Thread: looking for an all-in-one printer.

I am planning to bu an all-in-one printer.i a considering the following options.
canon mp145
hp f4200
brother dcp165c

i havent heard much about brother.but its cost is the least.howeve i am not sure abt the quality,availability of cartridges.

please also suggest if you have some other option in mind.
my budget is around 3 3.5k.please help...

First search the net using the model nos, you'll find good reviews.

Brother is a good model although is not too popular in India bcoz HP has monopolized the Indian market.

In my opinion, Canon printers outclass most. Check reviews in cNET.

Bought a HP F4288 today. Costed me 3.8k. Had to spend some hours configuring it with Vista Ultimate for my dad (although it was vista ready). The darn installation CD which came with the device installs 255MB worth crap. Had to reinstall the drivers with advanced option to exclude the junk.

In XP the printer was recognized easily and installed within minutes..

Have to experiment it with Windows 7 and Ubuntu

HP comes with the Photo Printing software that it installs as default - it is not bad but if you are not going to print photos, you are better off not installing it.

I have HP 6200 AIO printer.

Originally Posted by just4kix

In my opinion, Canon printers outclass most. Check reviews in cNET.

But how is the service support in India ?

Originally Posted by SledgeHammer

But how is the service support in India ?

good. service of both canon and hp & epson also, are good in india...

Originally Posted by saurav_kataruka

good. service of both canon and hp & epson also, are good in india...

But, I've heard that HP's A.S.S is getting worst day-by-day.

Originally Posted by ag_prasun

I am planning to bu an all-in-one printer.i a considering the following options.
canon mp145
hp f4200
brother dcp165c

i havent heard much about brother.but its cost is the least.howeve i am not sure abt the quality,availability of cartridges.

please also suggest if you have some other option in mind.
my budget is around 3 3.5k.please help...

I bought Epson CX5500 for 3 grands four months back... It doesn't have fax... But the print & scanning quality is quite good... Scanner is pretty fast too... While copier is a bit slow.. 3-4 pages/minute. For home usage its quite good...

Epson gives 2 yrs warranty... While HP gives only 1 yr warranty...

Another good thing with Epson CX5500 is that there are 4 individual ink cartridges... 3 for color & 1 for black... each costing Rs. 250... Therez one more bigger cartridge model which comes for Rs. 350... So if ur usage of black ink is high... u can opt to fit the latter cartridge for black...

Another advantage of individual cartridges is that if for example, u r low on yellow, u need to change that cartridge only... to maintain the quality of ur color printouts...

As far as I know, HP has this facility of individual ink cartridges only in its costlier models...

my canon (cant remember model) gave me huge problems. At the end i just dumped it at the service centre. I had to refill ink every month. I used to get very light shades of black even at best quality. But the scanner was good.

see every brand has its advantages and disadvantages

hp - best printing but cartridge prices are high ... also hp refilled cartridges are not so good

epson - mid range printers - good performance + affordable

canon - value for money ... very good printing + refilling and 3rd party cartridges are avaialble cheaply ...

A Computer guy told me that Epson is having the worst service support in the industry. Is that true ?

It differs from area to area... Same is the case with other brands... But u shouldn't opt for Epson if support is not good in ur area!

Originally Posted by SledgeHammer

A Computer guy told me that Epson is having the worst service support in the industry. Is that true ?

i dont think so ... maybe some areas have poor service ... one should always inspect the local preferences in terms of servicing ... also the kind and amount of use are major factors in deciding a printer purchase ..

Originally Posted by just4kix

HP comes with the Photo Printing software that it installs as default - it is not bad but if you are not going to print photos, you are better off not installing it.

Is it really necessary that we should use the HP utility before printing photos? Cant a version of Photoshop suffice? Any extra advantages?

Hp products are quite good, well i know for sure that their all in one printers are good, i have had mine for 3.5 years now, and have not faced any problems. But its always best to get reviews of the other brands too.

check here ...

http://www.indiabroadband.net/comput...tml#post143979 (suggest printer)

In my opinion, Canon printers outclass most. Check reviews in cNET.


thanks

Originally Posted by cool_techie_tvm

Is it really necessary that we should use the HP utility before printing photos? Cant a version of Photoshop suffice? Any extra advantages?

I apologize for replying to an old query. Thought this might help others.

On the whole it is better to use HP PhotoSmart Suite to print photographs because it provides some features that make use optimum and best use of the printer features such as:

a) Borderless printing
b) Enhancing ink usage
c) Cropping and pruning before printing and showing how the print will look like before printing. This is better than print preview of most software.
d) Allowing Black and White or Sepia printing