My HP put me through one to many hour-long fights to print a single page and I’m done with it. Going to go full office space on that thing, but first I need a new printer. I’m not a heavy user, so I’m lookng to spend $300 or less. What do yall recommend?
Must haves Color printing Copying (B&W and color) Accepts generic ink/toner
Strongly prefer Printing cardstock up to 300 GSM Duplex printing feeder
Inkjet or laserjet is OK, with slight preference for laserjet. Also, scanner not needed
I got a Brother INKvestment Tank MFC-J4335DW. I think it was a Wirecutter pick. The ink is supposed to last for up to a year, it’s a Brother so there’s no fuckery, it does color and b+w, prints, copies, scans and faxes. Since my PC is old (Win7), I had a little difficulty setting it up, but it’s worked perfectly ever since.
Pricing on that unit: you can find used and refurbished ones for about $120, but I hate buying used printers. After poking around the Internet a bit, I bought a new one online from Staples for $179.99 (which is MSRP). It’s over the minimum limit, so I got free shipping; it showed up at my door the next day.
I have a Staples rewards account; they had an offer where you got 30% of your purchase price back in rewards points (you need to activate the offer first) [this offer is still available]. So they gave me 10680 points for that 30% reward, plus another 178 points for the purchase. I took the ink cartridges out of the old printer and gave them to Staples Recycling for another 100 points each. I also gave them my old printer to recycle (easier than taking it to the towns e-waste event every spring); they gave me another 500 points for that, plus 1000 points because it was my first time recycling tech with them.
In total, I got 12858 points, worth about $64 in store credit. Since I actually do use office supplies, I know I’ll use the credit: for example, yesterday, I picked up 4 reams of printer paper for $3.74 each (though I do miss their back-to-school penny-paper week!).
Anyway, that’s what I went with: the Brother MFC-J4335DW from Staples. YMMV.
Edit: Wirecutter link: https://www.nytimes.com/wirecutter/reviews/best-all-in-one-printer/