Inexpensive printer/fax machine?

[Dhsu]

Our family's old all-in-one is starting to die, and it's always been really annoying to use, so we're looking to get a new one. Our price range is probably $200 at the max, preferably under $150. All it needs to do is print and fax, don't care about scanning/copying capabilities.

Tom's Hardware had a decent article, but it was posted in January, so I'm kinda thinking the models they suggested might be a little out of date by now. I've also checked Newegg, but there's a lot to choose from and it's just hard to get a gauge on which brands and models are trusted/reliable.

Any help would be appreciated, thanks.

[phill]

Ive been more then happy with my brother MFC-240C

http://www.brother-usa.com/mfc/ModelDetail.aspx?ProductID=MFC240C

[Pyrion]

If it's an inkjet, I don't know if anything you buy can really be considered "inexpensive" once you factor in the cost of ink.

[Dhsu]

We don't really print a whole lot, but enough to where we'd need a printer. Also, I'm thinking using refills will offset the cost of ink. If you can link me to a $200-$250 laser printer w/ fax machine though, that'd be awesome too.

Thanks for the link, phill. I like that it has 4 cartridges, that should help with the ink issue. The 14.4k modem is kind of a turn-off though...any reason I shouldn't get the 3360c with a 33.6k at the same price?

[phill]

I don't see any reason, if you need faster faxing and no media ports I would go with it. Plus the brother ink isn't all that bad. I think I picked up a couple of extras for 15 or 20 bucks cdn each.

[Pyrion]

I don't print a whole lot either and I saw a definite savings on dumping inkjet in favor of laser, despite the fact that the laser printer costed a lot more from the start.

$200-250 isn't going to buy you much, laser-wise. You're likely looking at a starting price of $400-500 for a decent multifunction laser printer/fax/scanner device. The savings is in the cost per page printed, though. My whole family sharing one printer would average about a pair of ink cartridges (black and tri-color) every two months, so that's $100 x 6 = $600 a year on ink (HP, go fig). Switching to laser, I'm still on the factory-provided color toner cartridges and just last month installed a replacement black toner cartridge for $65, and the printer was purchased late March of last year.

I'll stop preaching now though, cuz I have yet to find a multifunction laser fax/printer that I actually like, let alone something that fits your budget.