[PCWorld]

Post your comments for The Best Printers for $150, $300, $500, $750 here

[Noah83sz]

I'm a reader not a mind reader. You repeatedly use ADF without defining it. If you do this repeatedly, this makes me believe your reviews are flawed. Come back when you actually have something worth reading.

[Noah83sz]

I'm a reader not a mind reader. You repeatedly use ADF without defining it. If you do this repeatedly, this makes me believe your reviews are flawed. Come back when you actually have something worth reading.

[EddieStockman]

No Lexmark? I'm disappointed

[jmorv]

I am surprised that there weren't more Epson printers listed. I own the Epson Workforce 610 and I have to say for the $120 I spent over 2 years ago, this is a "workhorse". One thing to mention concerning printers, usage, price, etc is that as with any tech device, a little TLC goes a long way. Just the other day, I opened up my printer to clean out any residue, ink gunk and now, the printer continues to run like a champ. Ink cost is always an issue, a necessary evil for those who do a lot of printing, but at the same time, the quality of your prints is at the heart of the matter. Epson has and will continue to put out great looking prints no matter if they are draft or final. I cannot complain at all about the quality of Epson's products (my apologies for the shameless plug for Epson, but hey, fair is fair).

[MrMojo]

Any reviews about printers MUST include information on whether or not ANY of the printers feature AUTOMATIC duplexing (i.e. double-sided printer). It's essential for many people and we won't buy a printer without it. Many of us use laser printers for text so color is NOT a factor but speed, auto duplexing, functionality and cost (not necessary in that order but close).

[dbrebel]

For the record, ADF = Automatic Document Feeder.

I had a terrible experience with the recommended HP 7510. It would frequently drop its wireless connection to the PC and it took an act of God to reestablish it. The recommended troubleshooting steps were no help at all. It also would skew photo paper when loading it, resulting in pictures that were ~1 degree off, with partial unprinted edges at 2 corners even when selecting borderless. After spending too many afternoons trying to nurse the thing back to health, I returned it and got a Canon PIXMA MX882 which retails for and generally sells for the same as the HP. I gained a duplex ADF that was lacking in the 7510 (whose sales material would lead you to believe it had one) along with a MUCH higher optical resolution (not interpolated) for the scanner. Photos are printed perfectly and the wireless connection was simple to establish and has stayed connected for more than 2 months without interruption. If you're in the market for a 7510, give the MX882 a look... in my experience, the latter is a far better purchase.

[PCWMRiofrio]

Hello, this is Melissa Riofrio. Thank you for noticing this. I had spelled out automatic document feeder and the abbreviation (ADF) in the intro, but I see it was edited out of this version (which was cut to fit into the print version of the magazine). I will put it back in.

Noah83sz, on 01 February 2012 - 06:28 PM, said:

I'm a reader not a mind reader. You repeatedly use ADF without defining it. If you do this repeatedly, this makes me believe your reviews are flawed. Come back when you actually have something worth reading.

[PCWMRiofrio]

Dear Mr. Stockman,

this is Melissa Riofrio. We were choosing from recently reviewed models for this feature, and unfortunately Lexmark did not have any newer models to include. The Lexmark Platinum Pro905 got a favorable review about a year ago, and the new OfficeEdge Pro5500 got a very good review earlier this week. Thanks for reading!

EddieStockman, on 01 February 2012 - 08:22 PM, said:

No Lexmark? I'm disappointed

[PCWMRiofrio]

Hello, this is Melissa Riofrio. Thanks so much for your comments and also your advice about maintenance. We were using recently reviewed products for this feature, and unfortunately some of the other Epson models we wanted to recommend were going to be phased out soon, and we did not have reviews of their new models yet. Epson printers have generally reviewed well, although lower-priced models have had issues with speed or ink costs. Also I would say that on plain paper, text and colors often seem a little gray. I am looking forward to reviewing their new WorkForce Pro line. Thanks again for writing.

jmorv, on 02 February 2012 - 06:25 AM, said:

