Never Pay Full Price For a Printer: Score a Deal on Brands Like Canon, Epson, and HP
A printer is one of those pieces of technology you don't think you need (or want), that is, until you really do. Photographs, legal documents, and backup files sometimes require physical prints, and, sure, you could go to the public library or a print shop, but wow, what an inconvenience. Even if you only use it a few times a year to print out shipping labels, permission slips, or tax documents, it's convenient to own your own printer, especially one with the option to print photos, scan documents, make copies, or even send faxes. And you can totally get one without spending a ton.
Here at PCMag, our printer expert, , has been evaluating all manner of printers for nearly four decades. His reviews underpin our picks, helping you make an informed buying decision. At PC Labs, on many aspects of their functionality, including value, print quality, speed, ease of hardware setup, and the software installation process. If you need more help finding the right type of printer, check out our mega-guide for all the details, plus links to deep-dive reviews of the top models. If you're ready to shop, check out some of the best printer deals we've found this month.
This Canon all-in-one is best suited for personal or home-office use, and with a huge $70 price cut, it's a fantastic value for a reliable printer. It supports wireless connectivity via the Canon Print App and Apple AirPrint support, so it's convenient to print whether you're sitting at your desk or rushing out the door. In our review, we applauded the s solid output quality, print, scan, and copy functionality, and the automatic two-sided printing, which saves paper. Our printer expert states, "The TS6420a is a solid choice for home use, particularly if you want to print your photos, or as a home and light-duty home office printer." If you intend to print photos frequently, the Canon Pixma TS6420a has an advantage thanks to dual trays that can be loaded with both printing and photo paper, so you don't need to change the paper when you change document types.
If you're looking for a reasonably priced home-use all-in-one printer, this Epson Expression Home XP-5200 should suffice. We rated it "Excellent" in testing. Our review states: "With high-quality output and fast print speeds at default settings, plus remote printing support, Epson's Expression Home XP-5200 All-in-One printer is at home in a home office." With wireless connectivity for both PCs and mobile devices, a paper tray with a 150-sheet capacity, and paper-saving automatic two-sided printing, this color printer can handle documents and photos with aplomb. Its compact size means it can easily fit on your desk or a side table, making it a great option if you have limited space.
The Canon Color ImageClass MF656CDW can support small-office use, but it could also be used at home as your printing workhorse. This laser printer supports duplex scanning at up to 53 images per minute, and printing with a quick speed of 22 pages per minute, whether the prints are in monochrome or color. A built-in USB port lets you print directly from a flash drive or your computer if Wi-Fi isn't available. You can even print from your mobile device via the Canon Print Business app or Apple AirPrint.
Not having Wi-Fi connectivity may sound unusual in this day and age, but hear me out: How many times have you run into an error with your current printer connecting wirelessly to your laptop? Sometimes, you don't need all those extra features, so why pay for them? With that food for thought, I introduce to you the , our 'Editors' Choice pick for an inexpensive mono laser for light-duty printing, whether at home, as a personal printer in any size office, or as a stellar alternative to an inkjet for those who don't need color printing.' Affordable and trim, the LaserJet M209d has top-tier performance for a mono laser printer in its price range, providing a lot of bang for your buck for those who engage in light-duty printing. The 150-sheet tray, located conveniently at the bottom, front of the machine, can handle up to legal-size paper, and the printer supports automatic duplexing. For more basic printing needs, the LaserJet M209d can't be beat in terms of price for the print quality, and this $50 discount makes it even more affordable.
