Hi, our old Lexmark has died. Looking for recommendations for a home printer available for purchase in Sydney, ideally under $100 with:
B/W & colour printing, scanner, copier, reasonable quality photo printing, inexpensive toner cartridges, wifi - perhaps with fax? Is this asking for too much? I thought that the 'Epson XP-310 Wireless Color Photo Printer with Scanner and Copier' looked promising but has been discontinued by the manufacturer and is available only on Amazon. We print mostly B/W text and some colour photos - on average 10 pages/day. Thank you for any and all recommendations.
Need Recommendations for Laser Printer in Sydney under $100
aretsa9 on 26/11/2015 - 13:05
Last edited 26/11/2015 - 13:24 by 1 other user
Last edited 26/11/2015 - 13:24 by 1 other user
Comments
I haven't print any photos for years.
But if I need to print a photo today, as mentioned by QW3RTY, I'll go to dept store photo printing (Officeworks, BigW, HN, Woolworths, Kmart).I saw this when browsing on HN store
http://www.harveynorman.com.au/cameras-printers-stationary/p…I personally haven't use this printer nor shop around for cheaper price, but 4 1/2 star of 165 reviews seems pretty decent.
If you are going to print a lot of colour/photos, buy a reasonable inkjet and install a continuous ink system.
Thanks a million, everyone, for your help. I like the price of the HN printer naturally, Cimot. The reviews look really good. Just wondering if the only real drawback of inkjet is that it's slower? All articles I've seen say that laser is better quality and faster. Since we don't print that much, it would not be a big handicap. As for photos, I will go with your suggestions, QW3RTY and Cimot, thanks for explaining. Can you recommend a networkable printer with Ethernet connectivity as even the cheapest OW wireless printer is out of our budget range? Sorry, I'm not tech savvy- perhaps most printers are networkable? We do have a wireless router. Many thanks for taking the time.
No worries! Let me have a look today and see if I can recommend any, unless you've already picked one up over the weekend.
You're right in saying that laser is faster than an inkjet — so you'll definitely get through larger print jobs quicker than an inkjet.
Quality is also another improvement. A cheap laserjet will print a better quality than a cheap inkjet — but results may vary. This is just an observation I've made between mono-Lasers and mono-Inkjets.One key piece of advice for buying a printer is to pay close attention to the cost of consumables. When I worked back at an Officeworks, people would come in absolutely dead set on buying a cheap $59 inkjet printer and would not listen to me when I suggested an alternative — which is fair enough, customer is always right (snigger). However, they were mortified when they came back into the shop to buy replacement ink cartridges and were charged $60 for black and $70 for mixed-colour cartridges. Cheaper inkjets tend to sell very cheap to entice people into having to purchase more expensive consumables.
Another key difference between inkjets and lasers — inkjet cartridges are effectively plastic containers with a reservoir of liquid ink and a sponge near the applicator. Over time, the ink has a tendency to dry out, which may reduce an unused cartridge in a printer down to 50% over the course of a month. Laser cartridges don't suffer from this issue as much, and may end up stretching your dollar further if you don't do a tremendous amount of printing.
As I said, I might have a browse around for some cheaper lasers and recommend what I can — but I'm sure other OzBargainers might have their own opinions as well.
Thanks a million for taking so much time to offer advice and guidance. I looked at models in Officeworks at the weekend (some items I need to see in the flesh :). Impressed with Fuji Xerox CM225 FW but out of my price range. More palatable was Fuji Xerox CM115 without fax (but we don't fax much). One question, does Airprint compatible mean that the printer will work with all Mac operating systems including El Capitan? Many thanks again for your help.
Laser, reasonable quality photo printing and inexpensive toner cartridges is the cruellest trilemma of the 21st century.
Unfortunately, yes — I think you are asking for too much. A laser multifunction with good photo printing, network compatibility and cheap high yielding cartridges simply doesn't exist in the $100-$200 price range in my experience
Here's Officework's range of Colour Laser Multifunctions. Have a look over the specs, find what you want and what you don't want — and you can make an assessment about how much you want to pay for each of the features.
<Money saved> I'd forego photo printing at home. You can get Kodak prints from Officeworks for 10-15c, they're much more expensive when you print them yourself at home on the photo paper.
<Money saved> I'd just get a networkable printer with Ethernet connectivity. That way you can hook into your wireless router (assuming you have one) and save yourself some money off one of those multifunctions that have the inbuilt wireless card.