$90 Laser printer vs. $120 laser printer/copier all-in-one

[GoodEnough]

Inkjet clogged and decided to upgrade to a basic laser printer.
(Smart move, right?)

I can get a laser printer for $90 or a copier/printer for $120
They use the same toner.

Besides size, is there a downside to getting an all-in-one copier/printer? Reliability, etc?
Someone said they have had consistently bad luck with all-in-ones -
They seem much more unreliable than a basic laser printer.


$90 - Brother HL-2270DW Compact Laser Printer with Wireless Networking and Duplex
http://www.amazon.com/Brother-HL-227...dp/B00450DVDY/

vs.
$120 - Brother Printer DCP7065DN Monochrome Laser Multi-Function Copier
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...=ATVPDKIKX0DER

 

[DesiPower]

I have a $60 Samsung monochrome laser printer and a $30 Canon multifunction inkjet photo printer. I felt like that was the best solution for my needs. The color inkjet is only used when my kids need to print something special or we need to print a photo in a hurry. I refill ink myself in their cartridges. Although I do use them once a month just to keep the ink from drying. This is also used to scanning/copying.
Laser is used to print everything else, I do not print a lot but every now and then I need to print a decent stack of documents. Also when my kids want to print something just for the heck of it, that's what they use.

 

[donfm]

Inkjet clogged and decided to upgrade to a basic laser printer.
(Smart move, right?)

I can get a laser printer for $90 or a copier/printer for $120
They use the same toner.

Besides size, is there a downside to getting an all-in-one copier/printer? Reliability, etc?
Someone said they have had consistently bad luck with all-in-ones -
They seem much more unreliable than a basic laser printer.


$90 - Brother HL-2270DW Compact Laser Printer with Wireless Networking and Duplex
http://www.amazon.com/Brother-HL-227...dp/B00450DVDY/

vs.
$120 - Brother Printer DCP7065DN Monochrome Laser Multi-Function Copier
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...=ATVPDKIKX0DER

Well I have the 2270DW and it's a great reliable printer and you can usually find it for a really good price from time to time and certainly lower than $90.

The all in one does not have wireless capability like the 2270DW if that is a factor for you. There is only a $30 difference between the two so I would say if you need a copier spring for the all in one. Brother laser printers have a pretty good reputation. I'd check on the toner cartridge availability of OEM toner refills for each and the cost. That might be the deciding factor.

The fact of the matter is the more stuff you cram in a printer the more things you have that can possibly go wrong.

 

[Eug]

Heh. I have a very similar setup, a cheap monochrome laser printer and more expensive Epson multifunction printer/copier/scanner/fax. (I needed a new fax machine.)

I use the laser for cheaper printing, and use the multifunction for everything else.

 

[GoodEnough]

The $90 Brother arrived today. Works great!
So happy to be in the laser camp.
BYE BYE inkjet !@

 

[Fayd]

AIO's are absolutely terrible. never ever get or recommend one.

 

[tynopik]

AIO's are absolutely terrible. never ever get or recommend one.

I've been very happy with mine (brother laser)

 

[Lemon law]

AIO's are absolutely terrible. never ever get or recommend one.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------That may be true for inkjets, but in my experience, its certainly not true for laser all in one's. I am happier than a pig in mud with my brother 7820N laser all in one laser. Its been three years since I bought it on the used market for cheap, and its never given me a bit of trouble.

Living in a rural area, I still find I have to send and receive faxes. And every time I send a fax, it saves me an hour and at least $6.00 of gas. As my other option would be to go to the nearest town, and then rent the use of a fax machine. I could have spent a $1000.00 on the unit and I would still be money ahead just on the faxes. As it is I spent only $60.00, and like the energizer bunny, it keeps going and going and going. If and when my brother 7820N ever craps out, I will simply replace it and get wireless networking capacity in addition.


Other wise, I use a variant of the Desipower strategy, I use the laser and my wife has a refillable Canon printer with the large capacity cartridges. Truth be told, I can print to her printer in color cheaper than I can print to the all in one laser, but in a era of chipped inkjets, its far harder to get into the refilling your own inkjet game.

 

[Fayd]

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------That may be true for inkjets, but in my experience, its certainly not true for laser all in one's. I am happier than a pig in mud with my brother 7820N laser all in one laser. Its been three years since I bought it on the used market for cheap, and its never given me a bit of trouble.

