Ask the webternets: Printers

[tigerfort]

I seem to need a new printer; my current one's marvellous millipede impression (an endless supply of last legs) seems to have finally come to an end. Since I last bought a printer in the 1990s, I'm hoping that people might be able to provide some advice.

I don't print a huge amount of stuff, currently - in fact, I think lack of use is a contributing factor to the final death of my existing printer. So ideally I want something that will still work if I ignore it for three months (if it absolutely has to be used to print a page every four weeks, that's probably OK, but if it'll sulk after being turned off for a week I'm not interested). I'm not honestly bothered either way about colour - all other things being equal it's an advantage, but not one I'm willing to pay very much for either at purchase time or over the life of the printer. Forward compatibility dictates use of USB connectivity (or ethernet, but I imagine networked printers are more expensive), and I'm actively opposed to wireless. (I won't refuse to buy a printer that has wireless capability, so long as I can turn it off, but I'm not going to use it.)

I don't need a multi-function machine, but have no particular objections if it's going to get me the best actual printer for my money, provided it isn't insanely huge.

Ten years ago I'd have obviously wanted (and actually got) a laser rather than an inkjet, for the better output quality, lower cost-per-page, and greater tolerance for being ignored for a month. Does that still apply? More specifically, can anyone recommend (or anti-recommend) specific models and/or ranges for my needs? (The deceased model is an HP laserjet 1100, for quality-comparison purposes.)

Comments

[crazyscot]

To my mind your analysis from ten years ago still holds pretty well - just that prices have come down. In about 2005 I bought an inkjet print/scan/copy from Staples for all of £60. In 2007 I upgraded to a networked colour laser, for £300 (net price after one of those infuriating mail-in-rebate deals). Prices have come down, of course.

Random data point: the "starter" toner cartridges supplied with the 2007 colour laser lasted forever (something like 3 years at my rather low consumption rate).

Since arriving in NZ I bought a similar print/scan/copy inkjet for all of $57 (£29), and (having given away the previous laser before leaving Blighty) I am thinking of getting a networked colour laser to use as a household printer to stop my machine being the bottleneck. (Either that or I learn how to set my machine up as a print server for windows clients, but I suspect that the $400 such a machine would cost me is a smaller price to pay than the cost to my sanity...)

[parrot-knight.livejournal.com]

It's about seven years since I've bought a printer - a multifunction device - and it's bearing up well; but out of interest, I've been looking at the ranges available nowadays and the choice has become a more complicated one. There are many more affordable laserprinters available, and while ink costs _up front_ are still more expensive there seem to be more colours generally available, and the machines are boasting ever larger print speeds and volumes.

[skordh.livejournal.com]

I bought a new laser printer last year after getting fed up with the ink costs of my previous multi-functional colour printer which came almost free with my PC. This wasn't due to lots of printing - the colour ink just seemed to run out every now and then, perhaps drying up in the cartridges. I went for a Brother HL-2035 which was the cheapest decent sounding printer (just black & white). It's not bad.

[ewx.livejournal.com]

My usage pattern is similarly low frequency/volume. I got a cheapo inkjet/scanner combination (HP Deskjet F2180, but I think it was at end-of-line even then) and it’s worked out fine. (Part of the choice in that case was Linux support but I quickly gave up on HP’s buggy Linux drivers and it’s been happily plugged into a Mac ever since.)

[lnr]

There's a non-wireless samsung on Amazon for under 40 quid, which I've been looking at. Though it admits it comes with a starter cartridge which does only 700 pages - and the replacement cartridges (which do 1500 pages) are about the same price as the printer. I'm considering the wireless version for myself, but at over twice the price it's not quite as tempting! I'm definitely inclined towards laser over inkjet myself - but again that's based on the same feeling you have, so actually this isn't a very useful comment :)

[emperor]

I got a reconditioned HP laserjet 2300 dtn (postscript, duplex, networking, b+w), and it does fine on my usage pattern of nothing for ages then loads all at once.