Mark
I'm looking at getting a budget colour laser printer (not ink jet!). I saw one in mediamarkt, I think it was the HP 2550 for around 499. Now the trick here seems to be the cartridges - you need four of them and they are around 130 francs each. The funny part is that the cost of 4 toner cartridges comes to the same price as the printer. Is it possible to find cheaper ways to run them? Anyone had any experience with this stuff? How can I tell how much toner is in the printer I buy? Maybe they only half fill the cartridge?
Check out www.digitec.ch for other brands
I've been using mono perosnal lasers for years and like brother and samsung. I toyed with a colour one a month or 2 ago and had a look. Toner is cheaper then HP (IIRC), and probably printer as well.
Cheers
I'm looking more for advice about differences between models, especially with respect to running costs and all the "hidden" issues which seem to be prevalent with colour lasers. There seem to be mixed reviews around. I'm not really looking for information about WHERE to buy colour printers, since this is all easily located via www.toppreise.ch anyway!
P.S. Had some shocking pre-sales service from digitec in the past. I know others have given them favourable reviews, but I won't be going back there...
Mark
I think Konica Minolta have some reasonably priced Colour lasers on the market, and I think with LAN connection cheaper than HP without. Don't know what their catridges cost.
Recently at work they replaced our nice HP Laserjet (an expensive one) with a Dell (cheap one). If speed is not a consideration the Dell is OK. Unfortunately I don't like Dell (I put them in the same basket as M$).
you'll likely get bargain bucket initial toner sets. Mind you, I got one of those on my xerox 5 years ago and it's still going strong. Mind you, it's also in a box at the moment! They do tend to give 60% versions of the "real" consumables.....
And yes, I would dump the xerox and buy new again - cheapo laser < new toner. Go figure.
And I went laser because I dried two heads up on inkjets and you guessed it - borderline more economical to buy a new one. Here's to the environment
I started looking at the HP2550 (old model) and HP2600 (new model). I didn't realise that as well as the toner you also have to do the drum - it supposedly fails after 5000 pages!
You are right it is kind of perverse when it is cheaper to replace the printer than buy new parts. So you just turn up to media markt, dump it in their big bin, walk inside and buy another one.... Of course I'm not advocating that this should be done - the environmental impact of producing all those parts to just land up in the bin is unthinkable, but the economic argument for it is persuasive!
When I looked at the 2550 to buy a set of 4 toner cartridges and a drum (at 5,000 pages - this model lasts longer) the cost would be around 600. Now this printer can be bought at various sites on toppreise for just under 400.. So for 5,000 pages that's a cost of under 0.12 per page - not bad at all... Mind you - how long would it take me to actually print 5,000 pages? I only plan on using it for proofs of ads etc before they go to print - it would probably last me a good 5 years, and by then it will be time to throw it away anyway!
The newer 2600 model has a twist - toner only lasts for 2,000 pages, making the cost per print 0.25 per page - this means HP effectively doubled the price without anyone noticing!
According to several review sites these printers from HP actually come with full cartridges, rather than partially full ones!
But the downside is that despite being cheap to run one reviewer said that the colour reproduction isn't accurate enough to be used for proofs.. Great. that's what I wanted them for
Hi Mark,
despite what a lot of people say about them, here I would be really tempted to buy Dell. The drum on the new colour lasts 42K sheets and the toners are actually not that expensive. Okay it does cost CHF 600 but so what if the running costs are lower... Also Lexmark is quite reasonable. btw I negotiated a 7% discount on anything Dell - who said you can't negotiate in CH
I've kind of resigned myself to the fact that I'm not going to print enough to run out the toner cartridges in the first couple of years therefore the printer will be a buy once and upgrade after the toner runs out (or who knows - maybe even before). Therefore the following will be important - reasonable cost, accurate colour reproduction (I'm given to understand that the HP2550 sucked at this) and the cartridges supplied by the manufacturer should be full ones, not half empty ones designed to run out!
A comment regarding the Dell - quite often that figure of 42,000 should be divided by 4 - since it is a 4 colour process. If you print black and white it is a single colour process.
Mark
Ok well I went and bought one. Saw a HP 2600N in media markt - they had a floor model with about 60 pages printed for 50 francs off - so I paid 450 for it. The colour accuracy isn't fantastic, so I can't really use it for proofing any work that goes for print, but as a general laser printer to print stuff in colour it will do the job. I figure I'm going to get approx 1940 pages for 450 francs so about 0.25 per page isn't bad - once it's done I'll throw it away - isn't that perverse?
Maybe by the time comes to refill it there will be cheaper 3rd party solutions on the market - but let's face it - there will probably be a much nicer and cheaper model that I can buy when that time comes anyway!
Mark
Generally laser printers cost more initially, but they will pay off with lower printing costs. So it' a good investment if you print a lot of text, school papers, etc. There's some useful buying tips here .