Hp Officejet G95 Competes Against Brother MFC-9200C
Written: Aug 21 '01
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Easy Networking, duel sided paper feed attachment
Cons: tri-colored ink cartridge, expensive cartridges, smaller paper feed capacity, stand up paper feed
The Bottom Line: I would have to buy the Brother over the Hp a significant cost difference and many features I like better. Hp has competition!
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| djgeiger's Full Review: Hewlett Packard OfficeJet G95 InkJet Printer |
There is a LOT of all in one machine out there. This is going to be a tough one to figure out. I have spent so much time looking, trying comparing that my head is spinning. I honestly think I need to go back to square one and reexamine what I need and why I need it. So I am comparing different models.
Fax - I don’t fax that often, maybe 10 a week at most. I do a great deal of scanning, copying and printing.
Hp officejet g95 is $799.00. I like it because it does everything. It is network-ready meaning I could tuck this little baby in a corner and network it to every single computer in our office. Several tasks can be performed at one time requested from different computers. All task queued will initiate in the order they were requested. It has a flat bed scanner that scans in 36-bit color. For an all in one the quality of images are pretty good.
Brother’s MFC-9200C has a very nice all in one for $499.00. Can the Brother compete well enough with the hp officejet g95 to save three hundred dollars? That is exactly what I intended on finding out. After all three hundred dollars does not come easy now days!
The first advantage that just leaps out in front of you is the fact that the Brother all in one is a full three hundred dollars less. I am a big fan of Hp so I assure you that this comparison is going to be done with a fine toothcomb.
Fax transmission speed. Brother 5 seconds, Hp 6 seconds. As I said before on an average week I send out about ten faxes. So I would save 10 seconds so here is a plus for the Brother. But ten seconds? Big deal!
Paper input tray. Though this seems so inconsequential it is a big deal to me. One reason is because we run our business out of our home. We are so jammed packed full of furniture, office equipment, filing cabinets and miscellaneous other junk that the cases of paper are stuck in the back of a closet. I detest running out of paper. Brother has a 250-sheet capacity and Hp has 150.
Ink cartridges - The Hp has two cartridges one black and a tri color. The Brother has a black, yellow, cyan, and magenta ink cartridges. Now, how many times have you run out of one color ink in your tri color cartridge and the other two colors are half-empty or even almost full? I see this as an advantage.
Cost of cartridges
Hp
Hp black (no.45) - $29.99
Hp tricolor (no. 78) - $54.99.
Brother
Black -(lco4bk) $18.98
Yellow - (lc04y) $9.98
Cyan - (lc04c) $9.98
Magenta - (lc04m) $9.98
For all three of Brother’s color cartridges it adds up to $29.94, which is $25.05 less than Hp’s tri color cartridge. Even the Brother’s black cartridge is $11.01 cheaper. In printing costs Brother has a very big advantage over Hp.
Both brands have Universal Serial Bus (USB) and parallel interface and connectivity.
Hp is not Macintosh supported while Brother is Macintosh supported. It doesn’t matter to me but it may matter to you. I expected this, Hp is pc plain and simple, Brother is an office machine and to compete needs to support Apple. But, if Apple keeps running that easy CD writer button on the television I may just need my new all in one to be supported for Macintosh. I know, I am easily influenced.
Print speeds
This is where I expect the Hp to tromp on the Brother. Not so!
Hp - Black - up to 12
Brother - Black - up to 14
Hp - Color -up to 10
Brother - Color up to 12
Weight and Dimensions
Hp - weight - 34.21 lb.
Brother - weight 37.5
Hp dimensions - 19.88 H x 18.50 W x 19.06 D.
Brother dimensions - 19.4 H x 18.9 W x 14.6 D.
Dimensionally the Brother is smaller than the Hp but weighs more. I would surmise the reason being the Brother weighs more is because it has additional hardware to be compatible with Apple.
Hp comes with a parallel cable and Brother does not.
Both Hp and Brother can perform simultaneous operations.
Both have reduce enlarge image 25% to 400%.
Both multi copy up to 99 images.
Fax Automatic Document Loader
Hp - has a 30-page automatic document feeder.
Brother - has a 50-page automatic document feeder.
The Brother has a flat paper feed and the Hp does not. Previous experience with the stand up paper feeds is that when the paper sits for a while it turns down and then ends up jamming in the machine.
The truth may not be in the numbers. So I copied the same photograph on both machines. Comparing the two photograph’s side by side I see little difference. Each has a quality or two that I like. Is one sharper than the other is? I don’t see any difference.
Both have one year limited warranties. I have never had experience with Brother but have found Hp to have good customer service on returns though their phone support is lacking in technical knowledge. Hp does have pay for phone support with knowledgeable technicians but in my way of thinking these knowledgeable technicians need to be on the free support lines supporting a product Hp sold.
Brother has 800 number support lines as far as I know Hp does not. At least if they do I can’t find it nor do I remember a toll free number. Though I am aging rapidly and my memory frequently goes AWOL.
Hp Perks
Two sided printing accessory
Junk fax barrier
Business ideas kit with software.
Brother Perks
Photo Capture center includes two media drives for use with digital camera media.
Built-in Compact Flash and Smart Media Drives.
Print digital images directly from the control panel with no pc required.
ArcSoft Photo Printer 2000 Pro captures digital images to the pc.
Built-in NTSC video-in jack to print color videos frames from camcorders, digital cameras and VCR’s.
Brother has a $50 Mail-In Rebate!
Summary
For me considering the Brother works just as well in many aspects as the Hp, if not exceeds the Hp, I think I prefer to save the three hundred dollars.
I love the idea of the separate color ink cartridges. Over time that in it’s self could save a great deal of money. I like all the extra perks that Brother offers with the Photo Capture and other extras. I like the flat paper feed and the larger volume paper input.
Recommended:
Yes
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djgeiger
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Member: Diana Geiger
Location: Huron, South Dakota USA
Reviews written: 164
Trusted by: 350 members
About Me:
I am a writer and the Exotic Pets Editor for BellaOnline.com.
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