Multifunction printer - Any recommendations?

bobobrussel

My wife's cousin has asked me to recommend a multi-function inkjet printer/scanner/copier to her but don't have a clue. What do you recommend for less that £100? Are there any that accept cheap ink cartridges?

maxamos

I can't recommend a particular model but for cheap cartridges and print quality I've always found either Epson or Canon to be the best.

I'd recommend getting one with individual ink cartridges if you can as these always work out cheaper int the long run.

I'll have a look around and see if I can come up with any reviews and prices for you.

hth

Max

Keldin

I have a Canon MP110. It's a great printer - the cartridges are small but they aftermarket refilss are cheap. Scanning is good quality but be warned - the scanning is slow and I do mean slow. I've seen glaciers move faster. Luckily I don't scan much.
I don't think higher models are any faster.
Key things to decide are if you want a flatbed scanner (some models only have single page feed scanners) and do you want a feeder for scanning multiple pages (that would push teh price up).
For cheap refills see if teh model you are interested in has aftermarket cartridges available at some of the ink seller website.
Just in case you missed it - the scanning on my Canon MP110 is sssllloooowwww :-)

K

pigeonpie

Canon Smartbase MP360 is a really good multifunction. Scans multiple pages into one doc (well, usually), great quality colour scanning & simple to use. Printing's not the fastest even on USB 2 but the quality is good. It can be run with generic ink cartridges but only good quality ones produce decent photos.
It has 2 cartridges, black and colour but the colour one gives good results. Unless you do a lot of colour printing it does not chew ink either.
No idea of the price as bought it in the EU in a sale in 2004. As it's not their newer range, you may be able to find one at a good price.
The CD drivers got corrupted within a year but you can download them again from Canon's website for free.

headcovers

I use an HP2575 "All-in-one" printer with letter printing, photo printing, scanning and copying facilities.

It has all the card reader formats at the front for plugging in a variety of digital cards, as well as a USB port where you can plug in a bluetooth dongle (normally £20-£24) so you can do wireless printing.

It works very quickly both on scanning and printing and gives fantastic photo prints. It has separate colour and black printer cartridges.

Features:

• Stylish design and size
• Print speeds of up to 30 pages per minute (ppm) in black and up to 24 ppm in colour
• Built-in Ethernet networking with print, copy, and scan functions
• Large 2.5-inch QVGA color image display
• Print and view photos without a computer using the memory card slots
• Professional quality 4 x 6-inch photos
• Use HP Image Zone software to organize and edit photos
• Scan photos, documents and books directly to e-mail
• Quickly and easily e-mail photos

It is available from Amazon for £89.99.

John_Gray

I think you should be asking your wife's cousin what is the most important function in the multifunction printer for her: printing? scanning? copying? faxing? And if it's printing, does she want frequently to do colour photos, or just print letters from a word processor?

£100 is a pretty low budget for such a device, but see the reviews in Personal Computer World and in PC World (but just printers).

John

Skyhigh

To be honest, I wouldn't recommend multifunctional printers (I've had a few).

Drawbacks:
- If one thing breaks, the scanner or printer part, then you loose both functionality as you wait for it to be repaired/swapped, although you could live with one function not working...although then you may as well have bought them seperately?

- The ink cartridges are usualy *tiny tiny tiny*, especially in the Lexmark multifunctionals, they also tend to cost a packet.
The X1150 I had probably printed 50 pages total before running out, it cost me £50...the replacement (official) carts were £35 each, the cheaper copies were still £15 each...

- I've found that they're much more prone to software and hardware errors for some reason, as opposed to two seperate items.

- The go out of date much quicker, ok all technology is technically obselete after its produced, but the printer market moves faster than the scanner market, therefore it drags the total 'value' of the whole multifunctional unit down.

- Often, you have to cope with a severe drop in quality from the printer and scanner in a multifunctional unit - as opposed to spending the *same* amount on two seperate units. Have a look at the scanning resolutions and printer specs (pages per minute, res, ink usage, etc) on multifunctional units compared to both.

- Software updates are often quite infrequent, you also tend to find that you have one update for technically two pieces of software - the printer and scanner.
Problems arise when you find that the update causes driver/compatability issues with the printer unit, but the entire unit often will refuse to work.
Two units means two seperate driver updates, but you can choose which driver to install for each item.

- The "copy" functions are usually OK, but you often find that if you want a decent copy (say of a page in a magazine) you have to fiddle with the scanner settings....so you may as well have use a seperate scanner with a better resolution inthe first place.

Pros:
- They sometimes take up less space, this is not always true though, since you can often stand many scanners up on their side now and slide it next tothe base unit or computer desk.

- They, um, look better sometimes?

Or atleast the above has been my experience with multifunctional vs. seperate units.


I'd recommend buying a decent seperate printer and scanner.
For example, £50 will buy you a good Samsung ML1610 laser B/W printer, and the other £50 will buy you a very nice Canon Lide scanner with a great resolution.
(Also, if colour isn't required, the cost per page for laser printers may work out at about 0.083p per page since a £5 toner refill may do 6,000 pages. Yet an ink cartidge may cost £10 and print 200 pages - 5p per page.
Although official cartridges are often much more expensive.


:!: