Plenty of Cheap Inkjet Printers, but No Bargain

Inkjet printers that cost no more than their ink cartridges are popping up on store shelves everywhere. Although cheap printers may seem like a bargain, don’t expect too much.

You get what you pay for.

We tested five inkjet printers selling for less than $100--the Epson 480SXU, Epson 777, Lexmark Z23, Canon S400 and Hewlett-Packard 468C--and only one exceeded our modest expectations. All we wanted was a fast printer that produced relatively high-quality images.

The $79 Epson 777 actually did. The $99 Canon S400 came close. The others, however, produced high-quality images slowly and low-quality images quickly--if they produced images at all.

Cheap printers are perfect for computer users who want a workhorse machine to output rough copies of Web pages or family pictures. They probably won’t appeal to people who print lots of text pages--who are better off with a laser printer--or to photo enthusiasts--who rely on higher-end printers.

In any case, it’s worth keeping in mind that refilling the ink cartridges can sometimes cost more than the printers themselves.

Most of the models output draft-quality black-and-white text pages in only a few seconds. They slowed considerably when producing at a higher quality, printing at a rate of 25 to 65 seconds a page. Most produced clean text, but some were not worth the wait for large documents. The Lexmark Z23, for example, took more than 25 minutes to print a 23-page term paper.

Color printing time was also lengthy. The Epson 777 took six minutes to produce a high-quality photograph. The rest took nine to 18 minutes. Even then, some of the images were slightly pixilated.

With each model, we printed a 23-page college term paper and a high-resolution color photograph, testing both high-quality and high-speed settings. The printers were also evaluated on their ease of use and setup.

Overall, the Epson 777 consistently produced the cleanest--and fastest--prints. At its fastest speeds, it output black-and-white text at about 13 seconds a page and the color photograph in three minutes.

Lexmark, which does not include a black-ink cartridge, produced the worst text pages. Although the color cartridge blended the ink to create black, some of the colors printed through.

The HP printer was as fast as the Epson 777 when producing black-and-white prints, but it would not print color photographs. An “unknown system error” occurred that could not be resolved even after the printer’s software was uninstalled and reloaded.

Epson 480SXU

The least expensive model tested at $39 (or $19 with a mail-in rebate), the Epson 480SXU printed draft text documents at just 10 seconds a page. The text was so light, though, it was barely legible.

In high-quality text mode, which took more than three times longer to print, type was as clean as that produced by the more expensive Epson 777 model.

It was, however, the slowest to print photographs. At its highest-quality setting, it produced an image in 18 minutes. At its fastest setting, it produced one in nine minutes.

Although usually sold as a bundle printer, the Epson 480SXU is sometimes available separately. Its features are limited. The machine, for example, does not have an on-off switch. Power is controlled by the electrical cord plugged into an outlet. It also does not have a parallel port, using only a USB cable.

Epson 777

Printing text documents at about 26 seconds a page, the $79 Epson 777 produced the fastest high-quality pages.

The machine’s photo printing capabilities were the most impressive of the five printers. At its fastest speed it output an image in only three minutes.

They looked good from a distance, but the photographs were slightly pixilated. Its documents were the cleanest of the five printers, however, and even those produced at its fastest speed were often better than the highest-quality prints from some of the other models.

Lexmark Z23

Selling for about $79 (or $49 with a mail-in rebate), the Lexmark Z23 does not include a black-ink cartridge, which costs an additional $28.99.

It prints black-and-white documents without the extra cartridge, but the text is lightly streaked red, yellow and green.

Because the printer must mix colors to obtain the black ink, its text output times were the longest of all the printers. At its fastest speed, it output a page of text in about 30 seconds. At its slowest, it took more than a minute.

It produced a high-quality color image in about nine minutes.

Because Lexmark’s software activates an audio announcement when a printing job begins and ends, you don’t have to sit next to the machine and wait for it to finish. Just listen for the “printing complete” announcement.

Canon S400

One of only two printers tested that did not cut off the page numbers at the bottom of documents, the $99 Canon S400 was the most consistent after the Epson 777.

At its fastest speed, it printed black-and-white documents in just under 20 seconds. At its highest-quality setting, its outputs were just as good as the Epson 777.

But the machine took nearly twice as long to produce full-color images, and it could not produce high-quality “super photos” without an additional photo ink cartridge.

Unlike the other printers that had one black and one color cartridge, the $99 Canon has four separate cartridges: black, cyan, magenta and yellow. Each of the color cartridges costs $11.95.

Hewlett-Packard 468C

Although the $99 ($69 with rebate) Hewlett-Packard 468C had the potential to rival the Epson 777, it did not print full-color photographs in our test because of an “unknown system error.” The warning attributed it to an “error writing to the USB” and suggested restarting the computer.

Done. But it still did not print the photograph.

Checking the cable connection and running a test page, which printed in color without problem, yielded nothing. After trying to print the photograph a third time without success, we unplugged the USB port and tried using a parallel port.

That didn’t work. The problem persisted after uninstalling and reloading the software.

Although it did not produce any photographs, it printed black-and-white documents in only 10 seconds at its fastest speed and about 26 seconds at its highest quality. The text images weren’t as clean as they could have been, however.

Times staff writer Christine Frey covers personal technology.

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The Skinny

*

Epson 480SXU

Street price: $39

Black ink cartridge: $17

Color ink cartridge: $21

Print resolution: 720 by 720 dots per inch

The good: Least expensive model

The bad: Draft text prints were too light

Bottom line: Not bad for the price

*

Epson 777

Street price: $79

Black ink cartridge: $30

Color ink cartridge: $25

Print resolution: 2880 by 720 dots per inch

The good: Fast print times

The bad: Photographs slightly grainy

Bottom line: The best deal

*

Lexmark Z23

Street price: $79

Black ink cartridge: $29

Color ink cartridge: $32

Print resolution: 1200 by 1200 dots per inch

The good: Quietest model tested

The bad: Printer does not come with black ink cartridge

Bottom line: Not good for large text documents

*

Canon S400

Street price: $99

Black ink cartridge: $14

Color ink cartridge: $12 each (printer requires three)

Print resolution: 1440 by 720 dots per inch

The good: High-quality text prints

The bad: Longer color print times

Bottom line: Gets the job done

*

Hewlett-Packard 648C

Street price: $99

Black ink cartridge: $27

Color ink cartridge: $30

Print resolution: 600 by 600 dots per inch (black); 600 by 300 dots per inch (color)

The good: Fast black-and-white print times

The bad: Could not print photographs because of “unknown error”

Bottom line: Performance could be better for the price