req advice: best colour laser printer

I'm in the UK with a budget of about £150 and I'm looking to buy a
colour laser printer but I don't want to end up with a lemon. What I'm
looking for above all is picture quality. I'm only doing A4, not worried
about speed, and I won't be printing huge volumes, the printer is just
for myself. The reason I want decent picture quality it because I'll be
printing promotional material with it.
I've seen some printers on ebay that 'look' good but they might be junk
so I'd appreciate advice about what to avoid and which printers give
nice solid colour.

tg wrote:
I'm in the UK with a budget of about £150 and I'm looking to buy a
colour laser printer but I don't want to end up with a lemon. What I'm
looking for above all is picture quality. I'm only doing A4, not worried
about speed, and I won't be printing huge volumes, the printer is just
for myself. The reason I want decent picture quality it because I'll be
printing promotional material with it.
I've seen some printers on ebay that 'look' good but they might be junk
so I'd appreciate advice about what to avoid and which printers give
nice solid colour.






Check the price of refill cartridges.

Most new printers only come with 1/2 size cartridges.


as an example the HP1600 comes with 1/2 size cartridges and costs say
$200 this will print 1000 sheets. The HP2600 which takes the same
replacement cartridges comes with full cartridges and prints 2000
sheets. Cost say $400.

Replacement cartridges (4)are about $550 so if you add 1/2 set to the
1600 it will cost $200+265 = $465 which is more than the HP2600.


You should check the specifications and do the math for whatever printer
you choose.

On Wed, 08 Apr 2009 10:13:47 +1000, Rob wrote:

tg wrote:
I'm in the UK with a budget of about £150 and I'm looking to buy a
colour laser printer but I don't want to end up with a lemon. What I'm
looking for above all is picture quality. I'm only doing A4, not worried
about speed, and I won't be printing huge volumes, the printer is just
for myself. The reason I want decent picture quality it because I'll be
printing promotional material with it.
I've seen some printers on ebay that 'look' good but they might be junk
so I'd appreciate advice about what to avoid and which printers give
nice solid colour.






Check the price of refill cartridges.

It is obvious that garbage ink costs less and you get less. If that works
for you and you want to risk a clogged print head then do it.


Most new printers only come with 1/2 size cartridges.

Most printers do not come with 1/2 size cartridges. HP does and Epson and
Canon do not so most is not correct.



as an example the HP1600 comes with 1/2 size cartridges and costs say
$200 this will print 1000 sheets. The HP2600 which takes the same
replacement cartridges comes with full cartridges and prints 2000
sheets. Cost say $400.

Replacement cartridges (4)are about $550 so if you add 1/2 set to the
1600 it will cost $200+265 = $465 which is more than the HP2600.


You should check the specifications and do the math for whatever printer
you choose.

On Wed, 08 Apr 2009 01:31:12 GMT, measekite wrote in
:

On Wed, 08 Apr 2009 10:13:47 +1000, Rob wrote:

tg wrote:
I'm in the UK with a budget of about £150 and I'm looking to buy a
colour laser printer but I don't want to end up with a lemon. What I'm
looking for above all is picture quality. I'm only doing A4, not worried
about speed, and I won't be printing huge volumes, the printer is just
for myself. The reason I want decent picture quality it because I'll be
printing promotional material with it.
I've seen some printers on ebay that 'look' good but they might be junk
so I'd appreciate advice about what to avoid and which printers give
nice solid colour.


Check the price of refill cartridges.

It is obvious that garbage ink costs less and you get less. If that works
for you and you want to risk a clogged print head then do it.


Most new printers only come with 1/2 size cartridges.

Most printers do not come with 1/2 size cartridges. HP does and Epson and
Canon do not so most is not correct.


as an example the HP1600 comes with 1/2 size cartridges and costs say
$200 this will print 1000 sheets. The HP2600 which takes the same
replacement cartridges comes with full cartridges and prints 2000
sheets. Cost say $400.

Replacement cartridges (4)are about $550 so if you add 1/2 set to the
1600 it will cost $200+265 = $465 which is more than the HP2600.

You should check the specifications and do the math for whatever printer
you choose.

LASER PRINTERS DON'T USE INK OR HAVE PRINT HEADS, YA DOZY BUGGER!

--
- Nicolaas

On Tue, 07 Apr 2009 22:32:39 -0400, Elmo P. Shagnasty wrote:

In article ,
measekite wrote:

Most printers do not come with 1/2 size cartridges.

That's just plain a wrong statement.

If the manufacturer offers two sizes of ink cartridges, the printer
comes with the smaller size. Period.

Canon does not

Epson does not

Exclamation Mark.

