All In One Color Printers

As anyone familiar with cell phones knows, the trend in modern electronics is toward consolidation. Consumers are no longer happy with completely separate machines to take care of all their home-office needs. Thus was born the family of all-in-one color printers. Depending on who you talk to, all-in-one means different things. Some all-in-one printers combine the functions of a printer, scanner, and copier. Others say they have to also include fax capability. Because of this discrepancy, some manufacturers call their models multifunction printers (MFP). One reason why all-in-one color inkjet printers are so popular is because they are about the same price, or only slightly higher, than a model that is only a printer. MFP models come in entry-level, mid-level, and high-end versions. For the most part, the higher the price, the more features the all-in-one color printer will have. Quality of the output, however, remains very high even for the entry-level models.

Here are some of the most popular all in one color printers:

• Canon Pixma MP 490 – This MFP is often rated as the best budget model priced under $100. It has no fax, but produces high-quality prints and photos. It uses one black ink cartridge and one tri-color cartridge. It features a 1.8” LCD display, and prints 8.7 pages per minute (ppm). Scans are fast, and ink prices for black prints average 5.5 cents per page.

• Epson Workforce 610 – The Workforce 610 includes an independently-working fax and benefits from a sleek design. Because it is compact, paper jams are difficult to clear, but this happens infrequently. Printing is fast and of high-quality. Top print speed is 15 ppm. Features include Wi-Fi connectivity, high-capacity, individual-color ink cartridges, and a 30-page auto-feeder.

• HP Photosmart Premium Fax C309 – The Photosmart C309 has more features than most every other model. These features include a 2.4” LCD display, USB flash-drive port, Bluetooth, multiple memory card ports, duplex printing, 50-page auto-feed, and Wi-Fi networking. Functional print speed is at 20 ppm.