Dell Ink Cartridges

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Dell ink cartridges are only available from Dell directly which is a bugbear of many consumers, but with cheap compatibles and refills available there is still plenty of choice for owners of Dell printers.

Dell got into the printer market very late in the game and only began supplying printers for businesses and home consumers in 2003. Dell does not design or manufacture its own printers; instead the company signed an agreement with Lexmark in September 2002 to develop and produce inkjet and laser jet printers under the Dell brand name.

Dell may have been slow into the printer business but has recently been working overtime to catch up with competitors. Although the initial agreement with Lexmark for relabeled printers is still in place, Dell now also has agreements with Fuji-Xerox, Samsung and Kodak to produce printer hardware.

Dell produces a range of laser, inkjet and photo printers as well as all-in-one and multi-function printers aimed at home and small office users. These multi-function printers can scan, copy and print. Although they produce competitive results with regard to cost per page, they do not produce the same results as Dell photo printers and their picture printing capabilities can be disappointing. The exception is the Dell 922 all-in-one printer which produces quality borderless photos with six-color technology when the optional photo ink cartridge is installed.

The complete Dell product range of workgroup, small business and personal imaging products all have features and capabilities that are unique to Dell. Thanks to some of these unique features cartridges are not compatible between the Dell printers and their sister printers marketed under other brand names.

Dell has however, developed an ink management system to track your ink usage and alert you when you are running low on ink. Newer printers such as the 3000cn and 5100cn also include Dell's Color Trac software as standard. This software allows the user to choose between fast, economical black-ink-only printing for multi-page and draft documents and color printing for the most important prints; saving time and money for the consumer.

Dell ink cartridges are expensive and cost between $30 and $75 for standard and photo cartridges.

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