New printer

[Richard C]

My 7 year old HP Deskjet recently expired so I need to get a replacement. Trying to decide which to go for but things have changed a bit & the "on line" reviews I’ve read so far don’t seem to point in any particular direction; bit sceptical about those anyway! There seems to be no clear “shiner” in the market & they all seem to be adopting chip technology that prohibits home refilling or more realistically priced 3rd part cartridges; I was looking to return to Epson with their individual cartridges but some have reported a failure to recognising even genuine cartridges! I also have an Epson Perfection scanner (about the same age) which gives good scan quality but, with the advent of 3 in 1, I’m tempted to go for one of those & upgrade both at the same time but should I go stand alone or 3 in 1?
Basic requirements are:
• Budget to mid price range, ideally no more than around £80
• Good print (& scan quality if 3 in 1) allowing reproduction of photos but speed is not really an issue
• Reasonably priced ink cartridges with, hopefully, an option to refill
• Printing direct from memory card or wireless is not really a requirement

The benefit of any recent personal experience would be appreciated.

 

[JohnD]

How many pages do you print in a year (look up your spend on paper)?

How much do you spend on ink cartridges?

Do you do much colour printing?

Do you mostly print black on white text?

Do you print many photos?

 

[Richard C]

Hi John

How many pages do you print in a year (look up your spend on paper)?

Not intensive on the inkjet; I also have a laser printer which does most of the donkey work on documents & general carp. Paper cost is not an issue, it costs me nothing!

How much do you spend on ink cartridges?

Generally a couple of each a year which, with my current HP printer, would amount to approx £60. But that’s using 3rd party refills; the HP cartridges for my particular printer are rather expensive & would be nearer £100!

Do you do much colour printing?

Not really as I also have a monochrome laser printer so colour is mainly used for photos or special documents so quality is more an issue than print/scan speed. [/quote]

Do you mostly print black on white text?

On the laser as above.

Do you print many photos?

Mainly what it’s used for so, yes.

 

[JohnD]

OK, you have outwitted me

(I was thinking you might do better with a laser printer for most stuff, and something cheap for your photos, but you've already thought of that).

Looking at the recent "Which" test on Photo Printers (they pay a lot of attention to total cost of ownership includings ink cost) their 5 "best buys" were:

EPSON
PictureMate 280

EPSON
PictureMate 290

EPSON
PictureMate 240

EPSON
PictureMate 260

Sony
DPP-FP95

Prices found were in the £100 - £200 range.

That's in order of test scores, but they are all close in ratings, the Sony being a few points behind the others.

The 280 and the 240 scored best on picture quality.
The 280 has its own CD writer (for if you do not have a PC) which presumably puts the price up and is otherwise the same as the 240.

I did not look at them all but they seem to be saying 20p of ink and high quality photo paper per 6"x4" photo. The Sony was 22p..

 

[Richard C]

Hi John, thanks for that. I did visit the Which website (used to subscribe to the mag years ago) & was wondering about the reports but was too tight to pay the £1 fee; seems like the Epson wins hands down! My original thought was to go for Epson (had one before the HP) & was all set when I read several reports about the ink cartridge chip technology (stops 3rd party refilling) playing up & printers refusing to recognise even genuine cartridges; bad enough you can't refill but not recognising genuine cartridges could be inconvenient to say the least; did the Which reviews mention anything about this?

 

[JohnD]

I didn't notice it in that review

They recommended buying inks in bulk by post for better value..

They did have an article about refilling inks a while ago, and one about using remanufactured ones, IIRC they said they don't always work right, but if not they said send it back and get a refund.

My local Tescos sells own-branded ink cartidges for the more popular printers

 

[Richard C]

Cheers.