Printer recommendation please

Forums › Desktop computing › Printer recommendation please - for home office

RandBNZ

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#270151 25-Apr-2020 15:12

Sorry if this is the wrong forum, looking for some advice on a home office printer.

Needs to be wireless capable

Only needs to print A4 but will be printing both documents and a lot of photos - photo quality is important

Reasonable ongoing costs for ink

Be able to scan as well

I have tried looking online for reviews but most of the printers are not available here or sold out such as the Pixma TS9160.

I really only want to spend up to $200.

Any advice would be appreciated

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meow
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#2471155 25-Apr-2020 15:25

I know it is a little more price wise but consider looking into an Epson Ecotank printer. Like this one from Harvey Norman: Link.

Consider it this way - ink for printers is normally very expensive and laser is not that good for photos. The printer comes out of the box with 2 years worth of ink and I have indeed verified this (as my ecotank printer is over 2 years old now and have only used half of the included ink that came with it). It has been reliable, and has impressive print quality.

My partner does quite a bit of digital art and we print it on photo paper + frame it. Prints always come out well and has been an excellent unit. Ink refills are also incredibly cheap if you ever need them that is :)

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Wakrak

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#2471156 25-Apr-2020 15:28

Unsure on photo printing quality, but I have the Brother HL-3170CDW colour laser printer and it has been faultless. It does one job only and that's print.

Ink prices for it are ruthless, so I took a gamble and got compatible versions from Easyink and still no issues. Have it connected through ethernet but worked well with wifi too. Print from computer, phone, other, doesn't matter.

Unsure if it's still available to purchase these days, although I am selling my one just because it's too big for my small apartment.

Wakrak

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#2471157 25-Apr-2020 15:32

After a quick google, the HL-3170cdw is apparently awful for photo printing 😅 so look elsewhere.

Stu1

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#2471165 25-Apr-2020 15:52

Just brought an Epson 3105 great printer but man it’s terrible on ink economy

andrewNZ

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#2471170 25-Apr-2020 15:58

Do you REALLY need to scan? are there other suitable options?

I'm very fond of Microsoft office lens on my phone. It scans documents by photographing, cropping, & straightening them, and it does a phenomenal job.

Here is a very rough example of what it does automatically, it can do a LOT better if you get closer, but I took these from approximately the same position.

cyril7

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#2471182 25-Apr-2020 16:20

I also use my phone quite a bit for invoices and minor documents, but a 20page document is not going to fly without an adf.

Cyril

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lNomNoml

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#2471195 25-Apr-2020 16:48

michaelmurfy:

I know it is a little more price wise but consider looking into an Epson Ecotank printer. Like this one from Harvey Norman: Link.

Consider it this way - ink for printers is normally very expensive and laser is not that good for photos. The printer comes out of the box with 2 years worth of ink and I have indeed verified this (as my ecotank printer is over 2 years old now and have only used half of the included ink that came with it). It has been reliable, and has impressive print quality.

My partner does quite a bit of digital art and we print it on photo paper + frame it. Prints always come out well and has been an excellent unit. Ink refills are also incredibly cheap if you ever need them that is :)

This is the best option IMO, the savings on INK will pay for the extra cost over your $200 in no time. When our Brother printer needs to be replaced I'll replace with this.

richms

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#2471198 25-Apr-2020 16:51

You are asking for 3 different things, one device to do all 3 will suffer in many ways.

Documents on inkjet always look meh on plain paper because of the fibers in the paper wicking ink along them. Inkjet photos on real coated paper can look phenomenal. But you dont print documents like that.

So I would get a disposable priced inkjet for photos, and a decent black and white laser with an ADF scanner on it for documents. If you need to scan photos it may work ok, but often they have banding artifacts when doing photos.

Richard rich.ms

PJ48

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#2471260 25-Apr-2020 19:17

We have a Pixma G4610 that has the large tanks like the Epson eco tank. It seems to do all 3 things quite well. I would never go back to ink cartridges again.

timmmay

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#2471294 25-Apr-2020 20:32

Brother color laser is a great printer for documents, and scanning - get one that does double sided. Unless you need photos immediately, send the photos out to a photo lab, they get it right first time, printing yourself you often print a few times and it's a PITA (speaking as an ex professional photographer).

$200 is too low for what you want.

BuzzLightyear

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#2471311 25-Apr-2020 21:12

Ive had a 3150CDN for many years and rock solid for lots of printing for kids to wife (teacher) and my office work. Using good photo paper photos are okay. I’m sure there are better photo printers but this is a great all rounder.

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k1wi

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#2471340 25-Apr-2020 23:57

Just received my US$100 Brother HL-L2370DW.

I got burnt on my last cannon pixma (cartridge carriage error), so I’m going to get a non-canon photo printer.

K8Toledo

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#2471341 26-Apr-2020 00:15

Another vote for Brother. They just work without the quirks of say Canon or HP

I can't recommend HP printers it seems the software issues are endless at least in my experience.

Dingbatt

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#2471373 26-Apr-2020 08:34

Interesting that people are recommending Brother machines. I am on my second MFC, a MFC-4510 that replaced my MFC-5440. Purchased, if I’m honest, because it offered A3 printing, which at the time was useful for my son’s graphics projects. We used it for that purpose no more than half a dozen times.

I find the 4510 frustrating in that it often ‘goes missing’ on the network, and sometimes fails to wake from sleep requiring a hard reset to wake it up and get it back on line. It is a known fault with plenty of reports of problems online. Despite multiple firmware updates the problem persists. In general I don’t find Brother software (PC and mobile) particularly user friendly either.

Although I don’t have a different brand to compare it with, I have also read that Brother machines are heavy on ink. They offer great features for the price but next time I replace a printer it probably won’t be a Brother.

“We’ve arranged a society based on science and technology, in which nobody understands anything about science technology. Carl Sagan 1996

timmmay

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#2471388 26-Apr-2020 09:34

The brother software isn't awesome, but it's functional. I wish their scanning system was set up for volume rather than one-off - you can scan multiple pages of one document, but not many documents in a row without more clicks than should be necessary. But the printers are solid, and the service is good. The newer version of mine is this one, it says it does double sided scanning, which would be handy. Given I need to replace a couple of parts in mine which are $100 each I'll probably wait for a sale and just buy a new one. Hopefully they use the same toner cartridges :)

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