Which All-in-one Printer To Buy? Hp Or Brother?

[sillyfools]

I need to buy a new all-in-one printer and looked around in Panthip yesterday.

4 models caught my eye:

HP Photosmart Premium. 11,700 THB (A4 - Full duplex - Bigger print dpi colors - higher cost ink)

HP Officejet Pro 8500. 12,900 THB (A4 - Duplex {print only} - Cheaper ink)

Brother MFC-5890CN. 8,490 THB (A3 - No duplex - small paper tray)

Brother MFC-6890CDW. 18,990 THB (A3 + {Full?} duplex and bigger paper tray)

Apart from that I know that some models support bluetooth, wireless, and print-on-cd but I'm not much interested in that.

The main thing that interests me

1) Is the ink waterproof? I heard from a vendor that the ink was waterproof but I've seen so many printers that I don't remember which one it was about.

2) I like the 2Y warranty on the Brother (as opposed to HP's 1y). How are your experiences with HP printers beyond their 1 year warranty?

3) What is your experience with these machines?

I'm still considering if I should buy the A3 brother as it is quite a premium and it might be cheaper to have things printed out in a print shop (see my other post).

I will order a printer on Wednesday.... Gosh.. that means today....

Any experiences, suggestions are much appreciated.

Thanks

[rfukata]

I need to buy a new all-in-one printer and looked around in Panthip yesterday.

4 models caught my eye:

HP Photosmart Premium. 11,700 THB (A4 - Full duplex - Bigger print dpi colors - higher cost ink)

HP Officejet Pro 8500. 12,900 THB (A4 - Duplex {print only} - Cheaper ink)

Brother MFC-5890CN. 8,490 THB (A3 - No duplex - small paper tray)

Brother MFC-6890CDW. 18,990 THB (A3 + {Full?} duplex and bigger paper tray)

Apart from that I know that some models support bluetooth, wireless, and print-on-cd but I'm not much interested in that.

The main thing that interests me

1) Is the ink waterproof? I heard from a vendor that the ink was waterproof but I've seen so many printers that I don't remember which one it was about.

2) I like the 2Y warranty on the Brother (as opposed to HP's 1y). How are your experiences with HP printers beyond their 1 year warranty?

3) What is your experience with these machines?

I'm still considering if I should buy the A3 brother as it is quite a premium and it might be cheaper to have things printed out in a print shop (see my other post).

I will order a printer on Wednesday.... Gosh.. that means today....

Any experiences, suggestions are much appreciated.

Thanks

Consider googling consumer report HP and Brother all in one printers.

You will be able to find some fine points detailing both machines (pros & cons)

I had a 4 in one HP (printer,fax,tel,scanner) but I found that the 'ink supply' cost me a lot of money. I am not sure on how

much the BROTHER ink cartridges are but maybe check out the cost prior to your decision.

Just a little history about Brother, it is a Japanese company - originally built Sewing machines.

[angiud]

After 3 or 4 Epson and Canon, finally I'm happy with my 4 in 1 Brother printer with boosted Comax in tanks. So cheap and long life!

(and never stop print in more than one year!)

[ozsamurai]

Totally disagree on the Brother, I love the functionality and the compact design, but these things are garbage

1) The bottom fed tray will not allow printing of anything thicker than 120g as it will not bend

2) The ink tanks are great money saving but block all the time and the color is WAY off for photo printing its not funny

3) I have had to trash 2 of these now because the printing head is blocked beyond repair

This is my third one of these and I swear I have wasted so much money for very poor performance I will not be getting another Brother ever, Canon I have been told is good, HP basic but tough? I don't know, but I would steer clear of the Brother and ink tanks.

Oz

[metisdead]

I've had my HP 1610 All-in-one for more than 3 years. Maybe it is basic, not had any problems at all.

[bellagrego]

I need to buy a new all-in-one printer and looked around in Panthip yesterday.

