I have always had HP because they work.
I’ve always preferred HP printers.
Well, I bought a Samsung CLP-310 color laser printer from Newegg.com for $130 and I love it. Supposed to get about 500 pages from the cartridges it comes with. Replacements are a bit expensive but you can refill them.
Lasers are a little more expensive, but worth it.
This would be a decent choice.
I sent my 16 y.o. off to prep school last fall with an HP inkjet printer that cost less than $50 at Walmart. He's replaced the ink cartridge 1X.
My husband bought a $29 HP lowest end printer at Target about six months ago. Only prints, but works well.
I have a recent HP J4680 that seems to work OK.
Stay away from Canon. They’re junk.
I’ve been using an HP 2610xi for four or five years. It scans, prints, faxes, works well. It’s been very dependable.
I think the secret is that the ink carts do double duty as print heads. So, every time you swap a cart, you get a fresh print head.
Discount carts are available, too. I like 123inkjets.com Big savings over HP.
Simple HP 1200 series have always been the workhorses of many offices. I’ve had one for 5 years now. It’s a tank. No frills but a tank.
For printers I have always recommended sticking with Canon, HP and Epson. No Lexmark or Brothers for me.
Right now Best Buy has a Canon Pixma iP2700 Printer on sale for $29.99. For simple printing needs, that is a hard deal to beat.
Consider the Brother 2170W. Wireless capable (no need to plug it in or network), cheap, available at your local Office Depot, toners are $50, and - if it's like the 2140 (and all the previous generations) - you'll get 3000-4000 pages per toner. Hard to beat $100!
If you’re looking for art-quality output, laser is the only way to go. If you are an ordinary person looking for something readable where you’re not going to notice any flaws while reading a letter and don’t care if pictures are a little fuzzy, the inkjet printers are close enough and much cheaper. I’ve tried several brands, and I’m very happy with HP.
I have an HP F4180 that sucks ink like a Cadillac.
How many sheets a month? Does she need color? What operating system is she using?
If she only needs B/W, I would strongly recommend laser, not ink jet.
HP and Samsung are reliable (except HP low end ink jets). Brothers are NOT reliable.
There is an inexpensive HP laser (1012? 1029?) that goes for about $99 when on sale. No problem getting toners for it. Consumables are somewhat pricey.
I bought an Epson form this company in TN. Very nice people. They add external ink tanks and see the ink.
http://www.cobraink.com/printers.htm
Why is that important? I generally hate ink jets cause you get screwed on the cartridges. This fellow adds external tanks and your printing cost per page is down to about a half penny. This is incredibly cheap. Nice people, they pick up the phone, the guy is an engineer.
The Epson 610, 710 and 30 they offer is not expensive and you will save incredible amounts of money on the ink.
For “little old lady” occasional use, inkjet is probably the way to go. I like Epson or Canon, as they have individual color tanks, and are cheaper overall to operate.
Also, been hearing a lot about the new Kodak line; low cost-per-page.
My next Hp printer will have fax/scan/copy/print capacity. The printer I use at work is an HP Officejet Pro L7580 and has been very fast and reliable. While pricey at ~$250, I think there is a less expensive alternative; I don't need one at home that is that robust.
If she is running a laptop wireless printing is a very nice feature.
If she is using it just to print out letters and her frequency is low almost any printer will get the job done.
Thanks Freepers; all the info helps all of us.
Also if it's a color printer, does the printer have separate cartridges? If not, run out of one ink and you have to replace the whole cartridge.
I’ve been very happy with HP All-in-One printers—they copy, scan, and print, and do so very nicely. The little old lady may at some point like to scan in pictures of grandchildren, and having those extra functions costs no more than having a machine that just prints. My machine has been extremely reliable despite the fact that it’s been brutalized by children.