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In general, are laser printers more long lasting than inkjets?

  • Yes

    Votes: 61 98.4%
  • No

    Votes: 1 1.6%

  • Total voters
    62

elf69

macrumors 68020
Jun 2, 2016
2,333
489
Cornwall UK
if wifi/ethernet then should have less printing issues as will be more generic driver.

however scanner is another ball game.
 

shaunp

Cancelled
Nov 5, 2010
1,811
1,395
The only time I would pick an inkjet over a laser is for photo printing. I have a Brother multifunction laser that's for all my general 'stuff' and get plenty of prints (3000+) out of each toner, and i have an Epson SC-800 for my photo prints. It prints at A2 if I need it to and the quality is amazing, then again it should be for £900!
 

hajime

macrumors 604
Original poster
Jul 23, 2007
7,747
1,220
Just don't get the cheapest one. With your volume, it's already in SoHo-territory and a cheap one will wear out rather quickly.
Brother / HP business-class printers are good choices. I think the Mac-support could be a bit better on the Brother-side, but I may be wrong - haven't bought a printer in a long, long time.

Thanks for the suggestion. I am considering the HP M277dw or the M477fdw. Trying to gather information to see if it is worth to pay twice to get the higher end one.
 

NorCalLights

macrumors 6502a
Apr 24, 2006
597
85
Brother's Mac support is second to none. I have had a b&w Brother laser printer going strong for at least 9 years now. That's a long time in the world of Mac Printer Driver support.
 

Old Muley

macrumors 6502a
Jan 6, 2009
761
188
Titletown USA
My first printer was an Apple Personal LaserWriter NTR, and it lasted a crazy long time. The only reason we moved away from it was eventually we upgraded to a Mac that no longer had the ability to connect to it directly. Since then, we've gone through probably 3 different inkjet printers of varying quality and price. The last one was a Canon AIO that had proprietary ink cartridges that were a pain to find. For the past 2 years we've had an HP AIO color laser printer and have been very happy with it. The cost of consumables is a lot higher, but I think we have only had to replace the toner once.
 
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hfg

macrumors 68040
Dec 1, 2006
3,621
312
Cedar Rapids, IA. USA
Finally got tired of the dried ink, expired cartridges, and clogged print heads.
Replaced the inkjet AIO with the HP M277dw and have really enjoyed it.
 

hajime

macrumors 604
Original poster
Jul 23, 2007
7,747
1,220
Finally got tired of the dried ink, expired cartridges, and clogged print heads.
Replaced the inkjet AIO with the HP M277dw and have really enjoyed it.

When printing envelops, do you have to remove all the A4 papers on the tray of the M277dw?
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My first printer was an Apple Personal LaserWriter NTR

Got this printer too. Excellent printer but a bit slow by today's standard. Also got the Apple's dot matrix printer.
 

hfg

macrumors 68040
Dec 1, 2006
3,621
312
Cedar Rapids, IA. USA
When printing envelops, do you have to remove all the A4 papers on the tray of the M277dw?


It does have a manual feed slot ... but I have never tried to print an envelope. I use that to print checks, but I use window envelopes so the mail address is on the check and shows through the envelope. For the very few envelopes I need to address, I simply use a Dymo LabelWriter Twin Turbo with standard address labels and shipping labels loaded into it. But I am not a business, so don't have a lot of need in that department.
 

carestudio

macrumors 6502a
Aug 6, 2008
653
164
The only time I would pick an inkjet over a laser is for photo printing. I have a Brother multifunction laser that's for all my general 'stuff' and get plenty of prints (3000+) out of each toner, and i have an Epson SC-800 for my photo prints. It prints at A2 if I need it to and the quality is amazing, then again it should be for £900!

