I went to Pantip Plaza today and there were plenty of shops ready to sell me a printer but virtually none had any print samples.

I'm guessing that only an Epson showroom or a major retailer is likely to have any samples. My problem is the 2 printers I'm interested in are both A3 so it's unlikely a retailer will have samples for these on hand.

imo Epsom printers are of reasonably good quality the service in Thailand is not they consume vast amounts of ink

and you are tied down to only refill with their over priced products also no getting around that also they have a print counter which can only be reset by authorized personal also at a premium cost

opt for another brand name

imo Epsom printers are of reasonably good quality the service in Thailand is not they consume vast amounts of ink

and you are tied down to only refill with their over priced products also no getting around that also they have a print counter which can only be reset by authorized personal also at a premium cost

opt for another brand name

My situation is a bit different. The Epson printers I'm interested in (L1800, L1300) are external tank printers that you refill with whatever Ink you choose. This is what attracted me to the Epson over the Canon. Sure you can do the same things with Canon and have the retailer drill holes in your cartridges and connect external tanks. Epson's approach just seems more realistic to me.

ok i think from what i understand on the initial (first)top up you will use the number coded in ink i think no choice otherwise it wont start after this yes you may use ink of your choice but they have a chip inside which will only let you print so many copies before it decides to think you have made enough copies based on the coded ink input after that either make reset

or top up with coded Epsom ink i have an L 200 external tank but having said all that any print shop will reset

i paid about 100 bht the carry on printing the machine will at some point tell you in empty i am not sure after that i always use Epsom ink its not expensive about 600 bht for a complete top up

SORRY when i sped red your 1st post i must have read as you were looking at DELL all the info i supplied was good except the ink guzzling bit

I would have to have a really good reason not to use Epson's inks. They are not expensive when you compare them to cartridges.

Try Denchai Trading

http://goo.gl/maps/W8DMb

Try Denchai Trading

http://goo.gl/maps/W8DMb

I went there today. Like every other place I've been, they are happy to order a printer for you but not a print sample in sight. I don't get it really. How do you compare printers without samples? Just do it the Thai way I guess, pick the one with the sexiest looking box.

Its just a printer <deleted>. And its not that hard to do research online. Pick what you prefer and get on with life.

A few thoughts:

You may be better off reading reviews on the InterWeb. Unless you have prints of the same picture and on the same paper then it is not that easy to compare. Also the quality of inks you use is important. Most Inkjet printers are pretty good. Many are made by Canon but re-badged, same as Laser printers. Running costs far outstrip the cost of the printer if you do a lot of work. Long, two weeks and above, periods of printer inactivity can cause the print heads to dry out. I run four or five InkJet printers and a the same number of laser printers. The larger oldish Canon i610 plotter can be expensive to maintain. The smaller machines used to be run on tanks but I found it cheaper to buy bulk inks from businesses getting rid of stock as they moved into new models. Bought 70 cartridges for $30 US for an Epson recently. If I get a batch of cheap inks I will buy a printer to match rather than the other way around. We do most of the donkey work on lasers and the quality stuff on InkJets. Most of our work is photographic or engineering drawings, and some reports.

Finally had some luck. There is an Epson stand at the IT section in Promenada Mall. They had a proper collection of samples for virtually every Epson printer. I was able to compare the printers I was interested in; same photo, same paper.

A few thoughts:

You may be better off reading reviews on the InterWeb. Unless you have prints of the same picture and on the same paper then it is not that easy to compare. Also the quality of inks you use is important. Most Inkjet printers are pretty good. Many are made by Canon but re-badged, same as Laser printers. Running costs far outstrip the cost of the printer if you do a lot of work. Long, two weeks and above, periods of printer inactivity can cause the print heads to dry out. I run four or five InkJet printers and a the same number of laser printers. The larger oldish Canon i610 plotter can be expensive to maintain. The smaller machines used to be run on tanks but I found it cheaper to buy bulk inks from businesses getting rid of stock as they moved into new models. Bought 70 cartridges for $30 US for an Epson recently. If I get a batch of cheap inks I will buy a printer to match rather than the other way around. We do most of the donkey work on lasers and the quality stuff on InkJets. Most of our work is photographic or engineering drawings, and some reports.

Thanks for that feedback.

I agree that the cost of inks is the primary consideration. I was able to compare the 2 Epson printers I've been interested in. Although the machines look almost identical, one uses 6 inks, the other 4. While the 6 ink machine definitely produces better output (no visible dots and better shadow detail) I can't justify the cost of the inks. Almost double that of the 4 ink machine.