Laser Printers...

[TeePee]

I have an epson printer, it produces excellent quality colour prints for a printer which cost less than £50. But I'd never buy another. The chipped cartridges just aren't worth it. If I bought a printer now it would have to be an HP.

[malfunction]

I've just bought a Samsung ML-1210 and am very happy with it - should cost around £80-90 and replacement toner catridges should be £40 to £45. It didn't come with a USB or parallel cable which is a bit tight IMO (didn't matter as I had both). The printer is fast, quiet and produces great text and pretty good images. Having said that I haven't had it long and I'm used to fairly bargain basement inkjets so I'm probably easily impressed - I also remember how much laser printers used to cost so the £84-ish I paid for it impressed me too!

I'm now running the laser printer and a cheap injket side by side so that I've still got colour prints if I need them - the inkjet I have is good quality for a low end printer too - HP Deskjet 3320 - the downside is that the ink cartridges have about half the ink in them that other HPs do so I'm not expecting them to last very long!

[Tumble]

Hex - Epsons are indeed the spawn of Satan - Ever tried to find a squeak in one? damned things. An HP laser printer - provided it's operated nicely will last for yonks - the Brothers are ok, but the toner supply rollers in the cartridges tend to perish after a bit. Not had much experience with the little Samsungs, but, IIRC, they are basically the same printer that's in the Ricoh 1120 fax - and those things are fair bulletproof.

The main thing to watch out for using a laser printer is the paper. you can't put just any old crap through them - if the paper's damp it will come out looking like a tube, or just not come out in extreme cases, and it doesn't take much for it to get damp - keep the paper in it's original packet, in a cupboard. Don't use heavy quality paper - espesh in the little ones cos if they do hack it, they'll wear the feed out in no time at all - 3 months down the line it's multi-feeding and jamming like no-ones business - 80 gsm is best usually. Textured paper is also a no-no cos it won't fuse the toner into the "valleys" in the paper.

HP's are relatively easy to take apart and fix - Brothers are nightmares - you need 4 flatblade screwdrivers and 2 octopii...... Epsons - don't even go there - they're about 4 years behind in laser printer tech. The Samsung you'll probably never have to attack with a screwdriver - just keep it level and you'll be fine. HP and Samsung have the distinct advantage of being rather light on toner usage, and have the drum and toner all in one cartridge - Epson and Brother have separates.... awful things...



So to sum up - HP or Samsung.

Hope that helps some