My office bought a SC-800 while they had 300 dollars rebate, 250 + 50 trade off. It has great reviews. We also obtained a refillable cart system from inkrepublic, and also read their review on the system.

http://www.inkrepublic.com/P800-iRefill.asp
http://www.inkrepublic.com/members/Epson-P800-Refill-Review-By-Marco/review.asp

Over all, we will be using SC-800 for more professional photo printing and A2 printing too along with inkrepublic's nano inks. will let you know how it goes.
 

shaunp

Cancelled
Nov 5, 2010
1,811
1,395
My office bought a SC-800 while they had 300 dollars rebate, 250 + 50 trade off. It has great reviews. We also obtained a refillable cart system from inkrepublic, and also read their review on the system.

http://www.inkrepublic.com/P800-iRefill.asp
http://www.inkrepublic.com/members/Epson-P800-Refill-Review-By-Marco/review.asp

Over all, we will be using SC-800 for more professional photo printing and A2 printing too along with inkrepublic's nano inks. will let you know how it goes.

Cool. I'm very happy with mine.
 

techwhiz

macrumors 65816
Feb 22, 2010
1,297
1,804
Northern Ca.
I hate the new ink jets. They migrated towards non user replaceable printheads. You don't print often or you use third party refill kits, and your printheads are ruined. And you have to throw the printer away

It was better in the old days when Hewlett-Packard would sell you a brand new printhead with every cartridge. They used to say back then that you could refill those cartridges 3 times before ruining the printhead. Now you only get one printhead for the life of the printer and when its shot, its shot.

The printers even run automated cleaning cycles that waste ink to keep that printhead alive

It makes no sense why you use third party inks, when you risk ruining your printheads.

I got a hp office jet pro. It has replaceable printheads. But the printheads cost more then what a new printer costs.

I wish we could go back to the old days
My Canon Pixma has a replaceable print head.
I had Epson and the print heads are crap and you throw the printer away.
Not so with Canon fine art printers.
 

weckart

macrumors 603
Nov 7, 2004
5,835
3,514
If you want an inkjet that lasts AND cheap to run....

Brother or Epson = everyday
Canon = photos

Compatibles for these printers are cheap (don't go too cheap as bad ink).

I had two Canons; one after the other. Cheap to buy, cheap to run; great quality print and text. Removable printheads, so easy to clean with isopropanol and could even print on optical media. No problems with aftermarket inks, either. Until one day, the thing refused to turn on and nothing could resurrect it. Both had the same problem a year or two into their productive lives. Seems to be a Canon 'feature'. Will not touch another inkjet. My brother seems to go through plenty - HPs, Brothers and Canons. Now has an Epson AIO, whose AF scanner has bit the dust second job in. Another 'feature' it seems of that brand.

My next printer will be a colour laser. Now that these can be had for little more than an inkjet, I don't see the point of the latter except for those who print photos a lot.
 

hajime

macrumors 604
Original poster
Jul 23, 2007
7,747
1,220
It seems that these day, inkjets are designed to be disposable in 1 or 2 years.
 

iWombBanger

macrumors member
Jul 15, 2016
37
81
Go with a laser, they are cheaper in the long run. I still run a LaserJet 1100 and it works from DOS all the way up to Windows 10 and OS X on up. Laser printers will continue to work long after drivers are no longer available thanks to PCL. I'll never buy another inkjet printer again.
 

ignatius345

macrumors 604
Aug 20, 2015
6,870
11,209
As a writer for live theater, I print a LOT for writers meetings and rehearsals. Seven or eight years ago, I bought a $100 Brother laser printer and got well over 10,000 pages out of it before it started acting up. That whole time, I put in the cheapest paper and cheapest toner I could get.

Turned right around and bought another low-end Brother laser (this time with wifi and duplex printing) and I think I'm well over 5,000 pages in by now, and I think it's jammed 3 or 4 times total.

By contrast, the last inkjet I owned would streak every single time I started it up, necessitating a costly "head cleaning" and then was impossibly slow once I finally got it going. Even if I printed in color half the time, I'd still run a laser printer the other half the time.
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It seems that these day, inkjets are designed to be disposable in 1 or 2 years.
And even when they're "working", they suck.
 
