I looked at laser when the print heads on my canon MP610 failed. Printer was several years old but otherwise in excellant condition, but not worth repairing even getting a new head direct from china at £55. Aa above every time I turned it on to print it used a huge amount of ink to set itself up, and I suspect I got very few prints per set of ink.

 

However the need to occassionally do Photo quality prints and initial cost meant I eventually chose a Brother inkjet DCP-J4110DW, at £79. This is smaller than my old canon, yet can do A3 prints as well.

 

This is a wireless or network printer but as such it needs to be left on and never really sleeps in this mode and as above apparently then uses a lot of ink in standby. However in USB mode as I have set it up it goes to deep sleep after a period of disuse and I have only seen it doing a very short head clean once in several days. If it is turned off at the mains and turned on for printing it goes through a huge head cleaning cycle. To wake from sleep just touch the power button on the printer, it switches back to sleep mode shortly after finish of use.

 

A complete set of extra large original ink cartridges apparently good for 1200 pages cost me £55, however after several weeks I am still using the original starter part filled cartridges which came with the machine.

Edited 20 March, 201412 yr by kenfowler3966

I've got an old present of an Apple laserwriter 12/600 which 10 years on still shows no signs of needing a replacement toner( If I could ever find one).  Inkjet- I use a compatible replacement service http://www.refillman.com/.

I picked up a Lexmark CX310dn MFD Laser Colour for £150 on ebuyer earlier on in the year.

 

I don't use it that often, but so far no issues..  Previously I've bought generic inks for the HP inkjet and after a few weeks of not being used they clog up and go dry. No worries with the laser.

 

The only downside to this printer so far..

 

1. VERY noisy ADF when scanning / copying.

2. ADF jams if scanning / copying more than about 5 pages.

 

Other than this - not a single issue.

 

If you are printing more than scanning - I'd recommend it - in fact I'd bet my Fiancée on it

 

Warm up time is about 12 seconds - but after that it's 10 times faster in BW and colour than an inkjet.. 

 

 

I recently printed off a load of Minecraft papercraft things for my son - I printed 20 pages and by the time I'd stop sending downstairs and gone upstairs to grab the print outs - it was waiting for me.  The old inkjet would still be on page 3.

 

Quality is excellent (unless you want hi-res scans) but for document quality it's top.

 

I even printed off some photo's - although not photo quality, they are more than acceptable in a document.

The lexmark toner costs a bomb and they run out when the chip says they should, which isn't always the same as when they are actually empty.