5 comments about Epson PictureMate Express Printer.

1. I gave this as a gift to my father who has MSNWEB-TV and he was very happy with it's compatibility with the system as well as ease of installation. He likes the PRINTER VERY MUCH!



2. from the specs, it apprears the only real difference between this and the slightly more expensive "picture mate deluxe viewer edition personal photo lab" is the deluxe viewer. this model doesn't have one as far as i can tell.
   
   is that worth the difference in price? probably, because being able to look at your photos in the printer before you print them is a big asset in a printer that can print directly from a memory card. i guess you could preview them in-camera, but then you'd be wasting battery charge. sort of defeats the purpose if you ask me.
   
   on the plus side, to get epson quality for such a low price--the printer costs a little over 1/2 as much as an ink cartridge--is a fantastic value for the money. i own the deluxe model (see my review there) and i'm generally happy with it, although the faults of that one are well-documented: clogging ink, cropped edges, borders unless perfectly aligned, limited to one print size, etc.
   
   Still, if everything is the same except for lcd, than this model is an excellent, maybe even unbelievable, deal at this price. you probably can't get better quality prints for less, but you can almost certainly pay more. i'd definitely give this as a gift (and look like i spent a whole lot more than i did), but for myself, it made more sense to get the viewer version.
   
   if you really want "pro" photos or multiple print sizes, you're gonna need to get a high-end printer, but for stunning hi-contrast snapshots at better-than-drugstore quality in the comfort of your own home, the PictureMate series comes through.



3. I am happy with this printer as long as the cartridge is new...I'm only getting about 40 good pictures from each cartridge. I have completed all the maintenance, but I cannot use the pictures that are printing. I'm considering a new printer purchase - and it won't be an Epson!



4. : PictureMate Deluxe Viewer Edition takes the personal photo lab one step further, making it even easier to view, edit and print glossy 4" x 6" photos. It measure 6 by 10 by 6 inches (HWD), weighs 5.5 pounds, and has a handle. The Deluxe Viewer Edition also has a battery option. Setup is just as easy as with the original. Simply slide the single six-color ink cartridge--with cyan, yellow, magenta, black, red, and blue inks--into the slot in the back, load the photo paper, connect the power cord, and you're ready to print from a camera, external CD or ZIP drive, a USB memory key, or any type of memory card, although you'll need an adapter for miniSD cards and some Memory Stick formats. To print from your computer, the only additional steps are to connect by USB cable and run the automated install program. You can also add Epson's optional Bluetooth adapter for wireless printing.
   
   It takes about 1 minute 19 seconds to 1:45 for each photo, whether printed from a computer, memory card, or camera.
   
   It uses ink and paper, which means the photos for the Deluxe Viewer Edition are also waterproof and smear-proof even immediately after printing, and they cost only 29 cents per print. Now this is the kicker, it is cheaper to print them at Sam's Club for 12 cents per print, so I only purchased this because I can take it to scrap meets and print what I need when I need it. My other photos I send to Sam's Club or even Wal-Mart for nearly the same price of 12 cents. This is more of a convince thing for me. I purchased this mode for only 24.99 at Target where it normally retailed for 199.00 but it was on super clearance. This is what you have to weigh in on, convince for the price or what your pocket book can handle. It has come in handy for me at times and the prints come out nicely so it is a tossup for people on a budget!



5. The Epson picture mate does a good job of printing anything 4 x 6. It is the only size it prints no matter what the size of your image. If you seriously want to print photos, this is not the printer for you. If you want to play with some photos, this will work.

5 comments about Epson PictureMate Snap 4x6 Photo Printer.

1. Bought this for my son and daughter-in-law who are snap-happy (of course!) with their first baby. This printer does a better job producing prints for scrap-booking and card-making than their general-purpose ink-jet printer.



2. I was blown away at the quality of prints produced by this printer. In a word: Perfect. If you are looking for a personal photo printer, this is definately the one.



