A question that just came to mind that I'm curious about: This is assuming the cost of purchasing each one was the same (I saw some pretty cheap B&W laser printers last time I walked through a computer store).

I'd choose the B&W laser now, simply because I realize that most (99.99%) of the stuff I print doesn't need to be in color, and I always thought the laser did a better job than the inkjet at both print quality and durability for printing large amounts of things. Plus, if I need something in color, it's cheaper in the long run (and better quality) to just have it done at a place like Kinkos.

Exactly my thoughts. Here in Canada, I can get 4"x6" prints for $0.19 a piece... a price that's well below the cost of printer/ink/paper separately. My laser printer is also much faster than inkjet printers for large volumes of pages.

Right, how about 36 pages per minute, colour or B/W . Okay, they come out at 80% of darkness, but still .

To others here:

All depends on the price you like to spend and if you need it waterproof.

After fighting with prices of prints and speed I found finally an inkjet printer that is worth to take a look at, its the HP Officejet Pro K5400 Printer series- models.
Why I chose the K5400dtn over a Samsung CLP300:

• - Network connectivity, 10/100 LAN
• - Paper load 350 pages more
• - 2 paper trays
• - Faster colour output
• - Better gradients
• - Energy saving
• - Cartridges are cheaper then from laser
• - Duplex printing system (but it’s slow, sadly enough)
• - External ink system! This is an aftermarket product, but we are talking about 1 litre DEY-ink for about 25-30US$, good for about 40k to 47k prints in B/W!

Daaaaannnng! That sounds sweet! I might have to get one... How much $$?

Well, HP offers them for 250 US$. The external ink system is about 50US$ here in Mexico...

I'll stick with my HP LaserJet 2100, as I only print about 20 pages a year (I hate hard copy...).

I chose B&W Laser. Even a grayscale laser can print higher quality photos than a color inkjet. Plus color Inkjets usually end up using too much ink when printing, so it makes the paper wet and you get those weird folds or whatever. Anyways, for me, printing up documents is way more important than pictures.

Missing the option 'both'

Needing it permanent or cheap, it's the laser.
But as sometimes I like to have colours, it's ink then.

Both are Brother.
Old laser 1030 I've got for free one day, will last as long as the cylinder and toner inside.
DCP-115C with cheap but good substitute ink.

This post has been edited by FishBowl: Aug 8 2008, 04:02 PM

Either, doesn't really make any difference unless your doing project work ect...

My HP Desktop D1460 has been playing up lately, likes chewing up paper and printing back to front. Nothing a claw hammer won't sort out.

Depends on what you need. I have a color FAST inkjet, Full size paper photo out in 40 seconds. Normal text, man under 5 seconds. But Its an awesome printer, its a HP 6940, it has a Ethernet jack, USB and USB port in front for bluetooth, wireless, cameras, more.

its a awesome printer, never failed me yet, How ever, I am going to get a free mini laser printer for text and stuff. Why not right? I love networking XD

Well, I´m going to change my vote. Ditched the HP Inkjet I had and got myself a few Colour Laser printers from Samsung.

Inkjets are just too expensive in maintenance and use way more expensive consumables, think about paper with less wood / recycled paper in it and the very expensive cartridges. Besides that, most of the time the company who produces the products doesn’t give warranty on faulty cartridges (I´m open for information if I´m wrong here).

Colour Laser printers have become cheap these days, less then 200USD, and will provide you with 200-300 full-page photos or 1000-1500 pages of text with the directly included cartridges. They also provide way better gradients in color and B/W mode than the 3 year older versions, as they do 600*2400dpi without any problem. Also they use a way smaller footprint today but still weight about 10kg but not even close to the 35kg they were 3 years ago.

I would like to say that I´m quit surprises about the overall performance and cost of ownership of the Colour Laser printers .

IMHO, ink jet printers are money pits with the never ending need to replace ink catridges.

I've long stopped using inkjets myself. Ink cartrigdes are quite expensive, they contain almost no ink at all, the ink tends to dry fairly quickly if you don't print much (to the point where you can't get it to print again, no matter how much you try to prime or clean them). Some even have chips to prevent easy refilling (they can be reset, but what a pain). Money pits indeed. They don't sell you a printer, they sell you a machine that will make them $$$$$$ in replacement cartridges.

I've been using an old laser for ages. An old HP dinosaur -- the kind that weighs 50lb (a HP LJ 4+). But it's rated to print 25k pages/month. And I've bought 8800 page toners for $35 before (HP branded too, not off-brand or refills). That makes toner cheaper than cheap 20lb paper.

I've been happy overall, but lately, the rollers have been getting dusty (...) and I've been getting more paper jams. On the last paper jam, somehow, I managed to damage the drum or fuser. It doesn't print quite right anymore. While I could get cheap parts for it, the rollers are due too, and I'd just rather get a new printer than mess with it for hours.

I've seen a lot of samsung printers on special at ncix lately, but I'm not quite sure what they're like. I don't need anything fancy, as long as it prints, won't break within a year (I've seen lots of cheap lasers that needed a new drum after being through only one toner, and the drum cost as much as the printer), and that the toner isn't ridiculously overpriced. I don't mind paying a bit more if it has a duplexer or an ethernet port. Colour would be kind of nice (only for charts and such, no photos) but as far as I've seen, that means buying 4 expensive toners and all that Printing speed and DPI aren't big concerns.

I'm currently thinking about a Samsung ML-3051ND ($170, 30ppm, has duplexer & ethernet; replacement 4000 page toner ~$100), but I'm open to suggestions!

They dry out a bit, some people rub them up a bit but it will only work for a short time. They are easy to replace and are cheap. I used those printers for bulk printing (flyers mostly) back in 1997 to 2000 .

In new laser printers they have chipset too; some can be reset some need a physical replacement. The Samsung CLP-310/315 that I use have just a reset chip inside the cartridge that tells the printer that a new cartridges is installed, and it can be used only ones.

That´s a great printer indeed for B/W. You do not need color?

By the way, I´m going with a Linksys 802.11G printerserver .

Yeah I know, it's easy to do (worked on them before, got the service manual and everything). It's hard to find new parts for a 14 year old laser though. And I'm just tired of messing with it (the drum and/or fuser need replacing too -- probably would cost as much as the printer is worth too).


That sucks, but at least I can understand them doing that with lasers. After a few thousand pages, some parts of the toner cartridge might be somewhat worn out, and probably wouldn't work too goo after a couple refills.

I was looking at the MLD3050A toner, and seemingly you can buy refills along with a "reset chip" for cheap (around $35 for 2 refills and the chip). Genuine/brand new toners can be had in packs of 4 around $200 (that's enough for 16000 pages, or 32 packs of 500 sheets).


I was looking at color models, but the nicer ones are a bit on the expensive side. the CLP-310 you mentioned seems pretty good but doesn't have a duplexer (still not bad). The price is pretty close too. I *might* go for that one instead. I don't particularly like the idea of stocking 4 different kinds of toners though (and they're smaller/less pages, so you have to change them more often too, it's a bit pricier too). But I don't really need color, it would just be handy a couple times a year for the kid's homework really.

This post has been edited by crahak: Sep 29 2008, 03:38 PM

In the UK laser printers are ok price wise but the toners for them cost almost as much as the printer!!!!! its like £80 GBP just for the black one (depending on model etc)

So i mean id love one if i cud afford it but i will stick with my epson for now.

Stoner81