Canon Pixma MG3620 Wireless All-in-One Inkjet Printer for $69.00 (List Price $79.99)
HP LaserJet M209d Duplex Monochrome Laser Printer for $69.00 (List Price $119.00)
Canon Pixma G3270 Wireless All-in-One Inkjet MegaTank Printer for $149.00 (List Price $229.99)
Epson EcoTank ET-4800 Wireless All-in-One Supertank Printer for $239.99 (List Price $299.99)
Epson EcoTank ET-2400 Wireless All-in-One Color Printer for $159.00 (List Price $199.99)
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Engadget
a day ago
- Engadget
Canon R50 V review: An affordable vlogging camera that lags behind its rivals
Canon has released 20 cameras since launching the RF mount in 2018, but it had one gaping hole in a key market: vlogging. Now, the company has patched that with the launch of the $700 R50 V that's aimed at creators on a budget and designed to take on Sony's ZV-E10 II. The R50 V has the same 24-megapixel APS-C sensor as the R50, but adds vlogging-friendly features like 4K 60p video, C-Log3 for extra dynamic range, a livestreaming button and a side tripod socket for vertical video. It's cheaper than the $1,100 ZV-E10 II and even costs a bit less than the older ZV-E10. After some lengthy testing, however, I found that it was missing some key features compared to its Sony rivals, particularly those that make vlogging easier for beginners. Canon's EOS R50 V is a solid budget vlogging camera thanks to the excellent video quality, but it's missing important features compared to its rivals. $699 at Amazon Explore More Buying Options $699 at Best Buy Like other vlogging cameras, the R50 V is stripped down both in terms of size and controls. It has a polycarbonate body rather than metal, which reduces toughness and weatherproofing but helps keep it light at just 323 grams. The grip is also smaller than the R50's, so it's not ideal to use with large lenses. One key feature missing from the R50 is an electronic viewfinder. That's also the case with the ZV-E10 II, but the lack of one can make it challenging to shoot in bright sunlight. On top of that, the rear display is low-res and isn't particularly bright. However, it fully articulates and flips around for vloggers. The R50 V is designed to be controlled via the touchscreen, so it has fewer manual controls than other Canon mirrorless models. It does have top, rear and back dials to set primary functions like iris and shutter speed. However, you need to use your thumb to control both of those which makes operation a bit awkward. The front rocker is designed to control zoom on supported Canon lenses like the new 14-30mm f/4-6.4 IS STM PZ, which was released at the same time as this camera. It also has livestream and color buttons dedicated to creators, plus there's a mode dial with six different video settings. Canon's EOS R50 V has decent handling designed for creators but it lacks manual controls for photography (Steve Dent for Engadget) The menu system is typically Canon with color-coded pages for each category (video settings, autofocus and more). However, key settings can also be adjusted from the Quick (Q) menu using the touchscreen when vlogging. Functions in that menu can of course be reprogrammed to your preferences. The R50 V has both microphone and headphone inputs along with microHDMI and USB-C ports. It uses Canon's smaller EP-17 battery that delivers an hour of video shooting or 300 shots to a charge, both far less than the ZV-E10 II (113 minutes and 600 shots). It has just a single SD card slot, but fortunately it's the faster UHS-II type. Finally, there's a very handy feature for content creators: a tripod socket on the side to make it easier for solo vloggers to shoot vertical video. Video and vlogging is the R50 V's primary strength compared to R50. It can shoot both supersampled 4K 30 fps and 4K 60 fps video, with C-Log3 and 10-bit quality. However, the 4K 60 fps setting requires a fat 1.56x crop, which reduces quality as well as bokeh. Sony's ZV-E10 II, by contrast, only requires a 1.1x crop for 4K 60 fps video. The Z50 V also lacks in-body stabilization. That means the R50 V relies strictly on optical lens shake reduction or electronic stabilization. To be fair, that's to be expected in this price range and the ZV-E10 II is also missing in-body stabilization. The electronic system does a good job removing jolts from handheld video and can even smooth out walking if you try to move fluidly, but it can make footage look soft if movements are excessive. The 'Enhanced' electronic mode, which applies a small crop, is designed to make handheld