Shopping for a laser printer

If you are willing to spend a bit more money to improve the quality and speed of your printing then it is well worth considering buying a laser printer rather than ink jet printer. However, there are a number of issues that should be considered in looking for the right model.

Printer consumables

Replacing laser printer consumables can be a horrendous experience if you aren't careful to ensure the model you buy doesn't require too much maintenance.

The most obvious consumable used by the laser printer is the toner cartridge and before buying a printer you should find out how much the toner will cost and how many pages it will print before it needs replacing (that information should be on the packet). This is even more of an issue with colour laser printers, where you will often need to buy four separate toner cartridges.

The OPC drum is sometimes included with the printer cartridges, but on some printers this may also need replacing separately. You should find out how often you will need to and how much it will cost to replace the drum.

Finally, if you are buying a colour laser printer you should find out what else needs to be replaced as some still require a massive amount of regular maintenance.

Speed and quality

When assessing the speed of a printer you have to remember that pages per minute of output is only one of the issues you need to consider. As well as this it is important to realise that the time it takes a printer to warm up and spool pages is also relevant.

The best way to determine printer speed is to request a demonstration, but otherwise you just have to make the best judgement you can based on page per minute projections.

A laser printer will smudge less then an ink jet printer, but aside from this the quality is determined by the printers dpi, or dots per inch, with a higher dpi meaning a higher quality. If you are printing pictures then this is important, otherwise it will not affect your printing greatly.

Buying the printer

Reasonable laser printers can be bought for between $200 for a black and white printer, to $600 for a colour one. The HP 2600n Colour Laser Printer is a reasonable quality colour printer, and the Brother HL-2040 is a reasonable black and white printer.