3. This is a great printer. I had some pictures developed at my local camera shop and paid 79 cents a print to get it printed right away. Then I went home and printed the same pictures off my Snap. I thought the quality was better on my little Snap. It only costs about 25 cents a print on the Snap, plus you can do it at home. Once in a while, you have to clean the heads, but the printer does it all. You just press a few buttons. I am not great with tech stuff, but this is easy to operate. I can see why it's called the Snap. It's really fun to use and I highly recommend it. Epson has come up with a winner. Love this printer!



4. Fast and fabulous photos - purchased the extra battery and now can take the printer downstairs or anywhere I want. Excellent buy!



5. This device worked great out of the box, with sharp colors and good detail for a $100 printer. It's easy to connect to a PC, and the onboard interface works well (though it's a bit clunky).
   
   That's the good part. The bad part outweighs any advantages. Here's what happened to me.
   
   Two days after receiving and testing the printer, I decided to print more photos. They were filled with horizontal lines, so I ran the device through its onboard cleaning cycle. This corrected the situation somewhat, but the prints were still poor. I contacted Epson, and after a half hour of troubleshooting they sent me a new print cartridge and paper. This corrected the problem.
   
   However, if you let the printer sit unused for more than a few days, the nozzles clog up. When mine does this, I can run it through a dozen cleaning cycles (using paper each time!) and it won't completely correct the problem. I get bad color on the first print, then lines appear and won't go away. It seems to be a problem with the black ink, since the test pattern always shows choppiness in this color.
   
   If the printer worked reliably, I'd keep it. It doesn't, so I'm making arrangements to return it for a different model.

5 comments about HP DeskJet 6540 Color Inkjet Printer.

1. I purchased 5 of these printers for Library Catalog use in a law library and have not have a bit of trouble with them in their first few months of use. I find the USB connection in the front to be extremely helpful as we got small USB cords for laptop use as we are a wireless campus. I would recommend this printer. The cartridges are small but we have yet to have to change any of them. I only gave four stars because of the small ink cartridges. It is a sleek design and fits pretty much anywhere. I was actually surprised at the width of the design. It appears this season printers are a bit more boxy then seasons past.



2. This printer will fool you into thinking it is a "robust" business class machine. It isn't, the retaining clips on the springs for the cartridge holders make chinese toys look like Tonka toys. It's an obvious flaw that's designed to last about long enough to get through the warranty period then leave the user with a $125 paperweight.
   
   I haven't seen such an obvious piece of designed weakness since the HP2000 series, oh wait, that was another HP business class printer wasn't it. HP are resting on their laurels as far as actually producing a quality small business machine. Do Not Buy This Junk!



3. I hate to say that what I like best about this printer is that I can pile stuff on top of it. It's the only printer I've seen with a flat top. It prints great pictures and I've had zero problems in over a year. I rarely use it for black and white, but the quality seemed fine when my lazer printer was down.



4. Bought my 6540 1-1/2 years ago. Loved it! Great printer including photos from 4x6 up to 8-1/2x11. No problems until this week. Changed black ink cart with a new hp #96 cartridge. It didn't work. I worked at it for a long time. Wrote to online customer service. Got a reply and he had me try a few things. Nothing doing! He had me print a test page and report a series of number results to him. He wrote back that the printer was not reading the new cartridge and I needed to repair or replace it! THE END? It might be the end of me being an hp fan. I've bought exclusively hp for the past 6 years and this problem really bothers me. I just paid over $30. for this ink cartridge and can't use it at all! No other options...........repair or replace? I live in rural MN and its over an hours drive to a major city. We'll see... On the plus side.......the online repair tech was very helpful and spelled things out very well in an easy to understand way.



5. The ink cartridge holders are very fragile. There is a tiny plastic stub that holds a giant spring that senses that a cartridge is in place or not. The stub on the black ink cartridge holder broke, so the printer would sometimes not sense that it had a cartridge in it. More importantly, the loose spring soon poked a hole in the printed circuitry that connects to the cartridge, so it broke completely. This seems like a poor engineering idea, to have cheap printed circuitry (like metallic ink on heavy paper) next to a sharp spring.
   I have read reviews of the HP Deskjet 6940 (the new version of this printer), and it seems that it has the same exact problem.
   
