Kodak ESP 3.2
There are only slight differences between this machine and the £10 cheaper ESP 1.2. The first is a true touchscreen, with a longer diagonal of 61mm, which makes control easier and shows bigger photo thumbnails. Although the printer also uses the same print engine, Kodak claims to have tweaked it to produce speeds of 8ppm and 5.5ppm.
Under test, though, I only saw small increases, and measured 8.6ppm and 3.7ppm for black and colour. Print quality is good on both plain and photo paper. Running costs are the same as from the cheaper machine, too, though these are very good on both.
Reg Rating 75%
Price £79
More info Kodak
Lexmark Interpret S405
Looking slightly long in the tooth, Lexmark’s entry-level all-in-one is a big, pragmatic machine. Though it only has a two-line, mono LCD, it provides a PictBridge socket for cameras, as well as SD and MemoryStick and there’s a 35-sheet ADF, which works well with its fax support.
Rated at 17ppm and 11ppm printing black and colour, I only saw 6.8ppm and 4.1ppm, but the colour speed, in particular, is good. Print quality is OK on both plain and photo paper, but running costs are high, at 3.9p for black and 11.5p for colour. Despite what appears to be a high price for the printer, it can be had for around £50, online. ®
Reg Rating 70%
Price £133
More info Lexmark
Ten budget inkjet printers
COMMENTS
Oh the choices
Color inkjet:
1 printer $50
1 set of ink cartridges $50
print 20 pages
Sorry, your ink is empty / dried out / got stolen by the goblins at night.
1 set of ink cartridges $50 ...
B/W laser printer:
1 printer $100
1 cartridge $50
prints 2,000 pages, no questions asked
So for the one time a year you absolutely have to print in color, here is a USB stick and a map to the copy shop for you.
You arent mentioning...
The software for ANY HP product and especially inkjet printers is complete total and utter crap. Common cause of horrific boot times, takes forever to install, puts a ton of un-needed services etc
Kodak isnt much better
Oh and Hp, Kodak and especially Lexmark, get used to being shafted for inak as there are no good alternatives.
Be wary of Epson printers
Be aware that Epson printers genuinely have a built-in service life. They will decide by themselves that they have printed X amount of pages and simply stop working saying that the waste ink pads are saturated. They aren't. The official fix is expensive. The unofficial fix still involves spending money to reset the printer
quote from Epson SX235W manual:
"If an error message appears indicating the printer’s ink pads are nearing the end of their service life, contact Epson support to replace them. The message will be displayed at regular intervals until the ink pads are replaced. When the printer’s ink pads are saturated, the printer stops and Epson support is required to continue printing."
http://support.epson-europe.com/onlineguides/en/sx230_sx235w_sx430w_sx435w/html/trble_1.htm
For the Epson Stylus Office BX305FW Plus the same info is on page 80 of the manual:
ftp://download.epson-europe.com/pub/download/3737/epson373717eu.pdf
Since the printer itself decides to do this there is no way to predict when it will happen.
Supported OS?
Any chance future reviews could include a rundown of the supported OS? Windows and Mac are most likely but indicating which items have decent Linux support would be very useful.
Regards,
Colin
They are all shit
And filled with hidden booby traps
Epson and canons nozzles block.
Kodak ink is cheap but rest of print mechanism dies.
HP expensive ink and insanely bloated and nagging drivers.
In short expect to be screwed one way or another.
