What is the best printer for cheap cheapest ink cartridges? 2013 Update.

Printer models and cartridge technology is always changing, so I thought we ought to provide an update to our popular article from last year titled...What is the best printer for cheap cheapest ink cartridges?

We featured the Canon Pixma ip4950 photo printer as a good option for printing photographs, however this has now been discontinued.  Canon later introduced the new model, Canon Pixma iP7250 which added wireless connectivity.  The overall design is very similar to the iP4950 except for using the new series of Canon PGI-550BK, and CLI-551 C/M/Y/BK ink cartridges.  Compatible have only just become available and are still a little expensive, although prices will eventually come down.  And as refillable with auto reset chips are not yet available, we cannot recommend this model for economical printing.  It goes without saying though that the Canon print head will provide decent quality photographic printing.

In our Louth computer shop/store we are stocking the Canon MG5350 and MG6250 printers because they use the older cartridge series of PGI-525BK and CLI-526 BK/C/M/Y.  Both of these printers offer quality printing, excellent scanning and copying.  They have two paper trays, a rear one ideal for thicker photographic paper and a lower tray for thinner paper.  They also print CD/DVD disks and have nice colour LCD displays and card ports.  These are the two models we would recommend for the home user who prints photographs and the occasional document.

For home and small office use we will continue to recommend the Brother DCP-195C / DCP-197C printer.  Basic in features but well built and cheap to run, this machine has been manufactured for several years now.  It was originally called the Brother DCP-145C and has been re-badged with few changes since.  It uses an older version of printer cartridges called LC980 LC1100 which are cheap to buy.  In addition, special refillable cartridges are available in two version... Standard LC1100 LC980 refillable cartridges that fit inside the printer as normal and hold between 30ml and 20ml of ink.  The larger LC1100 refillable cartridge version that protrudes from the front of the printer with a capacity of 80ml of ink are preferred by heavier printer users.