   While the printer was working, it printed with good quality. However, the printer would stall often. It would start a print job, and then get confused or something and would just stop. Sometimes, it restarted the job and finished properly, but sometimes I had to manually end the job and just reprint.

5 comments about HP Photosmart 8750 Large-Format Professional Photo Printer (Q5747A#ABA).

1. As a former professional photographer, a printer's performance as a photo processor is really where the rubber meets the road.
   
   I shoot Nikon pro-level cameras and lenses, both film and digital. I have a Canon 9950F dedicated print scanner, a Nikon CoolScan negative/slide scanner, and an HP 8750 as a dedicated printer for larger format photo prints. I use Photoshop, Lightroom, DNG Converter, and other top-end photo software. The quality of my photo prints is absolutely crucial to me artistically.
   
   I had a Canon i9900 printer, which made great prints in non-archival inks; not acceptable. The Vivera inks used in the 8750 will last over 100 years when used on HP's Premium Plus papers, and the unit yields stunning prints. Image quality is as good as one gets from a lab.
   
   The printer interfaces beauutifully and reliably with my computer system (a periodic problem with the Canon, I might add), a desktop running XP Media Center Pro. Absolutely no glitches at all.
   
   I have to say, I love this printer, and strongly recommend it.



2. We've had the printer up and running now for two weeks and so far it does exactly what it's supposed to do. Not the fastest machine availble but for the price- well worht it- so far....



3. The HP 8750 prints B&W and Color beautifully. It took some time to figure out the right printer preference settings. I did not having experience with color management settings so for awhile my prints were coming out way too dark. Once the settings were correct between my Corel Paint Shop Pro X software and 8750 printer life was good. I am still amazed that the engineers at HP can't get the paper to feed through perfectly aligned every time, not that it's off that much. Overall the printer turns out awesome 13x19 prints which are much more impressive than 8.5x11, and has taken my photos to a professionally looking level.



4. Not what I was hoping for...upgraded from a CP1700....Oooops.
   
   This thing eats ink, is ridiculously slow, prints faded images (with no insight from tech support) and consistanly pulls multiple pages.
   
   Oh but it looks nice. No more HP's for this kid...



5. I will NEVER buy another HP product again....be it a printer, computer or whatever. The main reason is HP has arguably the worst technical support staff. On two separate occasions, I had problems with my HP Photosmart printer so I called HP's techical support. They ask you the perfunctory questions and try to sound all polite and concerned and everything but then the inevitable always happens--they recommend you to buy an ugraded HP printer! They don't even bother trying to help you fix the printer that you already have. Well, after I spoke to technical support, I contacted a buddy of mine who knows a lot more about computers than I do. Needless to say he fixed my printer, which wasn't that big of a problem, unlike HP's technical support. The problems? 1) I was having difficulty with the cradle inside the printer going back and forth. It was stuck. 2) After I bought a new laptop computer that came with Microsoft Vista, I had difficulty hooking up my HP printer with my new computer. In conclusion, I strongly discourage anyone to buy anything from HP until their technical support staff stops acting like salespeople instead.

5 comments about Brother MFC-240C Color Inkjet All-in-One Printer with Fax.

1. I had nothing but good things to say about this printer. But wouldn't ya know it. Almost 1 yr to the day I bought it and now it constantly jams, misfeeds or spews out crep. The only reason I'd give it 3 stars is because it lasted pretty well the 1st yr. Now, I'm fed up. DH is gonna hit the roof when I tell him we have to buy yet another printer/all-in-one. I can't say I'm too sad because the cartridges are pretty expensive. Many stores that take old cartridges won't give you credit for Brother replacements. Walgreens won't refill Brothers either. Egads!!! Back to Canon, I guess. Epson bites too.
   
   Isn't it ironic that most printers live just past their warranty? It's a conspiracy, I tell ya!



