Printer recommendation please

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Geektastic

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#261713 11-Dec-2019 15:09

I am finding myself a bit bamboozled by the myriad of printers and printer tech.

I am looking for a printer that can do the following:

Wifi access
Mobile device access
Colour
Photographs (not to the standard of something like a Canon Prograf 1000 but to a reasonable standard)
Scanning
Normal B&W documents

There are so many and every Top 10 seems to list a different 'best choice'! I do not buy printers often enough to have a particular feeling on whose are best VFM, most reliable, best results etc etc

I wondered if any GZers might chime in with their experience?

Budget is up to $1,000 and the machines printing to the printer are Apple iMacs, iPhones, Android phone and tablets.

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Hmm, what to write...
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#2372558 11-Dec-2019 15:42

i just got this for $412 inc delivery +$150 cash back on Monday. got it from computer food

Full A3, and scans to email, I have always had lasers in the past so this one seems to print quite good colour photos to me.

https://www.warehousestationery.co.nz/product/W2215427.html

Matthew

OldGeek

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#2372567 11-Dec-2019 15:55

Your needs are fairly basic with so many inexpensive printers available to do what you require. Personally I use an HP Officejet 6960 which pricespy lists around $175. It does all that you require and additionally it includes an Automatic Document Feeder (ADF) to scan multiple pages, a flatbed (1 page at a time) scanner, WIFI connectivity, direct connectivity to mobile phones.

There are many printers just like this one. To narrow your search down you will need to decide on inkjet versus laser, resolution capability, print media (ie just plain paper/card etc) and running costs.

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FineWine

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#2372664 11-Dec-2019 17:58

We are very happy with our Brother LASER MFC-9340CDW. It does good photo's and text and fore-fills all your other requirements. We chose laser after 20 odd years of InkJet and we are finding the laser more economical mainly because it does not have to keep self cleaning etc.

We initially ordered the cartridges X 4 from the Tech Warehouse for $449 delivered but PB Tech offered them a bit cheaper (genuine items).

Whilst the difficult we can do immediately, the impossible takes a bit longer. However, miracles you will have to wait for.

mdooher

Hmm, what to write...
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#2372668 11-Dec-2019 18:04

FineWine:

We are very happy with our Brother LASER MFC-9340CDW. It does good photo's and text and fore-fills all your other requirements. We chose laser after 20 odd years of InkJet and we are finding the laser more economical mainly because it does not have to keep self cleaning etc.

We initially ordered the cartridges X 4 from the Tech Warehouse for $449 delivered but PB Tech offered them a bit cheaper (genuine items).

Really? I just put mine out in the garage because the colour is absolute washed out rubbish. it was not a patch on my Oki C5250 laser which I still have but the cartridges are $250 each.

how did you get yours to print an even half decent photo..maybe I was doing something wrong?

Matthew

mattwnz

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#2372669 11-Dec-2019 18:05

It depends on how much B/W text printing you are doing, as it is expensive to do that with a inkjet colour printer. That is why people often have two, inkjet for colour and laser for b/w. A B/W laser is often on special for under $100. But I have found the wifi connection on some of these printers can be very unreliable, so I always plug mine in.

Geektastic

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#2372683 11-Dec-2019 19:17

I have a B&W laser which has no wifi but which does have ethernet. It's a bit tempermental in the ethernet area for some reason but fine for documents 90% of the time. My wife has decided she will have that in her office. This one is for my office.

If I wanted images only, I would buy a Prograf. However that would be a ridiculously expensive way to produce a document, if it can even print them!

What I am after is something that will print colour for client collateral, handouts and so on as well as producing a half decent photo if required.

I do not have much preference re the print system but inkjet is the only method of printing on photo paper AFAIK. I may be wrong but I haven't heard of a laser that does that.

Running costs are secondary to performance, reliability of the machine, wifi etc and quality of output. I won't be producing 1000 things a month.

Ideally it would do A3 or A3+

mattwnz

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#2372686 11-Dec-2019 19:24

Geektastic:

I have a B&W laser which has no wifi but which does have ethernet. It's a bit tempermental in the ethernet area for some reason but fine for documents 90% of the time. My wife has decided she will have that in her office. This one is for my office.

If I wanted images only, I would buy a Prograf. However that would be a ridiculously expensive way to produce a document, if it can even print them!

What I am after is something that will print colour for client collateral, handouts and so on as well as producing a half decent photo if required.

I do not have much preference re the print system but inkjet is the only method of printing on photo paper AFAIK. I may be wrong but I haven't heard of a laser that does that.

Running costs are secondary to performance, reliability of the machine, wifi etc and quality of output. I won't be producing 1000 things a month.

