Thank you for being a valued part of the CNET community. As of December 1, 2020, the forums are in read-only format. In early 2021, CNET Forums will no longer be available. We are grateful for the participation and advice you have provided to one another over the years.

Thanks,

CNET Support

General discussion

Need faster printer for a reasonable price.

by Lovamelin May 9, 2007 3:28AM PDT

I've been looking at multitudes of low end laser printers and faster running inkjets. Basically i was something faster than my puny HP1350 but still print in color when needed. Also I want something where my toner or ink doesn't cost me a fortune. I've been looking at some of the Brothers printers and laser printers. Although almost all low end laser printers are monotone unfortunately. But Brother does seem to be more reasonable than HP with their ink prices. Although I did find a good deal on an HP 7580. And the HP has quick laser like speed for printing. And the ability to do high quality color when necessary. The only downside is the high price of vivera ink, I can get around that to a degree with buying the ink on ebay, although sometimes I can't assure quality doing it that way, even when its in the box. Any suggestions about wether to go HP or Brother or any other alternative that will have reasonale toner/ink prices and still give me a fast printing speed with the optino to do color? Thanks.

Discussion is locked

2 Posts

- Collapse + Expand Details

- Collapse -

Have you seen the HP Officejet K550?

by r. proffitt Forum moderator May 9, 2007 3:30AM PDT

Or the newer models like it?

I have one, neighbor had one, dad has one...

- Collapse -

POV

by Willy May 10, 2007 3:49AM PDT

First off, if you get into any vast amounts of prinitng in color, you should stay away from "inkjets" in total as the replacement costs are going to hurt, even if you get refills or similar cheap inks, it just costs.

If you look more into the higher end laserjets from HP and Canon, you should be happy as toner costs for initial runs are reasonable per page. You get alot more from toner carts than ink and color is pretty darn good. If you decide on a cheap model, then consider you will wear it out too soon if you do alot printing. You should look at the specs for page output and typical duty cycles per month(I believe). I offer no model# as the field varies. However, Brother does fill the low-end quite well.

tada ------Willy