Prints Charming

Technology

Prints Charming

There are inkjets and lasers, photo printers and portable printers, printers that scan and printers that photocopy. But what should you actually buy? The short answer is that it depends on what you want to do, because different kinds of printers are designed for different things. Laser printers are fast and typically designed for very high volumes and are more expensive to buy, but for a busy office they’re brilliant. For home use, inkjets are much cheaper, and many of them can print in colour and produce very impressive photo prints too. Great value is the HP DeskJet 2710e. It’s £49 and includes a six-month subscription for HP’s Instant Ink, which delivers new ink cartridges when you’re running low. If you don’t use Instant Ink, replacement cartridges are £11 for a black one and the same for a colour one, but they don’t last long: the black one is good for around 120 pages and the colour 100 pages. That’s based on printing documents - colour photos will use up the colour cartridge much more quickly. Ink costs are the Achilles heel of inkjet printers, so if you’re going to print a lot of documents you should look for ones that use high-capacity cartridges: they’re better value in the long run. Another option is to use services such as HP’s Instant Ink (other firms have their own versions). This is pay as you go printing: you pay a set fee for a set number of pages – at the time of writing, £0.99 a month for 15 pages, rising to £22.49 for 700 – and £1 for every 10 pages over that limit. When you run low, new ink cartridges are automatically sent to you. If you only print black documents, it works out more expensive than shopping around for good deals on cartridges, but if you print a lot of photos it can save you money.

HP DeskJet 2710e

The cheaper the printer, the smaller its ink cartridges. As a home printer though it’s not bad, and the six months free Instant Ink makes it ideal for casual printing. £49, hp.com

HP LaserJet Pro 3002dwe

With wireless printing, cloud-based printing, automatic double-sided printing and fast printing speeds this is an excellent all-rounder for black and white printing. It’s compatible with high-yield laser cartridges. £220, hp.com

Epson EcoTank ET-3850

This is a high volume inkjet printers designed for lots of colour prints. The ET-3850 comes with enough ink for 14,000 black and 5,200 colour pages; a fourpack of replacement ink bottles is £36 for 6,000 to 7,500 pages of printing. £349, currys.co.uk

HP Colour Laser 150nw

You don’t need to spend a fortune to get colour laser printing, but the running costs do add up: each of the four toner cartridges this printer uses has an RRP of £48.99 and is rated for around 700 pages of printed documents. £229, currys.co.uk

HP OfficeJet Pro 7720

Most printers are designed to take A4 paper, but this HP can print in on poster-sized A3 paper too. It’s an all-in-one device with scanner and a fax, and can print as much as 30,000 pages per month. £187, currys.co.uk

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