I am surprised that there weren't more Epson printers listed. I own the Epson Workforce 610 and I have to say for the $120 I spent over 2 years ago, this is a "workhorse". One thing to mention concerning printers, usage, price, etc is that as with any tech device, a little TLC goes a long way. Just the other day, I opened up my printer to clean out any residue, ink gunk and now, the printer continues to run like a champ. Ink cost is always an issue, a necessary evil for those who do a lot of printing, but at the same time, the quality of your prints is at the heart of the matter. Epson has and will continue to put out great looking prints no matter if they are draft or final. I cannot complain at all about the quality of Epson's products (my apologies for the shameless plug for Epson, but hey, fair is fair).

[PCWMRiofrio]

Hello, this is Melissa Riofrio. Thanks for writing--we agree with you! We mention automatic duplexing (or the lack thereof) in every single printer review we publish, and we have done so for years. I'm glad to see that more and more printers have it these days. Thanks again for your comments.

MrMojo, on 03 February 2012 - 09:46 AM, said:

Any reviews about printers MUST include information on whether or not ANY of the printers feature AUTOMATIC duplexing (i.e. double-sided printer). It's essential for many people and we won't buy a printer without it. Many of us use laser printers for text so color is NOT a factor but speed, auto duplexing, functionality and cost (not necessary in that order but close).

[PCWMRiofrio]

Hello, this is Melissa Riofrio. I'm sorry to hear about your problems with the HP Photosmart 7510. The Canon Pixma MX882 is a very nice multifunction. Thanks for writing with your comments.

dbrebel, on 03 February 2012 - 10:26 AM, said:

For the record, ADF = Automatic Document Feeder.

I had a terrible experience with the recommended HP 7510. It would frequently drop its wireless connection to the PC and it took an act of God to reestablish it. The recommended troubleshooting steps were no help at all. It also would skew photo paper when loading it, resulting in pictures that were ~1 degree off, with partial unprinted edges at 2 corners even when selecting borderless. After spending too many afternoons trying to nurse the thing back to health, I returned it and got a Canon PIXMA MX882 which retails for and generally sells for the same as the HP. I gained a duplex ADF that was lacking in the 7510 (whose sales material would lead you to believe it had one) along with a MUCH higher optical resolution (not interpolated) for the scanner. Photos are printed perfectly and the wireless connection was simple to establish and has stayed connected for more than 2 months without interruption. If you're in the market for a 7510, give the MX882 a look... in my experience, the latter is a far better purchase.

[Evildave]

I'd never recommend ANY inkjet, unless you print DAILY.

Otherwise, they'll eat up all their own ink to keep the heads 'clean', and you buy $50 worth of ink just to have printed ten pages.

And most multifunction inkjets BRICK THEMSELVES if they run out of ANY color of ink. No send a fax. No scan. No 'just print black and white' because you're out of yellow. No nothing, until you buy a bunch of ink, because when ONE color runs out, the rest will run out the day after you replace it. Even if they looked 'full'.

Inkjets are evil.

And 'PPM' (pages per minute) is utterly misleading.

If you're anything like my use of printers, the first time you turn the inkjet on in months (because why waste power 24/7, prompting it to run noisy, ink consuming 'cleaning cycles' at all hours of the day and night), it will be 20 minutes OR MORE to the first page. Because you'll print it, and it won't work right, so you clean the heads, and get a little closer, and clean the heads again (and maybe again and again), until you finally get an acceptable print out of the machine, then chuck the wasteful PILE of rejects into the recycler. All brands of inkjet are like this.

If you don't do daily printing, go laser. The powder won't dry out. It's already dry. Turn it off, lay something over it to keep the dust out. Good forever and ever. Always ready to print.

They are hardly more expensive at all (often on sale and cheaper). If you 'need' something in color (for most people, that's almost never), go to the office store, drug store, etc. and have it done for you on a machine that is used all the time, and will guarantee good results for your money.

