Printer suggestions

[anitram]

I have a reasonably good Canon colour bubblejet (one of those that scans and copies too), but I need a simple, black&white laser printer for nicer documents like resumes, cover letters, etc. I just want something that will look more crisp when printed than the bubblejet does.

Any suggestions? I'm not looking to spend more than $150-$175, tops.

 

[Liesje]

This one's rated quite well:
http://www.shopping.hp.com/product/printers/laserjets/1/storefronts/Q5911A%23ABA

It's hard to find them for less than $200, but Dell has one for only $90. I would LOVE one that I can network, but alas I don't print enough to justify that expense.

 

[anitram]

Awesome! I can get that one for $139.99 if I pay cash at the Chinese computer shop at the strip mall....Staples wants $199.99 for it. Haha! Score!

 

[Liesje]

Awesome! I can get that one for $139.99 if I pay cash at the Chinese computer shop at the strip mall....Staples wants $199.99 for it. Haha! Score!

Dang! I wish we had Chinese computer shops!

 

[BonoIsMyMuse]

No matter where you're buying it, I'd suggest checking to see if Staples sells a generic brand of the ink cartridges you'll need. I've saved so much by switching over to Staples cartridges, and there's no difference between them and the name-brand ones.

I had a Lexmark printer that died after barely more than a year, so I don't recommend Lexmarks.

I have a Canon bubblejet, too, and I really like it, though from what I've seen Canon is only making fancy photo printers now, so I guess I'll have to find a new brand next time I need a printer.

 

[anitram]

I never buy cartridges anymore - I take the old one to the little print shop on campus and they refill it for me for a tiny fraction of the cost. Works like a charm and you're recycling the cartridge too.

 

[Lila64]

I bought an HP 1200 years ago, and am happy with it. I think I spent a bit more than you want to, but I haven't looked into pricing for printers lately.

Staples, Office Max, Office Depot are always emailing and sending me coupons. If you go that route, check for those as well. And that one site Liesje linked said the printer cable was sold separately I believe.

 

[Liesje]

I never buy cartridges anymore - I take the old one to the little print shop on campus and they refill it for me for a tiny fraction of the cost. Works like a charm and you're recycling the cartridge too.

Yup, we do this on a large scale. Laser printers do not use ink, they use a giant toner cartridge. We get ours refurbished instead of new (basically they send us hundreds of cartridges that they've simple cleaned and refilled with power). If there's places that do this on a small scale, it's the way to go. However with a laser printer/toner cartridge, you won't need new ones very often.

 

[anitram]

I'm going to ask the Prof I'm working for whether I could buy it through him because they get refurbished ones and have HP printers in the faculty. That could save me, although I'm going to get really minimal use out of this printer, since I print my CANS and other things in colour.

The store also has an HP 1018, and it seems to me that the only difference between that and the HP1020 is that it prints slower (I don't care) and they're selling it for $98. Hm....

 

[Lila64]

What about the resolution / dpi (dots per inch)? The higher the number, the finer/sharper the image. For just typed documents, 300-600 dpi is just fine. If you print images and such, you might want a higher dpi

 

[anitram]

It's 600x600. I'm only going to use this to print text. I have a good Canon colour printer I use for images (and photos), so this one is only for things like resumes and cover letters.

 

[Lila64]

600x600 should be great for that.

 

[A_Wanderer]

I have a reasonably good Canon colour bubblejet (one of those that scans and copies too), but I need a simple, black&white laser printer for nicer documents like resumes, cover letters, etc. I just want something that will look more crisp when printed than the bubblejet does.

Any suggestions? I'm not looking to spend more than $150-$175, tops.

I bought the Samsung ML-2010, it is cheap (100 AUD with starter toner) and new toner cartridges cost about $70. Toner saving mode really helps for printing out more than a few papers and it's easy to maintain.


On a purely anecdotal line of argument I have used it since the start of last year, no jams (yet) and have done around 2000 pages on it, would recomend it.