Should I get a laser printer or inkjet printer?

I am torn between buying a laser printer and an inkjet printer. These two printers have the same price
Newegg.com - HP Officejet Pro 8000 C9297A Up to 35 ppm 4800 x 1200 dpi Wireless InkJet Workgroup Color Printer
Newegg.com - brother HL Series HL-2170W Workgroup Up to 23 ppm Monochrome Wireless Laser Printer

The inkjet printer seems to have higher resolution 4800 x 1200. The laser printer has lower resolution 2400 x 600. Does it mean that the inkjet printer is better? The inkjet seems to have higher speed too (35 ppm vs 23 ppm).

And which one is more cost efficient in the long run? Which one requires more maintenance?

 

Are you printing B&W or color? Inkjets for purely B&W printing end up taking more maintenance than necessary. Also, the resolution for B&W printing is higher on the laser.

 

"Should I buy a desktop or a laptop?"

Depending on your usage buddy! Laser is better but more expensive. If you only print documents (B&W) go for laser. If you need to print color (photos, presentations, graphics) - go for inkjet...

 

Quality - Inkjet
Quantity - Laser

 

This is only true about low class Laser vs Low/mid class ink.

 

The basics are: inkjet for lower copy quantity and laser printers for volume (i.e. hundreds of copies). Ink jet printers are typically cheaper to buy but cost more for inks and per copy/print especially as volume increases. Inkjets usually produce better quality photos but color documents can vary. Ink jets are smaller.

Laser printers are much more expensive to buy but produce cheaper copies in volume. They are also much faster especially with black and white copying.

In addition, they offer a variety of special conveniences like collating auto double-sided printing, much larger paper trays, and a variety of other automated features that make copying large volumes a lot easier. Laser printers offer the very best in black and white copies.

Both are capable of producing very good copies.

 

The other thing to factor in is that while it is true that for lower quantity work, the inkjet is fine, you cannot just leave an inkjet unused for a long period of time without the heads requiring cleaning. Also, inkjet cartridges can dry out on their own once they have been used and stored. Laser does not have this problem as the toner is powder (won't dry out more under normal conditions).

I have the 2170W and it's a good printer. Prints are fast, warmup time is way faster than the inkjet I used to have (though I won't say it is a fair comparison given their differences in age). For full text page printing, the laser is fast and consistently so. Do note that after about 40 straight pages, the paper will start to "curl" coming out of the printer.

This also comes with a starter toner which is only good for roughly 1000 pages unless you tape over the sensor, this will give you probalby another 1000 pages are so.

 

One deciding factor for me was my usage. I highlight and take notes on my typed out stuff (my notes can be anywhere from a few pages to a couple of hundred pages). Inkjet typically smudges while laser did not.

 

While the color inkjets sound great at first, most of the injets I've ever bought always ended up on the side collecting dust for some strange reason.

Most of the printers in our company are now the multi-function lasers. Brother makes a great one with wireless that is easy to use all around.

Brother MFC Series MFC-7840W MFC / All-In-One Up to 23 ppm Monochrome Wireless Laser Printer