Measekite is so well trained (Pavlov comes to mind - he worked with
dogs) that he doesn't even read the postings anymore, he just sees
printer and cartridge and automatically goes off on his tirade about
cheap ink.

Sad, really sad.

Art


If you are interested in issues surrounding e-waste,
I invite you to enter the discussion at my blog:

http://e-trashtalk.spaces.live.com/

Nicolaas Hawkins wrote:
On Wed, 08 Apr 2009 01:31:12 GMT, measekite wrote in
:

On Wed, 08 Apr 2009 10:13:47 +1000, Rob wrote:

tg wrote:
I'm in the UK with a budget of about £150 and I'm looking to buy a
colour laser printer but I don't want to end up with a lemon. What I'm
looking for above all is picture quality. I'm only doing A4, not worried
about speed, and I won't be printing huge volumes, the printer is just
for myself. The reason I want decent picture quality it because I'll be
printing promotional material with it.
I've seen some printers on ebay that 'look' good but they might be junk
so I'd appreciate advice about what to avoid and which printers give
nice solid colour.

Check the price of refill cartridges.
It is obvious that garbage ink costs less and you get less. If that works
for you and you want to risk a clogged print head then do it.

Most new printers only come with 1/2 size cartridges.
Most printers do not come with 1/2 size cartridges. HP does and Epson and
Canon do not so most is not correct.

as an example the HP1600 comes with 1/2 size cartridges and costs say
$200 this will print 1000 sheets. The HP2600 which takes the same
replacement cartridges comes with full cartridges and prints 2000
sheets. Cost say $400.

Replacement cartridges (4)are about $550 so if you add 1/2 set to the
1600 it will cost $200+265 = $465 which is more than the HP2600.

You should check the specifications and do the math for whatever printer
you choose.

LASER PRINTERS DON'T USE INK OR HAVE PRINT HEADS, YA DOZY BUGGER!

measekite wrote:
On Wed, 08 Apr 2009 10:13:47 +1000, Rob wrote:

tg wrote:
I'm in the UK with a budget of about £150 and I'm looking to buy a
colour laser printer but I don't want to end up with a lemon. What I'm
looking for above all is picture quality. I'm only doing A4, not worried
about speed, and I won't be printing huge volumes, the printer is just
for myself. The reason I want decent picture quality it because I'll be
printing promotional material with it.
I've seen some printers on ebay that 'look' good but they might be junk
so I'd appreciate advice about what to avoid and which printers give
nice solid colour.







Some dickhead fool has problems differentiating between LASER and
INKJET Printers.


Check the price of refill cartridges.

It is obvious that garbage ink costs less and you get less. If that works
for you and you want to risk a clogged print head then do it.


The operative work here is refill cartridges, not refilled or
remanufactured.


How do you clog the head of a laser printer ???????????????????????


Most new printers only come with 1/2 size cartridges.

Most printers do not come with 1/2 size cartridges. HP does and Epson and
Canon do not so most is not correct.



I have illustrated below some HP do come with 1/2 cartridges.

So your crap is irrelevant.



as an example the HP1600 comes with 1/2 size cartridges and costs say
$200 this will print 1000 sheets. The HP2600 which takes the same
replacement cartridges comes with full cartridges and prints 2000
sheets. Cost say $400.

Replacement cartridges (4)are about $550 so if you add 1/2 set to the
1600 it will cost $200+265 = $465 which is more than the HP2600.


You should check the specifications and do the math for whatever printer
you choose.

Elmo P. Shagnasty wrote:
In article ,
measekite wrote:

Most printers do not come with 1/2 size cartridges.

That's just plain a wrong statement.

If the manufacturer offers two sizes of ink cartridges, the printer
comes with the smaller size. Period.

Your right.

The HP 1600 has 1/2 and the HP2600 has full size is just one example.
Most HP come with Full size, its only the entry level printers.

As some one else mentioned, consumables may or may not be an issue for you.

If you are printing relatively high coverage document (with a lot of
color over the paper) keep in mind that the numbers most printers
indicate are based upon 5% coverage per color, which is very low, and
barely represents a page of text. Also, like all CMYK printers, to make
come colors like red (magenta and yellow) or green (cyan and yellow),
blue (cyan and magenta), that coverage uses double the toner. Flesh
tones of all types use all three toners, possibly plus black, as do all
browns. The darker the color the more toner used.

An edge to edge photograph may use 40-70% coverage for each color. That
means such an image may use 8-14 times the amount suggested in the yield
numbers at 5%, so a 1000 page yield cartridge may only get you about
70-120 one sided full sized photo prints per set of cartridges, and that
can really get costly.

