Print Article for : Best Multifunction Inkjet Printer

Your Online Guide » IT Hardwares » Computer Hardware Guide

[B494]Best Multifunction Inkjet Printer

by Richard Sherland, Ric

During my years in business many people have asked what is the best printer. After reading this article you will be in a better position to determine the best printer for you.
The major manufacturers are Hewlett Packard, Lexmark, Canon, Epson, Xerox and Brother. Lexmark makes many printers for other manufacturers such as Xerox and Compaq. So you may see printers with another manufactures names that are actually Lexmarks.

The biggest names are Lexmark, HP.Epson and Canon. There are two major categories of inkjet printers. On one the print head is built right into the inkjet printer cartridge itself. This is a cheap print head meant to last a short time. The other has the print head built into the printer itself. This print head is meant to last the life of the printer. Now the reason this is important is that there is a huge difference in the cost of cartridges between the two types. This may be one of the main factors in your choice of printers.

Hewlett Packard from now on called HP and Lexmark are the ones with the print head built into the inkjet printer cartridge. These are the expensive cartridges sometimes costing $35.00, $40.00 or even more. These cartridges are much more expensive to manufacture. Also these companies have patients that keep other companies from making cheaper substitutes. This keeps the prices up.

The other style of printer cartridge is just a plastic container with a sponge in it .Ink is injected into the sponge. This makes for a very inexpensive cartridge. Many companies are making substitutes for these costing less than 25% of the cost of the Lexmark and HP cartridges. The print quality of both types is of cartridges is excellent. So at first glance it might seem that the obvious choice of printers would be the printer with the lost cost cartridges.

However there are some other factors to take into consideration. If you print once a week or perhaps every two weeks the print heads can dry out on the printers with the built in print heads. These can be hard to get going again. In some cases You may not be able to get them going at all. This means a new printer. Never take the cartridges out of this type of printer for long periods of time. Such as for shipping as they can dry out so bad you may not be able to get them going. New printers are shipped without cartridges but the print head doesn't have any ink in it so there is nothing to dry out. The other style of print head also dries out but On the Lexmark and HP this isn't so much of a problem since you can get the cartridge out to clean it and in the worst case you can always get a new cartridge.

Now after all of this you may be confused as to which is the best one for you. It really depends on how much printing you do or if your willing to print a test page daily then The Epson, Canon or Brother type printer might be right for you. The print quality on some of these is incredible. Some of these manufacturers recommend printing a page at least every two weeks. I have found this is not nearly often enough. I suggest a page every day or two. If you don't print often then one of the HP or Lexmark might be better. The print quality is very good on either type.

In this case you can use refilled cartridges to cut down on costs. Well I hope this helps I've been I the refill business several years and I have seen the problems people face with these. But it's worth it the printing quality is incredible. Some of these printers are capable of gallery quality prints.

Students have gotten so savvy about how they use their personal technology. What the product was originally intended for is not necessarily what the product will be used for. With this in mind picking which inkjet is the best printer for student or school use should be tempered with the fact that just basic affordable printers are being discussed.

Be careful what you ask for

Marketers can be a sneaky bunch. Just because they say that an inkjet printer does this or that does not necessarily mean that it does what YOU think that means. Don't take their word for it. Where possible hit the Best Buy or wherever and try to see the hardcopy before you buy. The better price will mean very little if the printer does not do what you want it to do.

Some choices

As mentioned before everybody looking for a printer for student use has a different need. Judging from what is being sold, however, multi-function affordable printers are what most are looking for. The College Buying Guide lists multi-function affordable printers as the top three choices for affordable printers.

HP Photosmart C7180 color printer is the top choice by this site. Affordability is in the eye of the beholder, with a price tag ranging from $300-400, but the unit does come off as fairly efficient with a user rating of 6.5. CNET editors gave a 6.8 rating.

HP OfficeJet Pro L7680 is a printer for student use that may be of interest. It is also a multi-function unit. It is rated as second in the CNET rankings but it does appear a bit large for student use. Perhaps if advanced course work dictates a higher printing needs the printers size and cost $300-500 can be justified. This does appear to be agreed upon as its user rating is a scant 5.5 user rating out of ten. CNET editors gave it an 8.2 rating of 10 so perhaps a student that is in grad school may be a better target user.

The Cannon Pixma MP830 may be a good compromise in affordable printers. Its cost starts to get down into the reality of what a student can realistically afford on a budget.

An average $160-333 price tag from over 30 online stores makes this unit look good from the start. Its rating isn't too shabby at 6.6 out of 10 by users and 7.2 by editors.

Article Source : Pg. 298

About Author

Both Richard Sherland & James Kara Murat are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.

Richard Sherland has sinced written about articles on various topics from computers and the internet, Motorola Cell Phone and Motorola Cell Phone. Richard Sherland has been in the ink refill business for 6 years.His website has Under construction is a new site. Richard Sherland's top article generates over 18100 views. to your Favourites.

James Kara Murat has sinced written about articles on various topics from Computers and The Internet, computers and the internet and Marine Corps. James Kara Murat from PrintCountry.com, the contributor of . A longer version is located at. James Kara Murat's top article generates over 60500 views. to your Favourites.