Are laser printers worth it?
 

So my sister wants me to find out some information on laser printers. Is it worth it to buy one because we both need to print a lot and it seems like we're spending a lot on ink cartridges. I've done a few searches on old threads and they mostly listed samsung laser printers, but all of those have been print only not all in one (printer, scanner, etc) and can anyone recommend me a good all in one? preferably under 250 with toner if possible.

EDIT** any suggestions for laser printers must be capable of colour printing
EDIT2*** so can I set up a laser printer to be wireless printed from a mac but printed through a wired connection to a pc as well? if yes any suggested printers would preferably be wireless enable

if u print a lot of course its worth it to buy a laser printer...

Inkjet is expensive and can cost upwards of $0.10 per page. Laser printers offer superior printing speeds and quality and only cost a few cents per page. It's a no brainer!

IMHO all in ones suck balls. One component breaks and u are left with an oversized unit that half functions. Get a stand alone laser print and a scanner, don't mess with a jack of all trades device. If u must then go ahead just don't buy another inkjet. Even colour laser is affordable these days!

Oh yeah, samsung and hp are both good.

get one where u get after market toners for cheap.
get a basic one with color so that u can get a sample done. then go to kinkos if you need more.

toners will creep up on you with prices.

maybe try dell?

mine works like a charm

HP should have affordable color lasers. My friend's parents bought one a couple years ago for a good price. I don't recall which model, but it had individual toners for each of the colors. It's a lot more economical than inkjet.

I got a Dell 3100cn with high capacity toners for about $400 a few years ago. It was actually cheaper than buying the toners separately. I still haven't used up my first set of toner. My black toner is low and I bought another one for $80-100 (free ship) but I still haven't ran out.

It's quiet, cool, and fast.

I had a Konica MagicColor once and that machine would heat up the whole room and was super loud.

courtesy of RFD

$99 is definately worth it even if its a starter toner

this is all in one printer

http://www.bestbuy.ca/catalog/prodde...4&catid=25114#

Samsung CLP-310 is a good deal

its around $100 bux and samsung toners are cheap

Buy a dell cant go wrong.. buy a hp and get 3rd party toners for cheap....

x2. Samsung makes a lot of the innards of other companies' laser printers use - Dell's are actually Samsungs that have been rebranded. Refilling Samsung toners are quite easy as well! My ML-2570 has been very reliable and trouble-free. Never jammed on me before, even.

Refill yourselves, you save major bucks. 12,000 pages worth of toner only cost me $40 (black toner only though).

Are there any laser all-in-ones (print/copy/scan/fax) that aren't huge?

using the samsung all in on SCX 4521F

got it for a good price at ncix. this is the 2nd samsung laser printer i got, the first one i bought in 01 finally died a month ago.

the only time i ever use the inkjet is printing anything that requires color, otherwise, the laser is just all around better.

Wireless enabled printers are going to cost you so much it's not even funny.

Set up printer sharing over the network attached to a desktop or something. It's very easy to do and that's what I'm doing with my 2 printers (one inkjet one laser) with 3 Windows XP computers and 2 Mac laptops.

I recently just switched everyone in the company with 2 samsung network printers, 1 mono laser and 1 color laser.

my sis thought it would be cheaper to give each and everyone an inkjet on their own, and getting the network module for the large copier is useless. otherwise I could've used that as a big network printer... :rolleyes:

Whoops that's what I meant to say. How would I be able to share the printer?

right click on the printer and press share

On a Mac or on Windows?

For both quite easy. Control Panel for Windows, Printer & Fax - right click the particular printers, open properties, enable sharing, and you're done. Then using the Mac, search out the printer when adding printers by using the "Windows" tab.

Mac is using the System Preferences -> Print & Fax.

Brother HL-4040CN if you can find any. They're on clearance for very low prices most places (if they still have them).

Samsung's B&W printers are tolerable, but their colour lasers are god awful. We see so many returns, it's disgusting.

Yes lasers are more economical if you do a lot of printing, but inkjets still have the edge in colour print quality, at least if you're comparing your typical home office color laser to typical inkjet.

werd. just gross colour quality.

as a staples worker, please advise that some printers (Brother for B&W, almost everyone EXCEPT HP for colour lasers) come with "separate drum/cartridge systems"- meaning a separate toner and drum. In the case of Brother B&Ws, yes you get the cheapest toners but when it comes to replacing the drum (designated DR-XXX) it can cost from 120-300 dollars depending on the model printer. HP Samsung Canon Lexmark etc all are using combined cartridges so only ONE consumable, so effectively you get a new print system for every toner change, which keeps the quality high. For colour, I have yet to see anyone other than HP in the retail sector to have combined drum/cartridge systems for each individual colour. In the long run they are much more cost effective, and again with each change you essentially get a new print system

Don't look at upfront prices as well- almost all entry-level printers come with intro cartridges. That's why people notice that toners are more expensive than new printers. It's an unnecessary cycle to throw away perfectly fine lasers for "new printers".

all in all- do some research. HP is number one in both ink and laser printers, but different experiences may sway you otherwise. from my experience hp has always been either close to or the cheapest consumable prices for all of their printers (mainly cost per page).

Xerox Phasers have combined/drum cartridge. Color is top-notch with our Phaser 6180, and it's print quality is comparable to our Xerox color laser copier. Cartridges seem to be pricier than HP, though.

Xerox still has retail products in stores? They unfortunately pulled all their stuff from Staples less than a year ago :mad:. I stand corrected- I even tried to watch myself by saying retail :thumbsup:

I totally agree here! I have an HP that I got over 10 years ago and it's still working. I know people that had Brother printers, there Drums all died and they decided to buy a new printer instead of buying the drum for their old one.