All in One Printers Reviewed

Epson Artisan 700 Photo All-in-One Printer (Black) (C11CA30201)

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$399.99

The company has finally realized that their printers have become the milking cow of third-party refill ink sellers. Over the past years, these third-party sellers have caused a massive decline in the sales of Epson original ink cartridges, as its printers have become the main target of their improvised “ink tank system”. To gain back what they have lost, the company unveiled Epson L200.

This all-in-on printer is the first of its kind (at least, one that is manufactured by the company who owns the brand). It has its own original Ink Tank System which makes ink refilling easier and affordable. Each bottle of original Epson Refill Ink costs less than $5. This is already enough to print hundreds, if not thousands of pages!

This printer combines efficiency and practicability. It can handle high-volume printing, copy documents instantly (even without a computer) and scan in seconds. It is extremely cost-efficient and incredible fast.

The Printer’s Body

Just like the improvised ink tanks attached by third-party sellers to Epson printers, the ink tank that comes along L200 is also detachable and is situated outside the printer, at its rear. The ink tank system minimizes clogging of the ink cartridge’s print head and thus improves the printer’s performance. In order to minimize ink wastage due to evaporation (since the tank is placed outside the printer), Epson has also added filters and tank caps which seal the tank away from airflow.

There are four control buttons which are visible on the printer’s body. These are the On/OFF button, colour button (for coloured copying), monochrome button (for black and white copying) and the Cancel button which cancels printing jobs and at the same time acts as the button that triggers the print head cleaning process. When pressed for 3 seconds, the printer automatically responds and does tasks that are designed to clean and clear the print head from clogging.

The tubes that link the ink tank and the ink cartridge inside the printer have a valve that helps the user to adjust the flow of ink. This valve can open and the close the tubes. It can also be adjusted to as to prevent back flow of ink once the pressure inside the ink cartridge increases.

Each Ink Tank Cap is etched with a control number that ensures the user that he or she is using genuine Epson products. This control number is unique for each cap. The ink tank is also designed to fit perfectly into the printer’s chassis for aesthetic purposes.

The printer is only 4.3 kgs with a total dimension of 508 by 304 by 151 millimetres. This is small enough to be conveniently placed in the corner of a small office or of a room in the user’s house.

In terms of paper handling, Epson L200 can handle 100 A4 sheets all at once. What’s more, the input tray is also wide enough to support any sheet of paper 8.5 inches wide and up to 44 inches long.

Printer’s Performance

When tested, the printer was rated to print at 27 ppm or pages per minute, for monochrome pages. When used to print coloured pictures and graphics, it is rated a 15 pages per minute. Again, this speed is incredibly fast compared to the other printers out there. Take note that this printer can print a 4 by 6 inch photo is just 66 seconds!

Scan and Copy Functions

This all-in-one printer uses a flatbed contact image sensor to scan documents and photos. It can handle a maximum dpi of 600 by 1200 at 48 or 24 bits, depending on the properties of the document or the photo. For coloured “photo copying”, the printed can produce 1.5 copies per minute (for coloured ones) and 20 copies per minute for monochromatic ones.

Special Features and Connectivity

Epson L200 is considered to be an economical printer because of it 12 W power consumption. It can even operate at 3.5 W when used as a standalone. This printer can be used by anyone who has Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7. The printer will also work faster if it is plugged to a 2.0 USB port.

HP Officejet Pro 8600 e-All-in-On Wireless Color Printer with Scanner, Copier & Fax

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$160.00

Laser All-in-one (AIO) printers are more preferred for office use because of two main reasons: 1) they are faster and 2) printouts generally costs less than their inkjet counterparts. The trade-off, of course, is the fact that laser all-in-one printers are considerably more expensive than inkjets.

Thus, it is truly rare to find a printer that has the speed common to laser AIOs while being affordable (including having cheap consumables). This combination is not commonly found in most of the printers available in the market nowadays. This is the reason why when HP released its Officejet Pro 8600 AIO printer; it immediately gained such a good reputation.

This all-in-one inkjet printer is not only fast, it is also capable of so many things. Some of its features include: its duplex feeder, scan and fax functions and double-sided printing. It also has a 2.65-inch touch-screen that displays its various control buttons.

HP Officejet Pro 8600 may not be as savvy as its other version, the HP Officejet Pro 8600 Plus but it does cost a hundred dollars less. At $200, you can definitely say that this printer is a good buy. It is perfect for micro office as well as for offices based at home. It all its functions and features, this printer can be the only machine that you will ever need in your office (apart from your computer, of course!).

For more ease of usage, the printer allows you to print via any connection. You can use the Ethernet, the Wi-Fi or the USB to link the printer to any computer. You can also print photos and documents straight from you flash disk or memory card through its ports. It is also capable of Apple Air Print and Google’s Cloud Print. What’s more, you can also print emails using the HP Officejet Pro 8600 even without having to access your computer! The printer is assigned a special email address and you can just send documents to this email address. Once the printer receives the email, you can select to either print it or save it for later use. However, you cannot use this printer to send emails just like HP Officejet Pro 8600 Plus.

