COLOR Laser Printer Recommendations?

[SsZERO]

Anybody here use Color Laser printers? I am looking for one in the $1500 or less price range that can provide color output as good as or better than good inkjet printers. So far, the Minolta Magicolor 2200 has caught my attention, not only because of nice color output, but it has the best black output of any printer I compared in the stores. And yes, I was using the same paper in every printer for comparison. The color output of the 2200 seemed a little off, but that may have been a limitation of the demo box (that thing that says "PUSH HERE FOR DEMO PAGE"). Now at Staples the 2200 is going for $999, but the reviews of this machine also indicated that it is not reliable, and replacement parts are very expensive...two things I do not like to hear about anything.

The other printer that caught my attention is the Oki Okicolor 8n. I have not seen this printer's output yet, but the price is right and replacing all toner carts can be done for about $100. Can anybody comment on this printer's performance? I really love the black output of the Minolta, but I don't want a printer that's going to break down in a few weeks, or is not going to work right.

I'd like some other recommendations, based on personal experience. I know how to run web searches and find reviews, I'm not looking for links to reviews, I want to hear from actual users and their experiences.

Thanks!!

-= SsZERO =-

 

[SsZERO]

ttt

 

[dullard]

This gets asked every few weeks. No one ever gives an answer. I guess not enough people have color lasers yet.

I know you don't want reviews. However, a review IS someone's personal experience. How can you review something without using it? I think a stranger with a review is as reliable as a stranger on a forum.

For personal experiences, CNET has some good color laser posts. One thing that people complain about in CNET is loud printers. I forget which one is terribly loud, you better read these posts before buying.

The best site I've seen so far is here. ConsumerSearch compiles a bunch of web reviews into one location. The result for color lasers - almost every site picks a different printer as the best. In fact there is a 4 way tie in that link I gave you:
$970 Minolta QMS Magicolor 2200 DeskLaser,
$2075 Lexmark C720N,
$1999 HP Color LaserJet 4550n, and
$2039 Okidata C7200n.
(Prices are the lowest ones listed on Pricewatch)

I think the Minolta was ranked high due to its price being 50% lower. However, I think its speed is drastically slower than the others.

I've only actually used a color wax printer (same speed, quality, and price as color lasers after the wax melts). I'd stay away from any wax printers. Who has 10 minutes to wait for the wax to melt? Plus in my experience, their output looks crappy at different viewing angles (like a laptop LCD).

 

[knutp]

I got experience from a hp laserjet 4500dn with 192 mb ram and connected via the jetdirect printerserver. It workes great! no problems, and the prints are extremely nice as well. I would guess the printer has around 1000-5000 prints each month. And around 20 - 30 000 prints a year. This printer is now 2-3 years old and works as it did when it was new.

I have also experience with the oki 8n printer. Not as much as the laserjet 4500dn but it does work fine. The prints was around the same quality, but it does only print 8ppm in both color and black.

I would go for the hp, extremly well built, nice outputs, good upgrade options, easy to get toner and drums etc.

 

[Rpower]

Also look at the Lexmark Optra C710N it is below your price range. The place I work has one plus a HP 4500N and output on both is about the same. For the maintenance on the printers. The Lexmark has a lower year maintenance cost over the HP. Asked she this question before for someone else on this board.

 

[Smaulz]

Without a doubt, if you've got the $$$, go with the Ricoh AP505.

HERE

The Ricoh AP505 color laser printer is a high performance color printer targeted at
professional graphics environments such as design firms and prepress shops that have
demanding color requirements.

[*]Print on paper as large as 13 x 18
[*]Print speed of 5/17 ppm
[*]EFI Fiery color tools for greater color matching and compensation for printing conditions
[*]Genuine Adobe PostScript 3 RIP
[*]Configured with both 10/100 Base TX Ethernet and a 1284 Parallel port
[*]600 x 600 dpi resolution

I use one everyday for intense graphics work. It's the best one I've found for speed, features, reliability, color matching, etc.etc....
HOWEVER....
They run around $3500...

BUT, they've also got the AP205 that has much the same features and quality for around $1500

 

[SsZERO]

Well, reviews on a website or by a magazine are not always the best way to judge a product. I like to hear a variety of opinions from real users, not magazine editors. It's like the difference in testing a car for maybe one week for a magazine in a controlled enviroment versus actually owning the car and driving day to day in YOUR environment.

I'm just tired of replacing my inkjet printer like every 2 years because of print quality degradation. And the print quality and speed of many inkjets still leave much to be desired by me. I guess dust gets stuck somewhere inside it because like after a 1.5-2 years, the quality just blows. I prefer the sharp and clear output you get from laser...I wonder why there aren't more color laser printers out yet.

-= SsZERO =-

 

[SsZERO]

WHOA!! That think is HUGE! I am getting this printer for my small 12x11 room for personal use on a sporadic basis. Did you actually use the AP205? How is the black text output? Is it dark and smooth, or is it like a lot of printers with dark and light shades of black?

-= SsZERO =-



<< Without a doubt, if you've got the $$$, go with the Ricoh AP505.

<a class=ftalternatingbarlinklarge href="http://www.ricoh-usa.com/productshowroom/printers/ap505/?usa" target=blank>HERE</A>

The Ricoh AP505 color laser printer is a high performance color printer targeted at
professional graphics environments such as design firms and prepress shops that have
demanding color requirements.

[*]Print on paper as large as 13 x 18
[*]Print speed of 5/17 ppm
[*]EFI Fiery color tools for greater color matching and compensation for printing conditions
[*]Genuine Adobe PostScript 3 RIP
[*]Configured with both 10/100 Base TX Ethernet and a 1284 Parallel port
[*]600 x 600 dpi resolution

I use one everyday for intense graphics work. It's the best one I've found for speed, features, reliability, color matching, etc.etc....
HOWEVER....
They run around $3500...

