Printers

[strange_complex]

I really need to buy a printer. Quite urgently, actually. Please convey your printer-related advice to me via the poll below:

[Poll #757065]

I am also interested in views on the relative merits of straightforward inkjets, straightforward laser printers and 'all-in-ones' which copy and scan as well as printing. Do comment if you have thoughts on any of them!

Comments

[edling.livejournal.com]

Seeing as I'm in a verbose mood I'll throw my 2p in:
I'm not that up on the merits of individual manufacturers, so I can't comment much on them other than we use a fair amount of HP kit here (printers and other stuff), and they're usually pretty good. I'd avoid Compaq or Dell cos I'd suspect them of being cheap rebage jobs for the home market.
Having said that- lots of people get free printers they don't want with new PCs and dump them straight on e-bay- you could pick one of those up for a few quid and even if it only lasts 6 months you've got your money's worth.
If you don't fancy that and want to buy one, my thoughts would be that an inkjet'd be cheaper and'd do colour should you need it, but one with a seperate black cartridge'd be a good idea because you'll be bound to burn through that faster- it might not last longer than a couple of years though. On the other hand, a decent b&w laserjet could keep going quite happily for lots longer.
Re- all in ones: The extra facilities could be handy sometimes, depending on how much you might use them, but as with all these things more complication = more stuff to go wrong...

[edling.livejournal.com]

More babbling: Might we worth having a wander through PC Plus's Peripheral Reviews (http://www.pcplus.co.uk/reviews/peripherals) to see if there's any useful information in there. I've not read the mag for ages but they used to be pretty good...

[strange-complex.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the advice, but kind of too late - I've just finished installing my sexy new HP Photosmart 2575 All-in-One (http://h10010.www1.hp.com/wwpc/uk/en/ho/WF05a/5043-5527-7369133-7369133-7369155-12209612.html)! (I wasn't joking when I said I needed one urgently!) It's ace, though, and pretty much fits with your advice - it does have a separate black cartridge, and I think the risk of the extra bits going wrong is worth how much use I'll get out of them - especially the copier.

I got five years out of my last printer, and that was a crummy old Epson, so I'm reasonably hopeful about getting a decent amount of service out of this one.