Cheap But Dated, Probably Best For B&W Printing
Written: Aug 28 '02
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Pros: cheap, long-lasting
Cons: drinks ink, average results at best
The Bottom Line: It's cheap, but it's also old and probbaly best suited to simple B&W printing and only if you don't do a lot of it!
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| wampyrii's Full Review: Canon BJC 250 InkJet Printer |
This is the first printer I ever bought and despite one large niggle I have few complaints about it. I'd probably still be using it except I sold it along with my old computer and 'upgraded' to a BJC-1000 when I purchased my new machine. For a home user with very minimal printing requirements you can't go far wrong with this although there are some niggles.
It's obvious for example where Canon has saved money in terms of this printer - the casing and mechanics. The case is VERY minimal and quite flimsy, literally just a box with a pull down flap behind which are the rollers, print head and erm, not much else! There is no paper-out tray, the paper is fed in from the top and just flops out onto your desk and not even an on/off switch! It's about as basic as you can imagine, but the performance is what matters.
Performance wise then this is a colour printer, with various quality settings. it can take black and white or colour cartridges but there is only room for one type on the print head meaning you need to switch them over for each job...money saving again. The black and white output is good, not giving the sharpest of results, but not bad for the average user who just wants to spin off a few letters or school essays. In colour mode it's a little heavy on the ink giving you rather wet paper at the end of it and colours do bleed into each other on the higher quality settings. To my mind, you are better off using this printer solely as a black and white printer, with a few colour capabilities as long as you arent intending to do anything too special with it. Forget photo quality, it's not going to handle it too well even though it gives you the option.
Another gripe you will have is the print speed. It's veeeeery slow, but if you just intend to print off the ocassional letter then it's OK. If you're talking about multi-page reports and essays then prepare for a long wait because at best you're looking at 2/3 pages a minute. On a high note though, it'll last for ever because there's very little to actually go wrong with it as it offers so little in the first place. Forget things like paper jams for instance, I never had one in 3 years of usage, but do consider you need quite a bit of vertical space for storage because it's a top-loader and the lack of a paper-out tray means you may need to be around to catch your output.
I suppose there is a bottom line with this printer. If you aren't intending to print much and have very modest requirements when you do print then you might like to spend $20 on one...otherwise look elsewhere as if you intend to use it a lot then it'll cost you a fortune because it uses an unbelievable amount of ink and the quality isn't too great.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 90
Operating System: Windows
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Epinions.com ID:
wampyrii
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Location: UK
Reviews written: 82
Trusted by: 70 members
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