Need a recommendation for a laser printer

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gotsmack

Diamond Member
Mar 4, 2001
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I'm looking to get a laser printer to print out documents. nothing too fancy, I print maybe 50 pages a week. The important thing is that I don't want one of those printers with the chip in it that makes you put in a new toner cartridge every X months. I think that's a scam.

Thanks, budget is under $200, but cheaper is better.

Moved from General Hardware

mfenn
General Hardware Moderator
 
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vailr

vailr

Diamond Member
Oct 9, 1999
5,365
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There's usually one of the Samsung or Brother monochrome laser printers for sale for under $100. Cartridges vary in price, but a generic toner cartridge for my Samsung laser printer is under $30 on Amazon.
Slickdeals.com is one place for locating these deals. Staples or TigerDirect, and sometimes Newegg are often the web sites for these. I would recommend one of them with both: an ethernet port and auto-duplex.
 
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dave_the_nerd

dave_the_nerd

Lifer
Feb 25, 2011
16,991
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I have had sort of bad luck with generic toner. It's probably one cartridge in four that makes funny grinding noises, doesn't get recognized, or gives me print quality issues.

It's strange, because the remanufactured/generic cartridges we used at my old office supply store job were just fine.

I have a Brother HL-3040CN, and if I could have its babies I would.
 
Cerb

Cerb

Elite Member
Aug 26, 2000
17,484
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http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...1EE-0008-00094

Does Wifi and Ethernet, official carts are reasonable on Amazon, and IME, Brothers take well to 3rd party toner (but do get 1st-party drums, even if cheaping out on toner).

Canons are alright, but the toner/drum combos get pricey, in comparison. Samsung and Lexmark I can't say much of, recently.

Avoid HPs, for sure: driver issues, firmware issues, and then the same costs as Canons for the consumables. Have/had various 110x, 12xx, and 160x at work (B&W laser printers, B&W laser MFCs, and color inkjet MFCs), and only around half have been problem-free, which is plain sad.
 
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PliotronX

PliotronX

Diamond Member
Oct 17, 1999
8,883
107
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Cerb said:
The new ones aren't quite the same quality, sadly, but still way better than HP, and cheaper to run than similar Canons.
Click to expand...
I agree, the newer Brothers have fit and finish issues and make strange noises but my HL-2280 has been solid as a rock even with generic toner. I laugh at all of the HP's having issues around various locations, but I don't laugh when I have to fix driver problems. I am just biased because whenever I get a printer trouble call, ~90% of the time it is an HP. I rarely have to work on Brothers but HP's are more prevalent so there is a larger sampling.
 
Charlie98

Charlie98

Diamond Member
Nov 6, 2011
6,298
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I have two Canons, a B&W MF6550 (which is built like a tank) and a color wifi MF8200C. I love my B&W printer, it's the workhorse of my home office, easily takes generic carts (I get Rosewill carts from Newegg) and haven't seen any problems in over 3 years.

The newer color laser is... OK. It works well enough, but the GUI leaves a little bit to be desired, and is much, much slower to respond than the B&W.

I just installed a Brother HL-2230 for my mom, it seems decent enough... but can't really provide any feedback after a whole 3 days. The price sure was right.

To do it over again, I would happily buy another Canon laser.

I would not (do not) buy HP ANYTHING.
 
Cerb

Cerb

Elite Member
Aug 26, 2000
17,484
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PliotronX said:
I agree, the newer Brothers have fit and finish issues and make strange noises but my HL-2280 has been solid as a rock even with generic toner. I laugh at all of the HP's having issues around various locations, but I don't laugh when I have to fix driver problems. I am just biased because whenever I get a printer trouble call, ~90% of the time it is an HP. I rarely have to work on Brothers but HP's are more prevalent so there is a larger sampling.
Click to expand...
Here, everything was HP, so recently got replaced with HPs, as well, and similar HPs to client sites. The good samples just keep on, and quietly. The proportion of those that haven't, be it to software or hardware issues, has just been awfully high. Around one in three of the HPs installed since I started have already been replaced by Brothers or Canons, just because it's not worth the time/risk of getting another problem sample from an RMA, given the high rate from new ones. The amount is even greater, though, including those that had been purchased within a year before my arrival, I just have to guess at the total number that were sent out (they can call those inkjet MFCs office units all day long, but they get squirrelly, and outright fail, far too often for that to be justified).

