Looking for printer recommendations

[1Wolf]

Its been over a decade since I purchased a laser printer and I really don't know much about laser printers so I wanted to ask for some recommendations. There is a recent similar thread on this however my requirements are very different from that member's so I wanted to start a new thread.

My requirements are pretty simple as I'm not even aware of the types of things to look for in a laser printer these days.

• Laser Printer (No inkjets).
• Must be Color.
• Must be capable of either wireless, attaching to a router via ethernet, and/or maybe attaching via a NAS. I have too many PC's and laptops and such around the house that will need to share the printer to have to rely on attachment to just one machine.
• My machines are "gaming" machines so I prefer to keep them as clean from "bloatware" as possible. I don't want to have to install a bunch of stuff that loads at startup, a bunch of new services running, or other bloatware junk. I prefer it to be as slim and minimal as possible.
• It would be a "nice to have" if it would also do well at printing photos. Its not a "must have" but my wife would probably like to be able to use it to print photos suitable for framing. However I wouldn't trade a bunch of bloatware or any of the above requirements for that.

My "go to" used to be an HP laser printer (My current is an HP CP1215) but just some preliminary searches here on [H] tell me that HP may not be my "go to" any longer as it sounds like they require tons of bloatware these days which is exactly what I don't want. That CP1215 I have has given me alot of problems over the years as well. Its been pretty good on conserving laser cartridges but its had all kinds of alignment problems.

 

[Valnar]

Just like 10 years ago, the best are probably HP and Brother. Check out both websites and pick your poison.

I have an older HP CP2025 (DN model with duplex) which is more industrial strength than the cheaper ones they build today, so I can recommend that if you want to hit fleabay.

 

[defaultluser]

I like Brother, as the driver downloads aren't 500 megs. hardware is solid, as well (every printer I have owned has outlasted my needs [5+ years], or I have broken by dropping during moves)

Brother tends to have better Apple drivers, if that matter to you., and there is typically a $50-100 premium to buy the equivalent HP.

 

[DanNeely]

I bought a Brother MFC-L3710CW a few months ago when my old printer died and all the affordable well reviewed inkjets were out of stock. I've been happy with it so far; other than discovering marginally more expensive 3750 can do duplex printing. Had I realized that at the time I probably would've bought it instead. Duplex scanning, which I'd find more useful than printing, would need the much more expensive 3770. For a personal printer that'd completely blow my budget.

With the possible exception of photo printing - I haven't tried, but lasers tend to be meh at that - I think it should meet all of your requirements.

 

[defaultluser]

I bought a Brother MFC-L3710CW a few months ago when my old printer died and all the affordable well reviewed inkjets were out of stock. I've been happy with it so far; other than discovering marginally more expensive 3750 can do duplex printing. Had I realized that at the time I probably would've bought it instead. Duplex scanning, which I'd find more useful than printing, would need the much more expensive 3770. For a personal printer that'd completely blow my budget.

With the possible exception of photo printing - I haven't tried, but lasers tend to be meh at that - I think it should meet all of your requirements.

Well, actually, they aren't that bad; you just need different photo paper than inkjets

https://www.syracuse.com/news/2015/...ces_photos_indistinguishable_from_inkjet.html

This is the winner of their own personal test for handouts:

https://www.staples.com/HP-Brochure...1-Glossy-White-100-pack-Q6608A/product_604581

And this is what they hung on a wall under glass:

https://www.amazon.com/Epson-Enhanced-Matte-sheets-S041343/dp/B005TKYVLK

 

[dcun201]

I would recommend Brothers laser printer. Currently using my Brother MFC 2740 for over 5years plus with no issues.

 

[Zepher]

I bought a Brother MFC-L3710CW a few months ago when my old printer died and all the affordable well reviewed inkjets were out of stock. I've been happy with it so far; other than discovering marginally more expensive 3750 can do duplex printing. Had I realized that at the time I probably would've bought it instead. Duplex scanning, which I'd find more useful than printing, would need the much more expensive 3770. For a personal printer that'd completely blow my budget.

With the possible exception of photo printing - I haven't tried, but lasers tend to be meh at that - I think it should meet all of your requirements.

I had an HP 4500DN that we bought in August of 1999 for doing photo printing onsite at Golf Tournaments and also used it for printing other sports photos.
It actually did a pretty decent job when using HP's Softgloss color laser paper.
Inkjet does print much much better, but at the time they weren't fast enough for our purposes. I needed to print out 150-200 8x10 photos in a couple of hours at the golf tournaments and then hand out the photos before the event ended.

A few years later we bought a Dell color laser that was about twice as fast and half the size and weight, but didn't print as good as the HP and couldn't use the softgloss paper, toner wouldn't fuse to it.
but the prints were still acceptable. Here is my brother putting the prints into sleeves at one of the events.

 

[dthree]

+1 for Brother. Have a brother laser printer and it's been rock solid for many years. No issues. Just replace toner cartridge every once in a while.