Budget B/W Laser printer

[macdave121]

At the moment im looking for a budget b/w laser.

Most of the cheaper lasers i've looked at aren't supported for Mac OS X.
I see you can get the HP 1020 to work, like this printer since its an all in one cartridge.

Looking at Samsung 2010, Brother HL 2030, Canon LBP 2900.

Im aware of the HP 1022 but its double the price of the above.

Ah why is it so hard to get a cheap laser/ replacement toner? for Mac

 

[iSaint]

I have a Brother HL-2070N that I bought for around $99 two years ago. It's been fine for OS X.4 and X.5, although it can be ornery. It's running fine now with Leopard drivers. It may be less expensive now.

 

[gr8tfly]

I've had a Brother 2040 for a couple years. No problems at all. It's fast and has good quality. I have it connected through an Airport base station. Both 10.4 and 10.5 seem fine, along with Win2K running Bonjour.

 

[twig]

I've also got a Brother 2040. It works fine with panther and leopard, good print quality, speed is decent. My only complaint is the paper path which results in the pages coming out really curled, to the point that manual duplexing causes paper jams. If you don't plan on trying to print double-sided and don't mind curled pages, I'd recommend the 2040.

 

[iSaint]

I assume the only big difference in the 2040 and 2070 is networking capabilities? How much did you guys pay for the 2040?

 

[twig]

I assume the only big difference in the 2040 and 2070 is networking capabilities? How much did you guys pay for the 2040?

It was 2.5-3 years ago, but I think I got the 2040 for around $150 after rebates (of course that was back when the Canadian $ was only worth about 65 or 70 cents $US).

 

[gr8tfly]

I assume the only big difference in the 2040 and 2070 is networking capabilities? How much did you guys pay for the 2040?

I think mine (also 2-3 yrs ago) was around $129, but I see them often for <$100.

 

[brop52]

I have an HP P2015DN that can network by ethernet. It's slightly expensive but you can get a good deal on Newegg P2015DN. You can also check out the P2015D if you don't need the ethernet connection and the P2015 if you don't need automatic duplex printing. The P2015 is $179 after $100 mail in rebate.

Looking at the price, they just dropped the P2015DN $30 after I bought it last week. Bums... It is now $229 after $150 mail in rebate. Plus, I recommend you buy the 256 MB RAM from Kingston for $13 rather than the hundreds of dollars HP wants to charge you for the equivalent chip.

 

[Ugg]

I have a Brother 2040 as well and it works great. It's hooked up to my Airport Express and works flawlessly. Envelopes curl a little bit but I've had no problems with the paper feed at all.

The toner cartridge that comes with the printer lasts for about 1500 pages. I bought a replacement through amazon for about $65 and it's supposed to print 3000 pages.

I bought the printer through amazon about a year and a half ago for $68.

 

[yg17]

I have to strongly recommend against the Samsung. I have a ML-2510 that is just under a year old, and it won't feed in paper anymore. Their customer service said it's still under warranty until the 31st of this month, but they won't do anything unless I can show a receipt, which I don't have. Why they still need a receipt when they know it's under warranty is beyond me. So I now have a large, $100 paperweight. I'd find a different printer that's more reliable and comes with better customer service.

 

[desenso]

My Lexmark e120n kicks ass, and has never jammed on me.

 

[Consultant]

Brothers are good value, not only the printers are fairly inexpensive, the per page cost of borthers are typically the least expensive of them all.

Note that Samsung and Lexmark can be 2 to 3 times the cost of Brother, so those printers will cost more after the first cartridge replacement, even if the purchase price is lower.

 

[CWallace]

As the OP appears to be looking for a local printer, the following does not directly apply, but is offered as an FYI for those looking at networkable printers.

I have both a Samsung ML-2571/N and an HP ColorLaserJet 4500N. I can't seem to print color on the CLJ, but that's a different issue for a different thread.

As to the Samsung, I am pleased with it with one exception - the unit cannot support DHCP (that I can find) like the HP can. I have an iMac, a portable Mac and a portable PC. I also have a TivoHD that connects to my network.

As my DHCP server re-assigns IP addresses, the one that is set on the Samsung (via a Windows utility) eventually no longer is the one the DHCP server assigns it. So the printer becomes unreachable and I have to delete and then re-add it on the Mac or manually adjust the port on the Windows PC.

The HP prints to an actual printername (from the JetDirect card) so as the IP changes, the Mac and the PC just print to the printername which is resolved to whatever IP address DHCP has applied.

 

[jeremy.king]

Another shout out for Brother. I've gone through 3 in the past 6 years or so. First, a 1040 then the 2040. I haven't had ANY issues, whatsoever and they seem to last forever. I only buy new ones because I donate the old ones to my wife's school.