Meanwhile, while Brothers and Canons haven't been perfect, problem cases have been few and far between, with the exception of deep sleep issues, which I've had to deal with on Lexmarks, Canons, HPs, and Xeroxes, all just as much (and, each brand will have some special trick you have to do, like turning on Wifi for Brothers, or running a special admin utility for HPs). I blame Energy Star, for those :). As said, Canons have been equally good, in overall quality, and were the interim/alternative choice where I now work (these HPs suck, we've been getting Canons when HP's feature sets haven't worked out, already, so let's get only Canons, for now). For B&W, the Brothers are just so much cheaper to run than Canons, in large part due to buying drums separately, that it wasn't a hard decision to swap (also cheaper for color, but Canon and Xerox have far superior color laser printing at any given price point, and a kid with a Crayola box can do better than Brother color inkjets :)). I've also seen several of the recent Brother models print at or over their duty cycles for months, using 3rd-party cartridges, and just need a little microfiber wipe down, and canned air .
 
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Phaetos

Phaetos

Senior member
Jan 27, 2005
391
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91
Not intending to hijack, but I am also in the hunt for a laser printer, but mine needs to be color. Done with inkjet crap. I've seen the HP 260(?) all in one model in a store, and makes and prints beautiful copies, but I have such reservations as well against newer HP products. The older stuff is so much more reliable. Brother is hit and miss here where I work, and those are just B&W MFC units. The wife wants an all in one, I say buy a dedicated printer and get a seperate scanner, but that's nearly the same price as buying an A-in-1.

What suggests ye, hive?
 
corkyg

corkyg

Elite Member | Peripherals
Super Moderator
Mar 4, 2000
27,370
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106
Phaetos said:
...The wife wants an all in one, I say buy a dedicated printer and get a seperate scanner, but that's nearly the same price as buying an A-in-1.What suggests ye, hive?
Click to expand...

I'm with you on that score. AIOs are a compromise of all features. My good old LaserJet 4000 is built like a tank and is good as new. I have never had any problems with it. Added a memory board - and it has used mainly factory carts, which contain the drum unit.

My scanner is a newish Epson V600. It works perfectly. Replaced on older Epson Photo Scanner. Before the LJ 4000, I had a Brother, but its rollers dried pout and it squeaked terribly.

One reason I like the separate laser printer and scanner is that I can turn them on individually only when I need to use them.

BTW, printers and scanners are peripherals - not General Hardware.
 
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Phaetos

Phaetos

Senior member
Jan 27, 2005
391
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corkyg said:
I'm with you on that score. AIOs are a compromise of all features. My good old LaserJet 4000 is built like a tank and is good as new. I have never had any problems with it. Added a memory board - and it has used mainly factory carts, which contain the drum unit.

My scanner is a newish Epson V600. It works perfectly. Replaced on older Epson Photo Scanner. Before the LJ 4000, I had a Brother, but its rollers dried pout and it squeaked terribly.

One reason I like the separate laser printer and scanner is that I can turn them on individually only when I need to use them.

BTW, printers and scanners are peripherals - not General Hardware.
Click to expand...

true on the peripherals thing, but this is where the thread was already at. So what's a good recommendation for a good color laser, sans scanner?
 
Phaetos

Phaetos

Senior member
Jan 27, 2005
391
27
91
corkyg said:
If I were looking for a good value color laser, I would start with this one by Xerox:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...ROX-_-28118696

Not too many good ones in the under $500 that are3 not MFC.
Click to expand...

I had seen some Xerox B&W printers in our system here and there, but wasn't sure how good their color ones are.

ETA: Print resolution: up to 600 x 600 x 4 dpi ... what does the 4dpi mean?
 
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