Budget Printers, which one???

I just need to get a cheapo inkjet for the time being. I don't really want to spend more than $80 right now but i do need to print up some docs in b&w, i do not plan on printing pics (usually do those at wally world).

Suggestions? Something that is at least decent and lasts for one year at least...

Wal-Mart / Lexmark inkjets any good? I see one for $50
Suggestions?

code777 said:

Wal-Mart / Lexmark inkjets any good?

Click to expand...

The one I had didn't last very long, I now have a $100 Scanner/Copier/Printer combo made by HP it works great for what little I used it for.

get a canon, mine was $100 after rebates and does duplexing(prints 2 sided), post script compatible printing up to postscript level 3, plus its a canon. rebate was like $20 and was cause of the ink. and I just replaced the ink, it lasts forever, 8 months or so of full color, full paged prints. uses 4 separate cartridges making ink replacement much cheaper, about $12 a cartridge.

canon, i saw one at the Apple Store for $99 - $20 rebate. I wonder if that is the one you have? It gets rave reviews i hear. Canon PIXMA ip3000 i will have to look into Canon inkjet then, so i take it Lexmark is TOTAL JUNK huh...

I would recommend Canon also. I have an i320 and an i350. Both were bought as replacements for problematic Epson models. Both have performed trouble-free for at least two years. Both were less than $100 Canadian (about $70 USD) and ink cartridges are very reasonable in cost.

code777 said:

canon, i saw one at the Apple Store for $99 - $20 rebate. I wonder if that is the one you have? It gets rave reviews i hear. Canon PIXMA ip3000 i will have to look into Canon inkjet then, so i take it Lexmark is TOTAL JUNK huh...

Click to expand...

yea! thats my printer. and if you set up your icc color profiles correctly as I have on my mac, you can print out pre press/press proof quality colors.

My kids beat the daylights (read: printed several times a week from 2000 through 2004) out of a Lexmark Z22 until I decided to replace it with an Epson C84. I sometimes print on the Epson from my iBook and it works great.

The reason I replaced it was because it was cheaper to buy the Epson ($20 after rebate) than to buy new cartridges for the Lexmark. So into storage went the Lexmark.

A couple months ago, my girlfriend needed a printer for her iBook so I pulled out the Lexmark and bought new cartridges for it. It still works perfectly.

I can't speak to any Lexmark problems of the past few years-- maybe their quality dropped, I dunno. I still give thumbs-up on this one.

Z22, wow, that's the one i use to have when i was in college. i found that the paper never fed correctly and the ink would run out fast!!! expensive replacements as well.

i like the canon i mentioned above and maybe i'll just drop the $100 for it. We shall see...

oh and all i ever hear about Lexmark is how bad they are and how they are the Wal-Mart brand of printers????

another plus to canon is removable/replaceable print heads, on any other brand, if the print head goes, youre screwed, on canon, just pop it out and replace it, less than $20.

i bought the ip3000 and so glad that i did. i almost got an Epson but after testing them both out at the local Staples it was the ip3000 that blew all the printers in the $100 range away! Geez, Lexmark is crap. All the testers did not work right. And all of them were S L O W... too slow.

I am happy with the Canon! Thanks macman!

cool. if you need help with color management, let me know.

the only weird thing was the Staples sales kid kept insisting that the Canon did not come with ink. Then when i said it did he said it comes with a "sampler" pack of ink and i'll only get like 20 pages!?!?!?!

how much are the ink cartridges?

Macman said:

yea! thats my printer. and if you set up your icc color profiles correctly as I have on my mac, you can print out pre press/press proof quality colors.

Click to expand...

what does icc color profiles do? I did not set them up but then again i have not printed any pics yet. just B&W so far. Advice?

Icc profiles are for matching the on screen colours to the printed out image. It stands for ink colour correction if I'm not mistaken. Anyway, you will not need to set it up unless it's important to you that the colours in the photos on the screen look the same in the printout. Glad you bought a Canon, they rock.

code777 said:

I just need to get a cheapo inkjet for the time being. I don't really want to spend more than $80 right now but i do need to print up some docs in b&w, i do not plan on printing pics (usually do those at wally world).

Suggestions? Something that is at least decent and lasts for one year at least...

Wal-Mart / Lexmark inkjets any good? I see one for $50
Suggestions?

Click to expand...

Regarding the topic on-hand. I believe someone mentioned the Canon ip3000. That printer has gotten great reviews! Based on internet reviews, and newegg reviews (5 out of 5 stars from over 50 people) I actually just purchased one today. The total was around $67, and there is a $20 mail-in rebate. In the end, it only cost $47. You can't go wrong. :biohazard
Knowin' newegg, it will probably be here on Friday....I hope!

VJ

inks are $12 a piec, $11 if you buy 3 or more. and it comes with a sample of paper, but full ink cartridges, that sales person is an idiot. and yes, mr. bobbins is correct, it works in conjunction with colorsync, on my mac, if I scan something, see it on screen, and print it out, it looks EXACTLY the same in each phase.

so glad i got the canon! and man am i tired of idiot sales people!!! he was trying so hard to get me to buy a whole set of ink right away. that and the extended warranty, ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

some sort of warranty might have been good, canons are great, and like macs, almost never have problems, but you never know. I bought a 2 year replacement plan for $20, meaning if in the 2 years after the manufacturers 1 year warranty, I feel like taking a hammer to it, I can, walk into compusa, and theyll give me a new one..

no fine print!? there's almost always something in there... i bought an extended service plan for my old Nikon Coolpix 3100 like 3yrs ago and last year when for whatever reason (i dropped it whoops) the tiny LCD went. Well not the whole thing but half of the LCD was gone. Brought it back to Best Buy and they gave me 10 reasons why they could not help me. I tried to fight it but to no avail.

Ended up getting a Canon 5mp Powershot cam to replace it, and didn't get the service plan this time. Best Buy kept pushing me towards the actual insurance company and to have a battle with them. Nothing ever happened...

[edit] as a funny side note, just last month for whatever reason i tried using my Nikon again and i hit it a few times and the LCD came back!? No idea... :bomb: