Travel Technology - Need a good reasonably-priced laser printer

Title says it all, or most of it anyway :). I am looking for a good basic compact laser printer for home use, one that plays well with a wireless print server (I will probably use Linksys' version). This does not need to be a multifunction printer--I already have one of those that I will keep for the fax/copy capability, and MFPs tend not to work well with wireless print servers.

I've had several HP printers, but lately I've been unhappy with the amount of, er, crap that gets installed on my PC when I install HP's drivers--so HP may be out, unless someone can convince me otherwise. Aside from that, I'm open to any number of suggestions.

Not sure what you mean by HP crap/drivers as I use Mac OS but I've had excellent experiences with:

HP LaserJet 1200 - decent footprint
Samsung MP 1250 - small footprint
Brother (forgot model #)

All cost less than $250 when purchased new years back....not sure what newer models are out there. Probably check on cnet.com will give you more insight.

I'm a huge HP fan and have never noticed a lot of extra stuff added to my computer. HP printers have lasted far longer than any other brand I've owned in the past. Currently have a 2200d, which duplexes.

I recently bought a Brother HL-5250DN from buy.com for about $180 (looks like the price is a bit higher right now, but try staples). So far I'm exceptionally pleased. Now, I print a lot of research papers, so having duplex (double-sided) printing was a must. If that's not important to you, then there may be other options. (I will say, the paper savings and--more important--space savings of 2x printing is great).

The online reviews seems pretty positive, even from people who had run a large number of jobs. I can't speak to longevity, since I've only had it for 2 weeks, but so far I've had absolutely no trouble. The print speed is good and it's reasonably quiet. The DN model can be networked, though I haven't tested it yet.

Finally, with whatever printer you get you might consider plugging it in without installing the package drivers/software. My printer had copious warnings about installing the software first, but it works perfectly fine using WinXPs native drivers.

I use a cost next to nothing ex-corporate HP LJ5. The other printer is a very cheap Minolta MagicColor 2430DL. Both of these have ethernet interface so I don't bother with printer servers.

I'm not sure about HP laserjet, but the HP inkjets / all-in-ones are awful regarding their software. The HP desktop manager is a huge, sorry piece of bloated useless software. It slows down PCs to do simple things like printing / scanning.

I like Brother, Canon, and Epson printers much better in this regard.

Make sure to look at the Cost Per Page... i.e. the cost of a toner cartridge divided by how many pages (of text) one cartridge will print. The price of ownership is as important, if not more important, than the price of the printer itself. Also, if you buy a printer that uses the same cartridges as the ones in your office, the cost of toner cartridges goes down ALOT ;)

i have the ricoh Aficio bp 20, nothin fancy but reasonably priced (185.00) and pretty good toner yield. I agree that office toner is a good buy.

Make sure to look at the Cost Per Page... i.e. the cost of a toner cartridge divided by how many pages (of text) one cartridge will print. The price of ownership is as important, if not more important, than the price of the printer itself. Also, if you buy a printer that uses the same cartridges as the ones in your office, the cost of toner cartridges goes down ALOT ;)

I'll have to think of a creative way of getting the cartridges out of the building, as there's a security guard at the front desk 24/7:

"What's that oblong shape under your jacket, sir?"

"Um...a tumor. Yes, a tumor. In fact, I really need to get this examined, see you later, bye"

I've had several HP printers, but lately I've been unhappy with the amount of, er, crap that gets installed on my PC when I install HP's drivers--so HP may be out, unless someone can convince me otherwise. Aside from that, I'm open to any number of suggestions.

Buy a HP, and you should be able to do a minimal software install - in many cases Windoze will recognise the printer and if not, you should only need to load the drivers, not the full suite.

Here (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16828112055) ya go. Samsung 2510 for $50 after $40 rebate (& $14 shipping). I've had the ML-2010 for about 2 years, works great, has both USB & parallel connection. Replacement cartridges cost more than the printer, but 3rd party refilled toners are considerably cheaper. My initial cartridge printed 3000 pages, easily, so it lasted me a long time.

Buy a HP, and you should be able to do a minimal software install - in many cases Windoze will recognise the printer and if not, you should only need to load the drivers, not the full suite.

...and for some printers you can download the driver without all of the HP garbage from their website.

Samsung 2510 for $50 after $40 rebate (& $14 shipping). I've had the ML-2010 for about 2 years, works great, has both USB & parallel connection. Replacement cartridges cost more than the printer, but 3rd party refilled toners are considerably cheaper. My initial cartridge printed 3000 pages, easily, so it lasted me a long time.
Ditto. Haven't bought a cartridge in quite some time. New printers are cheaper. Have had the ML-2010. Just replaced the cartridge with a Brother something or other. Ditto ink jets. Gone through three this year.

An environmental disaster :mad:, but it'd be really nice if the manufacturers got real with cartridge prices.

Here (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16828112055) ya go. Samsung 2510 for $50 after $40 rebate (& $14 shipping).

I've had that one for a month and pretty happy with it so far. I bought it at Staples for $119, and it came with a $70 rebate which I completed on line. The check has already arrived. It was on sale again at Thanksgiving.

I use a cost next to nothing ex-corporate HP LJ5. The other printer is a very cheap Minolta MagicColor 2430DL. Both of these have ethernet interface so I don't bother with printer servers.

Best answer IMO. You can get a refurbished Laserjet 5 on Ebay for around $150 + shipping that's anywhere from $10-50 depending on distance from you to the seller. You'll need to buy a toner cartridge but in home use one should last you for the next 3 years or so!

DO NOT get one of the newer ones. 4050, 4100, 4200, etc, you do not want. They're crap. We spent something like $13k/printer for HP 9000 series printers. Always having problems.

I went on Ebay and bought two of the last 'old' design printers (LJ8150DN). Not quite as fast but dead reliable and approximately $600/printer with shipping. These stated 32,000 pages when we bought 'em three years ago; we had to replace the fusers and get toner cartridges but otherwise they've been faultless and now have approximately 665,000 pages lifetime and are still going very strong. Older HP stuff is *awesome*. The oldest printer in continuous use I know of is at an office in DC. It's a Laserjet III that was installed when I was in college in 1991. Still cranking.

I too am a HP fan. One of my concerns is the availability of supplies after the fact. I've been burned by buying Brother/Panasonic/etc. fax machines for which I had to mail order ink cartridges a year after purchase. My LJ4 is over 10 years old & I can still wander into Staples & pick up a toner at a reasonable price.

Some of the smaller Samsung printers are often available for $50 or so. The last one I had worked well for a couple of years of light use. And you can refill the toner carts for $7-10.

Here's an example of such a deal. (http://www.fatwallet.com/forums/messageview.php?catid=18&threadid=784340&highlight_key=y&keyword1=printer)

I swear by my HP Laserjet, but it's such a workhorse it's at least 5 years old...great machine, no software bloat (unlike our HP Inkjet all-in-one, which I hate). Tech support has also been terrific, by web or phone.

Don't know the reliability of the newer machines, but if they have managed to keep up their former standards, stick with HP.

I'm not sure about HP laserjet, but the HP inkjets / all-in-ones are awful regarding their software. The HP desktop manager is a huge, sorry piece of bloated useless software. It slows down PCs to do simple things like printing / scanning.

I like Brother, Canon, and Epson printers much better in this regard.

My experience is the old HP laserjets are wonderful, and that the HP ink jets are cr@p

It's not the ink technology. My inkjet just stopped grabbing the paper and sliding it through the drum, despite dabbing the rollers with alcohol as indicated in some obscure HP tip

I too will vote for the Samsung ML series laser printers. Both of mine works fine and I know of 3 other people with different ML models and the love them too. Great pricing and the original cartridge toner will print 3000+ pages rather than 1000 pages for some other printers.

MisterNice

The OP said he wants to use a print server. Many of the lower cost laser printers use something like a GD driver. The computer not the printer does a lot of the work, the printer has a slow processor and not much memory. Those type of printers don't network very well, if at all.

Brother has a number of laser printers that are designed to network. Both Staples and Office Depot recently offered the Brother HL 2070N for sale for around $80.

The OP said he wants to use a print server. Many of the lower cost laser printers use something like a GD driver. The computer not the printer does a lot of the work, the printer has a slow processor and not much memory. Those type of printers don't network very well, if at all.

Brother has a number of laser printers that are designed to network. Both Staples and Office Depot recently offered the Brother HL 2070N for sale for around $80.

Thanks, that's what I'm looking for. I've had no trouble at all setting up a wireless network in my house and in my "road" apartment, but my wife and I, with a multiplicity of laptops between us, still have to plug into a printer to print. The one thing preventing us from a hassle-free (except for her asking me to get up and get the document off the printer ;) ) experience is the lack of a good wireless print server that will let us work completely wire-free and not require a PC be plugged in and running all the time. I tried using one of Linksys' print servers with our MFP and the results were less than great, so I want something that is designed for the situation.

Do you want the printer to have wireless enabled internally, or be able to USB to a wireless print server?

I have deployed many of the simple HP 1012/1020 lasetjets. Not color, but fast and cheap. I don't think I have replaced the toner catridge in three years of reasonable duty, although I print to draft usually.

It works with my print server on the network fine.

Do you want the printer to have wireless enabled internally, or be able to USB to a wireless print server?


Good question--are the internally-enabled printers usually fairly reliable, or am I better off having the server separated from the printer?

I'm fine with a B&W printer--aside from this one, I have (let me think) four extra color printers to choose from, including a couple of multi-function printers I can use as a fax machine, so I will probably keep one and sell/donate the others (I'm moving soon and have no need and no place for all of them.).

The internally enabled printers have a wired network port. Can you put the printer in the same room as your wireless router? Almost all wireless routers have 4-5 wired ports. Run a cat 5 cable from your printer to your router and any computer in the network can use the printer. Otherwise you'll either use your print server or could use a wireless game adapter (or an extra router configured the same.)

The point is a network laser printer, even if you still use your print server, won't have the windows-pc-driver issues that some of the other cheap printers have.

edited to add it's possible some of the more expensive printer have wireless networking built in but AFAIK the lowered priced printers don't.





Good question--are the internally-enabled printers usually fairly reliable, or am I better off having the server separated from the printer?

I'm fine with a B&W printer--aside from this one, I have (let me think) four extra color printers to choose from, including a couple of multi-function printers I can use as a fax machine, so I will probably keep one and sell/donate the others (I'm moving soon and have no need and no place for all of them.).

Not sure what you mean by HP crap/drivers as I use Mac OS but I've had excellent experiences with:

HP LaserJet 1200 - decent footprint
Samsung MP 1250 - small footprint
Brother (forgot model #)

All cost less than $250 when purchased new years back....not sure what newer models are out there. Probably check on cnet.com will give you more insight.

http://www.macnn.com/articles/07/12/07/samsung.ml.2851.printer/

About $340

As far as the extra "stuff" the HP drivers include, if you install them without the setup program you won't get any of it. The trick is when Windows prompts you for the driver hit the second option to select a path and browse to where you extracted the download. You want to point it to a folder with a .inf file - often the folder is called Win2k_XP or something along that line.

As far as the extra "stuff" the HP drivers include, if you install them without the setup program you won't get any of it. The trick is when Windows prompts you for the driver hit the second option to select a path and browse to where you extracted the download. You want to point it to a folder with a .inf file - often the folder is called Win2k_XP or something along that line.

Worst case scenario for actual (B&W) Laserjets is that you can almost always use one of the older provided-with-Windows drivers for the basic functionality. Pretty much everything is backwards compatible with the Laserjet 4

Other than HP, I've had the best luck with Lexmark. I've also had good luck with Xerox as well, but just on high-end ones... no experience with their cheaper SOHO stuff. Aside from the HP 1000-series which looks pretty good, take a look at the current Lexmark E series - I've had an E310 since 2000 and it still runs well -

Also check out the XEROX Phaser series 3124 which does duplexing and is pretty fast, for about the same price as the cheapest HPs and the Lexmark

I've seen some pretty junky machines from Brother and Samsung, and have had somewhat more mixed experience with Okidata and Panasonic.

I recently bought a Brother HL-5250DN .
I second this vote. I did the reasearch recently and Brother is the one I will be going with.

Best answer IMO. You can get a refurbished Laserjet 5 on Ebay for around $150 + shipping that's anywhere from $10-50 depending on distance from you to the selle..
We bought a pre-owned LJ5 for our lab. It feeds paper reliably and is mechanically very sturdy. We made the huge mistake that we shut it down during semester breaks and killed it very, very efficiently. Never got rid of the toner streaks after two six weeks pauses. And displacing of the thingie wasn't cheap either. If you want a printer that can be hibernated for a reasonably long time, do not go for the 5 series or for the smaller 1010, 1020, 1200 they are are not sealed sufficiently to snooze for long.

And while I love HP hardware - I find the fiddly to use on Linux platforms, especially multiuser print jobs which are partly erroneous are difficult to separate.

Update: Got a Brother HL-5280DW at Costco last week. After a little fiddling (Brother's documentation is a bit lacking on topics such as setting up TCP/IP ports, not something I spend a lot of time doing), it's working well thus far. Only problem is my wife yelling to me to bring her things off the printer (it's on my desk and she's working with her laptop on the bed...have to remedy that).

QUOTE=lewisc ] ".. Staples and Office Depot recently offered the Brother HL 2070N for sale for around $80."

Ditto that.
Nice machine -- accepts ethernet/USB/parallel :eek: hookups, and toner replacement is darn cheap ^ ~$50.
(HP's asking $177 for a C9704 drum sealed the deal!)

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