Are laser printers worth it?

Lager

Diamond Member
May 19, 2003
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I print lot of text for school (black and white) and I was wondering if getting a laser printer would be worth it? Canon printer is good and there black ink is cheap, but would laser printer save me lot of money? They have one on sale this week at Staples and I was wondering if I should get a laser printer instead of my Canon i470D.

What do you guys think? Please help.
 

beer

Lifer
Jun 27, 2000
11,169
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The nature of laser will always make it a fraction of the cost of inkjet.

Do you guys get a printing allowence at school?
 

AgaBoogaBoo

Lifer
Feb 16, 2003
26,108
5
81
It will be a lot cheaper to print on a laser and over time it could pay for itself. At my home, we share a laser printer over 3 of us. I print out a ton on it, dad prints office stuff, and brother prints his school stuff on it. We usually need to change it every year. Even at retail prices, thats $40 a cartridge per year versus all the ink cartridges you might buy for an inkjet. Not to mention the speed of printing and quality.

You might also want to check monsterinkjets.com for cheaper ink...
 

mugs

Lifer
Apr 29, 2003
48,920
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Laser = about 1 cent per page (plus paper cost)
Inkjet = 10+ cents per page (plus paper)

I got in on one of those $100 Lazor printer deals and figured out that it would pay for itself before I finished the first toner cartridge. My second cartridge will be a high-capacity cartridge.

Edit: On the other hand, I find myself printing stuff a lot more than I used to with my Lazor... :)
 

DaWhim

Lifer
Feb 3, 2003
12,985
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I can get paper for free. just go to your school printer and take out a stack. :D
got the samsung laser printer, won't regret. no need to go to library and print out the paper that is not in the format I want
 

Kelvrick

Lifer
Feb 14, 2001
18,422
5
81
All about the Brother HL 1440's. Get em for like 80 bucks, the price of a toner catridge and they come with full ones, not those crappy half ones.

THey also print faster and the 1440 is expandable to 34 megs, although all you really need is 8 megs (2megs stock).
 

Lager

Diamond Member
May 19, 2003
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Originally posted by: Kelvrick
All about the Brother HL 1440's. Get em for like 80 bucks, the price of a toner catridge and they come with full ones, not those crappy half ones.

THey also print faster and the 1440 is expandable to 34 megs, although all you really need is 8 megs (2megs stock).


Where can I get it for $80??
 

Crappopotamus

Golden Member
Oct 1, 2002
1,920
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absolutely. quieter, faster, better quality, pays for its extra cost over an inkjet after a couple thousand prints...
 

oboeguy

Diamond Member
Dec 7, 1999
3,907
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76
Originally posted by: Kelvrick
All about the Brother HL 1440's. Get em for like 80 bucks, the price of a toner catridge and they come with full ones, not those crappy half ones.

THey also print faster and the 1440 is expandable to 34 megs, although all you really need is 8 megs (2megs stock).

Yeah where can you get it for $80?!?
 

GTaudiophile

Lifer
Oct 24, 2000
29,767
33
81
Funny you should ask. Both my printer, a 6-year-old HP 722C, and my dad's printer, a 8-year-old HP 870cse, died this weekend. Actually, mine broke, and my dad's ran out of ink on both tanks. We went over to Office Depot and priced replacement ink: ~$60 for both. We ended up walking out of the store with a brand-new Canon i350 for $48, ink tanks included.

Too bad color laser printers are still so damned expensive.
 

ClueLis

Platinum Member
Jul 2, 2003
2,269
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I still use a 10-year-old laser that is running fine. Damn things are sturdy as hell.
 

Gerbil333

Diamond Member
Jan 28, 2002
3,072
0
76
Yes. They're cheaper in the long run, and the sheer performance is worth it in my opinion.
 

Rogue

Banned
Jan 28, 2000
5,774
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I have one of these at work that we don't use anymore. One of the trays won't feed paper anymore and it needs some TLC, but I think I could talk my boss into letting me take it. Damn thing is an expensive printer for it's time, that's for sure. I think it has 64MB RAM and an HP JetDirect NIC in it. Only problem is, it's pretty big, but I'm sure we have plenty of toner carts laying around still. Hell, I managed to talk him into giving me one of our 5 year old LCD projectors that needed fixed. The picture was really bad and had purple blotches all over it. Opened it up, cleaned off the lenses and the damn thing was like new again. Only problem is bulbs are $300+, but damn my Xbox looks awesome on a 15 foot screen on the wall!

 

MovingTarget

Diamond Member
Jun 22, 2003
9,002
115
106
Dot Matrix Baby! Hehehe...seriously...I've had mine for 10 years (panasonic kx-p2124). Printer ribbons are cheap, paper is relatively cheap (with the holes), and they last for freakin ever compared to the other printers...hehe....
 

loup garou

Lifer
Feb 17, 2000
35,132
1
81
Originally posted by: lager
Which one should I get?

Brothers, Minolta or Samsung?
I have a Samsung ML1430 that I've had for about a year and absolutely love. I just got my parents the Brother 1440 for Christmas. Haven't gotten a chance to use it yet, as it's all wrapped up :gift:, but I've heard good things. I was going to get them the Samsung 1710 as it was cheaper and I like my Samsung, but it was USB only and they have a parallel printserver.

Sooo, in essence, I really like my Samsung and wholeheartedly recommend their lasers, but I've heard alot of good things about the Brother. At this pricepoint, I think they're all about the same, really. I'd go for whatever you can get the best deal on. The 1710 is about $80 AR at Amazon/J&R right now.
 

waggy

No Lifer
Dec 14, 2000
68,143
10
81
Originally posted by: werk
Originally posted by: lager
Which one should I get?

Brothers, Minolta or Samsung?
I have a Samsung ML1430 that I've had for about a year and absolutely love. I just got my parents the Brother 1440 for Christmas. Haven't gotten a chance to use it yet, as it's all wrapped up :gift:, but I've heard good things. I was going to get them the Samsung 1710 as it was cheaper and I like my Samsung, but it was USB only and they have a parallel printserver.

i have a samsung ml4500 for over a year and love it. still on the orginal print cartridge. well worth the $75 i spent on it!
 

Soybomb

Diamond Member
Jun 30, 2000
9,506
2
81
Originally posted by: MovingTarget
Dot Matrix Baby! Hehehe...seriously...I've had mine for 10 years (panasonic kx-p2124). Printer ribbons are cheap, paper is relatively cheap (with the holes), and they last for freakin ever compared to the other printers...hehe....

Lol where do you even find tractor paper anymore? I don't think I've ever seen it at the office supply stores. And then theres the sound of the print head impact for pages.......wow I couldn't take it again I don't think :D
 

Kelvrick

Lifer
Feb 14, 2001
18,422
5
81
Originally posted by: lager
Originally posted by: Kelvrick
All about the Brother HL 1440's. Get em for like 80 bucks, the price of a toner catridge and they come with full ones, not those crappy half ones.

THey also print faster and the 1440 is expandable to 34 megs, although all you really need is 8 megs (2megs stock).


Where can I get it for $80??

You just gotta check hot deals. Deals like this. I know I got mine for like 70 plus tax.