We have worked our hardest to bring you the best five A3 colour printer reviews divided
into sections according to price. You’ll notice that in this section, the “up to
£300” section, none of the photo A3 printers are multifunctional devices. You will
find that with specialist needs such as A3 and A3+ printing, manufacturers rarely
include scanners, fax machines or copying functions. Most all in one devices do
one thing fairly well and the rest at a push. Top manufacturers do not want to be
associated with such practices in the A3 colour printer market (photo A3). But of
course, they may well suit your purposes. Well enjoy our A3 printer reviews but
feel free to check out the Editor’s Hot Pick of The Week, which will change weekly-
The Canon Pixma ix400 was our top pick because, in our estimation, it provided best overall quality for it’s price and had the best reviews for it’s position in the market. Well, the others, as you will see had to battle it out toe to toe.
In second place HP K7100: this clever device is a little on the big side but makes up for it on quality. Admittedly, it is an occasional A3 colour printer performing faster on A4 but the testimonials speak for themselves. Colour balance in photographs is brilliant and the levels of detail give them great depth. Graphs, photos and charts show none of the banding you quite often see from lasers and the HP K7100 was far more proficient than the other A3 colour printers we tested at picking out detail in darker areas of our photos. The problem with A3 colour lasers is they’re priced well over A4 models and many small businesses can't justify the extra expense. But selling for around £160, the Officejet K7100 looks to be a saviour to the lost and wanting. This printer has been discontinued but a grand replacement is the HP Officejet 7000 which comes network ready as standard.
Our triumphant A3 printer reviews winner for this category (up to £300) is most definitely
not to be messed with. The Canon Pixma ix4000 is an A3 colour printer bound to please.
It prints on almost any sort of paper you want it to up to and including A3. It’s
not fussy or over sensitive to paper types. It has a sheet feeder of 150 sheets
(which isn't particularly big but is adequate). It will also print border less. It
prints on paper weighing anything from 64g/m2 to 273g/m2 (Kodak Ultima photo paper
is 270g/m2 -
Canon claims print speeds of around 25ppm and 17ppm for mono and colour documents
with a mixture of text, graphics and images respectively. But if you want to print
top-
Well, I’m sorry but in last place, the Epson Stylus Photo SP1400. The truth is that in these A3 printer reviews, this actual beauty has had its print quality praised too many times to mention. But, and I say a big BUT, the way it drinks ink it needs to be checked into rehab. Excellent colour photo A3 quality prints to A3+, and just as good at printing 4"*6"! The CD printing is also good. It could have been a dream come true...But who ever designed the ink tanks must have been in a rush because we’ve seen tests where after just two A3 colour prints, this baby’s crying for the bottle. Ink out. The only way around it is to purchase the continuous ink system “CIS” so it can feed directly from the bottle. What a drunkard. So, lovely machine and prints but it’s got personal issue I’m afraid.
Specifications: Dimensions (WxDxH): 61.5 cm x 31.4 cm x 22.3 cm Inkjet Technology:
Epson Micro Piezo Ink Palette Supported (Colours): 6-
Canon Pixma ix5000: Now, the only reason this printer is in third place is because of it’s price. It’s identical to it’s sibling in first in all but two ways: the price and the speed. Literally, the Canon Pixma ix5000 is about fifty percent faster in our tests than the ix4000 and not much more in money. That’s it. I’d love to see them roll in the mud but it is just a matter of wanting to pay the little extra money for the extra speed. It’s just one of those a3 colour printers that are hard to fault. Sorry.
HP Officejet Pro K8600: We tested HP’s OfficeJet Pro print mechanism in its K5400n printer a few weeks back. That A4 machine is very competitively priced at well under £100. The HP Officejet Pro K8600 is its wide carriage, A3+ sibling and the price doesn't look quite so luring at almost £250. This A3 colour printers design is black and silver, and wouldn't look out of place in a graphic design studio. The design of the two paper trays is a little odd and disparate, as the output tray no longer sits like a lid on top of the input one, but is angled up away from it and the telescopic sections of the two trays are different shapes and sizes. This makes the assemblies look rather messy.
At the rear, there's a single USB 2.0 socket and one for a low voltage input. It's
fairly amazing that in a printer this size HP can't fit the power supply inside the
case, but uses a ‘black block’ to knock into your knees when you’re in a rush. Although
you can get Jet Direct Ethernet and Wi-
Specifications: Max printing resolution 4800x1200dpi, Fastest quoted print speed 35ppm mono (draft)/ 35ppm colour (draft), Tray capacity 150 sheet output, Document feeder size 250 sheet input, OS support Windows 2000+, Dimensions (WDH mm) 610x420x223, Weight 12.3kg , Manufacturer HP, Supplier HP. Monthly Duty Cycle 6250
Time to meet Jay
For those of you coming here regularly, you’ll notice that I’ve removed my picture. I think everyone has suffered enough. Well, a3 colour printers review site is still here. As usual, feel free to make suggestions on how I could improve our site and for those spammers, please leave us alone!
We’ll meet again in the tech tips area so bye for now. Jay email anytime.
WINNER
Up to £300
www.a3colourprinters.com © 2009
A3 Colour Printer Reviews
for Home and Office
What Jay has been up to recently:
Not anything out of the ordinary really. Although, I recently had to cancel a trip
to Kenya which hurt real bad. I had already visualized exactly where I would park
myself at my local beach bar. Apart from that, I have just been working on a site
where you can download service manuals for Canon printers and copiers. The site
is really basic looking right now but I’m working on it in the background to give
it a better feel as well as uploading loads more manuals for a wider range of products.
Take a look at www.canonservicemanual.com. You can also directly access and download
them from my sub-
CRUCIAL UPDATE: It seems as though they have discontinued this product. The price could not be sustained I guess. The ix5000 does not seem available anywhere. I’ll keep trying to get more info on this one. The natural replacement for this model is the Canon ix7000 featured to the right. It does just about push it across the boundary to the next price band if you use amazon or office direct but it’s worth it. Check out it’s specs.
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