Personal laser printer for $200 or less?

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GJSNeptune

[H]F Junkie
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Mar 31, 2004
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I read that laser printers are cheaper to maintain/operate than inkjets, so I'm intrigued. My girlfriend has an old Dell all-in-one that she got with her old laptop years ago, but we can't get it to work on her new laptop with Vista, and Dell was of little help. We've had to plug it into my computer (with XP), but now it doesn't seem to be working at all.

I'm using a D-Link DIR-655, and I updated the firmware so it supports SharePort. It'll be my girlfriend's Vista laptop and my XP desktop on the network, but I'll need a printer with a USB port to connect it to my router.

I'm looking for speed, not only in ppm but also in printing the first page. An all-in-one would be nice, but we rarely need to scan anything, and we don't have a landline for faxing (not that we've ever had the need to fax).

This is Newegg's best-rated non-wireless laser printer, and it supports Duplex in case we ever want to use it. For $160 shipped it seems like a good deal:

Brother HL Series HL-5250DN Workgroup Up to 30 ppm Monochrome Laser Printer - $160 shipped
 
I have a brother HL1440 that I've been using for years, great printer
 
Also, for anyone who has used/is using a Brother laser printer, do you feel the toner cartridges last as long as advertised?

And have you used generic replacement cartridges with success?
 
i happen to like the Dell units, but may be out of the price range.
 
GJSNeptune said:
Also, for anyone who has used/is using a Brother laser printer, do you feel the toner cartridges last as long as advertised?

And have you used generic replacement cartridges with success?
Click to expand...

They dont last long, but there is a trick to that, at least there was on mine.

They start reporting out of toner when there is still PLENTY of toner left in them.

Heres what you do, take the toner cart out and look at the ends, theres a "window" on each end that the sensor shines its beam into. When the toner is covering that window the beam doesnt go all the way thru and all is well. Once the toner gets below that window the beam goes all the way thru and sets off the "replace toner" alarm. Grab some tape, a piece of paper...whatever and cover that window. That stops the alarm and got me another few months worth of printing out of mine.
 
I own two of the Brother HL2040 laser printers. Very nice for printing text. (20ppm) I've owned mine for 2 years, and am still on the first cartridge. (~700 pages) Much faster than my parents inkjet. I bought the second one for them, to supplement the inkjet, for non color printing.

Excellent print quality. No corners cut on print quality, and a solid build as well.

They can be found for around the 100 dollar mark.

Here is a model from that same line, just a little faster (23 ppm)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16828113290

Hope that helps

-ST-
 
Yeah, I saw that. I suppose 23ppm would be okay, but the question is whether it actually does 23ppm. I'm not going to jump just yet. Gonna wait until after the holiday season, not just to see if prices drop again/further, but because I might get Amazon and/or Newegg money. :D
 
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