Affordable Laser Printers?

paul.h.burns asks: "I'm looking now for an affordable laser printer. The qualifications are that it must be network-able, under $300, and produce decent graphics. Color is not so important because I have an inkjet that I can use if I need color on any presentations. I've looked at Tom's Hardware, CNET, Pricewatch, and just plain googled around. I've found a few printers that meet one or two of the criteria, but not all three. Also, I've found some that look decent, except user comment's say that toner usage on those models is really high. So, now I'll ask everyone here at Slashdot: Are there any laser printers that you can recommend that would meet all three of my criteria?"

Comments

I like the Brother HL-5170DN

[petard]

I picked up a brother hl-5170dn. It's network ready, comes with zeroconf (bonjour in the apple world) and includes postscript and PCL emulation. The web configuration interface is quite nice, it's "just worked" with my Mac, Windows and Linux boxes, and is readily available for under $300. And as a bonus, it has a built-in duplexer. It is black-and-white only and has its toner and drum separate. (Which is a good thing, since drums generally outlast toner, and this lets you replace them separately without resorting to dodgy refilled toner).

Do be sure to download and use Brother's .ppd files for best results. The postscript emulation, while good, isn't perfect. Using their .ppd files seems to take care of all the rough edges I encountered.

I'm admittedly a rather light user in terms of volume. But after going through a ream of paper or so I'm still on the cartridge that shipped with the printer. YMMV of course.

There may be a newer better model than this one, but I haven't tried it and this one is clearly still available. I was initially a little nervous about moving away from canon engines, but I have been quite pleased after about a year.

Re:I like the Brother HL-5170DN

[petard]

I was totally not expecting Zeroconf support from a printer at that price point. I was very surprised when I went to save a receipt for an online purchase to PDF from my Mac (thus invoking the print dialog) and saw the printer as an option even though I had not set anything up in print center yet.

It definitely draws less power than the LJ4, and to all evidence does not suffer from the same problems with the fuser rollers that my original LJ4 did.

Re:I like the Brother HL-5170DN

[iamhassi]

The brother is a good suggestion, but doesn't this topic sound a little 1999? A laser printer that is "network-able, under $300, and produce decent graphics" isn't hard to find, especially if you don't mind using a cheap netgear print server, then there's a ton of laser printers for under $100 that will fit the rest of the requirements, and if you don't mind refilling the toner yourself you can buy toner refills for less than $15 for almost any laser printer.

Oh, and if you don't want to go through all that you can just jump to Networkable laser printers for under $300 in froogle. Every printer company has one for under $300 listed with froogle, I see the Lexmark, Samsung, Brother, HP...

I don't mean to flame but I don't see how anyone can spend more than 5 minutes looking for a laser printer and not find a laser printer that is "network-able, under $300, and produce decent graphics".

HP LaserJet 4P

[Hikaru79]

I'm not sure how easy it would be to still find one of these, but I've had a LaserJet 4P since I was around grade 6 (about 6 or 7 years ago), and it has never failed me yet. It's a cheap, black-and-white laserjet with all of the features you request. And I can personally attest to it's printing quality. I've had it for so long, and it's never broken down or had any real problems. I also network it just fine -- it's currently connected to my LinkSys wireless printerserver.

I don't really have anything to compare its toner usage with, but I have no complaints in that department either. Overall, a great deal.

Re:HP LaserJet 4P

[1u3hr]

i got one around a year ago at my local computer recycling center for around $100. i still haven't changed the toner! watch out though... the lights dim when i turn it on...

Go for an LJ5 (or 5P if you like the smaller size); a little more than an LJ4, but many parts are compatible and has a low power mode.

I've got an LJ4 with PS and networking, only problem is that the humidity here messes up the toner, unless I leave it powered on all the time in Summer, which is a drag as it draws about 50W when idle, still cheaper than getting a "new" printer though.

I had an HP4LM fopr several years, small, light, 4 ppm, PostScript, but only 50 pages in the tray and sometimes I had to yank out jammed pages. But was at 40,000 pages and still fine when I left it.

One great advantage of older HPs is that you can get very cheap, quality toner refills or compatible cartridges.

Brother HL-2070N...

[TeckWrek]

...USB Ethernet 20PPM Laser Printer ~ $170.
It definately meets the networking and proce requriments. The only one in question is 'decent graphics', but that is subjective! and you know best.

        * Up to 20 pages per minute
        * HQ1200 resolution (up to 2400x600dpi)
        * 250-sheet input capacity and manual by-pass slot for letterhead and envelopes
        * USB 2.0 and Parallel interfaces1
        * Windows® and Mac® compatible
        * One-year limited warranty
        * 16MB memory standard
        * PCL®6 emulation standard
        * Built-in 10/100 BaseT Ethernet
        * Network Interface

HP 2600n maybe

[alshithead]

It's just around your price and prints like a champ...color too. I'm using it at home to print tri-folds for my wife's business and the price per hard copy isn't bad. We print several thousand tri-folds per month and only have to replace the black cartridge on a regular basis. I have it hooked to a Linksys wireless print server so we can print from anywhere in the house. We've already gotten our money out of so if it dies tomorrow I may just buy another instead of having it repaired. Can't beat HP laser printers as far as I'm concerned. The 4000 series is great for just black and white but somewhat more expensive. I've watched them at work, at work, for years.