2. After having bad luck with Lexmark inkjet and a Brother Laser printer I decided to try a Brother inkjet (MFC-240C)...it's the same old story...cheap price, expensive ink...free razor, expensive razor blades!
   The first ink cartridges worked fine, went fast. Bought a 4 pack of each color of aftermarket ink cartridges...so far so good. After the first aftermarket cartridges were depleted the machine has refused to recognize new cartridges aftermarket or Brother originals...nothing doing, calling customer service was useless. And since I cannot find my receipt, I now own another paperweight...service costs more than a new printer!
   Anybody want some ink?
   It was slow etc but it was enough for my home office needs.
   
   Another piece of junk!



3. I bought this all-in-one printer (model MFC-240C) two years ago for myself, and I loved it. Easy to use, good quality color or black/white prints and fax. When my parents needed a multifunction printer, I bought the same model for them. They loved it too. The auto-feeder that comes with this model is worth the extra money. It is very useful and convinient.



4. I bought this for small business use. I needed a flatbed copier and something somewhat fast. The copier wasn't fast. It seemed to take quite a while for it to spit out a copy. Also, the flatbed cover was heavy and cumbersome to have to hold open as you tried to lay something down and align to copy. This might be an ok copier for some, but didn't work for me. Also, inkjet isn't the way to go. Much too expensive for toner and quality is not as good as laser either



5. this all in one unit is great it holds a good amount of paper is quiet and definitly ready to use from the start of receiving it. The cost of ink for it varies but is within a reasonable range. It feeds copies from the top or one at a time by lifting the copier lid. The color quality is very good, and cartiridges easy to change.

5 comments about HP Deskjet 9800 Wide Format Color Printer (C8165A#A2L).

1. I've had this printer for 2 1/2 years, first using it for printing architectural designs on 11X17, then for printing personal photos and enlargements. Does a fantastic job. Prints on up tp 13X19 flawlessly.



2. I will NEVER buy another HP product again....be it a printer, computer or whatever. The main reason is HP has arguably the worst technical support staff. On two separate occasions, I had problems with my HP Photosmart printer so I called HP's techical support. They ask you the perfunctory questions and try to sound all polite and concerned and everything but then the inevitable always happens--they recommend you to buy an ugraded HP printer! They don't even bother trying to help you fix the printer that you already have. Well, after I spoke to technical support, I contacted a buddy of mine who knows a lot more about computers than I do. Needless to say he fixed my printer, which wasn't that big of a problem, unlike HP's technical support. The problems? 1) I was having difficulty with the cradle inside the printer going back and forth. It was stuck. 2) After I bought a new laptop computer that came with Microsoft Vista, I had difficulty hooking up my HP printer with my new computer. In conclusion, I strongly discourage anyone to buy anything from HP until their technical support staff stops acting like salespeople instead.



3. Do Not Buy!!!! Beware!!! The internal power supply WILL die and HP does not sell this part! Don't believe me? Google for yourself. You'll not find it for sale anywhere. Not even from HP! For shame, go buy a real printer from Epson.



4. The printer works great. I have been using it for multiple large poster presentations and projects at work. Our Nursing Scholarship, Research and Education department already had one and I requested one for my department. Their poster presentations were always fabulous. The color is wonderful and everyone wants to use my color printer at work now. I plan to buy one for my personal use and for the church.



5. The printer will not print. HP provides a printer diagnostic utility that is useless. Their customer support is no help, as they will only tell you to do the obvious like "make sure the USB cable is plugged in".
   
   DUH!
   
   The Windows XP drivers for this printer do not work. The only work around is to use drivers for an HP Deskjet 9600.
   
   I have asked HP to provide WORKING Windows XP drivers for the Deskjet 9800, but they do not even bother to reply.
   
   Shows how much they care about their customers. Not at all.
   
   Do not buy this product. You will wind up with a large and expensive paperweight.

5 comments about Epson PictureMate Deluxe Viewer Edition Photo Printer.

