Lidl printer - good value?

Lidl will be selling the printer below from Thursday[broken link removed] coming for E70. Is it a quality buy? I've looked on Pixmania and for E63 I can get a Canon Pixma MP 160 Multifunction printer!


HP Deskjet D4160 Printer

• HP Photoret III (HP PhotoRet IV
• B/W A4 30 pages
• HP DeskJet D4160
• USB cable
• Cartridges: HP 337 (black) and HP 343 (three-coloured)
• HP Photosmart software, (documentation and driver on CD-Rom)

No knowledge specifically of the printers, but over the life of the printer the real cost will be on the ink.

Check out the type/cost/availablility of the ink cartridges for both before making a decision. No point in having the best printer in the world if it's costing you an arm and a leg on ink.

Good point Satanta, will do!

I got a lexmark all in one ink jet in their Jan sales for €45 (no cable or paper), and yes the ink is as expensive again. Will be cheaper to by another one at that price than to buy new cartridges! Still, I am a very low volume user. For high volumes you should consider colour laser printers. The pixmania printer will cost you another €20 or so on delivery.

It really depends on usage.High volume users would be better getting printer that uses seperate colour cartridges.There are good deals to be had on e-bay for cartridges.

Two cartridges for my last printer (a HP) cost more than the printer itself! Tried those refill cartridges that you can get but only managed to cover myself and the desk in ink

Just to allow ppl to judge this printer, here is a [broken link removed] that works.

See also for a cnet review of this model, doesn't look great (described mediocre) at average rating of 4.8 out of 10

Hmmm.....ibuy ink from inkclub.ie & Internet-Ink.co.uk, they have everything & I can't find a Deskjet D4160 HP model, for the life of me. Anyone Else?

Kind of puts me off purchasing it if I have to go on a treasue-hunt to China for a Cartridge.



Edit: Ahhh found it [broken link removed]

Went to the local office supplies shop to enquire about various prices of inks. It was a revelation.

The prices of the inks range considerably. For the same product you can pay anything from E20 to E40. It's easy to be confused by the different mls of ink per cartridge - but if you compare by 1ml you literally can pay half or double the price depending on the brand.

The shop keeper recommended that by buying a slightly more expensive model than the Lidl one you will regain the cost difference in your very next purchase of ink AND the quality of printing will probably be better. Have to say the shop-keeper was neutral as I told him I wouldn't be buying a printer in his shop!

Again, buying a printer which takes separate cartridges works out cheaper too as only have to replace e.g. the red colour when that runs out and not the entire 3 or 4 colours in one go.

Another bit of advice from the shop was to only go for Cannon or Epson. Avoid lowest-cost printers like the plague (or freebies in computer shops) as they will definitely recoup the costs through the ink.

Very educational!

The cnet site that irishpancake cites above (tks!) is a great way to make comparisons.

Now I'm going to compare!