Purchasing Advice: All-in-One Multifunction Printer

progmac

Well, I'd really like to get one of those jobbers that prints, scans, and copies. I've been searching around and the Lexmark 5150 has gotten surprisingly good reviews and only costs $130. I know traditionally Lexmark hasn't been the best, so i am a little leery. Also, low-end companies like lexmark don't usually do a lot of mac support.



Who here owns a multifunction printer (MFP)? I'm very curious to hear opinion on different models, user experiences, etc.



I'm looking to spend no more than $150, and i don't mind buying used or on ebay

jayny

Lexmark is known for having the highest cost per page in the industry, I would advise another brand if you are going to be printing often.

bluerabbit

I have an Epson CX5200, which has worked prefectly since last January. The scanning software originally didn't work, but they released an update, so now it prints, scans, and copies just fine.

dmband0026

I have an HP OfficeJet D135. Quality is great for both b/w and color, prints quickly. I'm not sure about cost per page, but I doubt that it's very cheep. I've had a few issues with it...like, when one of the print cartridges runs out, the whole printer ceases to work until the empty cartridge has been replaced. Even if you want to print in color and the b/w cartridge is empty, it won't print. Very aggregating. Other than that, it's a great printer, built very solid and a great brand name too.

dave k.

I recently purchased an Epson RX500 Photo quality All-in-One and absolutely love it.

progmac

i went to circuit city today to check out some printers. it is a crappy circuit city, and the only MFP they had stocked was the Epson CX5200. Unfortunately, it wasn't plugged in and it had a shelf directly above it so i couldn't really play with it.



So i went two doors down to Office Depot, who had a very nice printer setup. They have the HP 2110 for $98 after rebate, but it seemed of cheap quality, so i didn't buy it. They had a brother one that was nice looking, but was closer to $200. Basically, I decided I don't want a low-end MFP, they seem to plasticy or something. I'll hold off until i have more money and spend $250 or so on one i think.



plus, it is VERY hard for me to justify any technology expenditure, as I am leaving for the Peace Corps (2-year commitment) in 7 or 8 months.

eugene

My advice is this: Don't



I have an HP G85xi. Aside from the horrendous OS X drivers, it doesn't do anything particularly well. The paper feeding mechanism has to be made more complex to accept paper form the tray, from the top, from a duplexer, etc. All this complexity transfers into stuff like not being able to feed the paper in perfectly straight.



Do you really want an B&W inkjet copier or fax machine? You seriously want a laser for that kind of stuff.



It's HUGE too. At least with separate components you can stick them into nooks.

trowa

I just bought an HP OfficeJet 6110. I needed something to just fax and copy and then got caught up on all the other stuff (scan, print, etc) so decided to go with a multifunction.



I couldn't be happier. The drivers are pretty good. I just scanned something today and to my surprise it came out pretty well. Not the best, but well beyond my expectations. I had to adjust the colors a bit in photoshop, but that was no big deal. With the HP software you can scan the doc/photo and bring it into photoshop, email, or MS word. Which is a really nice feature.



Installing the HP software will give you a program called HP Director, from there you can scan photos/documents, make copies, or maintain the printer (check ink levels, align, etc).



The print quality is very sharp. Not as sharp as laser, but good enough for home/office use.



it comes with an auto document feeder for copying and faxes, so you don't have to stand there and babysit.



I'm really happy with my purchase. I was pleasantly surprised that the drivers and software worked really well in OS X (I'm using 10.2.x)



I purchased it from Office Depot for about $300 and paid for the warranty ($24). Their warranty allows me to bring in the old machine in 2 years and get a new one by just paying the difference. Not bad at all.

westonm

I am now in the market for an all-in-one printer. I currently have an HP OfficeJet G85 and it is a piece of crap. The drivers are awful. Quality isn't a huge concern for me, I just want the stupid thing to work. Which brand has the best 10.3 drivers? I've heard good things about Epson.

dave k.

Quote:

Originally posted by Dave K.

I recently purchased an Epson RX500 Photo quality All-in-One and absolutely love it.

I second that.

brussell

Quote:

Originally posted by Dave K.

I second that.

Hmm?



Anyway, I also have the Epson rx500 and it's been great so far. It seems to do absolutely everything.



It does go through ink cartridges quickly, but I suppose that's true of all of them. It also has 5 (or 6?) separate ink cartridges. It's nice to have multiple ink cartridges because then you can replace one color before the other colors go out, if necessary. But the number this thing has seems a bit excessive.



The software and drivers seem to work fine. I had a glitch with printer sharing - I tried to print when the printer was off - but a restart fixed things.



I'd recommend it.

westonm

Quote:

I second that.

Are the drivers good for it though? And if so do you know if the entire Epson lineup uses said drivers or do they vary between the *X series?

dave k.

Quote:

Originally posted by westonm

Are the drivers good for it though? And if so do you know if the entire Epson lineup uses said drivers or do they vary between the *X series?

The drivers are very good. I have had no issues with Epson drivers with each Mac OS X upgrade.



My only compliant with the Epson Installer is that it installs a ton of unorganize crap in your applications folder. I would have thought that Epson installer would have created a single folder with everything in it. But who knows??

westonm

Is all the useless crap necessary though? For example to scan something from my current HP you need to use their software, I would like something that works with Image Capture (something nice and clean and simple).



Basically not this...