Laserjet or not?

[cool11]

As we all know, laserjet printers from hp, dominate the laser printers market.
But is it a good choice when it comes to mac os x?

I would like to buy a new printer, low-end and low-cost.
Everywhere I see laserjets.

But I need something that will play with my mac without any problems.

I heard brother lasers work fine with macs.

But I also read many stories about hp laserjets and macs.
Some mac users are happy with their laserjets while others tell there are problems in osx enviroment.
Maybe because hp is mainly a pc-oriented company. Some drivers are bad-written, if I understood well what I read on the net.

So I would like to buy an hp, mainly because I can find cheap toners, but is it a good choice for mac?

As a new mac user, do you suggest me taking a laserjet or better go with brother in order to avoid any incompatibilites and problems in osx?

 

[Consultant]

Nope, HP does not dominate.

Brother laser printers have the least expensive cost per page, you should look into it.

 

[gkarris]

I have a Konica-Minolta at home and it's great. I can hook up both the Parallel and USB ports and it will autoswitch between the two.

So at work at one of our client sites, I hook up the PC's to the HP Laserjet the same way, one to USB and one to the Parallel.

I start gettting calls back that the PC on USB won't restart properly (gets stuck in BIOS) and the one hooked to Parallel is spitting out junk.

After some support calls to HP, they said "you can't do that, choose one port or the other. I said, I can do that on my printers at home. I got silence.

HP's are great, but if you want flexibility, then I say go with Brother. I gave my friends a Brother Multifunction that I didn't use and they hooked it up to their G4 and it's been great.

 

[JNB]

What problems with HP? I'm on my 3rd HP printer (Color LaserJet 2600n), and haven't had any issues with it at all, nor the others prior to it. Both the MacBook and the iMac G5 were configured and printing in minutes.

On the included K toner cartridge, I got about 1-1/2 months of use before replacement, the CMY carts are at about 33% remaining. When it takes that long to burn toner, the difference in cpp is inconsequential. Also, with the HP (I don't know if Brother does this), the replacement toner carts have a UPS return label, so nothing (including packaging) goes to waste.

Regardless of brand, laser is a better bet and more cost-effective than inkjet.

 

[Dimwhit]

Brother laser printers have the least expensive cost per page, you should look into it.

I have a Brother laser printer at home that's been running strong for about 8 years. And we have a Brother Laser AiO at works that is great. I definitely recommend them.

 

[brand]

I would recommend the HP Color Laserjet 2605dn. It is very nice having everything automatically duplex thus saving paper, money, and the environment.

 

[MisterMe]

As we all know, laserjet printers from hp, dominate the laser printers market.
But is it a good choice when it comes to mac os x?

I would like to buy a new printer, low-end and low-cost.
Everywhere I see laserjets.

But I need something that will play with my mac without any problems.

I heard brother lasers work fine with macs.

But I also read many stories about hp laserjets and macs.
Some mac users are happy with their laserjets while others tell there are problems in osx enviroment.
Maybe because hp is mainly a pc-oriented company. Some drivers are bad-written, if I understood well what I read on the net.

...

I see that you labor under several illusions. HP used to make great printers. I swore by them. Today, HP is only a label that the Palo Alto company slaps on some crap built by a contractor somewhere. I buy Xerox Phaser printers with genuine PostScript. They are as fast as the dickens and built like the anvils that HPs were once.

Having said that, if you really want to buy the crap from HP, then you should buy only models that have HP support for the Mac. To HP's credit, it adopted Bonjour early on. Even little pieces of crap like the LaserJet 2600n support Bonjour.

 

[iSaint]

I have a Brother HL2070N that's been running fine for a couple of years. Much more cost effective than an inkjet.

 

[JNB]

I see that you labor under several illusions. HP used to make great printers. I swore by them. Today, HP is only a label that the Palo Alto company slaps on some crap built by a contractor somewhere. I buy Xerox Phaser printers with genuine PostScript. They are as fast as the dickens and built like the anvils that HPs were once.

Having said that, if you really want to buy the crap from HP, then you should buy only models that have HP support for the Mac. To HP's credit, it adopted Bonjour early on. Even little pieces of crap like the LaserJet 2600n support Bonjour.

So how do you really feel?

Nobody makes stuff in-house anymore, at least not more than is required to keep the "Made in USA" sticker legal. So, place of manufacture is a irrelevant and misleading argument. And "Genuine PostScript?" Oh, my! C'mon, we all know it's just HP not wanting to pay a licensing fee to Adobe. As far as what you see coming out of the printer you won't see a difference, not without a loupe, anyway.

