New Printer needed

[stephenh]

Mrs H. needs a new printer for her computer. She uses it quite a lot, so decent quality is more important (within reason!) than low price. 2 problems, neither of us really know anything about printers and computers, we just use them. Secondly, oh now I've forgotten what secondly was. It seems they are all made down to a price, in effect throw away whenever they go wrong. Scanning ability is quite important, and good definition is more important than speed, for photographs etc.

My eye has alighted on HP 4500 range, from Amazon. Are they any good, if not what should we be looking at?

When I needed a printer with good colour definition for photos some years ago we got good advice from a young man in PC World, but last time we replaced Mrs H's printer they were rubbish, the first 2 had to be taken back because they wouldn't work properly, so she is a bit reluctant to go back there and to accept their advice.

[Geoffrey Carter (Buttercup)]

I use a brother MFC J6720DW

And I like its ease of use and wireless facilities.

I found it easy to set up also.

It does everything very well in my opinion.

[Stuart]

Depends how much you're gonna use it.  If a lot then (due to ink/toner costs) I would go for a laser printer; if occasional use then go for an inkjet.  On inkjets particularly they try to catch you by discounting the printer and inflating the replacement ink cartridges, so you need to ensure good quality compatible cartridges are available for the printer you buy.

 

I bough a Canon MG5650 inkjet about 6 months ago and I'm very pleased with it.  It's a wireless (or wired if you prefer) printer/copier/scanner.  Cost me £60 and proper Canon replacement cartridges were £55.  So I got some good compatible ones for a tenner and they are just as good - not really worth worrying about warranty issues given those prices.  

[Gerry H]

I have a Canon MG6150 and had it for about 3 years. It's a good reliable printer/scanner/copier despite having lost its wireless connectivity function. Not sure about your wanting good photo quality though, I imagine you'd need something a little further up the range for that. Cheap compatible cartridges (6 of 'em) are readily available.

[BenD]

another vote for brother from me

i use my printer not very often but when i do its usually in large quantities and all of my other printers dried up but my brother just works every time

[SootySport]

I always stick with Canon printers. MG4650 is  better with photos, more dots per inch apparently,    Just bought a new set of genuine cartridges for £32 on ebay, there some bargains out there.

[stephenh]

The MG4650 Canon has been updated to a new model, although some are still available. I've just ordered the newer version (cant remember the number of it now!) via Amazon. As it is a Canon from their Pixma range I'm happy to rely on that suggestion, thanks. My own printer is an earlier and smaller Pixma. Mine is very slow but very high quality printing, so good for photographs. I do however find that it only really works if I use genuine Canon ink cartridges. I remember asking a friend of mine who was in the computer industry why it didn't like "compatible" cartridges, and he said it was because the Canon Pixmas used smaller ink jets, but more dots to the inch (hence good definition for photos etc) and the ink powder in the genuine cartridges was probably a finer powder, hence it didn't clog the jets, unlike some of the cheaper non-genuine ones.

Thanks for all the suggestions!

[jim_l]

Go laser if you can, inkjets are pretty much toys, ink costs a fortune, seems to dry up between uses and be generally less reliable.  I have a HP but low end laser, nice small footprint, 4 or 5 years on I can not use it for several months turn it on it works, quality is better I believe.    HP if you can but otherwise see reviews on cnet or somewhere,   the big names are all pretty good.

[Gerry H]

Go laser if you can, inkjets are pretty much toys, ink costs a fortune, seems to dry up between uses and be generally less reliable.  I have a HP but low end laser, nice small footprint, 4 or 5 years on I can not use it for several months turn it on it works, quality is better I believe.    HP if you can but otherwise see reviews on cnet or somewhere,   the big names are all pretty good.

 

How good are the cheap end lasers at reproducing photographs?

[dombanks]

i bought a hp laser multi function. its pretty good. awful to connect to the wireles in my house but a using a cable was a doddle. can do everything on it though the wireless now from a laptop. cost me £99 ex display but was about 170 normal

 

i disagree with the occasional use buy a inkjet. i had one and was spending a fortune on ink. everytime i went back to it i had to do several prints while it cleaned itself. the laser i could use once a month and it was fine.

[SootySport]

The MG4650 Canon has been updated to a new model, although some are still available. I've just ordered the newer version (cant remember the number of it now!) via Amazon. As it is a Canon from their Pixma range I'm happy to rely on that suggestion, thanks. My own printer is an earlier and smaller Pixma. Mine is very slow but very high quality printing, so good for photographs. I do however find that it only really works if I use genuine Canon ink cartridges. I remember asking a friend of mine who was in the computer industry why it didn't like "compatible" cartridges, and he said it was because the Canon Pixmas used smaller ink jets, but more dots to the inch (hence good definition for photos etc) and the ink powder in the genuine cartridges was probably a finer powder, hence it didn't clog the jets, unlike some of the cheaper non-genuine ones.

Thanks for all the suggestions!

Yes, new models seem to come out every couple of months.     I also use genuine ink cartridges, the cheaper ones are allright just for printing in black only and they are very prone to leak and mess the print head up.  All the genuine makes seem to offer more colourfast photo prints but why so expensive for a few Milli litres of ink.

Will consider a laser printer when my present printer gives up, the prices are slowly coming down.

[Dommo]

Has anyone used the instant ink thing for HP? Where you pay a certain amount a month and get ink cartridges every so often?

[Lawrie]

My wife used to print loads - about 2 packs of paper a month, so I bought an HP Officejet Pro 8100, and its put up with it all.  It works well on photographs too.  It has separate ink tanks plus a printer head, so the ink is effectively cheap, but expensive to buy as you get a tankfull rather than a couple of teaspoons full.  I've just replaced it as the printer head was going after 5 years (and cheap ink!), and like most of these things, it doesn't cost much more than a set of cartridges.  Bit on the big side though.

 

I didn't go for an all in one, as I have a Canon scanner that also does negatives and slides, so all my pictures are now digital.  took ages

[Trevor Little (Trevturtle) - Treasurer]

Pm me your email if you want to get an hp printer. I will send you an invite to the hp friends and family site. Some very good discounts occasionally on printers, laptops etc

Some printer discounted until Sunday for black weekend

[iain m]

I bought a inexpensive HP Envy 5530 with £1.99 a month cartridge replacement almost a year ago. No more trying to buy substitute cartridges at alleged lower cost that backfires when you get cartridges that simply won't work. Plugged my printer in signed up for the ink deal which you are not libel for until the existing ink is low when they tell you replacements are required and send in good time. Brilliant scheme.