Very timely, since GoddessJ and I helped her mother set up her new printer over the weekend. She replaced a semi-expensive Canon inkjet printer from around the turn of the century, which never worked particularly well and was extremely slow on top of that, with a really cheap (less than $150) Brother black-and-white laser printer/scanner/copier.
Now, I’d heard bad things about Brother printers, so I wasn’t too keen on it when she asked GoddessJ and I about it. But after looking at comments from customers on the ‘net, the worst thing we could find about it was a complaint that the toner cartridge was saying it was low after only about 500 pages, rather than the 1000 that the manufacturer claimed. If that was the worst thing anyone could legitimately say about it, I figured it was a lot better than I’d expected.
On the minus side, as the comic says, it didn’t include a printer cable — not a problem if you’re updating from a previous USB printer, but her old printer predated USB connectors, it was so old that it used a Centronics parallel interface instead (remember those?). I thought I recalled that she had the right kind of USB cable somewhere, and it turns out she did. It had come with the battery backup she’d bought last year to deal with the power problems that were causing her system to lock up regularly, and was still in the plastic wrapper with the battery backup manual.
And the drivers… don’t talk to me about the drivers. The ones that it came with for Windows were a breeze to set up, but her system is dual-boot Windows and Linux, and the Linux side was a massive pain in the tail to get running. You didn’t have to compile them yourself, but that’s about the only break you got… I guess Brother figures that anyone running Linux is enough of a geek that they don’t need simple installers. Oh well, at least they do offer some support for Linux, unlike Canon.
On the plus side, once it was set up, she was delighted that the new one was so ridiculously much faster than her old one, and produced such beautifully crisp text. Inkjet printers may be “just as crappy and unreliable as they were in 1995,” as the comic claims (and my personal experience backs up), but laser printers are far better than that, and have dropped in price by a huge amount in the last decade.
If you only need black-and-white printing, I’d highly recommend going with a cheap laser printer these days. Even if you do need color printing, it’s probably worth looking at a color laser printer, like the Xerox Phaser 6110MFP I picked up a few years ago. In the long run, it’s a lot cheaper than paying for ink, despite the up-front costs.
That Xerox printer has toner cartridges for $28! That’s less than my inkjet-type printer, and replaced less often. I can’t justify or afford a $700 printer though, and believe it or not my Canon MP210 doesn’t run out of ink often… for an inkjet-type printer… My next printer though will probably be a low-end black and white laser printer.
I was pretty impressed by someone I knew who I helped purchase it who was made by Brother, it was well recommended on NewEgg. It had wifi and ethernet networking for only $15 or $20 more than the regular version, amazing. It was less than $150. I think I’ve spent $40 on ink already, plus $55 for the multifunction printer. Not too bad though considering I’ve had it almost 2 years. It already has the light lit claiming it’s low on color ink, but I figure that it has a lot more pages left. (You can make it b/w though until the color ink is replaced, a nice feature.)
Yes, the toner cartridges for this one are pretty inexpensive. And they last quite a while… I’ve only had to replace one since I got it.
Someone you knew was made by Brother? 😉
Oops. 😛
BTW, my Canon Printer has Linux drivers available. You have to download them from a non-US Canon support site though.
I was looking through your messages on printers because my ink’s running low again and I’m thinking of getting a new printer. There’s a Samsung color laser printer now available for $150 but the toner refills for it is over $100 for all colors and b/w cartridges combined!
OTOH, a b/w Brother laser printer with built-in wifi is $109, with much cheaper toner needs, and a multifunction b/w Brother laser printer is available for $150. (I couldn’t find a cheap multifunction color laser printer.) Your thoughts? I don’t really need color right now, but if I go back to that online college, I’ll need it to print out my certificate. 🙂
OTOH, if I get that Samsung color laser printer, the ink toner refills might not be affordable to me, I might have to wait a month to pay for them. Also, with $150, I could continue to have a scanner and copier instead, without having to keep around this bulky second printer and replug it in, etc. I really don’t have room in my apartment room for two printers. Your thoughts?
Or maybe I’ll suck it in and pay for ink yet again, it’ll be $75 for both color and b/w now, but I won’t be strapped for cash this month if I pay for that rather than a new printer.
My thoughts are: if you do any noticeable level of document-only printing, buy a cheap black-and-white laser printer. If you only need color once or twice a year, you can always stop by your local copy shop, after all. It’s a lot cheaper that way, and you’ll still get the (significant!) advantage of laser printing technology.
Another advantage: toner doesn’t dry into uselessness if you don’t print something regularly. That’s a problem I often had with my inkjet printers, before I bit the bullet and bought a laser.
If you’d be strapped for cash, then don’t buy a new printer yet — but don’t buy any color ink cartridges either, just a black ink one. Then you can figure out whether you really need color or not, and save up some cash toward a new laser printer at the same time.