1. I gave my college age nephew this printer for christmas and he is very pleased with the quality.



2. I've had this printer for over a year and it has been fantastic. I take it with me to family and other events where I take a number of pictures with my Nikon D50. I then print out the best pictures and give them to the people there. They are amazed at the quality and love getting them while at the event. It's not the fastest printer out there but it's a lot faster than going to a photo finisher or ordering online. At less than $0.30 a print it's a great deal. I highly recommend this printer.



3. The Epson PictureMate can produce crisp, vivid, high quality photographs. As a glance these photos look like what you would expect from a professional photo lab. The printer is compact and very easy to use.
   
   Unfortunately, this printer has serious recurring problems with the nozzles. Most non-Epson printers affix the nozzles to the ink cartridge so serious nozzle problems can be fixed by simply replacing the ink cartridge. Not so with most Epson printers including the PictureMate.
   
   Clearing clogged nozzles can be done by using the printer's menu. You'll often run the utility several times to clear them out only to have them stop working again after printing a few photos. Of course, the nozzle cleaning utility attempts to force ink out through the nozzle in an effort to unclog them. This greatly reduces the amount of pictures you can expect to get from their 100-photo paper/ink packs. I have yet to print 50 out of the advertised 100 photos Epson says I can print from a single photo pack. You'll quickly accumulate paper you won't have enough ink to print on.
   
   As a career IT professional, I am truly baffled at how Epson printer receive such high ratings from industry specialists when just about every Epson printer I've supported has this very exact same problem with no way to fix them aside from disassembling the printers and manually soaking the nozzles in special solutions. Check out another brand of printer entirely. You won't be sorry.



4. This is a great printer! I didn't buy it here, in fact I saw it in a store that I guess was no longer going to carry it and nabbed the last one for $18!!! I think it's the best buy I have ever made!!! It's easy to use, has some neat frames that are fun for kids pics and makes spectacular photos. I used up the 20 pages of Epson photopaper that came with it and tried some glossy Kodak that I had on hand. It prints just as great on it too! The initial tonor cartridge is said to only print about 20 photos, but I've printed 30 so far and the quality is a good as the first one. Don't just replace the cartridge just because it says it will only print x number of photos...
   
   I would (and have) recommend this printer to anyone. I have only used it by putting in my SD card from my camera so far. I would love to purchase a battery for it, too, but haven't yet.
   
   Great printer at any price!!



5. Epson PictureMate Personal Photo Printer
   When the machine arrived I took one look at the size of the box (small)and figured I'd be trying to put the thing together for the next week! What a pleasant surprise...a completely ready-to-go machine , small in stature (about 5"x 10") but big in performance! I loved the simplicity (I am no techno wizard!)and easy to follow instructions! In less than 2 minutes I had printed a fantastic photo! It was a better print than the ones I have done at a local store. For the price, it is a great deal!

5 comments about Kodak EasyShare Printer Dock Series 3.

1. This Printer prints out awesome pictures that look as if they were professionally printed. The printer only takes seconds to print out any photo you want and with great quality. I will be purchasing the bigger Kodak easy share printer to go along with my Kodak camera and the printer that I have now. This is a superior product and worth every penny and a little more!!!



2. If you look at the reviews, you'll notice a Jekyll and Hyde trend in the reviews. Most everyone likes the prints when the printer works. I truly hope Kodak steps up their quality control program. I too am one of those consumers that likes the printer, but darned if I can get it to work. I bet you I have only made a dozen prints and this thing has been a paperweight ever since. Darn those people from Kodak. If you disregard these negative reviews, BUYER BEWARE!



3. This is a great item to have if you want certain photos immediately. The cost per picture is a little high, but it is all about speed and is useful for a picture or so that you want to give someone immediately without waiting to have them developed. I would have given it a higher rating, but sometimes I have to manually push the paper forward instead of it doing this automatically as it did when new several months ago. It works well with the Z group of Kodak cameras.



4. when the product didnt work with the home computer after the sale they did not even respond to an email trying to figure out what to do. the product was shipped quickly.



