Reply With Quote
Multifunction printers: review & compare
A multifunction printer may save on space in your home office but they tend to be expensive to run.
Online 02/2009
Contents
Multifunction printers
What to buy
Results table
Ink costs
How they perform
What to look for
Profiles - the rest
Your experience: have your say
Test results for 13 multifunction printers priced from $69 to $499
All-in-one printers (also called multifunction printers, MFPs or multifunction devices) are suited for the home office or photo enthusiast. They combine inkjet printing (including colour photo prints), copying and scanning functions (some have fax) into one device. We put 13 multifunction printers through their paces, testing their:
- Print quality and speed
- Copy performance
- Scanning performance
- Ease of use
- Versatility
- Energy use
At roughly $20 per teaspoon, inkjet printer ink is worth more than all but the most expensive champagne. Obviously, you want to get a printer that uses as little ink as possible, but does this mean spending more money on the printer itself? To find out, we also tested how much they would cost you to run, on average, over three years.
Why are we paying more?
If you buy a genuine printer ink cartridges overseas for cheaper, there's a very good chance you'll be wasting your money. Why? Because manufacturers attach a chip to make sure you can't use them. That way they can ensure the price they set in Australia isn't undercut by the price they set in another country.
They do this to stop legal parallel importation (also known as grey importation). Another effect of the addition of a chip is that third party ink manufacturers have a much harder job competing. The brand manufacturers own the patents for the chips which means third party manufacturers can't legally copy them. The result? Consumers pay more.
It's our belief that there's no reason Australians should pay more than anyone else for the same product. Unfortunately, this isn't a sentiment printer manufacturers share.
Where's the Canon?
In this test, we couldn't find Canon products that were available at the time of testing and would still be available upon publication. We'll be doing more testing later in the year and hopefully will be able to include Canon products at that time
Brands tested
- Brother MFC-6490CW
- Dell V105
- Dell V305W
- Epson Stylus TX100
- Epson Stylus Office TX300F
- Epson Stylus Office TX600FW
- Epson Stylus Photo TX800FW
- HP Photosmart C5380
- HP Photosmart C6380
- HP Deskjet F4280
- Lexmark X2650
- Lexmark X4650
- Lexmark Professional X7675
Multifunction printers: review & compare
Ink costs
Contents
Multifunction printers
What to buy
Results table
Ink costs
How they perform
What to look for
Profiles - the rest
Your experience: have your say
We've done some cost predictions over one to three years based on the following usage and you might be surprised at how much one of these printers could cost you to run. We used the scenario of printing five black and white pages, three colour pages and one photo every day, for one year.
Colour pages and photos cost much more than black and white pages, so if you don't do much colour, your costs will be lower. We haven't included paper costs, but it's not unreasonable to add a cent per page for black and white and anything from $0.60 to $2 for photos, depending on the quality and brand you choose.
What will they cost?
Using our formula the most expensive printers over a three year period are the Lexmark X2650 and Dell V105 which would cost a massive $9436 and $7553 respectively to own and run. The Dell V305W and Lexmark X4650 aren't much better at just over $6508 and $7163 respectively.
The most efficient printer in this test is the HP Photosmart C6380. Its costs $299 to buy, but over three years it would cost a total of $2496, which is a saving of more than $4000 over the Dell units, Lexmark X2650 and X4650.
The Epson Stylus Office TX300F and Stylus TX100 are relatively cheap at $129 and $69 respectively and more efficient than the other cheapies in this test. They'd be a good option if you're not too concerned with photo quality and can't afford the Photosmart C6380. In the first year they're the cheapest to buy and run by a few dollars. However, over a couple of years the initial cost of the Photosmart C6380 could be absorbed and the Epsons' running costs start to overtake their lower purchase price.
Mono
Graphics
PhotoBrand/model Price $ Black cartridge cost Cost per page Colour cartridge cost Cost per page Cost per page Brother MFC-6490CW 499 44.95 0.05 77.85 0.24 1.24 Dell V105 69 30.8 0.21 74.8 0.61 3.97 Dell V305W 149 27.5 0.12 72.6 0.32 4.23 Epson Stylus Photo TX800FW 399 26.99 0.08 134.95 0.3 1.63 Epson Stylus Office TX300F 129 17.99 0.05 44.97 0.35 1.11 Epson Stylus TX100 69 15.99 0.09 47.97 0.39 1.18 Epson Stylus Office TX600FW 229 26.99 (A) 44.97 (A) (A) HP Deskjet F4280 69 42 (A) 48 (A) (A) HP Photosmart C5380 219 44.57 (A) 98.12 (A) (A) HP Photosmart C6380 299 44.57 0.06 98.12 0.27 0.91 Lexmark X2650 69 35.71 0.22 94.19 0.61 5.65 Lexmark X4650 169 45.40 0.11 108.96 0.33 4.87 Lexmark Professional X7675 299 45.5 0.11 99.88 0.29 2.43 Brand/model Price $ Ink per year total cost 1st year 2nd year 3rd year Brother MFC-6490CW 499 805 1304 2109 2914 Dell V105 69 2495 2564 5058 7553 Dell V305W 149 2120 2269 4388 6508 Epson Stylus Photo TX800FW 399 1061 1460 2520 3581 Epson Stylus Office TX300F 129 910 1039 1948 2858 Epson Stylus TX100 69 1018 1087 2104 3122 Epson Stylus Office TX600FW 229 (A) (A) (A) (A) HP Deskjet F4280 69 (A) (A) (A) (A) HP Photosmart C5380 219 (A) (A) (A) (A) HP Photosmart C6380 299 732 1031 1764 2496 Lexmark X2650 69 3122 3191 6313 9436 Lexmark X4650 169 2331 2500 4832 7163 Lexmark Professional X7675 299 1409 1708 3117 4526
Print speed and quality
Print speed may not seem very important if you only print the occasional page or photo, but some of these printers could be frustrating even if you only want one page.
