Recommendations on printers

[Fredstar]

Afternoon everyone,
I am after a printer for my future imac and just wondering what you guys would recommend.
I just need a printer that can print Word and excel documents with colour and black content well. I don't need a printer to print off pictures or anything else.
Budget is max about £150, a compact one would be nice and an aesthetically pleasing one but i am not that bothered tbh.
thanks
Fredstar

 

[QCassidy352]

hey, so glad you posted. My parents' printer just died, and I was wondering pretty much exactly the same thing (same price range, or a bit cheaper, and same requirements). I know that I've not had much sucess with epson in the past... they always seem nice at first, and then go batty. 🙂

 

[neonart]

I have a HP 5150 (I think the 5650 has replaced it) wich is a fairly inexpensive $100 printer that works great! I always had problems with my Epson C80 even though at the time it was a more expensive printer.

This HP has been great, and seems to do well with ink, but it does not get used all the time as my default printer is a laser.

A good idea is to use a laser printer for day to day stuff and a nice inkjet for projects, etc. Both are very affordable these days.

 

[thecow]

If you are going to buy a mac, apple has a deal that you can get $100 or £65 off of a hp printer. I have a deskjet 5550 and it is a great printer. I also have a old apple 4/600 ps laserwriter with a adapter to hook it up to the network. It is great for black and white and the toner lasts forever. You might find one on ebay.

 

[Mechcozmo]

I have a Deskjet 825C. It was made years ago, but it has amazing Black & White text printing abilities. It also has a USB cable. Plus, the print cartridges are freakin' huge. I use maybe one color cartridge a year, and 1.5 black cartridges. Kinda beige but overall it looks pretty nice. It sits under my desk...🙂 Cost nowadays: rather cheap.

Our family has a Deskjet 5800, which is a network printer. It is a wireless network printer. It also has amazing print clarity. But the dinky print cartridges.... sigh. Also, to set it up, you need to change to the printers default subnet. It is changeable, but it was a hassle when trying to figure out why it wasn't showing up... after I changed it to our network's subnet it was up and running fast. Cost: $150 USD, but with the HP printer deal it was only $51. Read the fine print on the HP thing and you will see that it is really just $99 off any HP deskjet printer. 😀

I would convert the prices but Google doesn't seem to be recognizing it as something I want to do. Sigh...

 

[nels0360]

The best way to go would be Canon. They recently release the pixma line. For $150 USD, you can pick up the Pixma 4000 which is a great printer and has had excellent reviews. It will even print your occasional picture very well if needed.

 

[JasonL]

Another good budget printer is the Epson C86. I like it quite a bit more than the printer it replaced, an HP 960. Color is surprisingly good, and it prints text very quickly.

With regard to the reliability issue that QCassidy 352 (go BoSox, btw!) brought up: my last two printers were HPs and I had reliability issues with both of them.

Another upside to the C86 is that it uses 4 toner cartridges and I am spending less money now on toner than I did with the HPs.

 

[puckhead193]

I have a HP 5150 (I think the 5650 has replaced it) wich is a fairly inexpensive $100 printer that works great!

I have that same printer for my pb. I got it for free because i bought with the computer.... its great, it does the job well and fast

 

[wwworry]

I have just about given up on ink jet printers. Ink is expensive. It dries up on the printing head. The epsons won't allow you to print in balck and white if one of the colors is out. Just when you need it, it comes up spotty.

I do almost all of my printing on a samsung laser printer (less than $100 US with rebates) and am much happier. The benefit of color is not worth the hassle. But if I were to get another color inkjet it would be a canon.

