Printer advice

Ok so i dont know jack about new printers these days. I haven't had a printer in my house for 8 years now. Anyway I'm looking to buy one and what im really concerned about is ink. I need the ink to last long so what would you guys advise?
My folks want to print about 50 pages a day.

 

Color or B&W? What are you printing? Are you more concerned about quality or printing speed (or a compromise)?

Budget?

Obviously some of these "features" will demean others(ex: the good photo quality printers have high ink costs).

If ink really IS your concern, laser still wins. It's more expensive initially, but the ink lasts long and never dries(since it's already dry) so you can buy many cartridges in bulk and not worry about your local store "not selling the cartridge" or the manufacturer jacking up the prices of old cartridges.

 

Yeah ink is my primary concern. So laser would be the way to go in terms of ink?
I wouldn't mind spending a bit more on a printer as long as the long term ink cost isn't high.
I want the printer to do both colour and bw. Having a combo of scanner/fax/copier would be nice too.
We are primarily printing documents (word/pdf)

 

Well by 'what are you printing', I was more asking of the content itself. Is it more graphical/photo work (where image quality would matter most) or is it more copy/text work (where speed is usually privileged)? While most households will do both there's usually a predominance for one type of printing.

If you can afford it I'd recommend laser yes. In the long run it's better like I said cause you can stockpile cartridges(ex: during sales?) and prolong the lifespan of the printer even when the company stops producing it. Too many times have I seen people at work buy a new printer simply because we stopped selling the cartridges for their old one or the price got jacked up.

 

that's about 1500pages per month. please beware about the cost per page. buying a cheap printer will insanely increase your costs.
I advise you to buy an inkjet printer with a low cost per page like an hp officejet 8000.
it is way less expensive then laser for that amount.
sure laser compensates but only if you print a LOT. a good laser printer with a good price per page costs thousands of dollars. an high end inkjet with a low cost per page costs $300.
Also I advise you to buy a good CISS continuous ink supply system in order to drop prices significantly.
About quality you don't have to worry so much because high end inkjets have a great printing quality.

 

Can you tell me if all printers can print double sided?
For example this one? Its the cheapest I can find lol.

Samsung Monochrome Laser Printer (ML-1665) : Laser Printers - Future Shop

Also i was looking at some inkjet printers. All in one printers are like 30 dollars and a cartridge is 6 dollars. Its says it can produce 600 page yield O_O...

 

no. not all printers print double side. you need a duplexer to do that. most high end inkjets have a duplexer or you can add it later. same as laser ones.
also when looking for page yields keep in mind that the iso standard used is only for 5% coverage.
for example an hp 8000 (not making an advertise, I believe there's other options, just happen to have one and I print 30k/month) XL cartridges have a yield of 1200pages.
but get good a CISS! you'll save hundreds! and yes quality is the same, or even better.
also beware that printers have other consumables. inkjets have waste ink tanks, printheads (they have a warranty so use it) and cartridges.
laser printers have a drum, a fusion unit, a imaging unit and toners.
imo if you want monochrome just go laser. but check consumables prices first. don't be cheap and buy a crappy printer, you will regret and spend a lot more on toners or ink.

 

for basic b&w single page printing, you can't beat a Refurb Brother Laser HL-2140 from Staples for ~$40 if you get coupons Currenty Out-of-stock. Using tricks to extend the real toner length and 3rd party toner cartridges from Meritline, you can spend $40 + 4*$15(toner) = $100 for 10,000pages, which gets to 1 cent per page for printer+toner(excluding paper costs)

 

I would also need it for double sided. I found this printer:

Samsung SCX-3205W 3-in-1 Monochrome Multifunction Wireless Laser Printer - Up to 16ppm - 1200 x 1200dpi | Canada Computers

It says duplex: manual. So i'm assuming we manually flip the pages and print on the other side?

 

Ok now you're looking at Monochrome printers, thought you wanted color too?

But yeah, manual means you flip the pages yourself.

 

I dont need colour printing lol. I don't know anything about printers. So mono is what? Just B&W?
How would manual duplex work? It prints one side on each page and then I flip the stack of paper over and it prints on the other side? Or do i have to put in each printed page one by one.

Logically it would print every other page first and then the skipped ones on the back no?

 

Depends on the printer but in most cases it'll ask you to flip the page before printing the next one.

I just assumed form this post you wanted color printing too.

 

Sorry forgot to update lol. I think colour is too expensive on a laser and we won't use it much so its ok.

 

Laser is definitely the way to go. I switched to a Canon D480 and has never looked back since. It is super efficient.

 

i have that samsung ML1665, i upgraded from another samsung actually. its cost per page is very competitive and the actual unit is cheap. best of all, i love the fact on vista/7 its driverless.

i hate printers that install processes and crap on my computer, so driverless is a big thing for me. i cant recommend the samsung enough. you can actually lower your cost per page even more if you buy a toner refill kit, where you just refill the cartraige with toner powder, and replace a small chip on it so it works.

its also TINY....the plastic panels feel a bit thin and flimsy, but boy its tiny and good looking.


it can do double sided, it prints all one side first, then you manually flip the stack of papers and load it and it prints the other side.

there are other models in the family, identical to it but with WIFI capability and things like that if its important to you


the thing is though, if you're just going to be printing say 300 pages a year, there isnt much point getting laser printer. and inkjet will do fine. for me i print about 250-300 pages per month, so a laser printer suits my needs

 

well, for most printers, you can find the basic generic drivers

or you could get a router with print server, and all you need is ipp + generic print drivers