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My cheap-ass laser printer (a Brother) is the greatest --it cost like $300, it's two years old, and it's going great. My color inkjet has been sitting around fo

My cheap-ass laser printer (a Brother) is the greatest --it cost like $300, it's two years old, and it's going great. My color inkjet has been sitting around for six months, waiting for me to admit that I will never fix its clogged cartridges again, because everything I print works just as well in greyscale. I suppose I could use an inkjet to print color photos. But is there ever any actual reason to print a color photo at home, besides just being so old that you can't accept Flickr? I suppose if I were a print magazine designer who liked to show off proofs... but then I'd probably get serious and buy a color laser.

maximilian 19y ago
I just bought a brother from Fry's for $60 (after rebate). I'm pretty excited as I can't print stuff from home now. We should have another 1000 pages of printing left, so I'm worried that by the time we run out of toner, it will no longer be made. I'm thinking about buying one now, but I don't want to be stuck with a $50 toner if my cheap laser breaks.
- SwellJoe 19y ago
  I bought a cheapo Samsung laser for my dad about five years ago for Christmas soon after I made the switch from inkjet to laser (I was feeling the excitement of a new convert), and I've bought him a new toner cartridge for it every couple of years since then. So far, they have not discontinued the printer or the toner and it has continued to serve him well. The model is still available from several sources (maybe an updated version, I dunno), and the toner is still widely available, though the price has gone up $10 from $70 to $80 for the 6000 page rated version. I guess that means I can recommend cheap Samsung laser printers. A year or two later, I bought my mom a pretty high end standalone inkjet photo printer, the kind that requires no computer to operate--just hook up the camera and press the print button. I bought it because she never used the digital camera I'd given her the year before (without the printed photos it just wasn't a camera, as far as she was concerned). I don't think that photo printer works any more (last time I saw her taking photos she was back to the film camera). I suspect she used it a half dozen times, whenever my 4 year old nephew was around to work it for her. Obviously, that did nothing to instill me with new confidence in modern inkjet technology.

maximilian 19y ago

I just bought a brother from Fry's for $60 (after rebate). I'm pretty excited as I can't print stuff from home now. We should have another 1000 pages of printing left, so I'm worried that by the time we run out of toner, it will no longer be made. I'm thinking about buying one now, but I don't want to be stuck with a $50 toner if my cheap laser breaks.

SwellJoe 19y ago
I bought a cheapo Samsung laser for my dad about five years ago for Christmas soon after I made the switch from inkjet to laser (I was feeling the excitement of a new convert), and I've bought him a new toner cartridge for it every couple of years since then. So far, they have not discontinued the printer or the toner and it has continued to serve him well. The model is still available from several sources (maybe an updated version, I dunno), and the toner is still widely available, though the price has gone up $10 from $70 to $80 for the 6000 page rated version. I guess that means I can recommend cheap Samsung laser printers. A year or two later, I bought my mom a pretty high end standalone inkjet photo printer, the kind that requires no computer to operate--just hook up the camera and press the print button. I bought it because she never used the digital camera I'd given her the year before (without the printed photos it just wasn't a camera, as far as she was concerned). I don't think that photo printer works any more (last time I saw her taking photos she was back to the film camera). I suspect she used it a half dozen times, whenever my 4 year old nephew was around to work it for her. Obviously, that did nothing to instill me with new confidence in modern inkjet technology.