Color printer for home - which is better?
When you have a child, and after a certain time he goes to school, and then to college, you think about how to help him with his studies? Yes, if your activity or hobby is associated with the need to constantly receive color printing, the question arises, which color printer for home is better? You will find a solution after reading this article.
to contents ↑Key selection criteria
The printer for the home must be:
- quality;
- relatively inexpensive;
- economical;
- compact.
to contents ↑Important! It is necessary to take into account in the process of how to choose a color printer the fact that you still do not need 100 thousand printed sheets, as well as the ability to print in A3 format. Therefore, fairly budget models of laser or inkjet devices may come up.
What should I look for when buying a printer?
How to choose a printer for home use, then enjoy printing, and not blame yourself for this purchase, consultants for advice, friends for help? This is not difficult if you first pay attention to the following points:
- Manufacturer. When you buy a printer for the home, you pay for the product itself and in addition for its brand. And this is right, because it is reliable companies that have an excellent service system. The affordable price of spare compatible and original parts, consumables is worth it for you to overpay a certain amount for the brand.
Important! According to many users, the best home printers and spare parts for them are produced by such companies as: HP, Xerox, Canon, Samsung.
- Model. To choose a good color printer for your home, first decide on your monthly task. That is, theoretically determine the number of pages that you will print monthly. It should also be noted that if the recommended print volume is 7000 pages per month, then a printer with the same parameters can work no more than the declared period. And if the load is exceeded, then even less. In other words, if you need to print 500 thousand pages per month, then buy a printer with a recommended print volume of 650-700 thousand pages per month.
- Options and functionality. Here you need to understand that such printer specifications are directly dependent on your needs. Think in advance what exactly you will need: duplex printing, additional trays, additional memory, finishing devices, built-in hard drives.
- Service method. It is imperative to find out before making a purchase whether you can refuel the device yourself.
Important! Some manufacturers put a special chip on the cartridge in order to prevent refueling and thereby force the consumer to buy new cartridges every time. That is, there is a forced attraction to its products and an increase in demand for it.
How to buy a color printer for the home - determine the appropriate type
As mentioned above, there are 2 main varieties from which you have to choose a color printer for the home. What are the differences and what does each type represent?
Laser printer - what is it?
A laser printer for the home is one of the types of office equipment that will quickly produce high-quality prints on plain paper. Prints of text, as well as graphics, are resistant to abrasion and fading. Even moisture is not a problem for them.
Important! The quality of such images is very high. The principle of operation of such a printer is based on the laser scanning process, after which the application, transfer of toner, and then its fixing.
What is an inkjet printer?
Now we will answer you the question, what is an inkjet printer. An inkjet printer is a peripheral device that is designed to print not only documents, but also for printing photographs, color schemes and graphs. Use special photo paper.
Important! The image is formed on special paper from dots. Inkjet printers use a matrix that is printed using liquid dyes. Continuous ink systems are used to reduce printing costs and improve printer performance.
Which printer is better - laser or inkjet?
Many people believe that an inkjet machine is the best printer for the home, justifying it by the fact that it is several times cheaper than a laser, and refilling it is very simple and inexpensive ink. Let's look at this statement from a different perspective:
- Since inkjet printers are often bought specifically for multi-color printing, you can refill ink 1-2 times. And then - you have to buy a completely new, original cartridge, the cost of which is approximately equal to the cost of a new printer.
- The cost of a laser printer is much more than an inkjet, but despite this, a laser printer is much cheaper to maintain, since toner costs no more than $ 2-7, and you can refill it yourself.
- In terms of print speed, the laser printer is noticeably superior to the inkjet. For comparison: in 1 minute the laser printer has 17 pages, while the inkjet printer has only 7-9 pages.
- The laser makes significantly less noise, plus there is no need to worry about dried paints. Toner can be stored in the cartridge for up to 1 year.
- In an inkjet printer, you will have to constantly send a test page for printing or to clean the print head, with the CISS installed, you will have to clean the nozzles.
Important! The print quality of 2 of these types of printers is almost the same, because the correct printing on an inkjet printer is possible only when using paper with a special coating. On plain paper, the edges of the letters or pattern are shaggy. It is also necessary to take into account the fact that printouts on an inkjet printer will be subject to fading, smearing, erosion when exposed to water.