We've provided scores for each printer as a percentage, so you can see at a glance which are the fastest and slowest. The printers are set to normal quality for the type of print job, we don't use draft or economy setting, which could save both time and money, but will compromise quality in most cases.
The consistently slowest printers in the test are the Epson Stylus TX100 and Stylus Office TX300F. They'll take 22 and 19 seconds respectively to print each page of a five page black and white letter. The Epson Stylus Office TX600FW is the fastest for this task taking only five seconds. Seven to eight seconds would score in the 70s.
Once colour is introduced things tend to slow down. A colour spreadsheet page will take anything from 15 seconds for the Stylus Office TX800FW to 112 seconds for the Stylus Office TX300F. The Brother MFC-690CW is also pretty fast taking only 29 seconds.
Even the relatively speedy Epson Stylus Office TX800FW takes about one minute to print a desktop published page with a number of colour images and different fonts. The tardy Stylus TX100 and Stylus Office TX300F take around five minutes and most of the rest will manage it in one and a half to three minutes.
It's photos that can really try your patience. This test prints a 20.3cm x 24.5cm photo on A4 paper at the printers photo quality setting. The Stylus Office TX800FW can manage this in just over two minutes and both the HP Photosmart units in just under three. Most of the rest take somewhere between five and ten minutes, but the Stylus TX100 and Stylus Office TX300F will give you plenty of time to make a cup of tea taking around 15 minutes.
Getting the job done quickly can mean compromising quality. Some of the faster printers aren't necessarily the best choice if quality is an issue for you.
In black and white mode only the Stylus Office TX600FW manages to produce good quality fast.
The HP Photosmart C6380 can produce a very good quality spreadsheet at a good speed. There are a number of others that can manage good quality, but only the Photosmart C5380 and Stylus Office TX600FW do so quickly. The Stylus Office TX600FW also stands out because it can print very good desktop publishing quality reasonably quickly.
None of the printers in this test could be considered fast when printing photos, but both the HP Photosmart printers produce good quality at an OK speed. Unfortunately, all the HP units tend to be more susceptible to smearing when wet and only slightly better when left to dry overnight for both photos and text. Most of the rest in the test show good smear resistance, but the Lexmark X2650 and X4650's photos are only a little more stable than the HP printers.
Scanning and copying
The Epson Stylus Photo TX800FW is the only printer to get a good overall scanning score. This is mainly because it's generally quicker than the others, but the HP Photosmart units aren't that much slower and have a slight edge in quality when scanning photos.
Scores are lower for copying because all of them take much longer than a stand alone copier. However, they can copy colour documents. The Dell V105, Epson Stylus Office TX300F, Stylus TX100, HP Deskjet F4280 and Lexmark X2650 have to do a separate scan for each copy of a document, which can slow the process if there are lots of pages to copy.
Double sided printing (duplex) – allows you to print on both sides of the page. Only the Lexmark X7675 comes with this feature, but you can purchase an optional duplex unit for the HP Photosmart C6380 and Epson Stylus Photo TX800FW.
LCD – an LCD screen is useful for printers that can print directly from digital memory cards. See the table for those that have them and their sizes.
Bluetooth connection – allows printing from your mobile phone or PDA. Check the table for which have this feature.
Direct printing
- Pictbridge (P
– allows digital cameras and printers to communicate. The printer and camera don't have to be of the same brand, but both must be PictBridge-compatible and be connected with a USB cable. Once connected, the camera can control the basic printer functions so you can print without a computer.
- Memory card – all the printers in the Results table with a 'Yes' in the Prints from card column can accept Compact Flash, Memory Stick, Secure Digital and xD cards. Of those, only the Brother can't handle Multi Media cards. Some may also be able to handle MiniSD cards with a separate adaptor.
Wireless printing – via BlueTooth is useful if you want to print directly from a mobile device like a phone or PDA. However, a wireless connection (WLAN) gives you a much faster link between the printer and your PC and means you can position them in different rooms without the need for cables.
Network connection (Ethernet) – can make connecting your printer to a network very easy.
Separate colour cartridges – allow you to replace only the individual colour that's run out.
Printer heads – the printer head will eventually wear out and can be expensive to replace. However, they often last longer than the printers' usefulness and in that case you don't need to worry about replacing them. Heads on the cartridge generally increase the cartridge cost, but mean you won't have a large expense if you do a lot of printing.
Ink useage limitation
Testing printers is a time consuming and wasteful business. To try to limit the amount of waste we join together with consumer organisations from around the world to conduct the tests in one laboratory. Wherever possible we try to ascertain which printer models are similar except for minor variations by liaising with the printer manufacturers.
Though this is largely successful, a consequence of the practice of chipping cartridges, along with manufacturers naming their printers and cartridges differently in different countries, is that we cannot provide information on ink usage for three of the printers in this test (see Results table ).
Tell you what you want to know ??
Cheers
Originally Posted by Chucaro
Bookmarks