questions you may ask when purchasing a printer?
Answers:
number of pages per minute, and most important is the price of the ink refill. printer might be cheap but then you might end up buying ink half the price of the printer later on.. ain't worth it.
Other answers:
The questions depend on the type of printer. I assume that you mean an ink jet printer.
There really isn't a lot of difference in inkjets. One brand is a good as another. What differs is the quality of service and the amount of ink contained in the ink cartridges.
If you buy from a retail store, or even a large computer store, save your breath on the questions. The clerks are just a little less clueless than the average buyer.
Go to Consumer Reports and compare. Pay close attention to service quality.
Printer manufacturers do not make a large margin on the printer itself. However, they do make a ton of money on the ink cartridges.
HP, for instance, used to provide black carridges with as much ink as 15 ml (milliliters) for around $25. Today, you'd be hard pressed to find one with as much ink as 7 ml and the price is now about $29.
So use Consumer Reports for service oriented questions and analyze the amount of ink per cartridge and the price.
I can tell you that HP, Canon, Epson, and Lexmark all make good printers. They all produce about the same quality within comparable price lines.
The variation, then, comes when comparing ink cartridge levels. Go with a printer that provides the most ink for dollar.