January 9, 2002

Printers are the one hardware item none of us is crazy about but which is almost as necessary as the computer itself.  A lot of my clients are always asking my opinion regarding purchasing a new printer.  There are so many printers out there that I don't know how anyone can intelligently be an expert on all of them. 

I think when you are thinking of purchasing a new printer you might do what I usually do, pick up an issue of PC World magazine and/or PC Magazine and check out their reviews. As far as I'm concerned, it's a crap shoot when you are deciding which one is better.  I've always been partial to Hewlett-Packard printers because they always seem to fare well in the magazine tests and they are usually reliable.  One thing is for certain, the prices of printers have dropped dramatically.  They claim the reason is the manufacturers are selling the printers for close to cost because they are making a lot of money selling the print cartridges.  That's probably true.  The cartridges are expensive compared to the purchase price of the printer and it seems like the amount of printing you can do from one cartridge gets shorter the higher the price gets. 

There are alternatives to high printer cartridge prices.   Click here for my discussion on refilling the cartridges for a fraction of the cost of the new cartridges.  When you refill them they also last considerably longer.

Another consideration when purchasing a printer is the actual print resolution.  The resolution affects how the printed picture looks.  The higher the dpi (dots per inch), the better the picture looks.  When I purchased my last printer, I went to Office Max and looked at one printer which was $399 and one was $299. Same resolution, more bells and whistles.  I could care less about hooking up a digital camera to my printer using infra-red.  I Found another printer with the same resolution and fewer bells and whistles for $179.  Then I went to Costco and found a printer, same resolution, a couple of fewer bells and whistles and $139.

Another consideration is the print speed.  Here's where they really suck you in.  When you look at the labels and sales info it will say the print speed is 9 ppm (pages per minute) or 12 or whatever.  Well, if you read the fine print, that is at the draft print resolution.  For instance, when I went to the H-P web site to look up the product specifications, the expensive printer was listed as 12 ppm, actual speed printing a color picture at the high resolution is .3 ppm.  That's 1/36th the draft speed so what are you getting when you purchase a 12 ppm printer? 

What's important as far as I'm concerned is the print resolution.  So, there you have it, it depends on who you talk to as to what answer you will get.  The best thing is to find a printer you can see function at the store so you know how it works or one a friend has and make your decision from there.

If you have any questions or comments, click