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Scepticalscribe

macrumors Ivy Bridge
Jul 29, 2008
63,988
46,455
In a coffee shop.
Another vote for laser printers.

As many others have written, inkjet printers were an expensive, unreliable nightmare. A nuisance, that would let you down just when you needed them.

By contrast, the laser printers I have had over the past decade or so, a Dell, an Epsom, and currently, a Brother, were all excellent and have been utterly dependable machines.
 

gnasher729

Suspended
Nov 25, 2005
17,980
5,565
If you want to print photos and can only have one printer, get an inkjet.

If you don't need photos, get a laser.

Otherwise, get both.

If you need photos, seriously consider bringing them to a shop that prints photos. Cheaper than just the ink for the inkjet printer.
 
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zen

macrumors 68000
Jun 26, 2003
1,713
472
Laser all the way.

I switched from a monochrome inkjet to a monochrome laser. Now I get 3000 pages per toner cartridge, versus about 200 with the inkjet. Running it faultlessly for about 6 years now and in that time I've had to replace the toner once. No mechanical issues with the printer itself either.

I sometimes wonder if inkjets are actually an elaborate scam :p
 

ftaok

macrumors 603
Jan 23, 2002
6,487
1,572
East Coast
If you need photos, seriously consider bringing them to a shop that prints photos. Cheaper than just the ink for the inkjet printer.
True, but there's something about having the ability to print off a quick photo right when you want it. Besides, I bought my inkjet before I truly understood the cost of ink cartridges.

But it's 10 years old and as long as HP keeps making ink* for it, I'll keep it.

* - it uses HP 02 ink, so it's days are numbered. I know, I know.
 

carestudio

macrumors 6502a
Aug 6, 2008
653
164
Laser all the way.

I switched from a monochrome inkjet to a monochrome laser. Now I get 3000 pages per toner cartridge, versus about 200 with the inkjet. Running it faultlessly for about 6 years now and in that time I've had to replace the toner once. No mechanical issues with the printer itself either.

I sometimes wonder if inkjets are actually an elaborate scam :p

I bring down the inkjet cost a lot by using bulk ink CISS system like this one: http://www.inkrepublic.com
photo looks really vivid on photo papers.
 

carestudio

macrumors 6502a
Aug 6, 2008
653
164
another reason to choose Epson is because they do have great support for Mac environment , drivers....
 

hajime

macrumors 604
Original poster
Jul 23, 2007
7,747
1,220
After waiting for over two weeks, HP finally sent me the Color LaserJet Pro MFP M477. Anybody has experience on getting similar LaserJet Pro MFP to work wirelessly on the Mac? How is the HP AIO driver in general? I am not sure if it is the problems with the machine or the HP drivers. I am trying to decide if I should change brand.

Despite the good review, I have the following issues:

From the machine itself:

1. Even turning Wireless from on to off using the LCD panel took forever. I turned off the machine after about an hour of waiting.

2. When I tried to change the settings from the LCD panel, "Saving setting. Pleas wait" stayed there forever. Again, I turned off the machine manually after about an hour of waiting.



Wireless mode:

Cannot get HP Easy Start to find the machine most of the time. Even when it could find the machine, when it tried to gather information from the printer, it failed and displayed the message that the Mac could not communicate with the printer. It asked me to check to make sure that the cable was connected or the wireless connection was working by turning it off and on again.

USB connection mode:

During Easy Start installation, even it could find the printer, it took about 20-30 minutes to print the test page. Sometimes no test page was printed until I turned off and on the printer.
 

hajime

macrumors 604
Original poster
Jul 23, 2007
7,747
1,220
Thanks. Couldn't update the firmware from the printer but succeed in doing it from Windows. (Downloaded the firmware under Windows 7. Sent it to the printer wirelessly to upgrade.) Printing and scanning working under Windows 7. Still not working under Mac OS. Refer to: "Unable to connect to HP LaserJet Pro MFP M477fdw wirelessly" for details.
 
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