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bang for buck laser printer

J

JES

macrumors member
Original poster
Nov 13, 2003
73
3
Hi All,

I'm looking for suggestions on a laser printer. I want quality, decent-speed and low-cost black and white text printing, not a ton of features.

I'd like to consider cost per page, and not just initial purchase cost (though of course I'd rather pay less than more). I'm still fond of my trust HP 6mp, but would like something newer and with (if possible) cheaper media for the office.

Thanks.

--JES

PS -- I'm in Canada
 
Try the HP1500 LaserJet (??) I think it is called. We have one, it is great. I am just too lazy to get up and look at the exact name. It is the only 1500 Laser printer that HP makes.
 
i have the hp laserjet 1012 and love it. it's tiny, smaller than most inkjets, incredibly fast first page out (never timed it, but has to be under 10 seconds), great quality, the drum assembly is built into the cartridge so you don't have to worry about paying $150+ to ever replace that (the cartridges themselves run around $50, though).

i highly recommend it. it hovers around $170 at newegg.com.
 
JES said:
Hi All,

I'm looking for suggestions on a laser printer. I want quality, decent-speed and low-cost black and white text printing, not a ton of features.

I'd like to consider cost per page, and not just initial purchase cost (though of course I'd rather pay less than more). I'm still fond of my trust HP 6mp, but would like something newer and with (if possible) cheaper media for the office.

Thanks.

--JES

PS -- I'm in Canada
Click to expand...

another vote for the HP laserjet 1012; i just got one-and absolutely love it. It's good for small volume jobs (less than 5000 pages / month), light, and compact.
 
JES said:
Hi All,

I'm looking for suggestions on a laser printer. I want quality, decent-speed and low-cost black and white text printing, not a ton of features.

I'd like to consider cost per page, and not just initial purchase cost (though of course I'd rather pay less than more). I'm still fond of my trust HP 6mp, but would like something newer and with (if possible) cheaper media for the office.

Thanks.

--JES

PS -- I'm in Canada
Click to expand...
If you want something that'll chew through paper by the case, there's always the HP 9000.

But the HP website is well organized, if you look at the low/med/high-end printers -- you should be able to take a look at the toner cartridge (cost & life) and see what the cost of the maint. kit is (usually every 350k-500k pages).

Of course the more expensive printers with the real low cost of toner will usually have cartidges and maint. kits that cost between half and the full cost of the cheaper laser printers.

But the toner catridges last about 30k pages.

And the really big boy HP Laser printers have 50k page toner cartridges...

But take a look at the cartridges, the availability in your area, then look at the printers that run them...

http://www.hp.com/sbso/product/supplies/compatchart.pdf
 
I have a Kyocera FS-1010 and it is has never missed a beat. The cost per page is very low as the drum lasts for (allegedly) the life of the printer, or 500,000 pages I think.

Only the toner needs to be replenished and not the drum as well, which minimises ongoing costs. Kyocera as a company seem to be quite strong in promoting eco-friendly solutions.

It also works nicely on an Airport Express as a network printer :cool:.
 
Thanks for all the replies so far! Please keep 'em coming.

Best,
--JES
 
best bang for buck would be to keep using your old laser printer until it breaks or one cannot get replacement toner cartridges anymore. you can only save so much, and clearly the initial investment of a new printer doesn't cut it... if you WANT to buy a new one, that's another story, but you certainly don't NEED to buy one, if your goal is saving money ;)

granted, 1200dpi looks better than 600dpi, but not that much better. and 16ppm is faster than 8ppm, but not that much faster (especially if you usually print one page, as every laser printer takes quite a long time to warm up).

if you want to buy, then just decide what you want. you certainly don't need to buy, if your old laser printer works (as i happen to know cartridges are still available for that printer).
 
I'm very happy with my Samsung ML-1710. It's quite fast and the toner costs seem to be cheaper than average. It also has a nice feature where you can turn on "Toner Save" to print slightly lighter but get a lot more life out of the toner cartridge. Quality is great as well.
 
numark said:
I'm very happy with my Samsung ML-1710. It's quite fast and the toner costs seem to be cheaper than average. It also has a nice feature where you can turn on "Toner Save" to print slightly lighter but get a lot more life out of the toner cartridge. Quality is great as well.
Click to expand...

I have the Samsung 1710 also. A real workhorse with lower cost toner cartridge. Check the price of those before you make a decision.
 
You should be able to find a Samsung 1740, the upgrade to the 1710, for about $80-90 on sale. That is a really good deal.
 
i too have been intrested in a cheap, and fast laser printer. But i however would like one that has double-sided printing capabilities, to save on paper useage. I also would like one that has relativly cheap toner/cartrage replacements. Does anyone here know of a good one?
 
Laserjet 1012. Very, very happy with this little workhorse. The fact that I got it from compusaauctions.com for $65 doesn't hurt.
 
Just to clarify: I need a *second* laser printer. The 6mp isn't going anywhere.

On the HP page is says the 1012 isn't Mac compatible in Canada. What could that possibly mean?

Best,
--JES, who will also check out the Samsung

PS -- Thanks again!
 
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