 

[zagato27]

Canon i580

I was using a HP Deskjet 970CSE when I had my PC. After I got my G5 I used it but didn't seem to be Mac friendly. Even with driver updates it would stop and I had to delete print jobs and start over. Just a pain. I did like the way it handled envelopes though....special slot that you would insert them into...nice. Anyway, I picked up a Canon i580 knowing that I would be using it to print digital camera pictures and it is GREAT! You'll have to read up on but they have the smallest "spray nozzels". All I can say is that the prints it produces are super. I, read the family, uses the Mac for about everything. School work...high school, college etc. and it seems pretty good to me. Relatively fast and the print quality is good. It also has a slot for printing directly from a digital camera memory, printbridge I believe. That I don't use so I really can't comment. I just use the usb to download my pics to iPhoto. Ah, I should mention that the price was right: about $80 after a $30 Canon rebate. Ink use seems ok. It has four cartriges and it will tell you when low. Price to replace seems about the same as any other. The black reservoir is slightly bigger than the others but you can't "supersize" it like you could with the HP....oh well. Anyway, I suggest you look at the Canon line. In my opinion they make some great printers. Cheers 😉

 

[QCassidy352]

thanks for the advice guys. 🙂 I currently have an Epson C84 and I really like it (it's my family that needs one) but I always like my Epsons... just until they crash and burn. I like Canon products in general, and haven't really had experience with HPs. I'll probably check out a few of the options you all have listed...

 

[joepunk]

One reason why I like my new HP 5740 is that it is, IMHO, smaller than Epson or Canon. Hp dose not have the paper feed on top and I can place the printer in a small inclosure and have stuff on top of it. I got a $99 rebate with the purchase of my laptop for the printer but I was charged and paid for a $89 hp printer 😀

Going from a hp 660c to a 5740 was a real shock for me in terms of printing speed 😱

I wanted an inexpecsive printer for school and I am happy with what I got.

 

[AmigoMac]

I like my Canon i550, now they have i960 or whatever and that new line, they look amazing and the reviews are good, take a look... Canon, yes...

 

[believo]

I've had problems with HPs in the past and have been using and buying EPSONs for a while now... but I have also heard the opposite.
I currently own an EPSON 1280, so far so good. good luck!

 

[cube]

If you are not going to print a lot, an inkjet is OK. I bought an HP 970cxi a couple of years ago because it can print double sided. That and the 990cxi are selling used for about 30 pounds in ebay.co.uk (with duplexer).

Of course, it's not fast. If you want something faster, go to the HP site and check out the new midrange inkjets. The cheapest one that can print double sided lists for 90 USD, but you have to add the cost of the duplexer.

 

[kylos]

Whatever you do, don't go cheap and buy a lexmark. They are utter crap.

 

[neut]

epson is the ****.

HPs are rebaged.

canons are cheap and so is the ink (prints decent)

laser is for text.

get a laser if your just doing text, get a canon ink if you plan on printing pics once in awhile. buy an HP if you like to buy expensive ink (print heads are in every cartridge).


peace.

 

[Fredstar]

Whatever you do, don't go cheap and buy a lexmark. They are utter crap.

I know, Lexmark are terrible. We got one with our Dell, this was ages ago!, and it has never printed anything well or right.
I am thinking of getting the HP Deskjet 6540, what u guys think of that printer?

 

[spinner]

I recommend the Canon line of printers. They typically has lower ink costs than other competitors printers and noticably quieter operation. I had always used Epson printers until I seen a i960 in action. Definitely, worth a look, you won't reget it.

 

[jimjiminyjim]

Why is it that everyone in this thread who has a laser printer failed to mention the make and model number?? *grumble*

 

[neonart]

Why is it that everyone in this thread who has a laser printer failed to mention the make and model number?? *grumble*

Thats true. 😀

I use a Lexmark Optra S 1625 (network). It'll take a 17K page cartridge, but after like 3 years I'm still on the first 7.5K cartridge and have another still in the box. Lexmark makes good lasers, but shotty inkjets.

You can find this printer on eBay cheap! In good shape with low page counts they're in the $150 range. Then again you can get one of the new Samsungs for $99 almost anywhere. Not the same capacity, but still more pages than any inkjet.