4 models caught my eye:

HP Photosmart Premium. 11,700 THB (A4 - Full duplex - Bigger print dpi colors - higher cost ink)

HP Officejet Pro 8500. 12,900 THB (A4 - Duplex {print only} - Cheaper ink)

Brother MFC-5890CN. 8,490 THB (A3 - No duplex - small paper tray)

Brother MFC-6890CDW. 18,990 THB (A3 + {Full?} duplex and bigger paper tray)

Apart from that I know that some models support bluetooth, wireless, and print-on-cd but I'm not much interested in that.

The main thing that interests me

1) Is the ink waterproof? I heard from a vendor that the ink was waterproof but I've seen so many printers that I don't remember which one it was about.

2) I like the 2Y warranty on the Brother (as opposed to HP's 1y). How are your experiences with HP printers beyond their 1 year warranty?

3) What is your experience with these machines?

I'm still considering if I should buy the A3 brother as it is quite a premium and it might be cheaper to have things printed out in a print shop (see my other post).

I will order a printer on Wednesday.... Gosh.. that means today....

The last poster summed up the pros and cons. I will add my two-cents worth.

I have an Epson, Hp. Brother, and lexmark and Canon.

For photo reproduction "canon or Hp only, 6 color, photo quality archive ink cartriges EXPENSIVE but worth it to me.

For mass printing, Lexmark with ink feeders

4in ones are not the best choice for anything but general non photo work

Brother I agree is at the bottom of the food chain

bella

Any experiences, suggestions are much appreciated.

Thanks

[sillyfools]

Thanks so much for all your feedback. It was a close race for me between Brother (as I was quite happy about it for the last 4 years, though a bit slow) and HP (where I had an experience of 25,000 printer break down on me 1 year and 2 days after purchase and was told it would be cheaper to buy a new one than to have it repaired....)

I really liked the A3 capabilities of the Brother but 10,000 THB more for duplex (print only) and a bigger paper tray seems a bit excessive. I tried to justify every possible reason to buy this goodie as it would be good to print some of my sheets on A3 size... However, after reading comments here and reading reviews of the Brother (it HAS good reviews though some colors are a bit washed and it is super slow) and the HP (great overall results) I have come to the decision that saving money on paper (full duplex) and especially space. I'd rather take 200 pages in duplex with me in a case instead of 400 pages single sided). Also it's good for nature and it would probably be cheaper to get some things printed in A3 from a print shop.

In the end the Brother A3 did not make economical sense for the limited use I have for it. I did some calculations and am posting my info over here so maybe it will help some other people who are also in the same position and need to make a decision with all (or most) of the fact.

Both the Brother and HP Photosmart ink is about the same price for a similar number of printouts (the difference is less than 5% so it would take many many many years to use it to justify buying the Brother... In fact, the Brother (surprisingly to me) was this time more expensive than the HP. It also has bigger 1.5pl drop size where the HP photosmart has 1.3pl (sharper).

So the choice between the HP's then. The photosmart is a home model. The 8500 is the office model. The home model has better capabilities than the business model (full duplex printing AND SCANNING) and has better color print resolution. On the other hand, the office model saves you heaps of money on ink to the tune of 50-60%, so if you mainly want to do a lot of B&W prints the latter might be a good choice or you may go for the Brother and buy an affordable mono laserjet for bulk office printing.

So, I am going for the photosmart premium all-in-one. I just hope HP has a care pack over here for 3 years like they have abroad.

* If somebody knows of clear directions to a print shop that can print some of my docs on A3 and happen to know approximate prices, please let me know (by PM) preferably. I appreciate it.

* Also, I have some ununsed original Brother ink for sale (brand new, color, c, m, y type LC47) at 1000THB (I paid 1240THB - have the receipt in front of me), let me know.

* I also found 2 more original color cartridges type 57 for HP in my closet from our printer in another location. Those are about 1 year old and I don't make any claims that they are still usable, so if anybody wants to have them for free, just come and pick them up, I live in BKK along the BTS. I think they cost about 1000THB apiece when I bought them).

Have a great Wednesday!