I run a small MSP business. And recently a sold HP MFP 4302fdw, has become a real fiasco. There are multiple problems with these models. And the customer in question has already had one replaced under warranty. However, due to HPs surprisingly bad support even with care packs and such. And the printer deal in general being such a failure. I’m now looking at the competition, to see what other good options are out there.
So I would greatly apreciate it if the collective could share their reomendations. Preferably from a smaller MSP point of view. Where you have to be able to support some pro-lite features.
Right now the requirements for a printer from the customers point of view is:
Automatic Double sided scanning
Scan to email (compatible with modern oauth 2.0)
Document feeder for scanner
Scan to sharepoint
Scan to network share (not necessary, but nice to have)
Fully compatible with MacOS (customer is 100% apple based)
Double sided print
Both Wireless and wired networking
Price preferably reasonable <1000$
Customer in question is about 10-15 employees at the moment. And we’re based in Sweden. So not all brands might be available?
Please and thank you for your input. I apreciate it! Do note that I’m not necessarily asking for recomendations on printer models. But rather brands to use instead of HP.
(I’ve also asked the same question over on Level1Techs forums. Since I’m hoping to get a wide array of recomendations)
I have a Canon MF753CDW, the software really is not the greatest. It’s also stuck on trying to do firmware updates by itself, but it can’t seem to download those updates properly and sits for hours waiting for you to dismiss the prompt. Requires USB connection to get these updates done.
It has good results, is fast, and scans both sides in a single pass, also with a 50 sheet feeder for the scanner. The wireless keeps going to sleep and is very difficult to wake up when you try to print. I think it can scan to a share or scan to email, I haven’t looked into setting that part up because we just don’t need that at home.
I have one other Canon printer, and the software for it is the same junk. So at least with the lower end desktop Canon printers, I would say no. I have not needed to talk to Canon support, I wouldn’t expect it to be great on these cheap printers. This is all on Windows or Android.
If you can get the big office printers, those are usually pretty nice, but you are going to spend up to $10,000usd on a decent one in a small configuration. Most places lease these big machines, and with that (at least in the USA) you get a company handling the service on the printer/copier.
We have HP desktops (printer only) at work… They generally work until they are worn out or you install a “remanufactured” toner in them. After that they are generally junk. Support does not exist for these printers, you either make it work, or replace it. The HP multifunction machines that we have normally don’t last very long before they start having problems.
As far as 100% Mac compatible… That only lasts as long as Apple permits it. In the past Apple changed their printing often and broke all sorts of tools that a person would use to print. This hit the photography world really hard several times, and it usually took Epson, HP, and Canon weeks to fix the mess. Maybe Apple printing is better now, I haven’t kept up with it in a long time.
I have a Xerox Workcentre 6515 which is a multifunction color laser. The color printing is excellent - it does a good job of printing color photographs when needed. It’s reasonably speedy and has a decent enterprise level firmware which enables things like who can print, logging of prints etc.
We have the same printer at one site and it’s been a headache. We’ve had better luck with Brother printers in that price range. We just started testing some Epsons that look promising.
Which printer did you decide on? If you’re still unsure, try giving a call to walgreens photo customer service and ask them for advice. Those guys deal with a variety of photo printing and equipment inquiries, so they probably know everything about printers and can guide you to the best choice for your needs.
I’d take a look at Brother. Are they the absolute best? No, but all printers are a crap shoot and most are garbage, regardless of manufacturer. Brother is Mac compatible, has the feature set you’re looking for, are still serviceable, and usually priced well enough that you might not mind purchasing a spare.