Alternative types of equipment
In addition to office appliances with the name “printer”, there are other varieties with which you can get high-quality printing. Let's look at comparing a printer with an alternative MFP - how convenient and practical is it?
to contents ↑MFP - what is it?
There is a special class of electronic equipment - this is the MFP. This abbreviation is deciphered as a multifunctional device. Not taking into account the potential breadth of interpretation of this term, it almost always means a device that combines functions:
- a scanner;
- a printer;
- Xerox.
Knowing this alone, it’s worth considering how to buy a color printer for your home or give preference to a more functional device.
Important! Classification of MFPs is carried out on the same grounds as with the difference of printers. Matrix devices are allocated only to a separate group, which, in principle, are quite rare, and are not particularly suitable for home use. Therefore, the pros and cons for each of the varieties will be partly the same with those that are typical for simpler printing devices.
MFP or printer?
In order to answer the question whether to buy a color printer for a home or an MFP, it is necessary to touch upon the factor of functionality at a slightly higher cost.
Today, almost any basis of the printer, whether it is a laser device or an inkjet, has a modification like a multifunctional device, but nonetheless incomplete. When you purchase an MFP device, for a fairly modest increase in cost, you will be able to scan documents and copy them without any need to turn on the computer. There are models in which you can also receive a fax machine as a bonus.
This extension of functionality is most suitable for use in home offices. Do not forget about pupils and students for whom it would also be beneficial and useful. But even for an ordinary home user, the full functionality of the MFP may be useful.
Important! If you are interested in the topic of buying a multifunctional device for your home, we suggest you learn more about it. You will find more information in our separate review. “How to choose an MFP for home use? Rating".
Printer Rating
If you still decide to give preference to a simpler version of the equipment, then before you determine your own color printer for your home - which is better, pay attention to customer reviews. Based on the information in them, you can make such a rating of the most popular models to date.
SAMSUNG printers
So far, these printers are winning in price, most often, they are more compact than competitors, and also more interesting in appearance.
Samsung in every way tries to protect its own devices from refilling cartridges as best as possible at the software level. That is, the cartridge itself, of course, can be refilled, but the printer will not be able to print on it. An alternative solution can only be flashing the software base.
At the moment, there is a whole industry for the development of various firmwares that change the original software and allow you to refill cartridges without any problems in the future. The printer can be flashed at service centers for refilling cartridges or you can buy special firmware via the Internet and try to flash it yourself.
Important! As a rule, the firmware procedure is very simple and it will be much cheaper to do it yourself. And the price of the printer, even taking this procedure into account, may turn out to be more profitable than the prices of similar printers of competitive companies. The main thing is to find out if there is such firmware for the Samsung printer that you want to purchase.
Printers BROTHER
For many Brother printers, the following scheme applies. On the cartridges themselves, after the toner has run out, the plastic flag changes its position. When refueling it must be returned to its original position.
On the starter cartridges that come with the printer, it doesn’t exist at all, the printer deliberately counts the specified number of pages and printing is immediately blocked on such a cartridge. That is, you need to buy a cartridge again and only it will already be possible to refill normally.
Important! To manipulate the equipment further, you will have to take the printer to a service center, every time you want to refuel it, or find the necessary instructions on the Internet and do it at home whenever necessary. Summing up, it must be said that this is terribly inconvenient, and it is easier to flash Samsung one time than to mess around constantly with Brother.
HP and CANON printers
Consider these models together, because the technical base is the same on the younger models. By and large, these are largely similar devices. You can even make the assumption that Canon is developing for HP, and both brands use them at once.
They are not protected from refueling cartridges, that is, if a cartridge has run out, it can be refilled without flashing it, as is done in Samsung. But not everything is as good as it would seem.1-2 refueling - and the cartridge already needs to be restored, unlike Samsung printers.
to contents ↑Stock footage
We hope that the information received in this article will be more than enough for you to make the right choice when buying a color printer. Carefully consider, correlate the initial prices and the cost of service, and the choice will become obvious to you.
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