Cheap colour laser

[nvening]

I dont thnk the workload would be enough to see a benefit.

The main reson i want a laser is:

Cheaper prints (i have an epson which charges loads for ink)

Better built?

Easy to network

and i have areoung £200 to spend.

The dell, according to computer shopper, toner efficiency, price, its looks good lol, and dell are normally good quality.

One other thing though is that i will also be buying a scanner soon, printer scanners havent become good have they? cause last time i cheaked that were crap. The scanner would need to have film scanning though.

[aidanjt]

I would look at Samsungs line of printers, reasonably priced, and unlike other companies they don't think Windows is the only operating system on earth.

[dave87]

nvening, We got the Photosmart 2710 all in one, which includes both wired and wireless networking. Dunno if it has the capability to scan negatives tho, but knowing HP theres an add on to allow it to do that. The great thing about the 2710 is you can print and scan over the network, and also has a screen to act as a stand alone photoprinter. May be a bit above your printer only budget, but once you add the price of a decent scanner it should be within it.

Hope this helps

Dave

[BUFF]

KM are currently doing a free 2nd year warranty promo http://www.konicaminoltaprinters.co.uk/ & supposedly quite cheap to run.
That 1 on Aria whilst an older model does have a network interface as standard afaik - the current base model with ethernet Magicolor 2430DL is ~£250.

[nvening]

That all in one looks nice but is the ink going to cost loads?

I saw the dell in a shop and its huge lol, but i suppose its ok and at least im getting my moneys worth lmao.

The samsungs look ok, but i really know no difference between them and the dell.

Unless there is a good reson not to i i think ill get the dell cause its got low running costs, on bujet, dell will repair it (with a cost, but they will right?), easy to get extra toner, looks good (black) and its good quality right?

[5aboy]

If you are looking for good printers, id suggest signing up to MISCO.CO.UK newsletter - a couple of weeks ago, they were doing the lexmark c552n (full network colour printer, 20ppm colour+black, no-duplex though) for around £230 - that was a bargain - unfortunately, ive only had my current kyocera 1020d (duplex!!) for a year - got it from them for around £100! (that WAS a bargain!)

or, check out their 'liquidation' stock - all brand new items, full warranties etc, just they brought a few too many when ordering! absolutely brilliant!

[nvening]

no way am i going to get a lexmark, but illl have a look

[5aboy]

lol! thats what i initially said, but it seems quite a solid unit!

hope ive sold you on the misco thing - they sometimes have the craziest offers (my current printer costs roughly £200-250, i got for £100 shipped - amazing!)

[dave87]

The consumables aint that bad actually, compaired with some photoprinters I've used. They also last quite a length of time aswell, were only just finishing our second cartridges and weve had it at least 6 months (reasonably heavy domestic usage).


Dave

[dave87]

Forum Weirdness - Double Post

[cotswoldcs]

As far as I know the Dell you are looking at is a rebadged Epson C1100. Both the Dell and the Epson C1100 are excellent colour lasers and well worth looking at. I would also consider the OXI C3200, which technically isn't laser but an LED printer. OKI are cheaper to run than Epson in my opinion. HP are expensive to run and to be avoided IMHO, although their Mono printers are generally excellent.

I personally am about to purchase a Xerox Phaser 8500DN but at £579 + VAT this is out of your price range. As Dave mentioned the Xerox is a solid ink printer and is very economical to run.

Whichever colour laser you buy remember that aside from toner you also need to think about other consumables (transfer belts, etc). As mentioned work out the total cost of ownership. Modern inkjets (I'd recommend Canon) are not as expensive to run as people might let you think but colour lasers will be cheaper. However they vary enormously in running costs. It pays to do your research!

Colour lasers don't produce great photos so if this is your requirement then stick with inkjet. The low resolution of Colour Lasers means that they can't compete with inkjets. On plain paper however the colour laser performs well and unlike inkjets the prints won't smudge, fade etc.

Colour lasers are big, smelly beasts as well.

Good luck in choosing. I've been looking for months and have finally made my mind up (please don't go changing my mind anyone!!! )

[dave87]

Yup ^^ basically what he said. The one I had experience of was its predecessor, the 8400. Great printer, but realistically for your usage the HP is probably about the best your going to get. The 2710 I bought has been superceeded, but the 33xx are about the same in price & spec. The advantage they have over ours is the individual colour ink cartridges, so lowers cost of ownership further

Dave

[nvening]

Do i need to put any software on the PCs connected to the printer or do that just connect to it (i will plug the printer into my router). The problem is that the Dell does not support linux and i have an Unbuntu box here that will need to use it.

[oshta]

Konica-Minolta Magicolor 2300DL £188 inc VAT on Aria Super Special

We had these at collage, there great little things, toners quite dear tho.
- Depends how much your planning to print on it.

[edit, didnt spot this had go onto 2pages]


Daniel

[aidanjt]

Do i need to put any software on the PCs connected to the printer or do that just connect to it (i will plug the printer into my router). The problem is that the Dell does not support linux and i have an Unbuntu box here that will need to use it.

Yes, you can configure Samba to distribute the windows drivers from the printer share to keep things easy, and in that case you'll definatly want a Samsung printer, they fully support CUPS and supply 'Linux' drivers for the printer...

[nvening]

Could we translate that into english please? Do you mean i need to have linux drivers? Why can the the dell not be used on linux, it says it needs an Multi-Protocol card, whats that?