Printer Scanner

[kevc]

I need to buy a new printer / copier, anyone got any recomendations on whats available in Thailand at a reasonable price, appreciate any help thanks.

[mocean]

I'm sure it's available, but what's your definition of a good price is more of a guess!

I myself have good experience with HP Officejet. These can scan and print. I think the ink is a little expensive, but if you don't print a lot, the ink will remain good for months.

There are also types It think which have this functions in a (color) laser printer. But all depens on how much you print or what: Mainly photo's or text. When you estimate how much you will print, you can calculate what's the best option based on costs per print and costs of the initial investment.

[Guest Reimar]

I need to buy a new printer / copier, anyone got any recomendations on whats available in Thailand at a reasonable price, appreciate any help thanks.

I do like Epson. We've a CX5100 3 1/2 years and that machine has done a heavy work. Used for printing and copy most time. Scanner is very fast and the print quality exelent. Even the cost of the ink is reasonable because of ink tanks, 3 color 1 black. Cost aroung THB 2,000 for one set. You need only to change the tank who's empty! If you print a lot, it works to change to an outside tank system. I use that one on our R210 and R310 for CD printing and can print with one filling aroung 2,700 pcs of CD's in Photo Quality!

The new CX 5700 and other cost around THB 5,000,

[kevc]

I need to buy a new printer / copier, anyone got any recomendations on whats available in Thailand at a reasonable price, appreciate any help thanks.

I do like Epson. We've a CX5100 3 1/2 years and that machine has done a heavy work. Used for printing and copy most time. Scanner is very fast and the print quality exelent. Even the cost of the ink is reasonable because of ink tanks, 3 color 1 black. Cost aroung THB 2,000 for one set. You need only to change the tank who's empty! If you print a lot, it works to change to an outside tank system. I use that one on our R210 and R310 for CD printing and can print with one filling aroung 2,700 pcs of CD's in Photo Quality!

The new CX 5700 and other cost around THB 5,000,

Thanks for the confirmation I'd already been looking at Epson because thats all I ever bought in the UK but I've been out of touch with all the lataest stuff living out in the sticksbut I'm away to bangkok tomorrow so I might just treat myself.

Thanks to yourself and mocean alot

[Firefoxx]

Remember that multifunction devices are like swiss army knives. They certainly can do a lot, and are good to have (rather than not having anything at all). However, would you like to prepare your meals with a swiss army knife on a daily basis? Jack of all trades, master of none.

[gwkenny]

You really need to define what your print usage is going to be.

Home use, occasional printing? That's fine.

But if you're doing home/office and you print even a decent amount, I'd say you'd be better served with a laser printer.

g-

[Richard-BKK]

I will say take a look at Brother, one of the good parts is that Brother ink is cheaper, Brother has no problems with refilling, also Brother supports not only MS Windows but also Apple Mac and what was for me more important Linux.

They have a not to expensive Office machine (inktjet printer, copier, snanner and fax) with Ethernet, Parralel and USB connection.

[PMK]

I'm with you. I've switched to Brother for both inkjet and laser. One thing I like about the low end multifunction printer I bought the wife is that it uses separate cartridges for each colour which will save money in the long run. The HL-2040 laser I bought has separate ink cartridge and drum, instead of having them combined which I think all the cheaper HPs do.

Peter

I will say take a look at Brother, one of the good parts is that Brother ink is cheaper, Brother has no problems with refilling, also Brother supports not only MS Windows but also Apple Mac and what was for me more important Linux.

They have a not to expensive Office machine (inktjet printer, copier, snanner and fax) with Ethernet, Parralel and USB connection.

[Firefoxx]

Actually that's separate toner and drum. It's not always true that the more separate consumables you have the less you pay (along the theory of "change only what you have to"). It's true for inkjets, since color usage depends on what you actually print. However, for lasers, the imaging drum (that the laser shoots) is actually quite fragile. Although it might outlive a toner cartridge, it doesn't outlive it by long. After two or three toner cartridges, you still need to change the drum, or print quality degrades. If you factor in the added cost of producing separate components which translates into more expensive consumables, you end up with a TCO (total cost of ownership) that's not much different from combined consumables (maybe even more expensive).

Generally, if you want cheap cost per page, you get a bigger printer. You don't get a sub 10k baht printer and expect cheap print costs.

Edited September 20, 2006 by Firefoxx

[Richard-BKK]

Calculating the cost per print is not always that easy to calculate. But the ability to select the use of 2 or 3 toners before replacing the drum is a sort of freedom which you can only get with laser printers with a separate toner and drum arrangement.

The issue of good multi-platform software driver support was for me much more important. With MS Windows Vista coming soon, and the hardware requirements to run Windows Vista, I did not wanted to relay only on being MS Windows compatible.

Sure, I belief that Canon, HP or Epson will have Windows Vista drivers for all there printers the moment this new Windows version is official introduced. I'm more worried about drivers available for alternative operating system if Windows Vista is to heavy to load on systems I'm running.

Brother offers good width range multi-platform driver support, I can remember the time that I wanted to connect a mid-range Cannon Bubblejet printer to a Linux system. Support from Cannon was minimum to none, online support from the Cannon website's was useless, the only support I could get was from other users in online support forums. After a lot of tricks and after a long time I got some progress in getting it working.

[Hurricane51]

Remember that multifunction devices are like swiss army knives. They certainly can do a lot, and are good to have (rather than not having anything at all). However, would you like to prepare your meals with a swiss army knife on a daily basis? Jack of all trades, master of none.

I'm with Firefoxx -- you are really purchasing a compromise. If that's enough, they they are convenient and less costly that purchasing separately.

Also (and this is what has kept me away from multifunction devices) if one component ceases to function, to get it repaired you lose the use of the other.

[Firefoxx]

If you're truly worried about driver support, you should steer clear of multifunction devices. They have plenty of functions because they have plenty of drivers that are *supposed* to work together in harmony (not). The drivers of any multifunction device (Brother included) are a nightmare.

The thing about really cheap multifunctions is this: how many compromises does the manufacturer have to make to get a device that can do multiple things to this price range? If you're getting a fairly expensive multifunction, then fine, it'll probably do a lot of things fairly well. Thing is, people who go for multifunctions are looking for value (in other words, CHEAP). The result is not pretty.

[astral]

I now use my digital camera for my scanning needs

and I am now looking for a reasonable priced printer.