low-end laser printers these days?

[Santilli]

Any recommendations for the current market, value being the most important function? This means both the cost of the printer, including cartridge replacements after the first one wears out?

Looking for a wireless laser printer.

Client got one of these:
http://h10010.www1.hp.com/wwpc/us/e...|13|5929|47bab571-e292-1988-faba-0000380b96f6

Apparently even when you replace the cartridges with HP cartridges, it will tell you you didn't.

From Costco the cartridge cost is about 110 dollars.

HP: Turning ink into gold, or maybe Platinum?

 

[Santilli]

What about buying a used HP 4000?

 

[Mercutio]

The Samsung printer I mentioned previously (CLP315W) is a wireless color laser printer. They're like $150.
You can also get a DLink wireless print server that seems to work with almost anything for around $50.

And the Laserjet 4000 is fucking huge, Greg.

 

[LiamC]

Anything happened in the last year in this space? I'm looking for a colour MFC for home use. Maybe 1 500 pages per year. The things that concern me most are consumable costs (laser) and graphics/picture quality. Budget AU$500 to $600.

What I want are automatic duplex printing, and duplex scanning if I can get it.

This review of the Brother MFC-9330CDW says the photo/graphics printing is sub-par: http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2420907,00.asp but is kind of what I'm looking for.

 

[Tea]

What about buying a used HP 4000?

Great idea!

After you have consumed all the toner, you can take the cartridge out, unscrew and discard a couple of other bits, then use it as a small apartment.

 

[Mercutio]

I've gotten Brother HL2270DWs for $75. They're monochrome, duplexing networked printers that support 802.11. They usually sell for $110, but they go on sale pretty regularly. They're relatively small and quiet for laser printers, so they're actually my first choice for personal printers at this point.

I've never seen a laser printer that's remotely impressive for color, but I try to stick with Brother in general. The printer repair guys (there's just one firm that seems to handle all small business service in this area) still swear up and down that HP is the way to go but the way that I've gotten to talk to printer repair guys is 'cause they were working on HP printers. I have a bunch of customers who have MFC-9970s (US$600) and at least no one actually complains about them. I know generic toner for them is dirt cheap, like less than what an inkjet cartridge usually costs.

 

[LiamC]

If lasers still aren't any good for photo's, is there such a thing as a quality inkjet with cheap "ish" consummables? Or wouls I be better just going to the local OfficeWorks and printing photos there?

 

[ddrueding]

The high-end inkjets separate the ink from the heads, and can be semi-reasonable on the consumables. The time to first page will beat any laser as well. I have a bunch of the HP OfficeJet Pro units.

 

[timwhit]

If lasers still aren't any good for photo's, is there such a thing as a quality inkjet with cheap "ish" consummables? Or wouls I be better just going to the local OfficeWorks and printing photos there?

I'd recommend finding an online service to get your photos printed.

 

[time]

I've gotten Brother HL2270DWs for $75. They're monochrome, duplexing networked printers that support 802.11. They usually sell for $110, but they go on sale pretty regularly. They're relatively small and quiet for laser printers, so they're actually my first choice for personal printers at this point.

+1. Another advantage for me is that I can get good quality 3rd party toner cartridges for it, which drops the running cost to peanuts.

 

[Chewy509]

I'd recommend finding an online service to get your photos printed.

+1. This is what we do, even though we have an Epson Inkjet (that prints very good photos), it's cheaper to use KMart/BigW/Officeworks for printing photos.

When our LaserJet 1200 failed recently (worn parts, that it was cheaper to buy new than replacement parts), we found that most low-end colour lasers sucked. The consumables (per page) was about the same if not worse than an Inkjet of the same price point, and the build quality didn't seem to be there either. In the end, we decided at the time (as I was graduating in mere weeks), the requirement for a laser printer was greatly diminished, and decided to not replace the laser printer, and just use the Inkjet in future.

PS. We have an Epson Stylus Office TX300F. (There is full CUPS support for Mac/Linux/Solaris for printing, and scanning works with recent versions of SANE on Linux/Solaris).

 

[Mercutio]

If lasers still aren't any good for photo's, is there such a thing as a quality inkjet with cheap "ish" consummables? Or wouls I be better just going to the local OfficeWorks and printing photos there?

Print online. Kodak (out of business) was king of low cost consumables and Canon is generally said to be next cheapest.
HP OfficeJets are Lexmarkian in their reliability. OJ6000s are the #1 reason I'm so familiar with Brother 2270DWs.

