All-in-one printer/scanner

I’m thinking about getting one of those all-in-one printer/scanner units and was wondering what other people’s opinions are on the various brands available. Is there one brand in particular whose ink cartridges are that much more expensive that the others? I previously bought an HP ink-jet printer because I was told the print heads don’t dry up like other brands if you don’t use the printer that often, which describes my usage. If you look around the usual outlets, 3C, RT Mart, Carrefour, Cost Co, the prices for typical printers/scanners ranges from $2000 to $6000. Is there something remarkable you’re getting with a more expensive unit over a cheaper one?

Any suggestions or advice is appreciated. Thanks!

I’m happy with my Epson TX100. There are 4 ink cartridges so you only have to buy the one that is low, but that 3C place will try to tell you that you can only buy the pack of 4. Tell them where to stick it, and go somewhere else.

I have an oder HP office jet and I haven’t had any usage problems but the cartridges are too expensive. I would either replace it with a laser printer or another HP with separate cartridges and possible better quality for photos.

I don’t really need the color; it’s just nice. I suppose if I had more lovely photos to reproduce I could go to a local print shop with an SD card.

Everyone is probably already aware that ink replacement is the big profit center for low-price consumer printers, and this is validated for me by friends who work in distributor sales at one of the major brands. When they’re not getting freebies from work, almost all of them go and get ink refills at the stands in the electronics markets. These work pretty well in my experience, and the fact that printer company employees (admittedly fairly low paid employees) go to the street vendors speaks volumes. The one caveat I would give is that, in my experience, the replacement ink is of a lower quality, so you get slower drying (which leads to more smearing), and it seems to harden or globularate (I am sure there’s a real word for it) or something in the cartridge, so you end up getting less life out of one refill. But for black day-to-day document printing, I’ve had very good luck with them.

Guang Hwa market on Xin Sheng/Ba De had some of those guys.

I’m looking at getting a color printer/scanner/fax. Like k.k., I probably won’t use this too often, so something that won’t have related problems would be good. Something quiet would also be good. I’m not planning on using this for photos on fancy paper.

Preferably under NT$5,000. Definitely under NT$10,000.

Someone mentioned the Canon Mx328 to me. Does anyone have any experience with that one or that brand?

I picked up the Canon MX328 in Carrefour about 2 weeks ago. It was only NT$2700.

It copies, scans, prints and faxes. So far I’m very pleased with it. It’s really easy to use and the print/scan quality is fantastic.

The MX328 gets a recommendation from me.

I have an Epson Stylus CX5400 and have been very satisfied with it. Since it is a bit old, though, it’s hard to find Epson ink cartridges that fit it, however at Guanghua, I can easily get after-market cartridges for a decent price (NT$100-150).

Have a look at the HP Deskjet F2418, not a bad all-in-one. I’m about to get one.

[quote=“Gary78”]I picked up the Canon MX328 in Carrefour about 2 weeks ago. It was only NT$2700.

It copies, scans, prints and faxes. So far I’m very pleased with it. It’s really easy to use and the print/scan quality is fantastic.

The MX328 gets a recommendation from me.[/quote]
I checked out some online reviews for this Canon MX328 and can’t seem to find much negative about it all. The added fax ability is a bonus too on top of what most other all-in-ones offer. I think I might go with this one, I’ll see if my Carrefour has any stock.

The only thing I’ve ever heard about Canon is that ink cartridges aren’t as easy to find in Taiwan. I haven’t actually found that to be the case though.

If you buy any of the big brands, I don’t think you’ll go far wrong. Unless you want laser printing or Ethernet connection I can’t see any reason to spend more than NT$3k.

Carrefour has several all-in-ones for about the same price. I think they had Canon, Epson and Lexmark when I looked. I didn’t do any research before I bought mine, but the 2 reasons I bought it were:

1, All the buttons have Chinese and English labels, as opposed to the other brands where some of the buttons only had Chinese labels.

2, I looked at the price of replacement cartridges in the store, the Canon’s were the cheapest. However, it was a quick look, so I could stand corrected on this.

I didn’t know it when I bought it, but the wife said that there was a NT$300 7-11 voucher if you registered the product online.

I have an HP officejet 6500 and an EpsonTX110. The HP is really expensive on ink cartridges but prints fast and never breaks down. The Epson has ink containers on the side, I print loads of stuff every day and haven’t refilled the ink in 6 months, and when it’s time the ink is really cheap, just pouring it from one bottle to the container. However, it is slow and less reliable.
Me advice is to go for one with ink containers, with the little printing you do, you won’t have to mess about with ink for 2 years or more.

I recently got an HP Photosmart B209a and I have to say I’m really impressed. You can print and scan over Wi-Fi, so no need for any cables except power which means you can put the printer pretty much anywhere. It also has a touch LCD screen which is really easy to use and you can chose the menu language which means you’re not stuck with Chinese only as so many other printers here.
Another good thing is that all the paper goes in and comes out the front, so no messy trays that you need to pull out or close and the paper lays flat down, so it won’t bend over time.
It’s going for just under NT$3k now (was NT$4k) and the print quality is pretty damn good too. Upgraded from a cheap 3-year old Canon which has been ok, but not nearly as good as this. Only downside is that the XL ink cartridges are close to NT$1k each, but then they should last a good few months unless you print a lot of colour pictures. Speaking of which, it also has a neat little tray for them 3x4" photo papers if you like printing photo size pictures.

One thing with inkjet printers though, if you don’t use them for quite some time, the nozzles can dry up, so you really need to use them at least once every month or so. One advantage HP has here over the other manufacturers is that you can easily change the whole print head assembly should the nozzles clog up beyond the ability of the printer to clean them. Yes, it’s cheaper to run an Epson off them external inktanks, but imho the build quality of Epson’s printers sucks. I tried to pull out the paper tray on a few models (some costing over NT$5k) and it felt like the whole thing was going to snap off in my hand. The Canon’s look much more well built, but I didn’t like the fact that the paper goes in the back and comes out the front. The only reason you’d want this is if you print on very thick paper stock or card, as the HP printers can in general not handle this too well.