Re:HP 2600n maybe

[grotgrot]

The 2600n uses a proprietary protocol. The Windows drivers give very good output. The Mac drivers have worse colour rendering. The only Linux drivers are at http://foo2hp.rkkda.com/ and have poor colour rendering (as the page also states). Also read his comment about how much assistance HP provided. Somewhat uniquely the printer does ship with full cartridges and the printer is cheaper than the price of the 4 cartridges!

There is a new 2605 that has Postscript and PCL but is out of the OP's price range. My local Costco has had it recently.

grain of salt

[Macgrrl]

I used to do this for a living, but not in the US market.

You haven't mentioned how many pages you expect to produce per week/month/year, which makes this a little tricky.

Ideally you need to look at the expected usable life for the device (for corporate use 5 years, personal use maybe up to 10 years), does the device require a maintenance kit, what is the device lifetime duty cycle and what is the cost/yeild of the toner cartirdge.

Additionally, do you print a lot of postscript or PDFs, and is speed an issue?

The cost per page calcualtion is basically: ((purchase cost of the device / lifetime pages printed)+(cost of tomer cart/yield)+(cost of maintenance kit/yield))

Kyocera make good quality low TCO (total cost of ownership)laser printers - but I haven't found them to be especially durable in high volume applications.

The HP 4xxx series are generally good entry level workgroup printers, reliable and well supported.

If speed or large PDFs are a requirement, you may want to consider a memory upgrade or postscript kit. Remember that when they quote pages per minute - that is the speed per page for additional copies of the same page (engine speed) once the first instance has been processed (first page out).

This model has been deprecated

[Yonder Way]

But check out the HL-5250DN which is the suggested replacement model.

Re:This model has been deprecated

[walt-sjc]

I have the 5250DN.

It's not bad, but definatly more "plasticky" than my old 1270N. It also has no straight paper path option like the 1270 had so everything gets curled (envelopes and card stock are more difficult.) Heavy card stock (postcard) does not work. Envelope's get creased. It looks like you should be able to get the paper out the back, but it's got a sensor I couldn't find that prohibits this.

The front "multi-media" tray works well, but occasionally pulls mupltiple pages in at the same time.

I've run about 6000 pages through it now (on my second toner) and it works well. The starter toner only gets you about 2000 pages (max.)

Duplexing is also on the slow side (which is typical on most duplexing printers.)

I look at this printer as being disposable. By the time it needs a drum, I'll just buy a new printer.

Re:This model has been deprecated

[Vidar Leathershod]

Having used the HL-5170DN for many customers, with no problems, I started getting the replacement, the 5250DN. Had the same problems with envelope creasing. One thing that I like about Brother is their technical support, which is available by 800 number and has a decent amount of knowledge about their product.

For heavy paper and envelope problems, if you flip a panel down in the back, there are two adjustment levers. I would speak with tech support or find documentation before fiddling with them, because I believe that you only need to adjust one at a time (there are levers on both sides) and I can't remember which side you start on (or if it matters at all). What I do know is that it completely fixed the creasing problem, and it has been a wonderful printer since, with no issues.

Another customer had a noisy 5250DN, which Brother replaced immediately, providing a shipping label, pickup, and return of a Brand New Model (not refurb'd). I agree that the construction doesn't feel as nice as the 5170, but the product is so superior in it's price range it's not even funny. 30ppm, fake PS3, PCL, Web Management, an admin utility with pretty cool features, updateable firmware, 10/100 ethernet, optional trays, adjustable paper path, good tech support, 32MB exp to 512 I think. It costs me a whopping $230 shipped. And Brother still provides a Mac OS 9 driver!

If you need multifunction, their unit based on the 5250 is also nice (though I wouldn't bother with scanning, which IME is slow).

BTW, make sure you are not buying toner/drums from Staples. I can get, and you can probably, too, Brother's 7000 page extended life toner (5% coverage) for $60, and the Drums for $102 (about 25,000 pages at 5% coverage). I think there is no better option for inexpensive B&W printing. Only when you get up to color products do the Xerox/Tektronix products get my dollar. (Have had nightmares with modern HP printers [since 1999]). Good Luck!

Vidar

Pick up an older laser

[mattkime]

I'm really not sure what your graphics requirements are on a laser printer as its their weak point. However, there are older laser printers that do a wonderful job and cost nearly nothing - to buy and operate. The HP 5 line is particularly known for being a solid and reliable piece of equipment. Further, they're easy to maintain and buy parts for. Apple's LaserWriter line is based on 3rd party engines that are frequently very reliable and easy to service. Find one locally so you don't have to pay ridiculous shipping fees. Many people get rid of these older machines "upgrading" to a newer, more expensive and less reliable model.

Best Buy/CompUSA not hacking it?

[rnelsonee]

I just picked up a Samsunb ML-2010 for $60 at Best Buy. It's mono (like you, I also have a color inkjet I can use if I need color), but c'mon, $60! And no rebate forms to fill out - the price is $60 at the register. It's light on features, but it does have a toner saver option, so an $80 toner cartridge gets you 5,000 pages. The toner that comes with it is rated for 1,000 pages with the 40% "Toner Saver" option turned off.

Print Tracking

[Mendy]

One which wasn't on http://www.eff.org/Privacy/printers/list.php would be my choice...