Oh, and be sure a 'multifunction' will do its work WITHOUT a computer. If you have to install a CD and have the computer booted to use the damned thing, it's a piece of crap, and the software is usually WORSE than crap.

[Nuke61]

Evildave, on 03 February 2012 - 03:37 PM, said:

If you don't do daily printing, go laser. The powder won't dry out. It's already dry. Turn it off, lay something over it to keep the dust out. Good forever and ever. Always ready to print.

Great advice. I've had a color laser at home for about 5 years now and it was very much worth the price. It's always ready to go, is fast, and works great for text. The only downside is that it's not very good for photo printing, but that's why I use photo printing services from Apple to Snapfish to my local Walmart.

[Evildave]

What's kind of sad is, to print 'enough' so that an inkjet printer doesn't run dry (and need eight cleaning cycles to 'work'), you'd have to take so many pictures with your digital camera that Japanese tourists point and make fun of you for being a shutterbug.

You have to print ALL THE TIME.

[RayDownen]

Evildave, on 03 February 2012 - 03:37 PM, said:

I'd never recommend ANY inkjet, unless you print DAILY.

Otherwise, they'll eat up all their own ink to keep the heads 'clean', and you buy $50 worth of ink just to have printed ten pages.

And most multifunction inkjets BRICK THEMSELVES if they run out of ANY color of ink. No send a fax. No scan. No 'just print black and white' because you're out of yellow. No nothing, until you buy a bunch of ink, because when ONE color runs out, the rest will run out the day after you replace it. Even if they looked 'full'.

Inkjets are evil.

And 'PPM' (pages per minute) is utterly misleading.

If you're anything like my use of printers, the first time you turn the inkjet on in months (because why waste power 24/7, prompting it to run noisy, ink consuming 'cleaning cycles' at all hours of the day and night), it will be 20 minutes OR MORE to the first page. Because you'll print it, and it won't work right, so you clean the heads, and get a little closer, and clean the heads again (and maybe again and again), until you finally get an acceptable print out of the machine, then chuck the wasteful PILE of rejects into the recycler. All brands of inkjet are like this.

If you don't do daily printing, go laser. The powder won't dry out. It's already dry. Turn it off, lay something over it to keep the dust out. Good forever and ever. Always ready to print.

They are hardly more expensive at all (often on sale and cheaper). If you 'need' something in color (for most people, that's almost never), go to the office store, drug store, etc. and have it done for you on a machine that is used all the time, and will guarantee good results for your money.

Oh, and be sure a 'multifunction' will do its work WITHOUT a computer. If you have to install a CD and have the computer booted to use the damned thing, it's a piece of crap, and the software is usually WORSE than crap.

[NobleSix]

One thing I've noticed over the years is that some HP and Lexmark inkjet printers have inkwell/printheads as one unit - as opposed to Epson having the printhead as part of the carriage inside the printer. Using third party ink from a reputable source can save you hundreds of dollars a year with an HP or Lexmark or even Dell (which is Lexmark I think)!

But I wouldn't do this with an Epson printer- you don't want to screw up something that can't be replaced easily. Epson ink has a finer droplet and third party replacement ink just doesn't seem to work that well.

[TrevorBrown]

Eighth paragraph: Among multifunction models, an automatic document feeder (ADF) makes scanning of longer documents much easier.
Also see: Google.com - ADF printer http://wiki.answers...._ADF_in_printer

[Evildave]

And most of the 'affordable' models have a vary small limit on what the ADF will take. Like 14 pages, give or take. So good luck with a longer document, especially if you think it will succeed without personally sitting there and monitoring it. Because these can be quite fickle, and prone to suck two pages together, or jam, or worse (e.g., jam AND eat the original). Definitely convenient when it DOES work. It will work better, and longer if you keep the printer covered, when not in use. Dust gets in there and breeds da gremlins.

[bap13]

Quote

I'm a reader not a mind reader. You repeatedly use ADF without defining it. If you do this repeatedly, this makes me believe your reviews are flawed. Come back when you actually have something worth reading.

ADF = Automatic Document Feeder