Economy option: five low-cost inkjet MFPs

The ultra-low-cost "hard worker" of the printing front from Canon works with paper up to A4, printing, scanning and photocopying documents.

The model is connected to the computer using a USB cable. Therefore, for the MFP, you will need to allocate a piece of free space near the PC system unit or the usual habitat of the laptop, without forgetting about the organization of access to the paper tray with a capacity of up to 60 sheets. The intuitive control panel of the Canon PIXMA MG2550 is located on the left side of the front part of the case and, unfortunately, does not have a display at its disposal.

In print mode for 1 min. the device runs through 8 pages in black and white format and 4 pages in colour. Also among his skills is the ability to print photographs: it takes about 44 seconds to print one copy of a 10x15 photo. Scanning and photocopying of images or documents is also given to the MFP without the slightest hitch, for example, the device spends 35-38 seconds to create one text copy. pure time.

"Under the hood" the model has 2 cartridges installed: a black PG-545 and a tricolor CL-546 with an equally modest resource — 180 pages at one filling station. You can significantly increase the number of prints made (up to about 400 pcs.) using cartridges with the XL prefix. Such replaceable cassettes help out with large volumes of printing. Finally, the MFP bribes with a democratic price, which is low even compared to the cost of the mass of low-cost peers.

The brainchild of Hewlett-Packard with the model index 2630 belongs to the category of classics of the 3-in-1 family of printing devices, offering good functionality not to the detriment of the thickness of the wallet.

The device is capable of issuing from its "interior" up to 20 text pages in monochrome printing mode or 16 colour sheets for a unit of time generally accepted for calculations — 1 min. This is about the printing capabilities. Other actions — scanning at a resolution of 1200x1200 dpi and copying documents or photos — the MFP does not perform so quickly, but with the same careful study, which allows you to get a high-quality result at the output.

The model can be operated both as an appendage to a PC, connecting to it via a USB cable, and as an original device, printing documents "by air". For these purposes, there is a Wi-Fi module in the whitish case of the MFP, diluted with blue inserts. To perform wireless printing, you will need to install a proprietary HP Smart application on the connected mobile gadget.

Since we have a low-cost model in front of us, it was not possible to do without compromises in it. The negative features of MFPs include the lack of the possibility of printing without margins, which is why white indents inevitably remain on the printed photos, and an extremely small resource of cartridges "out of the box" (120 pages in b / w and 100 sheets in colour, in fact even less). In addition, the colour cartridge in the assets of the device is indivisible and if one paint runs out in it, the entire cassette is asked for replacement or refueling. However, these shortcomings are not so critical, especially against the background of the affordable price of the HP DeskJet 2630 — a colour inkjet printer, a flatbed scanner and a copier combined in one case.

The four-colour MFP for home printing from the Colorio line of the Japanese manufacturer Epson is able to perform a number of standard procedures for state employees: to carry out black-and-white and colour printing, as well as scan and copy documents.

The device is designed to work with A4 sheets, of which up to 100 pcs are placed in the feed tray. in one sitting. The full loading of the tray lasts for a long time, since the Epson Colorio PX-045A passes through the paper slowly, printing 6 pages in b/w or 3 sheets in colour in 1 min. (when setting the quality according to ISO standard). Nevertheless, the owners of MFPs are satisfied with the results obtained, complimenting the model both for the quality of text printing and for printed photos (on glossy or matte paper with a density of up to 300 g / m²).

The MFP is "tied" to the computer via a USB wire, there are no other ways to connect the model. Also, things are extremely simple with the principles of device control — the keypad on the front panel is indicated by intuitive pictograms. She would still get a display and the price of the model would not be at all.

Epson offers two variants of consumables for its brainchild: a classic quartet of replaceable cartridges or a continuous ink supply system if large print volumes are planned. The CISS is connected to the MFP optionally or is supplied in the "top-end configuration" of the model. Anyway, the Epson Colorio PX-045A is worth paying close attention to when looking for an inexpensive universal solution for the home.

The compact "combine harvester" of home format is designed for operation in the mode of small loads, however, if there is a need to quickly print a large batch of documents, the model will not fail either.

In the rough printing mode, the MFP develops a very decent speed: in the tray it is issued in just 1 min. accumulates 33 monochrome pages or 15 sheets with colour content. When printed out in standard quality, the model slightly slows down, offering to pick up 9 pages in b/w or 4.5 sheets in colour from the tray in an identical period of time. The device is "fed" with paper of various densities — from 64 to 300 g / m².

There are no claims to the quality of the prints obtained with the help of Epson Expression Home XP-342, which is due to the high print resolution (5760x1440 dpi). However, in the reviews of the model, there are still sometimes complaints about not the most outstanding quality of printing photos. The resolution of the optical scanner, which is an indispensable attribute of the MFP, is slightly smaller (1200x1400 dpi), but this figure is quite enough to obtain well-readable scans or copies of documents.

The model has a number of nice additions, in particular, a built-in card reader for direct printing of files from memory cards and a Wi-Fi module that makes it possible to print documents or images directly from mobile gadgets with the pre-installed functional application Epson iPrint. The charms of the MFP do not end there — for the convenience of autonomous use of the device, its design provides for the presence of a small, but user-friendly colour screen. The cherry on the cake is an optional connection to the CISS model, which "pumps" the print resource from the ordinary 180 pages. on full tanks of standard cartridges up to about 4K sheets in b / w and over one and a half thousand colour photos. And these, you will agree, are very decent figures of a completely different level.

HP DeskJet Ink Advantage 5075 is a strong fighter in the low-cost league of MFPs, the basic set of functions on board of which is expanded with the possibility of wireless printing. But let's not get ahead of ourselves and focus on all the subtleties of the device in detail.

With printing, scanning and copying documents, the model has everything like most of her relatives — she is part of a cohort of strong middle-class people confident in their abilities. For example, in standard printing mode, the device can do it in 1 min. 10 prints in b/w or release 7 pages in colour from its depths. What pleases, HP DeskJet Ink Advantage 5075 has got support for double-sided printing, so the answer to the question "Which side should I put the sheet in the feed tray?" disappears by itself.

The MFP is equipped with a dual-band Wi-Fi module, which allows for more stable operation of the wireless network. "By air" you can send print jobs from your smartphone, receive scans of documents and images, and order cartridges through the HP Smart app (the latest feature does not work in all regions).

Since we are talking about consumables, it would be useful to mention the reduced resource of the starter set of cartridges: black HP 652 F6V25AE Price from 783 up to 1 328 ₴ and three-component colour HP 652 F6V24AE Price from 639 up to 1 151 ₴ (120 and 100 sheets, respectively, when printing "out of the box"). There are enough purchased cassettes for a period of twice or three times more — everything depends on the average percentage of the page filling with paint.

When working as a scanner, the model saves the scan results in common formats PDF, TIF, JPG, BMP or PNG. The device also allows you to create shortcuts to reduce the duration of printing, scanning and copying documents. This is facilitated by an informative display in the centre of the front panel of the black MFP case, which emphasizes any more or less modern interior with a general appearance.