Picking a Printer
June 30th, 2007It’s time for a new printer. My HP Laserjet 1100 is on its last legs. It has served me well, or at least well enough. I had to replace a roller a few years back to keep it from jamming (that set me back about $30 at fixyourownprinter.com). Besides that it’s been a loyal friend. Compared to every inkjet I’ve ever had it’s been a pleasure to own. Toner, unlike ink, doesn’t dry out or clog up. I haven’t had the need to clean my Laserjet in all the years I’ve owned it. It just works. When it comes to printing I’m not a heavy user. I often go weeks without needing a page, so it’s important that my printer’s consumables last a long time. Maintaining an inkjet is like paying child support, so my new printer will certainly be a laser.
Besides the fact that my Laserjet doesn’t play nice with my new Vista PC, and it has a habit of skewing my margins, there’s one key area where the it is lacking: the 1100 doesn’t do color. This really limits what I can do with it. I print driving directions all the time. More than anything else I need a printer for my Google Maps, and they don’t look so good in black and white. Color really helps map readability. I used to make birthday cards all the time, nice personal ones with photos and fancy text. I don’t know whether it was lack of a good printer or just increased willingness to spend money at Hallmark that changed this habit, but I have to believe that having a sweet color laser, I’ll take any excuse to use it.
So I’ve narrowed it down to color laser. I have a few models in mind. HP has two color lasers I’m interested in, the Laserjet 1600 and Laserjet 2600N. I see that Staples has the 1600 for $150 after mail-in-rebates… an incredible deal. But boy do I hate rebates. The world owes me at least $500 in rebates right now, and I’d hate to add to that sum. I’ve made multiple promises to myself to discount rebates in my purchasing decisions from now on. We’ll see if I stick to that. OfficeDepot has the 2600N for $300 right now. The key difference between these two models is that the 2600N comes with full toner cartridges (the 1600’s come half empty). That’s a big deal when your cartridges cost upwards of $75 a piece, and your printer takes four of them. The 2600N also has a network jack, which would be quite handy. It would free the printer from my computer, allowing others to use the printer without turning my computer on (it’s usually off), and it will give me much more flexibility for placing the printer. Lasers can be big and heavy. I’m not sure I want my new laser on my desk, or even in my room.
The other printer I’m considering is the Samsung CLP-300 (and maybe the CLP-300N). OfficeMax has it for $229, without rebates. This printer beats the 1600 and 2600N on size and price of consumables. Staples has the 300N version, which includes a network port, for $300.
In the course of writing this, I’ve settled on getting either the HP Color Laserjet 2600N or Samsung CLP-300N. The convenience of the networkability can’t be overlooked. I think I’ll go drive to a couple stores tomorrow and take a look at these printers in person. Before I did any research I figured I’d save a bundle by buying online. It turns out that the big office supply stores often have the best deals, and you can’t beat a brick-and-mortar shop for returns.
Followup – 6/14/2009
I ended up going with the HP Color Laserjet 2605dm, which has both networking and dual-sided printing. The dual-sided printing was a nice bonus but really I just got it because it was on sale. The printer has served me well: I’m still on the original cartridges. The alignment between colors is good, and the output is very crisp. I can’t really compare it to the Samsung models since I haven’t tried them. The HP has two major shortcomings.
For one the printer doesn’t handle really heavy paper (like card stock) well at all. I don’t think it’s even intended for this use. The paper slips and the print is usually messed up. But on 28 lb paper the quality is great and the printer rarely jams. One final issue I’ve noticed is that the printer regularly disappears off my network and I have to power-cycle the printer for it to reconnect. It’s annoying but by no means a deal breaker. Perhaps a firmware update or some monkeying with the network settings would resolve this issue, but I wish it worked better out of the box.