I am in charge of finding a printer for my office. We print about 3000-4000 pages per month, only in black and white.

Here are the more detailed criteria:

~4000 pages per month printing
monochrome
must cost <$550
low cost per page
printer only (not multifunction)
does not need to be networkable
duplex would be nice, but not essential
long lasting, reliable

I like the Lexmark E360dn, but haven't been able to find many reviews on it as its a new printer. Thanks for the help.

I buy HP lasers for my home office since they outlast other brands--and I do a lot of printing. The current one duplexes (2200d). It's at least seven years old and still going strong. I don't know what HP makes today though since I haven't needed to shop for a printer in years.

Lexmark has traditionally been the most crack-dealer-like of all printer manufacturers. That is, units sold cheap, but your first new ink cartridge will cost you more than the printer. This was also true (years ago) in the laser printer biz, but maybe they've reformed. Lexmark (and HP, and probably others) do some fun stuff inside the cartridges. Like, when the supply drops below a certain threshold, the cartridge refuses to work, even if refilled.

Personally, I love my networked, duplexing, dual-tray Brother HL-5250DN. Does all the stuff you wrote about, and at the time I bought it (years ago) it had among the lowest cost per page toner cartridge too. I use the second tray for mailing labels.

I have a small office and have purchased 6 Brother HL-5240. These can be anywhere from $125 or so (when on sale at Staples) to $200. They just keep on working with no problems. It is imporant, if purchasing more than one, to keep them all alike, to avoid having to buy/keep on hand multiple toner cartriges.
Another thing I like about the 5240 is the availability of generic/third party cartriges. There are plenty out there an I have never had a propblem with any of them on the 5240.

I find the cartridges can often be found new and cheaper on eBay for whatever print you will choose.

Our experiences with Brother were... bad... for lack of adjectives that wouldn't violate the Flyertalk TOS. Brother seperates the toner from the drum so you don't have to replace the transfer drum with every cartridge. But... their drum is as expensive as the whole HP cartridge, and our Brother printers always complained they wanted a new drum after every 1.5 cartridges. ARGH

At home I'm still using my LaserJet 5P after 13 years with nothing but new toner cartridges. At work, since we gave up the brothers for a LaserJet 1200 and two color LaserJet 2605dn printers we haven't had any problems. Years ago Lexmark lasers used to be fine, but the shoddy quality on some of their inkjet units of late has scared me away from the brand. And don't even ask about our Xerox multifunction device experiences. We have had many good Canon office appliances, however ^

You'll be able to buy a bullet-proof HP LaserJet 5P mono laser for around $95 delivered. These things just work and work and work...you get the idea.

(Edited to add - just look up to the previous post for another endorsement of a HP 5P!)

Thanks to all for the info. Discussing with my colleagues (and finding a great deal on HP) we decided to go with the LaserJet P2055x. We are actually replacing a horrible Dell laser, which had replaced an excellent Laserjet 5p.

I'm in need of help finding a printer too. Man is this frustrating!

I'm looking for an all-in-one printer for a small office.

My requirements:

- Print/Scan/Fax
- Laser
- Fax to Computer ability. (Faxes saved on attached computer instead of printed)
- Network capability (wireless prefered)
- Shorter than 24" in height, some have the flatbed scanner that opens increasing total height. It needs to fit under a cabinet.
- Auto sheet feeder

I would like to pay <$600. Duplexing would be nice.