| The all-in-one combines a printer, scanner, fax and copier
into one package. It can be one of the best values for you
home or small office. Most of the all-in-ones rival the
quality of typical stand-alone equipment today. However,
they still can't match the performance of high-end standalone
printers or copiers, if something breaks, everything breaks.
Prices for all-in-ones range from below $200 for a basic,
sheet-feed color inkjet all-in-one, $299-$499 for a
flatbed color inkjet or basic laser, $499 and up for
flatbed or flatbed/sheet-feed laser printer models.
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| Key Features To Look
For: |
| Networking |
| Do you need to place the all-in-one on
your home network? All-in-ones usually don't come with all
the accessories you'll need to place them on a network.
You might need to purchase additional equipment such as a
print server so you can share the printer feature. The
sharing of other features such as faxing and scanning may
be limited.
|
| Flatbed or sheet-fed |
| There are three methods of accepting
source documents for scanning, copying and faxing:
sheet-fed, flatbed and flatbed with sheet-fed.
|
| Low end all-in-ones are usually
sheet-fed models. Before buying such models, make sure the
item you want to scan, fax or copy can be fed through a
sheet-feeder. |
| In the middle are the flatbed models.
Flatbed models allow you to scan, copy and fax a greater
variety of items that may not be passed through a
sheet-fed model. |
| High-end all-in-one models include both
flatbed and sheet-fed document feed options. They are
ideal for home network users who need to copy, fax or scan
multiple documents.
|
| Fax, scanner and copier features |
| Most all-in-ones include color faxing.
Also most all-in-ones have either 14.4Kbs or 33.6Kbs
modems. Look for features such as speed dial, group
dial and fax storage memory...etc. |
| Check the specs for vertical and
horizontal scanning resolution. Check to see if the
software included allows for scanning directly to fax or
other applications. You should also check for
support for optical character recognition or OCR, which
allows you to scan document text into word-processing
applications like Microsoft Word. |
| As for copying, focus on the ability to
enlarge or reduce from the original document's size and
the number of copies per minute in color or black and
white output mode.
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| Service and support |
| When your all-in-one breaks down and
needs repair, keep in mind that you are loosing several
functions at the same time. It's important that you
can get it fixed fast. Most warranty and service
plans should have at least one year of parts and labor.
Check the manufacturer's web site to make sure they offer
online knowledge base and download libraries in case you
lost the software or the driver. Companies such as
HP, IBM/Lexmark and Cannon have good support resources on
their web site. Most retailers offer extended
service plans for up to three years on most models.
Check to see if the retailer has an on-site repair center.
It's also a good idea to check the manufacturer's web site
to see if they offer extended warranty. Often times
online vendor such as HP offers extended warranties on
many models that are less expensive than the retailer
option and the plan may even include next-day replacement.
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