Laser Printers

[Ian]

I'm considering getting a laser printer for university, probably a cheap B&W one. I have seen a Samsung CLP 500 available for £228 (usually around £500, but there is a cashback up until 31st July). It ends in about 6 hours, so I am tempted to go for this upgrade to a colour laser.

Does anyone here have a laser printer and could advise me on the sort of print quality I could expect? i.e Do photos look any good, or is it only suitable for Power Point-esq graphics?

 

[Quadophile]

Ian,

I have the Samsung B&W Laser printer in the office and I can confirm that the text quality is superb, even better than my three times more expensive HP 1220C Professional Inkjet printer. However, I was disappointed with its quality as far as photos were concerned. Graphics from Power Point were OK in my opinion. We use the Laser Printer for printing Manuals, Standard Operating Procedures, and anything that we want to give to our client. It also is cheaper than any inkjet I have used in terms of consumables. It prints fast enough at 12 pages per min. No experience with Color laser printers.

 

[floppybootstomp]

I agree pretty much with what Quad says.

I've had a cheapie Samsung ML-4600 for around three or four years now, the quality is very good, especially compared to an inkjet printer.

Toner cartridge is £48.00 lasts me about 6 - 8 months and I do a lot of printing so yes, it's a lot cheaper than inkjet consumables.

Funnily enough, I've just printed off 200 colour A4 flyers for work and the replacement cartridges for my HP843C cost a total of £50.00, so I was looking at a Samsung Colour Laser printer costing £459.00 in Office World. I'm seriously considering buying one, as it would save me money in the long run.

I notice also that the price of colour laser printers has dropped considerably in the last few years.

 

[Ian]

Thanks for the comments guys, I'll look into a B&W printer now! It would probable save me money as you say.

If you are after a samsung colour, this is what I was going to do (you'll need to do it today if you want one ):

http://www.ameiva.co.uk/index.php?s...SAM&item=A1A1AFB2-8B09-4312-A614-5E83A02315DC

http://www.samsung.co.uk/mayprinteroffer/terms/ - £150 cashback

= around £228 for a colour laser! I'm still thinking about it myself!

 

[muckshifter]

Thanks for the comments guys, I'll look into a B&W printer now! It would probable save me money as you say.

If you are after a samsung colour, this is what I was going to do (you'll need to do it today if you want one ):

http://www.ameiva.co.uk/index.php?s...SAM&item=A1A1AFB2-8B09-4312-A614-5E83A02315DC

http://www.samsung.co.uk/mayprinteroffer/terms/ - £150 cashback

= around £228 for a colour laser! I'm still thinking about it myself!

Keep thinking ... now think about replacing the toner, look at the cost ... you still thinking?

Ok, put it another way, your going to be charging your "customers" at least 20p a printed sheet, right?

No wonder "students" are in debt ... tell me, nay, explain to me why you need a colour laser when a sub £100 Brother 600x600 will do ... or are you taking art & graphic design at college.

You'd be surprised at what I used to "produce" using a 300x300 laser printer back in the 80's

 

[floppybootstomp]

Mucks, you have a point.

I did in fact look at the cost of replacing all 4 toner cartridges in the Samsung laser colour printer - the combined cost was almost as much as the printer itself - in excess of £300.00.

However, each cartridge is supposed to be able to do about 5000 A4 sheets and they won't all need replacing at once.

Still, it's a helluva lot of wonga, is it not?

I think I'll have to get the calculator out to work this one out

And no, I'm not charging customers for my flyers, these are purely promo thingies. Just have two boroughs to do now, Lambeth & Greenwich, then all done. Just a reminder I'm still here Only done Secondary Schools so far as well, there's a helluva lot more Primary Schools, haven't done them yet, their budgets ain't so big

On a good note, just picked up a job to install a school hall sound system in Kent. haven't really considered Kent yet, but a mate of mine picked this one up, he has a music shop in Gravesend, he supplies the kit, I fit it, he's an old GLC colleague of mine.

It could be worse

 

[muckshifter]

Flopps, I was talking to Ian.

But since your on, I once found a guy who was an printer, I can just see your brain working on that one, I mean a profesional printer.

Getting 10,000 leaflets printed cost me peanuts AND I produced the "art & origination" on my 300x300 black laser printer (a mono laser only prints black, it can't do white). Sometimes I would have to print three pages off.

What I'm saying here is it's not cost effective to use a colour printer, laser or inkjet, for large volume. Find youself a 'guy' who works out of his shed, like Barry did, and save a bundle.


One day, when I'm board, I'll tell you the story in full.

 

[floppybootstomp]

Mucks: I'm actually visiting or phoning a few printers next week to find out cost, the same thought had occured to me. Soon I'll have 500 catalogues to post out and for those I'll need a double A4 insert and front labels.

 

[Ian]

Keep thinking ... now think about replacing the toner, look at the cost ... you still thinking?

Ok, put it another way, your going to be charging your "customers" at least 20p a printed sheet, right?

No wonder "students" are in debt ... tell me, nay, explain to me why you need a colour laser when a sub £100 Brother 600x600 will do ... or are you taking art & graphic design at college.

You'd be surprised at what I used to "produce" using a 300x300 laser printer back in the 80's

The toner costs shouldn't be too bad, as the refills are about £10 per 5000 sheets apparently. If this was true, then that would be the only reason I'd go for this printer

In truth, there is no need for a colour printer, but if I could do cheap refills I thought I could probably make it last for a good few years. It was one of those cases where it was so cheao (£228 compared to the usual £450+), I thought it might have been worth getting.

After reading that the drum and belt need replacing after 50,000 prints (on a 4 pass process, that’s 12500 prints)... which effectively cost more than I'd have paid for the printer!

Luckily... I didn't get it before 12AM this morning, so the offer has expired! I'm either going to get a cheap samsung B&W for £40ish once its on special offer, or try and spend about that on my Canon S4500 to see why it is printing poorly.

 

[muckshifter]

Yes Floops, if you’re doing leaflet drops you do need to a professional looking leaflet ... project the right image and they'll call if needed.

Need a "Corporate Image" give me a ring; I still keep my hand in here locally, but don't have Barry anymore to do the printing, so I just concentrate on the artwork & design. Excel is great for laying out the database of a catalogue.

 

[muckshifter]

Ian ... keep looking in the "sales/returned items" section of the likes of Staples ... seen some dam good bargains on returns.

 

[Ian]

Ian ... keep looking in the "sales/returned items" section of the likes of Staples ... seen some dam good bargains on returns.

Cheers! I never thought about doing that

 

[Ian]

Even though this thread is about 9 months old, I ended up getting a CLP-500 Colour laser today! Was £149+vat+del (just under £200 inc).

I'm printing about 500 B/W & Colour pages for a report soon that need to be high quality, so it was going to cost £50-100 to get printed properly. Thought I might as well have this printer for a few quid more