5. One of the worst products that I have ever owned. Poorly quality, unreliable.
   
   Printer software is bloated and slows down the computer at boot. Synching a camera with the computer is hit or miss. Often takes several iterations of plugging/unplugging the camera/dock. Printer paper won't feed properly - gets jammed every other picture and ends up wasting the color carteridge. All-in-all this is a piece of junk and I would not recommend it to anyone.
   
   Prints about 1 picture out of 10 successfully and even then the quality is not that great.
   
   Only significant use I've found for this is as an ugly paperweight.

5 comments about Epson Stylus R2400 Photo Printer.

1. I have used a number of printers over the years and had pretty good luck with most of them whether Epson Canon or HP. But when I got got the R2400 I was blown away. The richness and detail I was able to get from my prints was staggering. I've been using the matt black and matt papers with a great deal of success. The fact that you have to swap out ink cartridges to use glossy papers is a drag plus you end up losing ink in the change over. I use a 1280 for glossies. It's not the printer this is but its a workable compromise for the time being. I found it worked perfectly running OSX Tiger as long as I used a direct cable (rather than through a hub). It works fine with Leopard except the printer utility to check ink level etc doesn't work in Leopard. So tracking ink levels is more guess work than science. Hoping for an update from epson or apple. That aside the results from printing from photoshop, lightroom or iPhoto have been gallery worthy.



2. I take several Photography classes at my local College and this is the printer we use. It produces great images and is pretty easy to use. The cost was always prohibitive until now, I bought this item yesterday for a song and there is also a hundred dollar rebate at the Epson website through 3/30/08 for this item.



3. The printer printed right out of the box . It prints great in black and white and also color . It is very simple to use if you pay atention . I reminds me of my very old original Epson color printer . The menues are easy to follow . I mismatched some paper and still got great prints . The Ink capacity is small but comparable to most othe printers when printing 8 by 10's . larger prints of course use more . I plan on mostly printing 11 by 17's and the other sizes on occasion .



4. I bought this printer to replace my Canon PRO9000. My primary motivation was the ink system - I wanted a pigment based ink system, I wanted multiple black inks for better B&W, I wanted to produce archival quality prints and the ability to print on a wider range of specialty papers than supported for the PRO9000. Finally, I wanted to keep my purchase cost around $700. This leaves the r2400, Canon PRO9500 and the HP B9180. It appeared to me there is a wider range of icc profiles for papers I am interested in for the Epson that isn t a rigourous, scientific census - just my opinon . I have owned HPs and Canons. I was open to trying Epsons to see if I like them as much as many others do.
   
   My only rap on the delivery of the printer is that the box was pretty chewed up when it arrived via UPS though the machine was OK.
   
   Set up was straightforward on my Mac OSX machine. My impression of doing so it s been a few weeks now was that I actually resorted to reading the manual at a couple of points - not something I typically need to do for a printer.
   
   Overall I d say this printer is like driving a car with manual transmission where the rest of the field are automatics. This isn't a printer system you will configure once and click-print unless you intend to use one ink-set/paper combination for everything.
   
   Following the analogy to a car, if your printing needs are mixed media, general printing with a 13x19 print a few times a year I don't think this is a good choice. You will be happier with nice "automatic".
   
   On the other hand if you are familiar with the issues of color management as it applies to printing, you know what an icc profile is and have dozens of them, understand what the difference is between reflective vs. perceptual intent and calibrate your monitor every couple of weeks this printer offers you a lot of control over almost every aspect of your output. But you have to manage much of it.
   
   Is the r2400 "better than" anybody else? There are other sites to delve into details of the quality issues (like Luminous Landscape). I put some of the prints I m getting from the r2400 next to prints of the same file from prior machines and the differences are generally subtle for color prints. The improvement in B&W is significant. As far as resolution and such goes at the desktop level you are far more likely to effect those aspects through your file handling and configuration settings than with the mechanical aspects of the printer.
   