Ideally it would do A3 or A3+

Brother do A3 inkjets, and I have found them good, but you want to make sure that it has an A3 paper tray, otherwise you have to manually feed it which is a PITA. If you want photo quality, I think inkjet is better than laser, but you do have to use special photo paper to get the best results. Normal paper always muddy due to the ink soaking in. But if you plan on using normal paper for colour, then a laser colour may produce better results, and I thnk the cost per page is less with a laser. There are now some inkjets that come with big ink tanks, for those people doing lots of printing.

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OldGeek

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#2372697 11-Dec-2019 20:19

Geektastic:

.....

Ideally it would do A3 or A3+

That narrows the choice considerably. Without this your choice is much wider.

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timmmay

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#2372706 11-Dec-2019 20:23

Brother color laser is great for documents, and they last years. I gave up on inkjet printers, they last a year or two then have to be tossed out. I just use a photo lab for photo printing.

OldGeek

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#2372725 11-Dec-2019 20:51

timmmay:

Brother color laser is great for documents, and they last years. I gave up on inkjet printers, they last a year or two then have to be tossed out. I just use a photo lab for photo printing.

Last 15 years, always using inkjets, one printhead failure, no local replacement printhead available, replacement printer cheaper than 4 replacement inkjet cartridges that came with replacement printer ($175 regular price, on sale at The Warehouse Stationery for $90 (including GST).

To me printers are properly maintained using branded consumables and my needs are low-volume because I print only when absolutely needed (never photos - best viewed and distributed electronically).

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timmmay

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#2372782 11-Dec-2019 21:21

I went through 3 or 4 inkjet printers over the 10 or so years I was taking photos professionally. I used them for documents and printing onto DVDs. I didn't always use them often, so maybe they got clogged. I tried two brands, can't really remember but Canon and another one.

michaelmurfy

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#2372788 11-Dec-2019 21:51

I am actually going to recommend the Epson Ecotank line of printers.

I've got one here - it is great, we've printed many photos on it and as my partner does art we use it to print her work off on matt paper. All looks incredible.

In almost the 1 year I've owned it I have not run into a single issue - it has been reliable, and it also doesn't appear in this time I've touched the ink (this is after printing just over 400 colour pages and 200 B&W pages). Ink is sitting at 70% black, 80% colour (on all 3 Y,M,C tanks) left. This is the ink that came bundled with it (seriously).

Blacks are crisp too - in line with the laser printer it replaced.

Mauricio did a review on one: https://www.geekzone.co.nz/content.asp?contentid=22019 - at the same time as his review Epson sent me the ET-4700 but I didn't feel the need to review that also, both are just excellent printers and tick all your boxes. When it comes to ink replacement also it is very cheap. I have also used mine on both WiFi and Ethernet (where it currently camps on). It spends all its time on standby mode ready to print and so far every time I've sent a job to it, it has just done its job without complaining.

Also the ET-4700 has Google Cloud Print + Apple AirPrint and has worked with MacOS, Windows and Linux flawlessly (even with scanning).

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1101

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#2373106 12-Dec-2019 10:50

More things to consider :-)

Some printers will do EITHER wifi or Ethernet cable, but not both (even though they have both)
Some dont have ethernet cable capability. Wifi or USB only
Wifi on some is problematic & eventually unusable .
Some have terrible bundled scanning software , not user friendly .
Some inkjet printers waste more ink in cleaning cycles than ink you use to print (cough cough Canon)
many inkjet printers will stop printing when even a single ink cart is flagged as ~empty~ . So you cant even print that urgent B&W doc, because Red now needs replacing

"Budget is up to $1,000"

so seriously consider buying 2 . A B&W(or color) laser (perhaps B&W laser with built in scanner) & 2nd inkjet that will photo print to the standard you want
Also consider consumables costs & how many pages of B&W & color you print . Look at rated pages per ink/toner cartridge

freitasm

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#2373112 12-Dec-2019 10:56

@geektastic The Epson ET-2710 is really good, light and does all you want. This is what I am using now, replacing a Dell colour laser (each colour toner cartridge on the laser printer alone cost more than this printer now).

I see the Epson ET-2710 on MightyApe (ref link) is $130 cheaper than everywhere else at the moment.

Geektastic

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#2374108 12-Dec-2019 11:06

freitasm:

@geektastic The Epson ET-2710 is really good, light and does all you want. This is what I am using now, replacing a Dell colour laser (each colour toner cartridge on the laser printer alone cost more than this printer now).

I see the Epson ET-2710 on MightyApe (ref link) is $130 cheaper than everywhere else at the moment.

Thanks. I shall investigate!

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