What is a decent budget laser printer?

[cressida]

Hey,
Since most of the things I print out are just black and white, I was thinking of buying a laser printer instead of ink jet ... Any suggestions on which model and brand I should at?

 

[EppyThatcher]

HP 1000 Series,

They go for about 250 or so.

John

 

[Zim Hosein]

SoloKid, I've seen some Samsung Laser printers that compete head to head w/ the HP 1x00 series printers that offer a lower initial cost for the machine, and lower cost per page. I don't know the model number off hand, but their website should have the info. Hope this helps.

 

[Rpower]

The model number for the Samsung is ML-1210.

 

[Patryn]

I bought a Brother HL-1440. I compared it to the HP 1000 series and to me was a much better value. It retails for $300 but I got it while Staples had a $50 rebate on it so it was the same price as the HP. Even at $300 it's worth looking into. I like it a lot so far.

 

[trikster2]

I was in your same situation, I print mostly black and white and was getting tired of the high cost of inkjet cartridges. It's not the price I care about so much as the constant maintenance. So many times when I really needed it a cartridge would be dead, resulting in a few late night trips to office max.

After much research I decided on the Samsung ML-6060.

Have not seen much about it in the american press but it has been riding high on the british mag, PCPRO's "A-List" for quite a few months

Link to PCRO. (A-List requires free registration (sigh))


At $263 (source www.pricegrabber.com) it may be a little bit out of your price range but it has the following features that I considered essential:

550 page paper tray. Just open up a package of paper and put the whole thing in. I get so annoyed with the meager trays on most printers and having to spoon feed them a lil bit of paper at a time. I know this may be a minor point with some but I am so happy with just filling this thing up and forgetting about it.

Straight through paper path for heavy stock

Only 4mb of ram but upgradeable with plain ole EDO SDRAM. It can suck up to a 64mb stick. Note: I'm so happy with the speed though I haven't bothered.

True PCL-6 so I don't have to ever worry about drivers if samsung dies, and it should be more compatible with my hardware print server if I ever get around to setting it up.

Upgradeable to with ethernet and/or Postscript if you decide you need those features in the future.

In standby mode it's VERY quiet. Thing sits a few inches from my ears and I don't hear it at all (it goes into a low power standby mode when not in use).

 

[Workin']

I got a Samsung ML-1210 yesterday. Seems pretty decent. I didn't shop around for price because I needed it ASAP, so I just bought it at the local CompUSA, which was the only place i town that sells it. It was $199, and included a second toner cartridge. So now I have enough toner for about 5000 pages or so, even though I've printed less than 500 pages total in the last 3 years, lol.

The print quality is excellent, as good as any I've seen. It seems fast, especially compared to an old inkjet. I think it puts out a true 10ppm (rated at 12, but NO printer ever prints real documents at rated speed). Has both parallel and USB connectors. It's physically smaller than many inkjets, which is a plus for me because I already have too much junk in too little space. Also, it is completely silent when it is standing by, which is nice, too.

I looked at all the other lasers that were $300 or so (HP 1000, Brother HL1440, some crappy Lexmark, and a really flimsy Minolta), and couldn't find a single reason to buy one of the more expensive ones.