Printer Comparison Assignment

Read about the assignment at our class website.

Student Circumstances

Which printer should the student buy?

• Grade nine student

• She intends to keep the printer all through high school

• She has one laptop and one desktop computer (would like to print from all computers)

• Has a family of 4 (all members want to use printer)

• No preference of colour or no colour

• Lives in the Greater Toronto Area

• Low budget (under $500 for total cost of ownership)

• She would like the printers from nearby stores (no shipping or far distances)

Printer Comparison Table

Printer	Where To Buy	Price	Features
Epson Stylus Wireless All–in–One Inkjet Printer (NX420) (ref. 1)	Best Buy (instore and online)	Regular Price: $99.99 Sale Price: $49.99 (as of 2010–11–20)	• Wi–Fi makes it easy to wirelessly share this printer with multiple PCs • The 1.5" LCD and built–in card slots let you print borderless photos PC–free • Make multiple copies with just one touch • Instantly reduce and enlarge copies 25—400% • Quick, high–quality scanning up to 2400 dpi • Save scans as JPEGs or PDFs using the included software • Superior image enhancement tools include red–eye removal, automatic photo restoration, and Automatic PhotoCorrection • Individual ink cartridges mean you replace only the colour you need • Manual, two–sided printing helps you save paper
Lexmark Impact S305 All–in–One Printer (ref. 2)	Staples (instore and online)	$85.37	• Print up to 33ppm black and 30ppm colour • Copy up to 25cpm black and 21cpm colour • Scan up to 1200 x 2400 dpi • Print resolution up to 2400 x 1200 dpi black and 4800 x 1200 dpi colour • Patented Vizix ink cartridges are engineered for intense ink–droplet precision–vivid, razor sharp images and highlighter–resistant • Print right from your memory card, camera, or flash drive • Save money by replacing only the individual ink cartridge that runs out • Print from multiple computers located anywhere in your home or office with wireless networking
HP M1536DNF Monochrome Multifunction Printer (ref. 3)	Staples (instore and online)	$355.36	• Print up to 26ppm • Copy up to 15cpm • Scan up to 1200 x 1200 dpi • Fax up to 33.6 kbps • Use up to 50 percent less paper with two–sided printing • Print right from your memory card, camera, or flash drive • Share printing resources with an Ethernet connection • Simplify printing tasks with an intuitive control panel and LCD • 35–page automatic document feeder • Fax directly to and from a PC, and control fax access with assigned PINs • Improved print quality with HP FastRes 1200 • Handle multiple media sizes and types with a 10–sheet priority tray and the 250–sheet paper tray • With HP ePrint, print from anywhere, anytime, using a mobile phone, notebook PC or other mobile device • Conserve energy with Instant–on Technology and Instant–on Copy
Samsung Colour Laser Printer (CLP–320N) (ref. 4)	Future Shop (instore and online)	$199.99	• 3 available print modes • Compatible with PC and Mac • 20 000 page duty cycle • Included one black and three colour ink taanks and cartridges • 130 input paper capacity • 80 output paper capacity • Print 17 ppm (black) and 4 ppm (colour) • Engineered to be whisper quiet (45 dBA, Color and 47 dBA, Mono) while it's printing • AnyWeb Print (allows you to select, drag and drop content from different webpages into a new blank page on screen, without any resizing or other editing. You can save the pages you create either as tiff files or pdfs)

Additional Prices

If you are going to buy a printer, you also need paper, ink and toner. The following table shows the prices of these additional prices at different stores.

Store	Paper	Ink	Toner
Best Buy	Hammermill 500-Sheets 8.5" x 11" Multipurpose Paper ($4.99 for 500 sheets)	HP Black/Colour Ink Combo Pack ($46.99 for black and colour combo pack)	Brother Black Toner (TN-330) ($49.99)
Staples	Staples Multiuse Paper, 8-1/2" x 11", Case ($53.96 for a case of 5000 sheets)	Lexmark 100XL Ink Cartridge, High Yield ($28.01 for black and $23.52 for each colour)	HP 12A Black Toner Cartridge, Dual Pack ($153.21 for two)
Future Shop	Hammermill 500-Sheet 8.5" x 11" Multipurpose Paper ($5.99 for 500 sheets)	Hip Street Inkjet Refill Kit Black & Colour Ink (HS-INKKIT-CMYK) ($17.99 for black and colour combo pack)	Brother Black Laser Toner (TN-330) ($49.99)

Overall Printer

All in all, I think the student should choose the Epson Stylus Wireless All-in-one Inkjet Printer from Best Buy because of it's relativly inexpensive price, Wi-Fi and Dual sided printing. The student should also look into buying the additional supplies from Best Buy too.

References

Best Buy (2010). Epson Stylus Wireless All–In–One Inkjet Printer (NX420). Retrieved 2010–11–20 from <http://www.bestbuy.ca/en–CA/product/epson–epson–stylus–wireless–all–in–one–inkjet–printer–nx420–nx420/10147241.aspx?path=174c109963d03dfda4ed59c29c3302c1en02>.
Staples (2010). Lexmark Impact S305 All–in–One Printer. Retrieved 2010–11–20 from <http://www.staples.ca/ENG/Catalog/cat_sku.asp?CatIds=&webid=900710&affixedcode=WW>.
Staples (2010). HP M1536DNF Monochrome Multifunction Printer. Retrieved 2010–11–20 from <http://www.staples.ca/ENG/Catalog/cat_sku.asp?webid=897095&CatIds=&AffixedCode=WW&=&=&=gt;.
Future Shop (2010). Samsung Colour Laser Printer (CLP-320N). Retrieved 2010–11–20 from <http://www.futureshop.ca/en–CA/product/samsung–samsung–colour–laser–printer–clp–320n–clp–320n/10147249.aspx?path=4e34492185b1451212d3c9f41682ef2een02>.