Need a color laser printer.

[Mudbone]

I haven't bought a printer in ages. I have had HPs in the past but am no fanboy. The HP 2550L can be had in the $480 range. What other brands and models should I compare this to? BTW, I don't need photo printing, I already have a separate printer for that.

 

[Agamar]

I got one of those Dell 3000CN for $285 when it went on sale about 1 month ago. Has built in network, 64M of ram, and a 300Mhz processor. Better than some of the PC's I have owned. The only downside is it is big and pretty heavy.

 

[shortylickens]

$480??
Brother has started to make some nice cheap color lasers in thet range.

I have always been happy with Brother Lasers. But I never had a color from them.

 

[beverage]

bah, dell = dell ink .. what a pain. you can get a brother or an okidata for not much more than the hp, and they'll be inline printing instead of mulitpass, so faster color, however, they have longer warm-up times so your first page out will take longer, so for printing 1 page, the hp will win out, for larger print jobs, the inline feature will win out. ... look at the oki c5150n .. color, 20 ppm black AND 12 color (instead of about 20/4 on the HP), and inline printing for only about $100 more than the HP...if you're lucky you can find it on sale, Office Depot is currently running a MIR for $100, if you buy before March 5th.

 

[Macro2]

The question which one is the cheapest to run? Also easiest to refill.

I'm thinking solid ink as well.

 

[beverage]

ok, HP 2550 - color carts for about $100 each and 4000 pages each / black will run about $80 and give 5000 pages / imaging drum good for 20000 pages runs around $220 so excluding the cost of the printer ... (which is hardly fair since it comes with a full set of carts, and your first imaging drum) every 20,000 pages will cost about $2040, which works out to a little over $0.10 per page

oki c5150n - color for about $125 each and 5000 pages / black $60 same 5000 pages / drums, 4 total each around $95 and a life of 15000 pages (printer comes with drums, and STARTER carts, so a bit of a drawback off the top) every 15,000 pages will cost about $1745, or a little over $0.11 per page.

NOW assuming you want to calculate the cost of your FIRST 20000 pages (15000 with the OKI) it would be just over $0.09 per page on the HP and the OKI would be just over $0.10 per page. So they both drop about a cent per page when you factor in the cost of the machine and assume that your first round of imaging drum(s) will just be the one in the box. Of course all these numbers also assume "maximum yeild" and retail pricing. I'm sure the carts/drums could be found cheaper through online outlets, and I'm sure not every print you do will be in draft mode.

So in the long run the HP will be the cheaper of the two, so which is more important the speed that inline oki offers? or the nearly $300* you'll save on every 20,000 pages printed with the mulit-pass hp?


* $1745(oki 1500 pages) / 3 = 581.66(cost per 5000 pages) * 4 = $2326.66(cost of 20000) - $2040(hp 20000) = $286.66

 

[SWIN]

Please note, that the 2 cheaper HP 2550 printers come with half empty (or half full) starter color carts.
http://www.shopping.hp.com/webapp/shopp...l&catLevel=2&product_code=Q3702A%23ABA
And that the stated average drum life for HP´s 4 pass engine is 20,000 pages, and only applies if you are printing mono color, for use of 4 colors, estimated drum life is down to only 5,000 pages.

The OKI uses a one pass engine with 4 drums, witch means that the average drum life of 15,000 pages, printing 4 colors, is still 15,000 pages.

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