Printers

Pete · Tue 03 Feb, 2009 12.44

My Hp colour laser (that I got ex-display for £100 2 years ago) conked out the other day so I replaced it with a rather snazzy samsung mono laser that apparently looks like a steinway.

However I don't really like it so am selling it off to a mate.

What printers do yous all have? I was considering getting a mono laser and pairing it with an all in one inkjet simply because the only colour laser printing i really do is full a4 colour photos for my wall (i like the odd look of laser prints) which I could do at the library so I might as well just go for mono.

I'm wary of HP due to their annoyingly low yield "introduction toner" and their hideous software but don't know what else to go for. Trying to pin down a laser on amazon is useless due to their stupid marketplace shite and generally terrible categorisation thing that includes MP3 players and inkets under "mono laser"

I demand answers.

Gavin Scott · Tue 03 Feb, 2009 12.53

Having one of these to hand

I'm afraid I can't look a desktop thing seriously anymore.

marksi · Tue 03 Feb, 2009 12.55

That's not a printer, it's the robot from Lost in Space.

Gavin Scott · Tue 03 Feb, 2009 13.06

marksi wrote:That's not a printer, it's the robot from Lost in Space.

That would explain why it shouts "Danger! Danger!" when I photocopy my bottom as a treat for the gorgeous postman.

Pete · Tue 03 Feb, 2009 13.18

EXCUSE ME, this is a dedicated printer thread, I won't have any of your smut here

LaSeandre · Tue 03 Feb, 2009 13.51

Avoid HP at all costs. I got a new printer from them a few months ago, and it started all that extra software shit. I also only got 20 pages of black and white and 20 pages of colour from the "Introductory" cartridges. I am, however, stuck with it as I don't have the money to replace it.

cdd · Tue 03 Feb, 2009 14.16

It's odd... I've found HP printers to be very reliable, especially their LaserJet seies which prints incredibly crispily. I've never found a non-PnP HP printer either, don't think I've ever gone near their software.

Maybe the reason many here find it runs out of toner quickly is because HPs are more generous with the amount of toner used on paper than other printers. With an HP laser you can actaully 'feel' the toner off the page, and it gets a nice sort of shiny sheen to it as well. But I am sure there's a 'lite'/economy mode that uses a tiny bit of toner instead.

Ebeneezer Scrooge · Tue 03 Feb, 2009 14.20

At home, I use a canon MP530 multifunctional printer. It's excellent and I'd recommend canon for anything bubblejet-wise. I also have access to a brother laser which just works - it goes on working as much as we need it, doesn't complain and appears to be pretty cheap to keep running (that said, I'm not the one who makes the very occasional purchase of a new toner cartridge!

Gavin Scott · Tue 03 Feb, 2009 14.30

What ever happened in the case of the law suit where someone proved that HP (and others) were cheating consumers by having their ink cartridges flag that they were empty when in fact they weren't?

lukey · Tue 03 Feb, 2009 14.52

Ebeneezer Scrooge wrote:At home, I use a canon MP530 multifunctional printer. It's excellent and I'd recommend canon for anything bubblejet-wise. I also have access to a brother laser which just works - it goes on working as much as we need it, doesn't complain and appears to be pretty cheap to keep running (that said, I'm not the one who makes the very occasional purchase of a new toner cartridge!

Despite Hyma pissing all over my MP610, which I assume is in a similar vein to the MP530 but with a bit of a homier (and indeed homoer) edge, it's dead fab. It was about £90, prints lovely borderless A4 colour prints, and even though I don't print too much, even chugging out quite a few of those prints its only now beginning to run low on ink after a year. It scans too....which is nice. Oh, and most important of all, the ink cartridges have bright LEDs to indicate ink levels. Superfluous illumination is all I really ask of my printer.

cdd · Tue 03 Feb, 2009 16.02

Gavin Scott wrote:What ever happened in the case of the law suit where someone proved that HP (and others) were cheating consumers by having their ink cartridges flag that they were empty when in fact they weren't?

I'm not aware of that case but it seems rather odd - if they wanted their customers to get less value out of their ink cartridges, why wouldn't they just reduce the amount of ink inside to the same effect?