I need to buy a printer for work, Lasers can be had for about £70, Ink even cheaper. Thing is, toner for the Laser ends up as the same price again (if not more)

Is Laser worth it? (I hate to say this, but it'll probably go in the skip and be replaced by a new one once it runs out)

I've been very impressed how long the toner has lasted in my cheap samsung laser. Replacement toner is pretty cheap on ebay but I haven't needed any yet. I'm not a heavy user, though. Its much, much faster and quieter than an inkjet, too

Laser everytime if it's for an office environment

laser all the way, faster, quieter. Toner carts go on seemingly for ever.

It's down to number of pages you print per day. Lasers print faster and designed to have higher daily throughput but are more expensive and the cartridges cost more

A laser is usually cheaper per page IME

One issue to consider is how close to it you will be. I'm not a big fan of the smell of laser printers (when they are running I mean!).

Hi mate. hows things? bet oli is growing up fast…

as they guys above say get a lazer.. costs a little more initially, but costs per page are CHEAAAPPPPP and ink lasts for ages in the toners..

I have a Lexmark E120N laser as my home printer.
Built-in networking. 20 pages-per-minute. Toner is good for 2000 pages and costs £44.

Cheers all

Fozz, Ollie is getting huge, and Number 2 is due any time!

I have a cheap canon laser printer. Still on original cartridge. For black and white its a no brainer. Laser everytime.

it'll probably go in the skip and be replaced by a new one once it runs out

Why would you do that? Seems like madness to me.

the ones I've seen for £70, the toner costs about £150 to replace. Are they all the same?

Laser is great as long as you don't get one of the really cheap crappy ones with tiny toner cartridges. The manufacturers have caught on to the "lasers are cheaper" perception so the bottom of the range can be nearly as expensive to run as most inkjets.

Brother aren't bad for cheaper lasers, although most want a new drum at 20k pages which can be more than the printer's worth. They will go on for a while beyond that though without replacing. Else look out for a lightly-used HP from their business-focussed range (2400 series, etc), which can be had for about £70 delivered on ebay, take cheap official toner or really cheap 3rd party ones and will go on and on.

Else if you need colour and print a lot, look at an Epson which can take a CISS (continuous ink) system – you then just buy the ink by the bottle and the cost per page is next to nothing.

the ones I've seen for £70, the toner costs about £150 to replace. Are they all the same?

Do you realise that you don't get a full toner when you buy a new printer?
They give you a nearly empty one that is only good for a couple of hundred pages.

And £150 for toner seems a bit steep!

My home laser is £44 for a genuine Lexmark toner (2000 pages).

Our office uses HP Laserjet 5's. They are roughly £50 for a genuine HP toner (3000 pages) or £17 for a re-furbed toner from catridge world.

http://www.pcworld.co.uk/martprd/store/pcw_page.jsp?BV_SessionID=@@@@2137339891.1254261191@@@@&BV_EngineID=ccfeadeihelmjejcflgceggdhhmdgmh.0&page=Product&fm=null&sm=null&tm=null&sku=886914&category_oid=

That's what I was looking at. But it seems maybe it's not such a good idea.

Avoid Inkjet if you are just doing document printing, but as people have said avoid the cheaper ones as you will end up paying through the nose. Better to buy a semi-decent one now and have reasonable sized toners.

Colour is a different game IMHO. If you're looking to print photos then you're probably better with an inkjet.

I gave back an Inkjet printer to my brother and got a second hand Brother laser printer. It's big, was cheap, works fine and is pretty quick with good print quality. Perfect for Uni. Holds 250 sheets in the tray that sits under the printer (better IMHO than the sticking out ones) so don't have to bother with putting paper in all the time. Refilling cartridges for the Inkjet during first year of Uni cost me almost as much as the laser printer off eBay with more than half full toner. Best thing is it came with an bigger toner than standard that lasts for about 7000 pages (manufacturer data :-)). Still had enough powder to print out 4400 (according to test page) and a refurbished one is about £58. Refilling might be even cheaper.

Takes some space under the desk but that's the only downside. Also it's way quieter than my old HP inkjet. Best £35 I've spent 🙂

I've just bought some refurb toner for a HP 2600 from ijtdirect.co.uk for about £25 – seems perfectly satisfactory…

Laser every time (although I agree about the smell), and refurbed cartridges.

I've been though many lasers all of which were bought new and at the cheaper end of the market.
Trust me when I tell you to go and buy a USED HP Laserjet 4000 from ebay or similar. I've now got two of these and they are brilliant. Manual feed, 2 x 500 sheet trays, built in networking, mind numbingly reliable (and we put a lot through them) and fast enough for any office. Toner is easy to get and costs about £40 for 2-2500 pages (at least in my experience) and the best bit is that I paid about £45 delivered for each one.

Aaaah. How timely this thread is.

I'm interested to know why Inkjet is better for photo printing.

I was just in a shop yesterday, bemoaning the cost of replacement inkjet cartridges, and wondering what might be a more 'affordable' printing option for the house as I've a lot of photos I wish to print soon.

It seems, from here, that laser is a way forward, but then the photo question is raised!
What's the answer?

For photos I use COSTCO print service. For the limited amount I need why would I want a £200 inkjet printer that uses expensive consumables when I can get them on photgraphic digital paper for peanuts?

If you have the space, a LaserJet5 fom ebay for £25 is a huge bargain. they just go on and on. Toner is cheap, it's built like a tank. I've had mine ten years now. Doesn't do colour or wifi, but I have another printer for that here, and fire up the LaserJet for longer docs or large quantities of smaller ones. Lack of USB is no big deal as it's very happy running off a USB to parallel adapter.