Are printer "options" worth having?

[Artie Fufkin]

I'm looking at buying a new inkjet printer but am frustrated at the lack of basic printer only models.

Aside from the majority being sold having scanners and faxes, the rest are either £30 jobs which is what I had before and don't want again OR they have wireless and card slots and LCD screens, etc.

The question is, are these features of any use? Wireless certainly wouldn't be for me and I can't see how a card slot and LCD would be either...surely one is paying for stuff which I already have my laptop for? Or, do those of you who have these slots and screens find them valuable?

 

[EndlessWaves]

Well you can get expensive photo printers and expensive heavy duty office printers with no fripperies (well, card slots are understandable on photo printers). If that's not what you're after from an expensive printer then what are you looking for?

 

[Artie Fufkin]

What I'm looking for is a quality basic printer.

I've a had a couple of £30 ones over the years [a HP and a Lexmark] but both have been noisy, slow, poorly put together and with indifferent print quality.

I'd like to spend, say, £70 to get a well made, quality printer which just prints well instead of paying £70 for features which I don't think I need.

In all walks of life one can pay more for better quality but it seems not with inkjet printers...unless I just haven't been looking in the right places .

 

[EndlessWaves]

I think you've just been unlucky and got bad ones, what about something like the Canon PIXMA iP4500?

 

[Singh400]

I've got a Dell AIO. I've had it for 5 years and still going strong

 

[Greg Hook]

I've tried to get mostly Epson D120 printers at work. They are dirt cheap, very very reliable and the ink is cheap too. Not had one fail on me yet and I have about 10 of them around the place.

Also print a lot of photos and get very good results with this printer even on plain paper.

 

[Turbo Dragon]

Sorry to jump on this one but that D120 looks like a nice printer.

I'm looking for a cheap printer and have no idea what to go for, I like the idea of the D120 but want something with scanner/copier built in.

Is there anything with cheap cartridges and good speed etc. but with scanner that people can recommend?

 

[Saldawop]

I have a Canon Pixma IP4500 .Owned it for a year or so. Have just moved over to compatible inks .Print quality doesnt seem to have suffered at all.Previously I have always owned Epson printers, and whilst the ink (compats) is ridiculously cheap I always seemed to get dodgy carts that wouldnt print at all, or one colour wouldnt work. And I usually always spent more time cleaning the heads than I did printing, wasting a hell of a lot of ink in the process.
The ip4500 definitely gets my vote.