Hello guys. I'm looking to buy a new laser printer. Will be mainly used for text and the odd picture, so probably want a colour one. Any recommendations, I've been looking on  the web all morning, theres tons of different models out there, and don't know how good they are. If anyone can give me any advice from their own experience it would be appreciated.

Thanks in advance

I would have a good think about the colour requirement, it puts the price of the printer ans consumables up considerably.

You might well be better with a mono laser and a photo inkjet.

best buys depend on how much you use it.  check what service items are needed.  Lasers dont just need toner, some need new drums, etc at quite low volumes.

Was looking at laser printers myself recently, the thing you need to watch out for is the price for the consumables, even more so for a colour, toner & drums.

I ended up buying an all-in-one, consumables much cheaper, print quality could be arguably better than a laser.

You could use a mono laser and an inket for you're colour parts but this involves taking up more space (which is gold these days), and also messing about with you're documents.

[quote author=Lurch  link=1128338770/0#5 date=1128426388]

Well, a very weak argument maybe. [/quote]
lol, well that would depend on what laser you had lurch  


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Not quite what I meant, say you have mixed text/colour graphics, then you may have two documents to split them up and print black first, then put the page in the colour to print that part, if you get my drift, in any case it's easier to have a colour laser/inkjet if you have documents with both same page.

[quote author=LSpark  link=1128338770/0#6 date=1128444204]
Not quite what I meant, say you have mixed text/colour graphics, then you may have two documents to split them up and print black first, then put the page in the colour to print that part, if you get my drift, in any case it's easier to have a colour laser/inkjet if you have documents with both same page. [/quote]

Ah, I see what you mean. I can't be bothered with all that, but to do it properly then it could be a pain. Depends on costings really and the amount of use you are going to give it. I hardly print any colour so it's not really an issue.

My laser printer is an old HP LaserJet 4+ with JetDirect card. It came from a clients office, I've had it for 2-3 years and I haven't put any toner in it yet. For me, it is astounding economy (£0, for those at the back).

I'm surpried that Lec found it uneconomical in only 2 years, it must have been a right bag of crap. Wasn't that one you bought on eBay for a tenner was it.

Hey, I've just done the PC Pro search for you, here are their favourites:

Colour office laser: Kyocera Mita FS-C5020N
Workhouse office laser: HP LaserJet 4350dtn

[quote author=blackcountry  link=1128338770/0#11 date=1128467367]Lurch- so you don't reckon these multifunction machines are upto much. Had a suspicion that this may be the case, if the manufaturers are gonna squeeze 3 different things into 1, i suppose that performance is comprimised. [/quote]

There is a bit of that but they're 'OK'..... just. I always try and keep things seperate otherwise you end up with a minor fault losing you several machines and costing you more to repair\replace. They're OK for what they're designed for, space saving, but if you have the space then don't bother with one. Most people don't need a multifunction anyway, they do print, copy, scan and some do fax. My scanner and any printer will do colour or mono copies, my fax number sends all the ones I recieve to email and I haven't sent a fax for years.

If you have the space I would get a decent mono laser for general printing and a cheap colour inkjet for the odd bit of colour printing you need. Just bin it if it goes tits up in 12 Months and buy anither for the same price as a set of cartridges.

[quote author=blackcountry  link=1128338770/0#11 date=1128467367]if the manufaturers are gonna squeeze 3 different things into 1, i suppose that performance is comprimised. [/quote]
Don't count on it, get a proper all-in-one, not a cheap one, and you won't look back..

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Let us know which one you end up going for, lexmark have some pretty good value ones out, can't comment on their performance tho.

[quote author=Lurch  link=1128338770/0#12 date=1128470737]
If you have the space I would get a decent mono laser for general printing and a cheap colour inkjet for the odd bit of colour printing you need. Just bin it if it goes tits up in 12 Months and buy anither for the same price as a set of cartridges. [/quote]
Yea can't fault that, some one reccomended the same when I was changing mine, but my scanner wasnt up to much so I made a U-Turn and haven't looked back.

[quote author=MarkS  link=1128338770/0#13 date=1128496709]Its on usb because I couldnt get the supplied software working reliably over a print server. [/quote]
Had the same problem before I changed my printer, I hear it's common that they cause trouble.

Sorry to hear about that, sounds like you have the symptoms for information overload disorder  

Using USB was so much more reliable for my printer and easier than messing about with print server software IPs etc, although I haven't tried the new printer here on the network (it's got built in wired & wireless networking), maybe one day.