Like inkjet printers, the current business model in use with laser
printers is to almost give you the printer and then get you on the toner
cartridges. As mentioned, many come with partially filled cartridges
(between 33-50% full) at purchase. They won't last long if you have
high coverage printing.

Sorry, I don't know current exchange rates to the UK pound, so I'm using
US $, nor do I know the market pricing, other than that often US $ price
often is similar to UK pound price 1:1, which is of course a rip off,
since the UK pound should be worth considerably more. Either way don't
be surprised to pay $70-$200 PER color on replacement. Further, some
models do not allow for the cartridges to be refilled, not because the
cartridges and their drums can't handle refilling, but because the
companies do not want you using refill toner.

So, as mentioned, find out the yield of the cartridges that come with
the printer, versus those that you can buy to replace them afterward.
Due to complaints and some legal matters, some manufacturers will offer
both the "starter" cartridges and the regular cartridges retail, but
that is usually due to being forced to do so because some countries will
not allow starter cartridges, unless that smaller cartridge is available
to the general public as a retail item as well. However, these smaller
toner quantity cartridges are almost always very poor value, costing
perhaps 10-20% less with half or less toner.

Determining cost per print for your type of use is important in knowing
if color laser is good value for you (versus having the work done by
someone else via a color photocopier, for instance, which is offered
flat rate regardless of coverage.

As someone else mentioned, as one example, HP had three models in a
series, the 1600, 2600N and 3600N (now all discontinued). When they
went on sale, the differential between them might be $50-100 per level.
But the 1600 (non networked) came with 1/2 filled cartridges. The
2600N came with networking, larger trays, a more robust engine, and full
cartridges. The 3600N came with full cartridges which were about twice
the size again. I ended up buying the 3600N because it lowered my cost
per print tremendously, and ended up only costing me another $50 total
from the cost of the 1600, while providing 4 times more toner. The
toner cartridges for the 3600N cost about $150 each or $600 to replace,
which was over double what I paid for the printer, WITH the toner
cartridges included.

So, do your research before making a decision. As far as image quality
goes, most color laser machines are pretty good for the kind of work you
are speaking of, but it is best to request samples from the manufacturer
(most will happily provide them by mail). The main companies today in
medium cost color laser printers a Brother, HP, Konica-Minolta,
Lexmark, and Samsung.

You can also find Fuji (Dell), Okidata, Epson, and others, and perhaps
some other brands are more popular in the UK than here in North America.
You reason I suggest asking for samples is because some offer higher
gloss toners and some offer matte, and depending upon if you you will be
using glossy, semigloss, or flat papers, you will wish to go with one or
another. Personally, I prefer a fairly flat toner that blends in with a
matte paper surface.

In general, the smaller the color laser printer, the smaller the
cartridges and lower the yield per cartridge. Most color laser printers
today use a self contained toner cartridge/drum unit. The only way to
reduce their size is to reduce the size of the toner storage space,
and/or reduce the circumference of the drum. Both of these thing reduce
the capacity of the cartridge output. Smaller drums are erased and
"rewritten" to many more times per print, which wears them out, and also
any defect that develops on them is repeated more times on each page.

There are still a few color laser printers that have the toner storage
separate from the drum units. Samsung has at least one. This keeps the
replacement toner cartridge cheaper, and also allows for a somewhat
smaller design. Eventually, the drums will also require replacement,
but, in general the drums are good for numerous toner refills. Drum
prices are a secondary consideration in those printers, but check costs.

Lastly, if you end up with a laser printer which does not easily allow
for refill toner, consider how long the company tends to offer
cartridges, as you don't want to end up without access to consumables.


Art

If you are interested in issues surrounding e-waste,
I invite you to enter the discussion at my blog:

http://e-trashtalk.spaces.live.com/

tg wrote:
I'm in the UK with a budget of about £150 and I'm looking to buy a
colour laser printer but I don't want to end up with a lemon. What I'm
looking for above all is picture quality. I'm only doing A4, not worried
about speed, and I won't be printing huge volumes, the printer is just
for myself. The reason I want decent picture quality it because I'll be
printing promotional material with it.
I've seen some printers on ebay that 'look' good but they might be junk
so I'd appreciate advice about what to avoid and which printers give
nice solid colour.

On Tue, 07 Apr 2009 20:55:24 -0700, Arthur Entlich
wrote in :

Measekite is so well trained (Pavlov comes to mind - he worked with
dogs) that he doesn't even read the postings anymore, he just sees
printer and cartridge and automatically goes off on his tirade about
cheap ink.

Sad, really sad.

Pavlov's dog? Not 'arf!

There is no adequate substitute for genuine want of intelligence - except,
perhaps, death ... preferably self-inflicted.

--
- Nicolaas