Here is the second installment of our four part series with top picks for printers in four budget categories, $150, $300, $500 and $750. For the $300 budget, the All-in-one HP OfficeJet Pro 8600 printer gets a thumbs up  in this price range. This is a state-of-the-art inkjet MFP (multi-function printer) in just about every respect. And if that’s not enough, its ink costs are among the lowest in the industry.

This machine has both speed and features. It prints at a record-setting speed of 13.2 pages per minute printing plain text, it also was very fast when printing photos, copying, and scanning. Its many features include universal automatic duplexing for copying, scanning, printing and supports legal-size paper, both on the flatbed scanner and in the 50 sheet ADF. One thing this machine can’t do is print on a CD or DVD but if that is a feature you really need there are many other choices out there that specialize in this feature. The context-sensitive touch control does seem a little slow to react.

You can print from your smartphone, tablet, or from a remote location. HP’s free ePrint service lets you e-mail print jobs to the Officejet Pro 8600 Plus or any other e-print enabled HP printer.

It takes the HP 951 series inks which come in the standard yield and the high yield versions. The standard yield gives you 1,000 pages for the black and 700 pages for each of the colors and are priced at $26.99 for the black and $19.99 for each of the colors. The high yield version cartridges have page yields of 2,300 pages for the black and is priced at $36.99 and 1,500 pages for each of the colors with a price tag of $27.99 for each color. Going with the high yield just makes sense.

Other choices you may want to look at in this price range is the Epson Artisan 837 Color inkjet All-In-One and the Dell 2350dn Laser Printer.

If you need help in choosing a printer for home or office use gives us a call at Ink & Toner Solutions, inc and we would be glad to guide you through this process.