi (9600x2400), Smallest droplet size (1 picoliter - 5 picoliter), 29 pages per minute text on draft, 21 ppm color on draft, 2 paper trays, 2 sided printing, Individual ink tanks, Chromalife100 inks and so on. Any questions just ask. I know almost everything about most printers as it is my job to at the moment.
 
If you're looking for a printer for primarily B&W text, you may consider a monochrome laser printer.
There are several good models which you could get for <$100 & the per page cost is cheaper than comparable inkjet models.
Recent models which may be available new from vendors with stock left (or used on ebay) include Samsung ML-1740 and HP-1012.
The replacement for these models are the Samsung ML-2010 & HP-1020 (or 1022 for Macs).

These may be worth a look. Good luck!
 
Prelude2Tragedy said:
Ip4200

Get that one. You won't regret it. Highest dpi (9600x2400), Smallest droplet size (1 picoliter - 5 picoliter), 29 pages per minute text on draft, 21 ppm color on draft, 2 paper trays, 2 sided printing, Individual ink tanks, Chromalife100 inks and so on. Any questions just ask. I know almost everything about most printers as it is my job to at the moment.
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Dang, I'm sold and I don't even want a printer
 
Yeah, I worked at Office Depot up until a little over a month ago, and obviously these new iP4200s and 8250s either JUST came out as I was leaving or hadn't come out yet. Now, can you attest that the yield should be about the same for the iP4200 as the HP 6620?
 
I'd go for an HP, from my experience, I've never liked Canon. I have a 6840 that is great. It was expensive ($200) but it gets great quality and goes at 30 ppm. (I should also mention they have a model just like mine without the built in wireless for about $100 at costco.) But ya, anyways I would go for an HP.
 
rockandrule said:
Yeah, I worked at Office Depot up until a little over a month ago, and obviously these new iP4200s and 8250s either JUST came out as I was leaving or hadn't come out yet. Now, can you attest that the yield should be about the same for the iP4200 as the HP 6620?
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Realistically, I highly doubt that the hp tank can print 800 pages. Unless theres not much to print on those pages and its done on super draft mode. That being said i dont believe the canon will reach their estimated yield either. The canon tank is 27ml and the HP is 21. Both ink tanks will have little waste to them from cleaning and such but i doubt that the canon would "waste" or use up soo much more ink that it isnt the better value. The canon ink is $16 and can be found cheaper online. The black cartridge for HP is $30 and im sure can also be found cheaper online. By those prices and size of the ink tanks, i dont believe there is any possible way that the canon will not be cheaper to print from unless 60% of the ink is stolen by printer goblins. Color printing is also advantageous since you can replace the color that is out. When you do the math on the color tanks you'll find that it is also cheaper in cost per ml theory and such.

Overall, im not exactly sure what exact yield that you will have from either printer. It all depends what ya print. However, im sure you find the quality of the canon much better than the HP especially in the Photo output. Plus you get the more than useful features of two-sided printing and dual paper paths.
 
Isn't the Canon iP4200 the first in the line to replace the iP4000?

In any case, from what I've heard, they're both excellent printers and the iP4000's been dropping in price a lot lately. It also happens to have a $20 rebate or a $70 rebate w/ Canon digital camera, I believe.

I was looking into buying the iP4000 for the $70 rebate with my relatively new camera, but with a newer line coming out, I'll probably just mooch off the college's printers until I can save up some money. :D
 
If you were to read the real world tests about the HP you would see those numbers are off and the cost per tank is still higher (at least around my area) than the Canon. Go to MacWorld and look at the reviews on the HP and see what it takes to get good printing.
Prelude2Tragedy hit it on the head but also better paper goes along way also with ink (I've worked in the printing/paper industry for over 12yrs. myself).
My Canon i960 prints a lot of pages (text) and so I have watched how many pages "Black" text I got to one ink tank. One tank lasted about 500 sheets even though it said change the ink it still was able to get about 500 sheets, not bad for $10.50 (cost of tank). Hope this helps ;)
 
rockandrule said:
Alright guys,
I'm looking at buying a printer for college tomorrow. I already have an HP Photosmart 2610, but the trek over to my girlfriend's dorm to print out simple text is a little too much, especially for late night printing. So, the competition is between the HP Photosmart 8250, HP Deskjet 6620, Canon iP4000, and Canon iP4200. I'm looking at the print quality, speed, and cost-effectiveness of these printers. What are your guys' suggestions?
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I'm gonna go with HP. I've owned 3 HP printers (Deskjet 842c and 5740; and 1 PSC 1210v) and they all have been great. All of them cost under $100 and have had great print quality. Plus HP's ink isn't that expensive. I've had my Deskjet 5740 for 10 months and I just changed the color ink cartridge like 1 1/2 months ago. That cartridge was only $20 from Wal-Mart and also came with 50 sheets of 4x6 photo paper.

Plus since you've already used an HP and seen how much of a good printer it is, why go with a brand that you have never personally used (Nothing bad against Canon, I've personally never used one).
 
Stay away from HP. I used to love them. But their quality has gone from really high on my chart, to really low. They are now made out of cheap plastic, are noisy, prints out 3 pages on draft quality and then complains it needs more ink, I've had 2 ink cartriges fail :confused:, etc.

I spent $179 on my HP PhotoSmart printer. I got an epson C86 free with my powerbook. The Epson has better quality prints, its quieter, faster, and doesn't shoot the paper across the room when it comes out of the printer.

I had 2 HPs before my photosmart, and they were much better.

I like how the epson and canons have the individual color cartridges. Much more economical.
 
Well, being that I was worried about cost-effectiveness of these machines, I ended up comparing the "maximum yield" of the printers to see which would be the cheapest. I ended up doing 6 different printers; HP Deskjet 6620, HP Photosmart 8250, Canon iP4000, Canon iP4200, Canon iP6000D, and Canon iP5000. I ended up getting the iP4000 today. With the given yields it ends up being the cheapest cost per page (same with the iP5000, since it uses the same ink set-up). I'd advise people to stay away from the HPs if they're looking for a good cost-efficient machine. The HPs ran almost two times the amount per page of the Canons. Although I haven't tried out any photos on this printer (I didn't buy it for this reason), it has proven to be a great little machine so far. Fast, economical, good photos, and duplexing; you can't go wrong with this machine.

Also, you can get the iP4000 at Circuit City for only $120, plus you get a $20 mail-in rebate from Canon. Great deal if you ask me!
 
Well all I know is that all my HP's have been nothing but excellent printers. My Deskjet 5740 prints the best pictures I have ever seen and I always get excellent comments on how amazing the pictures look. Plus HP's footprint are smaller than some of the Canon's which is a good thing since I don't have a lot of room on my desk. I'll have to look at Canon next time I buy a printer (won't be for a long time), but for now my HP is excellent.
 
Prelude2Tragedy said:
Ip4200

Get that one. You won't regret it. Highest dpi (9600x2400), Smallest droplet size (1 picoliter - 5 picoliter), 29 pages per minute text on draft, 21 ppm color on draft, 2 paper trays, 2 sided printing, Individual ink tanks, Chromalife100 inks and so on. Any questions just ask. I know almost everything about most printers as it is my job to at the moment.
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Ok I am asking you a question, so maybe you can help. Does the IP4200 work well with Tiger and with Iphoto. I am looking for a printer that works great with these 2 items. I have heard that the IP 6000 D is also good. Can you help?
Kathy
 
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