So, it's really more a matter of you have a preference for Xerox. OK, fine, but making a choice of an HP sound like a dangerous and foolish decision is a bit much.

 

[MisterMe]

So how do you really feel?

Nobody makes stuff in-house anymore, at least not more than is required to keep the "Made in USA" sticker legal. So, place of manufacture is a irrelevant and misleading argument. And "Genuine PostScript?" Oh, my! C'mon, we all know it's just HP not wanting to pay a licensing fee to Adobe. As far as what you see coming out of the printer you won't see a difference, not without a loupe, anyway.

So, it's really more a matter of you have a preference for Xerox. OK, fine, but making a choice of an HP sound like a dangerous and foolish decision is a bit much.

Do you have a point or are you just chiming in because you like to hear the sound of your keyboarding? Consider this:

• Who makes HPs or where they make them is irrelevant. They suck.
• The fact that HP doesn't want to pay Adobe's license fee for PostScript is irrelevant. I prefer the genuine article to one that is almost as good.
• Before I bought my first Xerox, I bought a distressed HP store display that had been manufactured prior to the time they started sucking. I am still happy with my older damaged HP.
• Times change and I had to move on. I can't get HPs that don't suck anymore, not even display models. I switched to Xerox and couldn't be more pleased.

Questions?

 

[JNB]

Do you have a point or are you just chiming in because you like to hear the sound of your keyboarding? Consider this:

• Who makes HPs or where they make them is irrelevant. They suck.
• The fact that HP doesn't want to pay Adobe's license fee for PostScript is irrelevant. I prefer the genuine article to one that is almost as good.
• Before I bought my first Xerox, I bought a distressed HP store display that had been manufactured prior to the time they started sucking. I am still happy with my older damaged HP.
• Times change and I had to move on. I can't get HPs that don't suck anymore, not even display models. I switched to Xerox and couldn't be more pleased.

Questions?

Please take the ad hominem stuff elsewhere.

"They suck" is a non-starter if there ever was one. While you're entitled to your opinion, that's not helpful for someone trying to make a purchase decision. Why, specifically, do they suck? Why is PostScript critical to you? You know, those slightly more cogent explanations that might help someone make a smarter choice.

 

[Platonist]

I have had an HP 1320 LaserJet here in my office for about 1.5 years now, and it has been flawless. It wasn't the cheapest model, so if cost is a concern you might want to consider other brands (I don't know much about the other, lower models in HP's line). Most of my colleagues use HPs and have had no issues. I had a Brother 5150 for about 8 months and it wasn't the best experience. The printer failed after about 4,000 pages and the refurb replacement that Brother sent didn't work either. I cut my losses and went with the HP.

Don't take this as damning Brother, as it is only one person's experience. I can say that many people have been doing just fine with HPs (even some new models).

 

[misterredman]

I have a Brother HL2070N that's been running fine for a couple of years. Much more cost effective than an inkjet.

I have one of those at home. No problem at all. I especially like the integrated network adapter, which make it easy to set it up in a mixed network.

I never owned an HP laser printer, so I can't comment on that.

 

[gwsat]

I had a number of HP laser printers in the ‘80s and ‘90s, and they were terrific. Five years ago, shortly after I bought my first Mac, a PowerBook G4 17 inch, I bought an Oki C5300n color laser network printer. It was expensive but it’s been excellent. In fact, I bought a new cartridge package for it just last month.

Emotionally negative posts about any brand of printer are silly and unconvincing, it seems to me.

 

[HooHar]

I bought 4 Xerox Phaser 6100 printers and every single one of them gave me more problems than I've ever experienced with anything previously. Maybe it was just a bad batch - the telephone help here in the UK is really bad as well.

As far as I am concerned - if there's one company to avoid it's Xerox !

I really enjoyed the day when I threw them into the skip. Good riddance to crappy second rate crap.

Good luck...

 

[HooHar]

I bought 4 Xerox Phaser 6100 printers and every single one of them gave me more problems than I've ever experienced with anything previously. Maybe it was just a bad batch - the telephone help here in the UK is really bad as well.

As far as I am concerned - if there's one company to avoid it's Xerox !

I really enjoyed the day when I threw them into the skip. Good riddance to crappy second rate crap.

Good luck...

On the other hand, I've got nothing but praise for Brother lasers, used many of them at work and at home - great printers - and echo the other recommendations.