Living in a rural area, I still find I have to send and receive faxes. And every time I send a fax, it saves me an hour and at least $6.00 of gas. As my other option would be to go to the nearest town, and then rent the use of a fax machine. I could have spent a $1000.00 on the unit and I would still be money ahead just on the faxes. As it is I spent only $60.00, and like the energizer bunny, it keeps going and going and going. If and when my brother 7820N ever craps out, I will simply replace it and get wireless networking capacity in addition.


Other wise, I use a variant of the Desipower strategy, I use the laser and my wife has a refillable Canon printer with the large capacity cartridges. Truth be told, I can print to her printer in color cheaper than I can print to the all in one laser, but in a era of chipped inkjets, its far harder to get into the refilling your own inkjet game.

i have an HP 2840 laserjet AIO, and it's a flaming piece of dogshit.

as far as faxes go, just use one of the internet services. i've used them to send PDF's as faxes because i'm too lazy to walk to the printer.

 

[bookwormsy]

I have a Brother MFC 9320 CW laser AIO and its been working fine for me for a few years. I picked up an old HP PSC 2175 inkjet AIO at a garage sale and its also been fine for about a year.

 

[GoodEnough]

Can the people who HATE "all-in-ones" please be specific about what has been so bad about them? Thanks!

 

[SilthDraeth]

I have a Samsung Color Laserjet clx-3175fn When I bought it, retail I think was $399 but I was working at the Staples it went on clearance for $60. Been good for 3 years, I only had to replace the black starter toner. The color toner is still the original starter toner. I have a set of new color for it if and when it goes out.

Only issue I ever have, is if I have to print something like 200 pages, then it starts to overheat a bit, so I just don't print that much at once anymore.

Best $60 I ever spent on a printer.

 

[Fayd]

Can the people who HATE "all-in-ones" please be specific about what has been so bad about them? Thanks!

to start with:

the drivers for the HP 2840 stopped at XP compatibility. there's some support for vista 32bit, but any support after that is only through the generic postscript or PCL5/6 printer language. So, it's drivers for only the printer. there's absolutely no support for vista 64bit or 7 64bit for the scanner/fax/whatever.

more to the point:

the document scanning capability of the 2840 is terrible. the feed tray is worthless, either pulling diagonally or attempting to pull strait and pulling multiple sheets, it's just bad. we got a proper document scanner a few years later, (fujitsu scansnap) and it's awesome. we checked the duty log on it a few days ago, a bit over 15,000 pages scanned. the 2840 was too frustrating to get past 100.

since the flatbed doesn't use generic TWAIN drivers, i can't use generic scanning softwares. since i can't use generic scanning software, i can't do the auto-levelling and cleaning i'd like to do when scanning things like notes.

as far as fax goes, i don't care, i don't use it. it's easier and for most, cheaper to just use an internet fax service.

overall, i believe you're better separating capabilities into individual devices.

 

[Fayd]

I have a Samsung Color Laserjet clx-3175fn When I bought it, retail I think was $399 but I was working at the Staples it went on clearance for $60. Been good for 3 years, I only had to replace the black starter toner. The color toner is still the original starter toner. I have a set of new color for it if and when it goes out.

Only issue I ever have, is if I have to print something like 200 pages, then it starts to overheat a bit, so I just don't print that much at once anymore.

Best $60 I ever spent on a printer.

i had an HP laserjet 4MP that sat in my garage for approx 10 years, buried under other crap. one day, i had to print a lot, and we only had an inkjet. i pulled it out, fired it up, and that night it printed 500 pages without a sweat.

 

[GoodEnough]

I am now wondering why I never got laser before.
I assume I balked at the price. $500? $1000?

Just how much have priced of laser printers dropped over the years?
Can someone give a price estimate for an entry level laser for each year since 2000 ?

Obviously it ends at:
2012, $99

 

[Eug]

I actually replaced my old Epson photo scanner with an Epson all-in-one. For my purposes the all-in-one is actually very decent. And it's extremely convenient to be able to make photocopies without having to go through a computer. Plus I need the fax for my work anyway. However, since it's an inkjet, it's expensive for consumables, which is why I use my Samsung laser for most of my printing.

P.S. I just hooked up my Canon photo printer again today. My all-in-one isn't up to the same level as my old Canon, but I usually don't need to print pictures so it's been unplugged for the last half year.