Lots of people need a colour printer either for home or office use.  It’s not easy to decide which colour printer to buy though as there are a wide selection of options.  Here are a few things you can do before you buy a colour printer:

1) Do the research.  Don’t simply believe the manufacturer, rather get an independent review.  The internet is a good resource for these kinds of things.

2) Check out the price of cartridges.  Some printers have absurdly costly cartridges while the refilled cartridges might ruin the printer heads.  Compare the cost per page, certainly not the actual cartridge cost.

3) Find out about post sales service and maintenance.  There is very little reason for getting a printer that is going to set you back a lot in maintenance and cause endless frustration whenever you try to get some support for a problem.

4) Know what your usage will likely be.  Some printers cannot manage large volumes of printing so if you’re going to be printing a lot of pages every day, then you need a more heavy duty colour printer than the usual home office type printer.  Be sure you do not confuse the recommended monthly usage with the duty cycle.

5) What kind of stuff are you going to want to do?  Each colour printer has various capabilities.  Some have the ability to scan and copy and also fax as well as just print – so you actually need all this extra stuff, or will you be happy with just printing out a couple of pages occasionally?  Do you need to have the ability to print on both sides of the page or merely one?  These extra functions often increase the price of the printer.

6) What is your budget.  You can easily get beguiled into purchasing a printer with things you are not likely to use, decide on a budget and stick to it.  That way you will be less likely to end up spending a lot more than you really can afford.

Be sure you know what you would like before you go searching for a colour printer.  Should you enter into a store and ask for advice, many sales staff will try and sell you the most expensive machine that they can, instead go there with a variety of options in mind that you’ve researched and found to be suitable.

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Computer Hardware & Accessories