I'm looking to get a printer. Any suggestions? FYI, I don't know much about printers so I don't know if my expectations are reasonable. Here are my the factors i'm considering in this purchase.

will spend up to $300.
must have good/great ink economy. the last thing i want to do is buy $50 ink cartridges every 4 months
color would be nice, but not if i can't find a model that gets good ink usage.
decent print speed
i want to be able to use this for at least 4 years without it or its cartridges becoming discontinued or hard to find
all-in-one features would be nice, but only if the other needs are met and it doesn't raise the price by more than ~15%

7/24/2007 4:12:04 PM

if you don't have to have color, check out some of the laser printers

I bought a $300 HP Laserjet back in 2003, and have printed several thousands of pages (7,000+) since, and only recently did my toner start to go low. It was a $70 replacement.

As for color printers, I would look into a color laser as opposed to a color inkjet. I also hate buying ink.

7/24/2007 4:15:30 PM

unless you REALLY want to print drugstore-quality photos, get a laser printer.

HP makes a great laser printer for ~100, its the Laser 1020 i think. and samsung makes a <$100 one, the ml-2510. no reason to spend $300 if you don't have to. the only reason to spend more than $100 on a black-white laser printer is if you're going to be running a LOT of pages through it...or if you need to hook it up to a LAN. avoid brother laser printers.

if you really want to spend $300ish, get a color laser for $200-$300. just be prepared to spend $texas on toner cartridges (since you'll have 4 carts to replace instead of one). call cartridge world or one of those places with the model of printer you're thinking about to get refill prices.

if you want to buy local:
http://salescircular.com/nc/computer/prntrp.shtml

if you want to check intranet prices:
http://bensbargains.net/ and search for stuff in the box on the right...search for "laser" or "1020" to get started.

7/24/2007 4:19:19 PM

thanks for the suggestions. anybody else?

7/25/2007 8:28:48 AM