shots look 'locked off' like you're using a tripod. The R50 V offers good image quality and key creator features like a fully articulating screen. (Steve Dent for Engadget) Background blur and product showcase-type buttons are also noticeably missing compared to the ZV E10 II. That's too bad, because creators use those features often to quickly focus on objects or blur the background behind a subject — without them, you're forced to set those things manually. Rolling shutter distortion is fairly noticeable on this camera with a scan rate around 30ms, compared to just 16ms for the ZV-E10 II. This means sudden pans or jolts can result in 'jello effect' video. Meanwhile, video autofocus is rapid and reliable, even if your subject moves around. The AI-powered face and eye detection locks on firmly, and can also reliably track animals and vehicles. Canon took a page from Panasonic and Fujifilm with the addition of a color button on the R50 V. It lets you quickly select shooting modes like standard BT.709, C-Log, HLG and PQ. Another setting offers filmic looks with modes like Portrait, Fine Detail, Faithful and Monochrome. And the last 'color filter' mode allows for tinted video with shades like teal and peach, though the results looked a bit cheesy to me. With a built-in cooling fan, the R50 V is more resistant to overheating than most small cameras. When recording standard 4K at 30 fps, I was able to shoot for 60 straight minutes with no sign of overheating. The issue doesn't, er, crop up at 4K 60p either since that mode uses a reduced portion of the sensor. Canon R50 V review: An affordable vlogging camera that doesn't measure up to its rivals Overall, video quality is a strong point, with sharp detail when using the 4K 30 fps oversampled mode. Colors are rich and accurate, and skin tones pleasing with a hint of warmness that Canon is known for. The 10-bit C-Log3 footage retains extra detail in shadow and highlight areas, providing outstanding dynamic range for such an inexpensive camera. However, 4K 60p video is considerably softer, and the 1080p 120 fps ultra slo-mo setting lacks sharpness even by HD standards. Low-light capability is average for an APS-C camera, with noise clearly visible starting at ISO 3,200 or 6,400. Beyond that, it becomes intrusive and harder to get rid of using noise reduction tools. Though photography isn't this camera's raison d'etre , the R50 V performs decently in that regard. It can shoot fairly quickly for a small camera, with burst speeds of 15 fps with the electronic shutter or 12 fps with mechanical shutter. However, it can't sustain those speeds for very long due to the small buffer that holds just 36 RAW images. Autofocus is again a strong point, tracking subjects with ease and keeping photos sharp. As with video, AI-powered face and eye detection is quick and reliable for people, animals and vehicles. Rolling shutter is an issue with photos as it is with video, but since the R50 V has a mechanical first-curtain shutter, you only need the electronic mode for photos when silence is required. The lack of in-body stabilization means you'll need to have a steady hand to take sharp shots at low shutter speeds, or you'll want to shop for lenses with optical stabilization if that's an issue. Photo quality is identical to the R50 since it shares the same sensor. For normal shooting, I saw color-accurate photos with skin tones leaning on the warm side, as is typical with Canon's color science. JPEGs strike a good balance between sharpening and noise reduction, while RAW files allow a decent amount of room to tweak images. As with video, low-light performance isn't amazing, so I wouldn't go past ISO 6,400 unless it's too dark to film otherwise. With a 24-megapixel APS-C sensor, the R50 V squares off against Sony's ZV-E10 II (Steve Dent for Engadget) Canon's R50 V is a pretty good first try for a vlogging camera, hitting the mark in key areas like video quality and usability. However, its rival, Sony's ZV-E10 II, beats it in nearly every area, offering even better video quality, higher photo resolution, faster autofocus, smoother electronic stabilization and neat features missing on the R50 V — like the product showcase. That said, Canon is targeting a more budget-minded buyer as the R50 V costs just $700 (body only) compared to $1,100 for the ZV-E10 II. Vloggers constrained to that budget will still get a great camera that easily beats a smartphone when it comes to the final product. If you do have an extra $400 to spend, though, I'd recommend the ZV-E10 II instead.
