Laser or Inkjet Printer?

[Arnwyn]

What do you think would be better, considering my printing habits... a color laser printer, or an inkjet printer?

I sometimes go for months without printing anything, and then will suddenly print 10 pages or so. Right now, inkjet looks to be completely unacceptable, as the ink has long since dried out and I would need to pay for brand new cartridges.

I understand that toner is "dry", and thus (in theory) can last a very long time (ie. won't dry out).

Note that I don't need photo-quality - though pictures will be printed, they just need to be "nice enough" (these pictures are more like something in a business presentation).

Thanks for any input!

 

[Thanee]

Wow, 10 pages.

j/k

Do you need color?

Color laser printers are kinda expensive, though cheap ones are available for a reasonable price (like the Samsung CLP-300). Those are probably the best bet for someone who doesn't print much.

A typical laser printer prints thousands of pages before you need to change toner, but the toner then is quite expensive. Should be good for several years for you. Some extra maintenance might be required, if you really do not print for extremely long periods, but that's basically getting the cartridge out and shaking it around a bit.

Bye
Thanee

 

[Steel_Wind]

Neither. Get a black and white laser printer.

When and if you need to print out color copies, do your test and crop runs in monochomatic laser - then go to Kinkos with your fully tested and finalized files (or a similar service) and print out your color copies twice a year with confidence.

Inkjets are a waste of money, epecially with your frequency in printing. Color lasers are cheap hardware but insanely expensive toner refills.

Greyscale lasers printers are cheap hardware and cheap toner refills with excellent quality and print speed. Goldilocks says: "just right"

The Samsung ML-2510 should make you happy for less than a $100

 

[Arnwyn]

The one I'm looking at is the Samsung CLP-310N, which is on sale for $150 right now.

The toner is $45 per cartridge (4 cartridges - black, yellow, cyan, and magenta; will only need to be replaced when that color is used up.)

Thanks for the input so far!

 

[Thanee]

Network capable is very nice, if you hook it up to your router (which pretty much everyone should have these days); especially if you want to use the printer from different computers.

Bye
Thanee

 

[Steel_Wind]

The one I'm looking at is the Samsung CLP-310N, which is on sale for $150 right now.

The toner is $45 per cartridge (4 cartridges - black, yellow, cyan, and magenta; will only need to be replaced when that color is used up.)

Thanks for the input so far!

The costs of that printer is about a half of what they were a year ago - and the carts are a third the price they were a year ago.

Wow. I had not seen the price on this baby. You're right. That's comfortably in the consumer zone. Very comfortable indeed. Go for it.

Grab it and let us know how the output is and what the REAL number of pages per cart works out to on both the smaller default carts that come with the unit as shipped and the larger retail versions. (Yes. There is a difference. I am very doubtful that you can get 1000 pages per off of the retail carts. You are usually lucky if you get half that much).

Even still.... that's nicely in the zone of resonableness even at that price!

Let us know how it works otu for you.

 

[Redrobes]

I would echo prior statements. Go B&W and get a cheap laser and don't bother with inkjet unless you use it quite a bit. But if your able to get a really truly cheap color laser and it really does turn out to be cheap then hell yeah & put me on the list of being notified if its possible. Use a print shop and pay the extortionate color copy price for the odd one or two. Those are gonna be some expensive 10 pages / few months tho if it turns out your printer doesn't work out for you.

 

[Nyarlathotep]

Definately Laser.

If you go color laser, be aware that most companies have a chip in the cartridges that counts pages printed to determine when cartridges have to be replaced (as opposed to letting you print until you are out of toner). I've got a Samsung CLP-510 and it's a real pain when the printer says I'm out of toner, but disassembly of the cartridge reveals that it's still 50% full. Look and see if there is a cheap and easy way to reset the page counter chip on the toner cartridges.

 

[Thanee]

But if your able to get a really truly cheap color laser and it really does turn out to be cheap then hell yeah & put me on the list of being notified if its possible.

Both Samsung and HP (and likely others) have cheap color lasers... however, they usually have much higher maintenance costs (read: toner costs) than the more expensive printers.

If you do not print much, that's still a very good deal... if not... not so much, eventually the extra costs for toner will outweigh the cheaper price of the printer.

Bye
Thanee

 

[Arnwyn]

If you go color laser, be aware that most companies have a chip in the cartridges that counts pages printed to determine when cartridges have to be replaced (as opposed to letting you print until you are out of toner). I've got a Samsung CLP-510 and it's a real pain when the printer says I'm out of toner, but disassembly of the cartridge reveals that it's still 50% full. Look and see if there is a cheap and easy way to reset the page counter chip on the toner cartridges.

Wow. That should be illegal, AFAIC.