Gemini

On Black Friday, Best Buy has the Panasonic KX-TG5432M for $99.99 ($119.99 - $20 mail-in rebate) It's not a great deal, but it's pretty good. Here's the item at Amazon.com http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0007Q3QPS/103-9829647-2667027?v=glance&n=172282&n=507846&s=electronics&v=glance

Epson has a deal where if you buy any brand of digital camera along with an Epson printer, you get a $50 mail-in rebate. My recommendation would be the Nikon Coolpix P1 ($549.95) or P2 ($399.95) and an Epson PictureMate Deluxe ($199.99) Nikon and Epson have a special deal, so with that combination, you would get $150 worth of mail-in rebates.

The Epson PictureMate ($129.99), PictureMate Express Edition ($149.99), and PictureMate Deluxe Viewer Edition ($199.99) have the same print quality and they use the same ink and paper. The only difference is the features. I won't know for sure about the BB deal until I go to work on Friday, but I assume that the $40 mail-in rebate is a Best Buy deal and not an Epson one. That means that it should still qualify for the $50 camera bundle rebate. FWIW, if you buy a Nikon camera with the PictureMate, you should get the PM for free after rebate ($129.99 reg price - $10 instant rebate - $40 BB mail-in rebate - $50 Epson bundle mail-in rebate - $50 Nikon bundle mail-in rebate)

I assume you meant that you bought the CX4600 last year, since the CX4200 was just released about 2-3 months ago. It's true that the some of the older line of Epson All-In-Ones (CX6400, CX4600, CX6600, etc.) used a different ink from the current line (CX4200, CX4800, CX7800, etc.) and that the older ink was a very quick drying formula. The new C-series also uses a quick drying ink, so I always tell customers to print something at least once a week. This should really be done for any printer you get, but especially the Epson C-series. As a side note, for those who want the best quality photo output, the Epson R-series is one of the best lines of printers, but the ink gets expensive if you print more documents than photos.

I'm somewhat of a printer expert and I've had experience with four of the main printer manufacturers: Canon, Epson, HP, and Lexmark. While every person has different opinions on different companies, I'm not going to talk about products in general right now. As far as the specific Lexmark X1185, it isn't a particularly good printer. If you're looking for a good printer/scanner/copier for under $150, I'd go with an Epson CX4800 (or CX4200), HP PSC1350 (or PSC1315), Canon MP450, or Lexmark P6250. Out of those, if you're looking for mainly photo quality, go with the Epson CX4800. If you're looking mainly for speed, or a good value/price on black ink, go with the HP PSC1350.