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Color Laser Printers

J

jkaz

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Feb 3, 2004
386
2
Upper Mid West
Hp entry models ok?

is there anything with built in wireless ?


anyone an expert on what all of the options mean?

what's the most important factor to consider

use with apples...of course..

thanks!
 
Can't answer all these questions if only because I don't know your needs, but I am shopping for a color laser currently as well and have narrowed my choices down to either:

Brother HL-2700CN
Lexmark C510N

I also considered the HP 3550N, but have rejected it because HP automatically terminates the toner cartridges after 4,000 copies, whether they are empty or not, which is a dirty trick in my book. The color quality on the HP isn't too wonderful either. Shame, because my last two laser printers were HPs and I got great service out of them.

We have a small network shared by three Macs and a PC, so the networked model is a requirement for us. The non-networked models cost about $200-300 less.

Toner cartridges for color lasers are very expensive. Expect them to set you back in the vicinity $400-500. Also, many of the printers come with "starter cartridges," with about half the toner of a full set. Because of the cost, I plan on keeping our trusty and economical HP LaserJet 5MP in service for most of our black-and-white work.

Some of the printers use Apple's "Bonjour" technology for quick setup (only Brother and HP, IIRC). Since you only do this once, I'm not sure it's a big deal either way. Not a make-or-break issue for me.

Most of these printers are amazingly heavy, in the 70-80 pound range, and all of them are quite tall.

Some of the printers are notably noisy, even when they're not printing.

I'd suggest you go to shopper.cnet.com and look them up. Lots of reviews and user comments.
 
thank you for your input

i'm trying to keep it in that entry level range of under $650

currently i've got an old hp1200 laser connected to an aiport extreme base and wireless print from the apple computers in the office.

works great.


i've also got a scanner hooked up to an ibook that i use as a station to scan images then either place them on the desktop that needs it, email it, or rendevous it.



it'd be great to get a new printer that i doesn't need the airports only usb slot and slide the scanner in it's place.



i did some snooping and it seems that the hp 2550 series is in line with what i'm looking for.

good news is that there are some rebates, bad news is that the entry model is out of stock.

more bad news:

from the 2550L to the 2550LN, all you get is built-in ethernet server- and an increase in cost of $100.00

from the 2550LN up to the 2550N you get everything on the L and LN plus an extra sheet input tray and you get to pay $100 for it.

so base 2550L $500.00

2550LN with ethernet $600.00

2550N w/ether and tray $700.00



I think i'll pocket the $200.00 and buy myself an airport express instead.


any thoughts?
 
I have the Lexmark C510n, and it came with a free USB-to-ethernet print server box. Got it for $599 Canadian last fall.

It's Rendez^H^H^H^H^H^H Bonjour enabled, for instant setup (I made a lengthy post about the "zero configuration printer" in a "switch" story I wrote in these forums a while back).

Lexmark joins the gang of people who supply half-filled starter cartridges, and the printer tends to be pretty conservative about when it thinks the cartridge is empty. It is possible to override the "cartridge is empty" indicator (which locks out the printer until you change it), and when you do that, you get a few hundred more very usable pages before the page starts to streak, and if you're patient you can get THAT to go on for even a few hundred more pages.

I liked the Lexmark's size as well; it's very heavy and bulky, but not nearly as big as say the HP.

The only thing I miss is not having a duplex unit, which is an available accessory but would cost me about as much as I paid for the printer itself. The printer is also very fast.

As far as I'm concerned, the USB print server box (which supports IP printing, Windows, Mac, Bonjour, even telnet and FTP, and has a web server which gives complete printer status including toner percentage levels and lets you change ANY printer setting using browser forms) was worth half the cost of the package.

I recommend it.
 
Not sure. I haven't considered wireless printers at all.

I'm sure you could find the 2550 in stock somewhere, but the HPs have that terrible toner cartridge gotcha. I just find that too revolting to consider.
 
I know this might be out of your price range but you might wnat to check out Xerox. They have a decent one for around $1000. I also think they have cheaper models as well.
 
notjustjay said:
I have the Lexmark C510n, and it came with a free USB-to-ethernet print server box. Got it for $599 Canadian last fall.
Click to expand...

Why do you need this? The C510N is already ethernet network equipped.
 
djbahdow01 said:
I know this might be out of your price range but you might wnat to check out Xerox. They have a decent one for around $1000. I also think they have cheaper models as well.
Click to expand...

The Xerox color printers aren't true lasers, if that matters (it does to me). They use a wax transfer method.
 
IJ Reilly said:
The Xerox color printers aren't true lasers, if that matters (it does to me). They use a wax transfer method.
Click to expand...


I have the 7300dn phaser... Seems to be true laser. No wax.
Very happy with it until the bill comes for replacing the toner and imaging units...
 
IJ Reilly said:
The Xerox color printers aren't true lasers, if that matters (it does to me). They use a wax transfer method.
Click to expand...

We had a Tektronix printer from Xerox that used wax "cubes." I hated it. After a power failure, the printer was programmed to "melt" whatever cubes were in the bay as part of the clean-up procedure... requiring you to replace all the solid ink. It only took one "melt-down", and we invested in a battery backup UPS for the printer. I have since replaced it with a Minolta color laser.
 
IJ Reilly said:
Why do you need this? The C510N is already ethernet network equipped.
Click to expand...

Err... ok, I don't recall which model I got exactly but it had no ethernet built-in. The USB-server box was packaged inside the printer packaging, so they came together, not as a store-afterthought bundle deal.

Edit: I appear to have purchased the Lexmark C510ne package, which perhaps was a special edition to Staples (based on search results on Google).
 
We have a now broken Xerox/Tektronix at school. It was OK for color photoshop prints, but it broke twice. And all that damned crayon wax inside of it... an HP CLJ is on order for next year. :)
 
notjustjay said:
Err... ok, I don't recall which model I got exactly but it had no ethernet built-in. The USB-server box was packaged inside the printer packaging, so they came together, not as a store-afterthought bundle deal.
Click to expand...

That happened to me with the HP 1200. I think they can advertise it as Network if they just add that print server. If I had known that it was coming with a print server, I would have just gotten the cheaper model with an Airport Express. (I don't remember if there was one at the time, but assume so)
 
macbaseball said:
That happened to me with the HP 1200. I think they can advertise it as Network if they just add that print server. If I had known that it was coming with a print server, I would have just gotten the cheaper model with an Airport Express. (I don't remember if there was one at the time, but assume so)
Click to expand...

It's not clear from the product specs, but apparently the "n" in the C510N model means it includes an external print server which connects to the USB port.
 
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