Color Laser: Dell 3100cn vs HP 2600n?

[danny_w]

Hi all,
I just ordered a refurbished Dell 3100cn color laser printer for $259 plus tax ($281 shipped) but am wondering what others think of this printer vs. the HP 2600n (or HP 1600 - same basic printer) which Newegg has for $299 w/ free shipping. The Dell seems to get rave pro reviews but mediocre user reviews. OTOH, it is incredibly inexpensive (just the toner is worth more than they are charging). The Dell toner is supposedly good for 4000 pages each cartridge, and the HP only does half that, but HP toner always seems to be readily available. Both printers come with full toner carts, not starter carts as most laser printer do these days. But the HP does not have Postscript, and is much slower for b&w (but faster for color); most of my printing will probably be b&w. Has anybody used both printers, or have any experience with either one that might be useful? Thanks.

 

[danny_w]

I got the Dell 3100cn last night and got it installed. According to the labels, the toner cartridges are the full 4000 page toners. After getting it put together (it was a little scary putting in the toners) I hooked it to my network, installed the driver on my Mac, input the IP address, and the Mac found it right off. It was getting late, so I printed one page (a random web page) and it looked very good, and came out much faster than I expected. The printer was also not nearly as loud as I had expected. So thus far I am very pleased with my purchase.