All these functions are fetched via the printer’s touch screen interface. The screen is also coloured for more quality user experience. The printer has its own menus which you can access by navigating though the touch-screen.

Paper Handling

This printer can accommodate the printing requirements of abbot two micro offices. It has a sheet tray with a capacity of 250 sheets. Its duplexer automatically allows the printer to print on both sides of the paper. If this is not enough, you can even buy an additional paper tray for only $80 and you will be able to double the printer’s capacity to 500 sheets.

Speed and Quality

Given its low cost, the quality of Officejet Pro 8600 is really superb. It can be at par with printer which is about $100 or $200 more expensive than it is. It can print 5.7 effective pages per minute which is about 2 to 3 times faster than regular inkjet printers and even laser printers too. For example, Dell’s 1355CNW Multifunction Colour Printer which cost more than $400 only has 4.5 effective pages per minute rating. In terms of photo printing, Officejet Pro 8600 can print a full-colour 4 by 6 photos in about 54 seconds.

However, when you are really serious about quality, this printer may not meet you standards. It can be at par with laser and high-quality inkjet printers when printing documents but the case is different for graphics and photos. But, you can be sure that its outputs are water-resistant (at least if you use HP’s ColorLok Paper).

Long-term Use

HP Officejet Pro 8600 claims to have a very low running cost. HP claims that the printer can produce text outputs for 1.6 cents each and 7.2 cents for coloured ones. If this is true, then it is perfect for long term use.

Lexmark X548DTE Color Mfp

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$1,670.00

Designed to meet the flexible needs of midsize workgroups and businesses, Lexmark X548dte is classified as one of the most affordable high-level laser multi-printer available in the market today. At only $1749, this all-in-one printer is truly a best-buy. It can do almost every function that you can think of; it has efficient paper handling functions, print fast and provides outputs of superior quality. X548dte is suitable for printing marketing materials which are meant to impress clients; it can also be used to print high quality photos and other full-colour outputs.

Lexmark X548dte Anatomy

Just like other 4-star printers like the Brother MFC-9970CDW, X548dte also has its own touch-screen control pad. Moreover, since this all-in-one printer is a floor-standing type, one can definitely expect more internal hard drive which implies that it can have more features and functions that the other multi-function printers in the same price range. For example, the large hard drive of the printer enables it to copy and store pages for later printing, it can also produce outputs in a booklet format — which can be chosen from the list of options displayed on the control screen. Upon selecting this option, the scanned pages will be stored in the hard drive and print the pages accordingly. The only thing left for the user to do is to stable the booklet and they are ready (all in the right order and page numbering).

The huge internal hard drive is also used to operate the other features of the printer. The memory space of Lexmark X548dte enables secure printing and page preview. Secure printing would require the user to input a pre-defined PIN before it can be operated. This is especially helpful in monitoring the people who use the printer/copier in the office or in other semi-public places. Preview function helps the user see documents which have been emailed directly to it via its internet connection; this function makes it easier for the user to see if the right documents are being selected.

Compared to the other floor-standing printers/copiers out there, Lexmark X548dte has the most sophisticated features. It meets all the functions one would ever want from an all-in-one printer without sacrificing aesthetics. It is a handsome and fully-functional printer; truly one of the best MFP today.

More Printing Options and Functions

It is quite expected for this printer to be able to meet to basic requirements that one would look for in a high-end desktop multi-function printer. Of course, it can print, fax, scan, email, serve as a copier and connect to a network. It can also print through its network connection, a computer and through external data storage.

As a scanner, the X548dte is designed to have a dedicated 50-page automatic document feeder or ADF which is supplemented by a flatbed for letter-sized and legal-sized papers. The ADF of the printer also has duplexing functions thus it can print on both sides of the paper with a single command option. It can also print a combination of one-sided and double-sided print outputs in a single operation.

Paper handling of the printer is also very efficient. It has 100-sheet, 250-sheet and 550-sheet paper tray, with the first tray having the manual-feed feature only. Overall, the printer has a 900-page capacity which is definitely enough for a midsize group or business. But, if all these sheets are not enough, the user can upgrade the paper trays and add an additional 550-sheet tray. Thus, with this addition, the printer can have a maximum single operation output of 1450 sheets.

Printing Speed and Setup

Lexmark X548dte is very easy to setup, in fact, the only difficulty that the user might experience in setting up the printer is probably on finding the right spot for the printer. It is relatively small (only 23.5 by 23.5 inches and weighs 70.6 pounds) so it fits perfectly well on desks or tables usually placed in offices.

The printer’s speed is a very strong point; it can print mono and coloured outputs at a rate of 25ppm (pages per minute), which is the speed of regular printers for pure text documents. Thus, the printer can be considered as a high-speed MFP at a budget-friendly price.

Print Output Quality

Photo printouts and graphics are of superior quality, compared to other MFP printers. The text quality is also comparable to laser MFPs that belong to a higher price range. This makes the printer perfect for high-quality publishing both at home, in small offices and for small businesses. Overall, the photo outputs can be mistaken to have a complete true photo quality when framed behind glass.

The printed outputs of the printer may have small flaws but they are really very small to be noticed. For most business and home applications, the output of the printer is always good enough; it can even exceed the expectations of the user.