Which type of printer is the best value, all things considered? Laser or Ink-jet? Generally speaking, with respect to quality of image, production capacity and economy of use, you cannot beat a black and white laser printer. Laser printers use static electricity, toner, and heat to produce images, whereas ink-jet printers use liquid ink printer cartridges.
Laser printers tend to cost more than ink-jets initially, but toner cartridges cost much less, when compared to ink cartridges, in terms of the number of documents each is able to yield per dollar spent. In a business situation where “time is money,” laser printers are able to produce multiple copies of documents much, much faster than ink-jet printers. One thing that I notice is an overall tendency concerning how the cost of the machine relates to the cost of usage per output. There are some exceptions-but in general-the higher the printer price, the lower the cost of materials per production capacity.
Economy Depends on the Printers Purpose
Obviously, depending on a company’s, an individual’s, or a family’s needs, the criteria necessary to determine the best overall value, will need to take into account the cost vs. the utility with regard to the specific purpose(s) of the printer. Simply put, a college student who only prints a term paper once in awhile, a parent who occasionally prints a newsletter for the P.T.A. or someone who mainly prints directions from MapQuest will never get their money’s worth out of a high capacity, multi-tasking, laser printer!
What we will focus on here are ink-jet printers for personal or small business use. Having said that, let’s take a look at the two categories of ink-jet printers, and see which models are rated the top three in their class, based on information compiled from a number of credible sources including, Consumer Reports and PC World.com.
The most recent comprehensive reports on printers I was able to verify were done at the end of 2009. Most, if not all, are still available for purchase. Newer models are continuously being introduced and ratings information appears to be compiled toward the end of the calendar year. Since we are right in the middle of 2010, this is as up-to-date as I can get at this time.
A Word about Ink Cartridges
With regard to most ink-jet printers, cartridges that are refillable can save you money. I recommend having them refilled professionally by a retailer such as Wal-greensTM. They will not charge you if they are unable to refill the cartridge, so you do not have the risk of paying for a do-it-yourself kit and not having success in refilling the cartridges. There is usually a limit to how many times a cartridge can be successfully refilled before it deteriorates. In my own experience, I have only been successful refilling cartridges myself two out of the five times that I attempted to do so-all with cartridges that had not been previously refilled. Doing it yourself can be messy and frustrating. I do not recommend it.
Basic Ink-Jet Printers
Basic Ink-Jet printers have one function, which is to print photos and documents. The printers in this class do not come with additional features such as scanning, copying, or fax capabilities.
Costs per photo and for text documents include ink and paper. Prices of printers are for new machines.
It appears that Hewlett-Packard has cornered the market in this category, occupying the top three spots at the end of 2009.
* The top spot belongs to the HP Photosmart D7560. It ranges in price from $109.00 to $150.00. It has a quality rating of ‘excellent’, takes about a minute and a half to produce a 4×6 color photo, at a cost of about 35 cents. For text documents the quality is still very good. The D7560 can print slightly over 7 pages per minute at a cost slightly less than 4 cents per page.
* Second is the HP Officejet Pro 8000 Wireless it rates ‘very good’ for photo quality and costs retails for $180.00 minus a $50.00 manufacturer’s rebate. It takes only a couple of seconds longer to print a 4×6 color photo than the D7560, and costs about 5 cents less. This one performs better for text than for photos with a rating of excellent in this category. It puts out almost nine and a half pages per min. for about 1.9 cents per page. In addition, if the name doesn’t make it clear, it has wireless capability.
* Third on the list is the HP Photosmart D5460. This particular model is only rated as ‘good’ in the text document criteria. It is slower than both of the others at 5.7 pages per minute and a cost close to the D7560 per page. For photos, however, this printer is excellent it takes just under a minute and a half to render a high quality 4×6 at a cost of 35 cents.
Multi-Function (All-in One) Printers-Ink-jets
Costs per photo and for text documents include ink and paper. Prices of printers are for new machines.
The main difference between these and the basic ink-jets is that the all-in-one’s, as the name indicates, offer additional features besides printing. Most feature all of these capabilities in addition to printing: copying, scanning, and faxing-although some all-in-one’s do not offer fax capability. Faxing is included in all of the three below. The HP and the Epson offer wireless capability.
* The top spot here goes to Canon. At the end of December 2009 the winner was the Canon Pixma MX7600. Since then a newer model has emerged that could overtake it in the 2010 reviews. It is the Canon Pixma MX860. Since they are very similar and are both made by Canon, I will use the confirmed data from the MX7600. It ranges in price from around $265.00 to $370.00. It has a very good score for photo quality and an excellent score for text documents. It takes just about a minute to print a 4×6 photo at a cost of 35cents. It prints almost 8 pages per minute at a cost of 4.2 cents per page for text documents.
* Once again, the second spot goes to HP. It is the simply named the HP Photosmart Premium Fax All-in-One. It retails for $299.00 minus a $30.00 rebate from HP. Like the Canon, the photo quality is very good, but it takes about 40 seconds longer to print the same photo. The cost is about the same. As far as text goes, it also does a very good job; it prints six and half pages in a minute at slightly less than 4 cents per page. A newer version for 2010 is the HP Officejet Pro 8500.
* Still another manufacturer, Epson, claims the third spot with its Artisan 800. It has been replaced with a newer version, the Artisan 810 for 2010. Once again, I don’t have substantiated ratings for that one yet. The Artisan 800 has very good ratings for photos, and a good rating for text documents. Before it was discontinued in favor of the 810, it retailed at $300.00. It takes a minute and forty seconds to print the 4×6 photo, at a higher cost that the other two all-in-one’s at 50 cents per photo. It prints 7 pages per minute at 4.6 cents each.
Well there you have it. You can find much more information on these products by looking them up on the web. In addition, there is a wealth of information available on new models and laser printers. This is only a starting point. Be sure that you know what your printing needs are, and then do your homework before you buy. Happy hunting!