BUT, they've also got the AP205 that has much the same features and quality for around $1500



</LI> >>

 

[arcas]

We have an IBM model 4308 ("ColorPrinter 8" I think) which is a Postscript level 3 printer. The name suggests 8 pages/minute but to be honest, that must be when it's printing blank pages...it's pretty slow (and noisy!). For "business" graphics like transparencies it's fine. But it is not well-suited for printing photos: quality is noticibly below that of a DeskJet 930C. Judging from the color banding, I'd guess it supports something on the order of 12-bit color.

 

[Dunbar]

Be sure to look into ink costs as well, that can vary a lot and become very signifigant.

 

[clpl]

We use the HP 4550 and the Lexmark C710 at work. The print quality is the same. The C710 sounds like a printing press. It is VERY loud. The Lexmark 1200 color is a very nice printer. Quick, quiet, quality output but it is $3200+

 

[Magicthyse]

First of all, no budget color laser can match the printout image quality of a good inkjet on coated paper. The images appear less accurate in comparison - but they appear subjectively better because it looks like a 'raised print' - does that make sense? I have personally to see a color printer beloe $4,000 that can come anywhere near to the best inkjets.

The other thing about budget color lasers is the running cost - they may be cheap to buy, but where they hook you is in running costs. Just set up a large delivery chute to your local stationary supplier - it's quicker that way rather than running back and forth with toner cartridges, developer cartridges, oil drums, etc etc.

The 2200 is what I have - I didn't want to spend too much as my home color laser - and jeez, it eats through something - lots of things - that costs a lot of money every month. And you know, if I really have to impress someone with photo output, my Deskjet 990 with photo paper does it every time, whereas the 2200 looks like s**t.

Where it does excel is blocks of solid color - like slide presentations (which I do a lot of). It's great for knocking out lots of copies of that in a short time. And if I want to print black - I definitely don't use the 2200, because it's like throwing money down the chute - I use my HP Laserjet 2200 (mono laser) instead.

Oki's LED printer is supposed to have lower running costs - although by how much I don't know.

 

[dullard]

Magicthyse, I'm a bit confused by your post. Most color lasers cost around 10 cents to print a full color page. Color inkjets cost $1.00 to $2.50 to print a full color page (with $2.00 being the most common). Then you complain about the price of ink of the color laser! That just isn't logical.

 

[Magicthyse]

10 cents? Hang on a minute, I've printed perhaps 300 pages this month and I've spent I think $160 on spares. That's 53 cents by my calculations excluding paper - some months are worse, by the way. PLUS, I have to pay for the engineers to poke around in the blasted thing every time it goes wrong (twice last year, compared to never for any mono laser I've had).

In contrast with that, about 100 sheets of coated matt, glossy photo and double sided paper have gone through my Deskjet and I'm still on the same tank I was on last month, although I have to replace the black - that makes about $15 for the paper and about $30 for the ink, overestimating a bit. That's 45 cents including paper.

My calculations may be slightly skewed, but yours is waaaaaaaay out of true.

 

[dullard]

<< My calculations may be slightly skewed, but yours is waaaaaaaay out of true. >>



My calculations are from two places: manufacturers and printer reviews. Both manufacturers and reviews claim roughly 10 to 15 cents for a color laser page for a typical color laser. The cheaper color lasers may be higher as the manufacturers make up the price difference in ink costs. All printer reviews show color inkjets in the $0.90 to $3 range. I've seen hundreds of inkjet reviews and I've never seen costs for a full color page at $0.45.

Edit: I guess if you put the inkjet on major ink saver mode you might get a faint picture for less than the price I quoted. But then you could put the color laser on toner saver mode as well.

 

[zephyrprime]

I also have the 2200 and I haven't spent squat on it's supplies or consumeable parts. I've only printed out about 1000 sheets of mostly black text on it though.

 

[zephyrprime]

By the way SsZERO, what inkjet's have you used before?

 

[SsZERO]

I've had a HP DeskJet and Epson Stylus 740. So you think the 2200 is a good purchase?

-= SsZERO =-

 

[zephyrprime]

I can't make any recommendations since I've only had it for a little while. It's true that the color output isn't on par with the better inkjets. The color matching on the 2200 DeskLaser is rather poor. On the other hand, I know exactly the inkjet quality problem that you speak of. That's the only reason I went with a color laser over buying another inkjet. (I bought mine on the cheap from Ebay.) If reliability is a problem, it may be worthwhile to buy one of those 3 year extended warranties from the store or something.

I'm surprised that you had degradation problems from your HP inkjet since each ink cartridge comes with new printheads.

 

[zephyrprime]

Oh, by the way Zero, you may want to check out comp.periphs.printers. A lot of opinions there.

 

[SsZERO]

I guess it wouldn't be worth getting a laser printer for anything more than black and white at this point. I'm just sick of inkjets...no matter how good they get, they still lack that sharpness you get with a laser.

I've never had the print problems with the HP, but I was not satisfied with the quality compared to the epson.

-= SsZERO =-

 

[sad]

I've used the 2200 for a bit over a week now and after 1200+pages it's still going on strong. I can't believe how much time i've saved. There's a world of difference between an injet's "5 pages per minute" vs. the magicolor's 5 pages a minute.

 

[SsZERO]

Does laser color output look better on glossy paper like inkjet does? Or does it look best on plain paper, or some other kind of paper?

-= SsZERO =-