   There are downsides to this machine. The ink is very expensive and the r2400 chews it up pretty fast. I haven't done enough printing to put very hard numbers to that yet but it feels like I m paying about $0.45 per print in ink on an 8x10. I was warned about this by some experts prior to buying. In fact I was really encouraged to spend the extra dough and go for the 3800 for the larger ink tanks. For me it came down to allocation of resources. I need the money for other things and don't need to produce large volumes of prints. I am not, however, busting out as many large prints as I was on the PRO9000 because of the cost issue.
   
   It is slow when you are producing highest quality prints. I don't think this would be a good solution for anyone needing a production printer.
   
   To conclude I am not in love with this printer but it does what I ask of it and does it well. I have a lot of control over the output along with the responsibility to know what I have to do to achieve it. It's pricey to operate and delivers high quality prints.



5. I have an $830 paperweight.
   
   I have just spent 8 hours trying to get this thing to clear a head, and the reviews on the net say it's not going to happen.
   
   Good luck!

5 comments about HP Color LaserJet 2600n Printer (Q6455A#ABA).

1. I've had my 2600n for almost 2 years now and it's easily the best $300 I've ever spent on a technology/computer related product. I have the printer networked to all our home computers and it is used quite often. I've replace the black cartridge but still have much life left on each of the color cartridges. Despite opinions of other reviewers, my printer seems quite stingy with the toner while still producing very decent looking color printouts. Great printer, easy to network, fantastic bargain!



2. i don't like this printer as much as i liked my 2500 laser printer. there are times when it doesn't print, and i have to go to the software and pause the printing and then resume it. i also don't like the tray for paper underneath. it slides out and takes up a lot of room which i don't have. i also have to make adjustments for envelopes. the 2500 had an open tray which was easier to deal with. of course, this printer was far less expensive than the 2500. basically, it's a nice printer. i have nothing negative to say about the printing itself.



3. For the past few years inkjet users have been paying dearly for color printing capability. Two or three years ago a color laserjet printer that uses dry toner was very expensive (commonly $1000). Then prices on these machines began to crash. Other manufacturers were first to market with less expensive printers. When HP, which always produces best of class hardware entered the fray with this beauty it was time to move. It has commonly been available for about $250-$300. While the full retail price of 4 dry toner cartridges is about $300, the cost per print is less than 3 cents. A new machine comes with a full set of cartridges (so the machine is actually free!).
   
   Inkjet cartridges are very expensive by comparison, about 12-13 cents per print (thousands of dollars per gallon). If you go on vacation for a few weeks you are at risk of having liquid inks dry out in feed lines.
   
   I've never been able to keep an inkjet working for more than 2 years. I retired a HP laserjet that was still functioning well after a decade opting for a faster machine.
   
   The only downside is that this is a fairly large machine better suited to an office than home environment (depending on the size of our home, I guess).



4. This is probably the cheapest color laser jet you can find. and it does its job well!



5. First, the good news. The HP 2600n works well. Setup over the network was simple and it produces nice looking documents.
   
   But, there's not so nice news.
   
   First of all, it's slow. Really really slow, slowest laser printer I've ever owned.
   
   Second, it has problems with handling stiff cardstock. It appears to bump the paper against some internal mechanism so that a horizontal line of text will appear smeared. Not every card, but about half of them.
   
   Finally, it's expensive. Not the printer itself, I caught it at 50% off one day, so I only paid two hundred. The toner costs look like they'll be hefty. So far, my printing with very little "color" is using all four toners cartriges evenly, which works out to 10 cents per page (about five times the cost of my normal lasers).
   
   According to HP's documentation, the printer uses all four toners even when producing black (to control a color cast in the black toner?). I've been told that the "grayscale only" option only affects the color rendering, not the toner use. There is another "neutrals greys, black only" option, I'm going to try that and see if it effects usage.
   
   I've also been told that the other three toner carts spin no matter if they're being used or not, so there's wear from wiping the drums and the printer counts pages evenly across all four toners.
   
   I only use it for limited items that need color, for the speed issue alone I'd prefer using my other lasers instead. It's great for occasional use, but I can't imagine having it as my primary printer.