What's a good photo printer?

[Pradeep]

It will be interesting to see what Dell brings to the market. It has chosen Lexmark as it's supplier, ditching HP, and will soon have it's own line of Dell branded printers. If they can provide good value in inkjet carts they could really put the pressure on Epson, Canon and HP.

 

[P5-133XL]

When I look at Dell's mass-marketed low-end computers then I don't get much hope.

 

[Pradeep]

True, but their workstations/servers aren't bad. We shall have to wait and see

 

[Mercutio]

In my experience, Lexmark printers break if you even so much as look at them funny. Lexmark is the Kia of printer companies.
I can't even imagine Dell doing well with their printers.

 

[e_dawg]

Dell selling Lexmark cartridges for cheap? Now why would they do that? More importantly, how could they do that? If the printers are based on the same print engines as the existing Lexmarks (and why wouldn't they be -- surely, Lexmark wouldn't be stupid enough to spend millions to develop separate product lines using completely different internal components), then any Lexmark owner could buy Dell carts on the cheap, taking away from Lexmark's consumables revenue. No way Lexmark would stand for that.

 

[e_dawg]

Here's some info I found on the HP inkjets:

    	                    PhotoREt PhotoREt II PhotoREt III PhotoREt IV
Number of color inks	         6         4          4          6
Drop volume                  50/35 pl    10 pl      5 pl      4-5 pl
Drops/dot (photo media)         4         16        29          32
Levels of shades of color       4         13        17         289
Number of colors  	          48        650       3,500       1.2M +

The implementation of HP PhotoREt IV varies by product: Deskjet 5550—HP PhotoREt IV is enabled in six-ink printing, available with separate purchase of photo cartridge; not included. Deskjet 5551—comes standard with six-ink printing (photo, color and black cartridges included); Photosmart 7150 and 7350—come standard with six-ink printing (color and photo cartridges included; black cartridge can be purchased separately). Photosmart 7550—offers up to 7-ink printing with black, color and photo cartridge printing simultaneously.