A $30 Inkjet Competes With Printers Thrice Its Price Washington DC

Just $30 will buy you Lexmark's Z1300 inkjet printer.Lexmark's Z1300 inkjet printer, which costs just $30, inspires questions both silly and serious: Does it run on electricity, or on squirrels? (The former.) Which costs more, the printer or the ink? (The latter, because the included tricolor cartridge costs $30 to replace, and the optional black-ink cartridge costs $25.) But this sparsely featured model performs adequately and produces nice photos.

The rest of our holiday fare is decidedly richer--in features and in price. Canon's new Pixma iP3500 and iP4500 top our rankings this month. The $80 iP3500 is surprisingly capable considering its low price, while the $130 iP4500 is superfast and offers duplexing. The $100 HP Photosmart D5360 takes the duplexing, adds an LCD, and tops them off with CD/DVD printing.

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