 

[Chewy509]

is there such a thing as a quality inkjet with cheap "ish" consummables?

Yes, there is, provided you stick with Inkjets that are targeted towards the Office environment and not home users. (Like Dave mentioned, the OfficeJet Pro series, or the Epson WorkForce series).

 

[time]

What I want are automatic duplex printing, and duplex scanning if I can get it.

For duplex scanning, you need the MFC-9340CDW rather than the MFC-9330CDW.

I have the Samsung CLX-6260FR. Apart from double-sided scanning, it's one of the few laser printers to support cloud printing, so I can use two different methods to print from my phone. It's also fast and the software is good.

The print quality is above average, but I'd have to say it's still only good for 'draft' photo prints.

I no longer own an inkjet printer - when used infrequently, you spend most of the time (and ink) waiting for the heads to be cleaned. Just a huge PITA. In any case, there's an OfficeWorks about 12 minutes away. Haven't tried to send photos to them online.

BTW, I used to have a Canon Selphy dye-sublimation printer. 6x4 only, but easy to use and perfect prints. Unfortunately, it died.

 

[mubs]

My HP Laserjet 6i was getting in the tooth, and the paper feed was gone (had to feed one sheet at a time). I wanted a BW laser that could duplex and network. HP's offering's that met these requirements were priced in the stratosphere. In the end I purchased a Brother HL5350DN (the D & N are key). Print quality sucks, even text. The adjustments in the printer driver are a joke - they make the output even worse. The best output is in the default settings, which is poor compared to LaserJet quality. I'm mulling selling it and buying a basic LaserJet without networking and duplexing. They've always had the best text (and in many models, BW photo) output. My old Laserjet 6i was fabulous in both respects. I regret giving it away.

My printing needs are sporadic and few, but when needed it is critical to have the ability. Part of the reason I didn't buy HP because they were putting timer chips in toner cartridges to expire them. Are they still doing this or have they learned their lesson?

 

[Chewy509]

Mubs, see if Kyocera-Mita is an option in your area of the world... Cheaper than HP (both printer and toner), never had an issue with print quality, and PCL support (and PS for those models with Postscript support) is excellent.

But AFAIK HP no longer do the toner thing on most models of printer.

 

[mubs]

Thanks Chewy. Kyocera certainly operates here, and have a branch in my city as well. The following bw lasers are available in A4 size: ECOSYS FS-1040, ECOSYS FS-1060DN, FS-1110, FS-1320D, FS-2020D and FS-6970DN. I'm sure one of them will fit my needs. The real issue is the print quality. If they agree to print some documents from my USB drive, I can be check the output and be assured.

I'll probably take this up in the new year.

 

[time]

Mubs, if text quality on a laser printer sucks, there's something wrong with one or more components such as the drum. Forget the infamous PC Magazine tests of yesteryear; any correctly functioning laser printer produces excellent black text. The effective resolution has stayed around 600dpi for nearly 20 years.

There are visible differences with dithering algorithms etc with graphics, but it's still only shades of gray (pun intended). Some color models are a little better at photographic reproduction than others, but as this thread indicates, no affordable laser can do better at this than a half-decent inkjet.

HP dominated up to about 15 years ago. Since then they have just been one of the pack, and often an annoying one at that.

Although Kyocera pro models are legendary, I wouldn't favor a cheap one over a Brother, Fujitsu or Samsung.

 

[Howell]

I am very impressed with the Brother range. We have been providing the 2270DW for our sales force and they just work. I've slowly been looking for something small with good Mac support to replace my Samsung at home and I like what Brother has for under $200. Especially the multiple cloud printing support.

 

[mubs]

Well then, what do I do guys? I don't want to throw money on a new drum and / or cartridge (unlike HP, they are separate pieces in my Brother printer) and find nothing's improved. Jut bite my teeth and wait till one or both need(s) a replacement, try that, and if there's no improvement, dump it? They have a utility that provides feedback like toner low etc., and it doesn't tell me anything's wrong. Updating the driver made things worse.

 

[Mercutio]

Here in the US, replacement parts are probably a fairly substantial chunk of the total cost of the printer. Sounds like you got a bum unit (and it might not be the drum - the fuser could be just a touch under recommended temperature and smearing stuff just a bit). You could try to sell it and put the cash toward something else, or perhaps ask if a local repair shop would give you credit toward something different.