I’d been happily using an HP LaserJet 4L for over twelve years but then the toner cartridge (the original toner cartridge) started to run out a couple of months ago. A replacement cartridge would have cost about $70 or so and the printer was only 300dpi, so instead of replacing the cartridge, I replaced the printer with a Brother All-In-One laser printer/scanner/copier fax machine that’s networkable and cost about $250. (Plus the LaserJet 4L cost over $700 in 1993, which is close to $1,000 in today’s money.)
Two sites for you to keep an eye on:
www.slickdeals.net has bargain printers pop up every few days, so you shouldn’t have to wait long there.
www.woot.com will give even better deals, but since they only sell one item per day it may be awhile before another printer comes around.
Still, though, I don’t think you’d ever get two reams of paper printed with an inkjet, especially with the starter cartridges.
After years of fighting with Epson, I gave up and bought a nice black and white Brother laserjet, especially when I could buy new cartridges for $80 or a new printer for $100. (Epson has gone to the nasty trick of refusing to print even B&W if the color cartridge(s) are low.) It’s not really any bigger than the Epsons were, especially since the paper comes out the top instead of onto a tray, and it’s got handy feed-ins for envelopes without having to open the paper tray. Plus, it’s got auto-off and powers up whenever something is sent to it, so I don’t have to worry about wasting power by leaving it on. There are so few times these days that I wish I had color, though I’m waiting for the day we get consumer-level color laser.
Oh, absolutely. I was surprised to get any cartridge at all, given how cheap the printer was. And in our house it will take us a while to get through even the 1,000-page cartridge.
I’ve been wondering about that. Why don’t we have consumer-level color laser yet? Is there something about the technology of color laser that makes it so much more expensive that black and white?
It seems that nowdays, with inkjet printers, it’s pretty much just as cheap (except for the ink itself) to print in color as in black. Where is the price/technology bottleneck that’s holding up cheap color laser?
The least expensive color laser printers are $400 or so, so they are a lot more affordable than they once were. But I suspect the cartridges will be a lot.
I bought an all in one Epson CX3810 for under 70 bucks. I’ve printed one color page that was 1/8th the size of the paper. It’s been on my desk for like a couple months. I’ve used it a lot for scanning though. By my estimate, I’ll maybe print a page every 4 months or so. Mangetrout, is this what you mean by “lying idle”?
For my needs, did I make a poor purchase?
I’m not Mangetout, but from my experience (Epson C84): yes. I also print very sporadically so the print head (or whatever) would always be clogged and you have to run the “Clean Printhead” function which wastes tons of ink. I know I used more ink cleaning the print heads than printing. Eventually (< 1 year) the print head become permanently clogged (there were blank streaks on a printed page) and no amount of cleaning/ink wastage would fix it. I will never buy another Epson (which is sad because the Dot Matrix I mentioned upstream was an Epson and it was awesome). I’d advise printing a page at least once a week.
Now, the reason I reopened the thread: Just got the Samsung and it is awesome. Smaller footpring than I thought and great printing (so far). Takes a few seconds to warm up, but then prints the pages very rapidly. If I get anywhere near 1000 pages on one toner cartridge I’ll be a very happy man. even if not, this still appears to be a great deal at $50.
Well, the Samsung ML-2010 arrived today and is now installed on my desk. It’s footprint is about the same (in terms of square inches) as the old printer it replaced, but it’s actually better shaped for my desk. It a little deeper than the old Epron, but not as wide, so i can sit it behind one of my monitors and turn it sideway. Perfect!
It was a breeze to set up and install, and is now printing beautifully. I’m really happy we decided to go for the laser.
Thanks for the advice, everyone.
For those of you who bought the Samsung ML-2010, can you load individual envelopes from the top without opening it up every time?
I recently bought a color laser from Dell and it’s frustrating getting it to print an envelope along with a letter.
There’s no loading section in the top of the printer, but there is a Manual Tray, which sits just above the regular tray. As far as i can tell from the instructions (i haven’t actually used this feature yet) it’s just a matter of sliding the paper or envelope into the manual tray and then selecting Manual Feed in the software printing options. No extra opening or fiddling around seems to be required.
It looks like a pretty easy process, but as i said, i haven’t actually tried it out yet.
That sucks. But at least it scans good.
On the laser printer side, I’ve put in two HP Laserjet 1320 printers and they’re very good indeed, so we’re buying more. Nice quality, cheap, both wired and wireless networking available, and built-in duplex.
I ended up with one because we couldn’t get a legal paper tray for it.
Very nice printer, I’m quite happy with it. 
I’ve set up a couple of them, and one of the things they demonstrate is how HP (along with every other manufacturer) is attempting to reduce cost when possible. For example, new printers used to be shipped with the toner cartridge separate from the printer in a lightproof black plastic bag. The HP 1320 comes with the toner cartridge already in the printer, although you still need to pull that plastic strip out of the cartridge. So they save a penny or so on the cost of the plastic bag and can make the box a little smaller, since they don’t need room for the toner cartridge.
(And of course I haven’t seen a full paper manual in years; these new printers come with two or three sheets of paper documentation and a CD containing drivers and electronic documentation.)
I’d recommend going to the library and looking at a consumer guide issue dealing with printers if cost is your criteria. I prefer individual ink cartridges but that isn’t necessarily cheap. I wanted my inkjet for photo work so it’s cheaper for me because I end up printing the same type of picture. I go through certain colors quickly. If you print diverse images then you might not need this.
All printers I’ve seen are now USB and probably USB-2 so that’s not an issue. Since you aren’t going to use it to print pictures then any printer will work. You can use the printer to make contact sheets for review and then print out the ones you want at a photo store, which will be cheaper anyway.
If you do a lot of printing and cannot afford a laser printer then an inkjet with a separate black cartridge is a must.