All in one printer or seperates?

[MJB]

I'm soon to be wanting to buy a new printer & scanner. My current one (Lexmark X83) is not very impressive at all and I've been 'advised' to look at HP machines as they have a good record of quality.

Has anyone got any experience with them and / or advice in general?

Anything much appreciated.

[SMHarman]

What do you print, what do you scan.

HP make good laser and inkjet printers and scanners. I think Epson makes better photo printing inkjet though.

You can get very good black and white laser printers now for around £60-100, the HP 1150 or Samsung being two that spring to mind, the cost per printed page is much lower (around 2p) than inkjet. No good if you print lots of pictures though.

Whats your budget, how much room do you have. Personally I would get a scanner, b&w laser and inkjet, the TCO should be lower.

[MJB]

I scan occasionally (like the birthday / Christmas cards sent by the children; school reports) but do little photo printing because what I have at the moment is so awful.

I do print CD labels and other coloured documents done in Publisher. If the quality was there I'd print more photos.

Looking around £100 BTW.

[Shaun]

We've got a Canon MP360, its excellent, and the carts only cost 1.99 from www.refreshsystems.com

Saying that I've also got a Brother HL-1430 thats still on its first tona and I've printed about 4000 sheets on it since I got it in Jan!

At £34.07 for a toner cart is so much cheaper than printing with one of the ink-jets!

34.07/4000 = 0.85p per page

[Neil]

I've got an Epson CX6400 Printer/Scanner/Copier, & I think it's about the best 'multifunction device' I've ever owned.

The quality of photos is superb (as long as you use genuine Ink ), & so far the reliability has been spot on (& I do make it sweat when I'm printing out shedloads of covers )

[paulyoung666]

epson c84 for £50 , well impressed with the quality of photos

[Mal]

I got a Canon MPC200 last year. Very good quality scanning & printing. It's quick and the ink cartridges are reasonable cheap (compared to HP).

[Ramrod]

We have a HP 1012 B&W laser printer. It's fast and very quiet (and cheap)

[ntl customer]

Avoid the multifunction devices. If one part breaks down then you have to chuck the whole lot (or have a very large scanner or flat topped printer ).

I've just bought a Canon i560 printer for £84 at PC World (I know but PC World offered the best price out of the lot online and in the high street - except John Lewis - £79, but sold out for weeks and not getting stock for ages).

Print out quality is reasonable, not done any photos on it though. Takes a good few prints and cleans to 'break it in' and get the ink flowing - all of the first printouts were all hideously bandy on solid blocks of colour.

[snodvan]

I have had a Canon i550 for over a year now - and I think it is BRIL! B&W text (full A4 pages) are mid-teens per minute and colour photos are really excellent using Kodak Ultima Picture paper. Cartriges I get from Tesco. I cannot remember the exact cost (~£4 I think) which is a LOT better than for the Lexmark I used to use.

This printer is AMAZINGLY quiet in operation.

I would now always buy another Canon.

[andygrif]

Agree with ntl_customer about all in ones.

Saying that, some of the deals on all in ones are pretty good....I saw an HP scan/print/copy machine in Curry's for about 50 quid the other day, and the print quality was pretty good.

Considering you'll be likely to spend the best part of that on a low-end scanner these days it might be a better option.

Also, take into consideration what you want to do with the kit...

If you want to print true photo quality prints of digital pictures, it is worth spending more (have a look at the HP 7762 in PC World) stunning results (but the lever for switching between A4 and 7x6 photo cards is flimsy - I know I broke one!) but apart from that it is a superb bit of kit - they're about 120 quid now (they were 200).

Scanners, if you just want to do a bit of casual scanning, then pretty much all scanners these days produce good results. If you want to scan transparancies or negatives then you will need to spend a little more. I saw a review of a Mustek 4800 that said it was the best scanner under £200 they had seen, and it was only 60 quid.

If space is no option, and you can afford a little more, then I would personally go with separates.

[MJB]

Good Lord so much advice for me here that I think I will need to get at least four different ones

Space IS a problem as my current "all in one" sits under a desk unit and there is JUST enough room to put the paper in the feed.

One further question if I may: if you do not use your printer for a while (say a few weeks or more) will it do the ink cartridges / jets harm and dry or block them up? Mine is in the dining room, therefore it is always at a constant temperature, but maybe a little humid with central heating on. Just a thought.

Anyway - thanks to all for your input. There is a lot to think about

[dilli-theclaw]

When I was in argos yesterday I saw a HP psc1205 all in one (with 4800dpi printing) for £49.99

I've owned three inkjet printers, the first was an HP and the last two were Epson. I want my old HP back .. Both Epsons have had dreadful problems with clogged nozzles, and the head cleaner utilities for both of them are completely useless. The room the printers have all lived in is not excessively hot or cold, humid or dry, so I can only believe that Epson is to blame. Plus of course the first Epson was dead when I bought it and had to be replaced, and the call centre nerd I spoke to prior to taking it back to the shop was the most unbelievably rude moron I have ever had the displaeasure to talk to.

[dilli-theclaw]

Originally Posted by Chris T

I've owned three inkjet printers, the first was an HP and the last two were Epson. I want my old HP back .. Both Epsons have had dreadful problems with clogged nozzles, and the head cleaner utilities for both of them are completely useless. The room the printers have all lived in is not excessively hot or cold, humid or dry, so I can only believe that Epson is to blame. Plus of course the first Epson was dead when I bought it and had to be replaced, and the call centre nerd I spoke to prior to taking it back to the shop was the most unbelievably rude moron I have ever had the displaeasure to talk to.

I used to have only HP printers - then I had a lexmark all in one - what a pile of SH*T it was - So I went back to a HP - the one that is now £49.99 above as it happens

I've never looked back - it is - however - irritating that it's almost cheaper for me to get another printer instead of getting new ink cartridges for it.