Laser or Inkjet Printer?

[jeffh]

Yah, I just skimmed the thread, so I missed your analysis. And like I said, I never looked back.

Lasers have another benefit - they're usually repairable. Most inkjets can't be repaired if something breaks.

That and drying can be very real issues. My inkjet is also HUGE - you could fit three of my old laser in the space it takes up, if you cut one in half.

And that is a professional one, I just happened to get it for a fair bit less than its normal asking price.

 

[ssampier]

This used to be true, but your rant, as I pointed out in my post weeks before yours was written, seems to be a year or two out of date. This really doesn't seem to be true anymore of (at least) some of the professional-level inkjets. Less than 20 bucks gets me about 800 pages of black [<2.5 cents per page]; that's actually better than some lasers ($80 for a toner cartridge that gets you perhaps 3000 pages on the mono laser I had before my current printer [about 2.6666... cents per page]). And that's the less cost-effective of my two ink cartridge options.

Wow, that is really good. What type is your printer again? I have never saw mainstream inkjet ink that less than $35 each. My old printer ink was $8, but it an off brand and was closer to about 50-100 pages.

 

[Calico_Jack73]

I just got my Samsung CLP-315W Color Laser Wireless printer a couple weeks ago and I LOVE IT!!! Setup was a little involved but now I can place the printer anywhere in my house and print to it from any of my computers. Quality is great for what I use it for and given how quickly I'd go through the ink cartridges with my old printer this one will pay for itself in the long run. My wife loves that my workstation no longer has to be turned on in order for her to print from the laptop via wireless anywhere in the house (my old printer was a shared local printer). You can get it off of Amazon for $225.

 

[azhrei_fje]

This used to be true, but your rant, as I pointed out in my post weeks before yours was written, seems to be a year or two out of date. This really doesn't seem to be true anymore of (at least) some of the professional-level inkjets. Less than 20 bucks gets me about 800 pages of black [<2.5 cents per page]; that's actually better than some lasers ($80 for a toner cartridge that gets you perhaps 3000 pages on the mono laser I had before my current printer [about 2.6666... cents per page]). And that's the less cost-effective of my two ink cartridge options.

I have an HP Color LaserJet 4700dn (the "dn" is "duplex/network" included).

Here are some stats from the printer's web-based "Device Status" pages:
Black Cartridge 61% 3593 printed, est 5619 remaining
Cyan Cartridge 63% 2900 printed, est 4937 remaining
Magenta Cartridge 69% 2952 printed, est 6570 remaining
Yellow Cartridge 75% 2952 printed, est 8856 remaining

Historical Printer Coverage:
Black 5.5%
Cyan 5.7%
Magenta 3.4%
Yellow 3.7%

Depending on how the usage overlaps, I should have at least 4937 pages left before the first cartridge needs replacement. Since the install date is 2007-11-10, those numbers represent about 13 months of use so I should have approximately 20 months before replacement is necessary. That cartridge is $100 from "LD Products", a printer supply reseller that I've used for years and always has a good price and excellent customer service. So that's 9000 b&w pages for $100, or about a penny apiece. The color printing costs about 3x that, close to four pennies a page. Of course, for me the printer and supplies are a business expense.

I print mostly b&w and my wife prints mostly color (she prints web pages the "easy" way, while I will set the printer driver to grayscale mode for speed and ink conservation).

YMMV.