Color Printer (Laser?) - Input Required

[VanMac]

Hey All.

I'm in the market for a color printer.

I need:
- color
- duplex
*networked would be nice

I will be printing out some flyers, and the odd brochure. fairly low volume, with the occasional run a few hundred brochures.

I'm leaning towards a laser, but not sure. Is cost per page better?

Any recommendations of either ink-jet or laser and some specific models to consider would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Hmac]

My opinion, laser is the only way to go. Everybody will have a brand opinion, but I've had an HP 4550N for almost 10 years and with over 100,000 pages on it. The thing is slow with long warmup, but it's built like a tank and has been utterly reliable. The new ones are very very fast. I figure it costs about $.02 per page over it's lifetime, can be even cheaper if you shop toner cartridges carefully. I keep waiting for an excuse to get a new HP with duplex and much faster but this one just won't die. We have hundreds of HP laser printers at work and again, they've been amazingly reliable. That's what I'd replace with.

I'd start looking here...

 

[nanofrog]

I'd take a look at Brother.

Look for the letters C, D and N (Color, Duplex, and Networking respectively) in the model numbers. Also keep in mind, lasers aren't good for the most color accurate prints. There is a way around this, but it means you have to calibrate the output with the monitor using software and a USB color calibration device which aren't included; there are 3rd party devices and software to do this.

Even then, laser's not meant for photo grade prints/documents. You'd still need ink or other print technology for that (i.e. dye sublimination).

Unlike HP, they're less expensive on consumables (which means a lower cost per page), and they're not chipped either (expire whether used up or not). HP didn't do this on older printers, but anything you buy new now will.

Hope this helps.

 

[flynz4]

i am using a Xerox 6180 MFP. Like you, I wanted a duplexed printer, and they are often hard to come by. I would strongly recommend that you get something that is networked.

If you have a need for a copy machine... then I would strongly recommend that you get a MFP version. We hardly ever use the device as a scanner anymore (we have a Fujitsu snapscan S1500 now)... but we do use the scanner function as part of a copy machine function more often than we would have guessed. It is extremely handy to have in the house.

The xerox consumables are higher than most... but our use is light enough that it is not an issue. This printer is made for heavy duty commercial use... so it will probably outlast me.

/Jim

 

[flynz4]

One more thing...

As stated above, color lasers are not the best for photographic quality prints. I just upload my pics to costco or similar, and get them printed onto photo paper. It is cheaper than ink (or toner).

/Jim