Colour Laser Printer

carolwat

I have posted the other day in the I wanna section but didnt get a reply so hopefully I will here.

Im looking for a colour laser printer that gives quantity rather than quality as the printing I do is just for my own use so it doesnt need to be perfectly crisp and clear. I want a cost effective one and dont mind what make it is. I dont want to have to pay an absolute fortune for replacement cartridges though unless they are worth it and will last me forever Even better if I can buy the cheaper cartridges as like I said I dont need the quality to be spot on.

Ive been looking at the Samsung 300CLP but I dont think ill bother with that one as although I dont need great print quality there are some issues with the quality and also the things it prints sometimes arent the way they are on the screen. DOH

Ive been doing some further research and would like one that I can use over a network or wireless so I can put it in the office upstairs but print from the laptop downstairs.

Any advice/recommendations.
Thanks

carolwat

Does anyone have any advice at all?

Little_John

I missed your post the first time round.

Colour laser printers are not cheap to run! quality over quantity what do you really want? you have a printer in mind but you read it has quality issues so you don't want it?

You want a printer that is fast then you need to spend big money and buy a quick printer but its quality will be good too, normaly print issues with colour lasers is down to colour matching reds tend to be blown aout a little, I have seen this on konica/minolta magicolour printers. all laser printers are a high dpi you can't really compare a laser to an inkjet when it comes to print quality the laser wins hands down.

Normally when buying a laser printer buying the larger ones reduces the cost of printing but it isnt as big when it comes to colour laser. I have a HP 2550 colour laser and the cost is about 8p per page as it uses 4 toners and an imageing drum each toner is about £60 (suposedly 5000 pages) the drum is about £120 suposedly 20000 passes, for a colour page the paper passes the drum 4 times once per colour. Those figures work out at 7.2 p per page, but they don't actually work and it is more like 8p per page. so take all manufactureres page lives with a pinch of salt.

I actually think you need to look at what you want from the printer in a little more detail, if your not wanting high quality prints then buy a quick inkjet somthing like the HP business inkjets they are very quick with seperate ink tanks and print heads the running costs are reasonable and print quality is good.
If your wanting to keep running cost to a minimum then buy an epson and use compat carts that cost you £1 each from scan or anywhere else. after all your not really bothered about quality they tend to use the cheapest and worst ink available in refilled and compatable cartridges.

The reason I know this is that I tried a few different types of compats a few years ago trying to save money buying them rather than the original ones, I printed some photos on proper photo paper a few differnet types of paper both from original carts and then the compats the colours in the original were miles better and still are, the compats were a little hit and miss slighty off on skin tones and dark areas were greyer or green rather than black on the originals. The worst part is that the compat photos faded they were in a frame just like the originals both out of the sun but the compat photos started to stick to the glass and the colours started to look washed out.

It all depends on what your wanting to print.

Zahc

My brother in law has this printer and it's good. it's very quick, gives good prints and the toners last a long time.

http://uk.insight.com/apps/productpresentation/index.php?product_id=SAMCLP300&cm_mmc=Froogle-_-PC-_-SA-_-SAMCLP300&src=FRO1

Zahc

Little_John

Zahc wrote: »

and the toners last a long time.

That is somthing that is often over looked when people se that the consumables are costing double or tripple that of an inkjet consumable but they forget they last 4 or more times as long. and give consistant quality for their life where ink can get poor towards the end.

carolwat

Thanks for the help. The Samsung I mentioned with the quality issues was that is puts too much black ink on the page and makes everything seem like bold. I just though this was a waste of ink. Other than that it seems fine.

So at the moment im running a Canon Pixma IP1000 for general printing and I use compatible cartridges but seem to be replacing them every week or two. Am I still better off doing this or replacing the printer.

Thanks again

Little_John

The carts for the iP1000 are pretty small
The black has a yield of 340 pages the colour has 130 pages based on the usual 5% coverage.

Only you know what your paying per page
cost of each cart/yield remember to add both prices together.
I doubt it but if you pay £20 for a colour cart that is about 15.3p per page and the cost of useing black is 5.88p per page. 21p per page is more than the cost of a colour laser page but you have the added cost of buying the printer etc.

Im not sure ont he maths here
if your new printer costs about £200 (£195 to be a little more acurate) the difference in cost per page is say 13p (21p compare to 8p you need to print about 1500 pages to make back the cost of buying the printer by that point it is likley that you will have used the yellow toner and proberbly a black on also so the laser costs are going up.

I doubt you are paying £20 for your refilled ink carts so the calculations above are way out and it may never pay for you to go to a laser printer based on your low amount of printing that you do. it is just annoying that your carts are tiny so you will feel your replaceing them weekly especially if your printing images and going over the 5% coverage.

sco0ter

This any use??

http://www1.euro.dell.com/content/products/productdetails.aspx/print_1320c?c=uk&cs=ukdhs1&l=en&s=dhs

If you put it in to customise and buy it gives you price for the toner and stuff

carolwat

Thanks again. Little John I think you have it spot on. The cartridges are small and even though im constantly changing them it still not costing me as much as I initially thought. I pay about £3 per cartridge as I buy in bulk.

You are a true money saver, well youve saved mine anyway. Hubby will be pleased

Thanks again everyone

chilli_dog

Think Ricoh have just bought out a new range of printers, Gell jet. Quality is as good as a laser (apparantley, not seen one yet). Not sure of the price though!!