Yahoo
a day ago
- Yahoo
Get Ready: WhatsApp Is Getting Ads, Paid Channel Subscriptions
PCMag editors select and review products independently. If you buy through affiliate links, we may earn commissions, which help support our testing. Unlike other Meta apps, the company has traditionally kept WhatsApp ad-free. That's set to change, though ads will be limited to specific areas of the app, away from your messages. Meta will soon include ads within the Status feature. This section is similar to Instagram Stories, where you can share clips or photos from your day-to-day life with your contacts. In the coming months, ads will appear between people you follow. Meta hasn't shared how often ads will appear, but if it's anything like Instagram, it'll likely be after every fourth or fifth story you view. Meta won't use your personal data to target these ads. That means it can't use the topics in your messages, or the people you message, to figure out what ads to show you. Instead, Meta will use data such as your location, language, your interactions with Channels, or the ads you've been interested in before. The company is also introducing a new way for businesses, celebrities, and influencers to monetize their own WhatsApp Channels. A Channel on WhatsApp acts like a big group chat, where you can update everyone following you at the same time. Many businesses use them to update users on specific changes or promotions. Soon, owners of these channels will be able to charge for exclusive access to certain content. It sounds like this will work similarly to a Patreon subscription, where businesses can have a free tier for most users, and those who want exclusive access to additional services can pay for a subscription on top. Around 1.5 billion people visit Channels and Status each day. There's currently no sign of WhatsApp bringing ads to other parts of its app, but that may eventually happen if the company continues to see success in its ad expansion.
CNET
4 days ago
- CNET
Prime Day is Ending, but There's Still Time to Save $600 on the MSI Codex Z2 Gaming Desktop
The powerful MSI Codex Z2 Gaming Desktop is $600 off right now. CNET/Viva Tung The MSI Codex Z2 is loaded with powerful gaming components: a GeForce RTX 5070 graphics card and AMD Ryzen 7 8700F processor, 32GB of DDR5 RAM and a 2TB m.2 NVMe SSD for storage. Enough performance there so that you won't run into any issues running the latest games. And it doesn't hurt that MSI has won CNET's sister site PCMag's Reader's Choice award two years in a row. Right now, you can save $600 on this fully stocked gaming PC. But act quick, this deal will vanish once Prime Day ends tonight. The MSI Codex Z2 is loaded with powerful gaming components: a GeForce RTX 5070 graphics card and AMD Ryzen 7 8700F processor, 32GB of DDR5 RAM and a 2TB m.2 NVMe SSD for storage. Enough performance there so that you won't run into any issues running the latest games. And it doesn't hurt that MSI has won CNET's sister site PCMag's Reader's Choice award two years in a row. Right now, you can save $600 on this fully stocked gaming PC. But act quick, this deal will vanish once Prime Day ends tonight. The GeForce 50-series is the latest generation of GPUs, and the AMD Ryzen 7 8700F is just as fresh. You won't need to think about upgrading for several years. Hey, did you know? CNET Deals texts are free, easy and save you money. However, the case is still easy to access, and there's room for upgrades inside if you so choose. It's air-cooled with four case fans plus an RGB air cooler on the CPU. So it may be a bit louder than if it had liquid cooling, but you shouldn't run into any noise or heat issues right out of the gate. It's a sleek black case with your classic RGB lighting, making it a perfect fit for any gamer's setup. Best Prime Day Laptops Deals It's never too early to start shopping for an upgrade to your laptop, and our favorite Prime Day laptop deals are guaranteed to save you time and money. Check out the best savings here. See Now Why this deal matters The 27% discount may not sound like much, but it knocks off $600. It's a good investment if you're planning to buy a new gaming desktop PC. The specs won't need to be upgraded for a number of years (unless you're a die-hard techie), so you should be set for a long while. You won't have any issues running the latest AAA games smoothly, and the case is roomy and easy to access, should you choose to upgrade or add hardware down the line. If you've been thinking about upgrading your setup, now's the time to do it. Just make sure you've budgeted for the $1,600 price tag. While it is discounted, there's still no reason to go into debt for it.
