Help picking a printer for the wife...

[Bellarionna]

My wife's birthday is coming up on August 3rd and she's continuously been complaining about her printer giving her a hard time so I thought it would be a nice gift to get her a printer.

I'm so out of the loop on the printer market as I've never really liked personal printers (they act up too much)...

I've browsed Amazon and I came across this Epson WorkForce 645. I didn't want to spend more than about $100, but I wanted to get a scanner/copier/printer. This does everything I think she'll need plus the ink is relatively good priced (about $15 per cartridge)... The last Epson I had was awesome, until it stopped working, so not so awesome I suppose. I've used just about every brand and they've all had their pros/cons. Oh, and I want one that doesn't have to hook to a computer so she could use it from a laptop, desktop, smartphone, etc.... wired or wireless, either way, is fine.

Anyone have any other suggestions on Printers? Like I said, I've had such a problem with them back in the mid to late 90's I simply refused to use one and only printed at school or work on black and white laser printer...

[Deathpal]

ill take a peek at some after raid here and see what i can find. so you want it wireless correct?

[Deathpal]

ok bell, ive always had good luck with lexmark printers. some of the best on the market imop.

heres the printer:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16828106955

here are the replacement ink cartridges for it as well:

http://www.amazon.com/Lexmark-High-Yield-150XL-Tri-pack/dp/B005OY6ROU/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1343183255&sr=8-1&keywords=lexmark+150xl+ink+cartridges
http://www.amazon.com/Lexmark-High-Yield-150XL-Black/dp/B005MECEOY/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1343183255&sr=8-3&keywords=lexmark+150xl+ink+cartridges

Its an all in one, its wireless and if you buy it from newegg its only 69.99. some reviews have people saying it is difficult to connect to the wireless but they all want something plug and play. just gotta run the software and do it the right way to set it up. wonder if sheza might have a few suggestions

[Cremate]

Its an all in one, its wireless and if you buy it from newegg its only 69.99. some reviews have people saying it is difficult to connect to the wireless but they all want something plug and play. just gotta run the software and do it the right way to set it up. wonder if sheza might have a few suggestions

For $69, its a steal. And Newegg has GREAT customer service if anything goes wrong with the product in shipping, or shortly after. The printer also looks a tad bit more user friendly than the Epson one, though looks can be decieving.

The Epson one lists it's PPM at only 15ppm... though it claims that it is the "Fastest PPM in the world".... however, the Lexmark one has 30-35 PPM. Confusing. But anyways, its a good buy, and with the extra money, you can buy her some back up ink cartridges right off the bat.... or a dozen roses... or a nice dinner, etc....

[Bellarionna]

Its not a bad printer at all (The Lexus one on Newegg)...

I do have 2 concerns,

1) The printer doesn't have a paper tray and relies on the paper feed (35 sheet) method i consider to be old-school... (the Epson one has a 250 page tray, much like a copier or laser printer)

2) The ink is a tad bit more expensive. It would cost me over $76 to get all 4 Lexus cartridges, but only about $55 to get all 4 Epson cartridges. All that takes is 2 cartridge replacements and the cost difference is made up.

As far as the speed thing, I'm not too familiar, but 15 pages a minute is only 4 seconds a page on the Epson... meaning she would get her page in 2 seconds on the Lexus... not really that big of a deal imo, if 2 seconds a page is going to make or break anything she is working on, then she should have started earlier anyways

[Tigridia]

2) The ink is a tad bit more expensive. It would cost me over $76 to get all 4 Lexus cartridges, but only about $55 to get all 4 Epson cartridges. All that takes is 2 cartridge replacements and the cost difference is made up.

Look at page yield for the cartridges. The Lexmark gets 700 pages, the Epson gets 385 pages per cartridge (expect to get less than half that in real world usage.)

In most cases, spending a bit more up front can save you quite a bit on ink or toner down the road.

Laser is likely to be cheaper in the long run.

[Brenstel]

Laser is likely to be cheaper in the long run.

I definitely agree with this...I bought a Brother laser printer for 200$ 8 years ago and I'm still on the first drum...a drum is supposed to last between 2-5k pages and the inkjet before that was initially cheaper but ate me up in ink prices.
http://printers.toptenreviews.com/laser/