Color laser printer

[James Conrad]

I'm looking at getting a laser color printer. Anyone have experience with a particular brand, cost to run, print quality, speed, etc.? WiFi / Bluetooth, and ability to print on card stock would be nice. Thanks!

[Brian Elfert]

I have a Xerox Phaser 6180N color printer. It is a discontinued model that is really designed for networked office environments, but I use it at home because I got it on clearance. The cost per page comes out around 9 cents a page if you use it for all color. Some people will set the printer driver for black only if they don't need color because the black toner is a little cheaper, but I don't bother. A major advantage with a color laser over an inkjet is the toner doesn't go bad over time like ink does if not used regularly. Eventually the fuser and other parts might need replacement, but for an average home user it won't get used enough to need to replace those parts.

Print quality is pretty good on this one, but no color laser I know of can do photographs as well as an inkjet. This model has no WI-FI or bluetooth and no idea on card stock.

[Greg Portland]

I've been using the version prior to the HP LaserPro M1536dnf and have had zero problems. It will print on both sides of card stock, is fully networked, and has all the advantages of a multi function device (scanner, fax, etc.).

edit: HP used to have abysmal support for their consumer printer print drivers. Their business driver support was always excellent... that's why I went with a business class laser. It works from Linux, tablets, and windows. I see that they now have consumer-tier laser printers... I would research the driver situation before pulling the trigger on one of those models.

Greg

[James Conrad]

Thanks for the responses. Brian, I am familiar with the larger office grade Phasers, they are nice, was not aware they had smaller versions. Thanks Greg, when you say "Research the driver situation" what are you referring to?

[Kent A Bathurst]

HP Officejet Pro 8500A for home office and home use. Zero problems.

Surely been supplanted by newer model[s].

Works fine. Not as robust as the HP LaserPro M1536dnf. Often use the non-color equivalent at company office. It works fine too.

[Brian Elfert]

Thanks for the responses. Brian, I am familiar with the larger office grade Phasers, they are nice, was not aware they had smaller versions. Thanks Greg, when you say "Research the driver situation" what are you referring to?

The Phaser printer I have is not exactly small. It is really a printer for a small office with a number of users. I only got it because it was relatively cheap on clearance. I didn't want some of the cheap home models that have really bad reviews.

[Andrew Pitonyak]

I love my HP Color LaserJet (4650dn), but it is a beast (huge and heavy). I really like the print. It is old and discontinued. I have not had any problems for the years that I have had it. My Father purchased an HP Color Laser of some sort and he loves it as well. I have used numerous color HP Lasers at work as well.

I have had very good luck with HP laser Printers so I would look at them first if I needed to replace my printer.

First thing I would do is determine what it must do. I won't buy a printer these days unless it has a few specific features:



Networked. I want to use one printer for every device connected to the network, so, I only buy printers that I can connect directly to the network (router or switch). Any serious printer will likely support this. Some even support WIFI, but, I usually place things close enough to my networking gear that it just does not matter.
Duplex. I print a lot, and, if it can automatically print on both sides I can use less paper.
Color. Never thought that I would care, but, it turns out that I do care.


For photos, it seems that ink jet looked better than laser last I checked. Laser printers print in a way, however, that usually hold up better than an ink jet printer (like when you get it wet).

From what I hear, you won't go wrong with the Xerox printers, but I have no experience with them.

I print a variety of things, so, I might print heavy stock. For this, you want a nice paper path that does not have a lot of twists and turns. Check to see the heaviest and lightest paper you can run through a printer.

Look at how much it costs to print a single page based on ink costs. HP Ink is very expensive. Works well, but very expensive.

I like to have an LCD panel on the printer. I used to own an HP 2200D. A great monochrome Laser. I hated that it only had status lights so I could not easily do many things directly from the printer front. My HP Printers all allow me to connect remotely with a web browser and I can see the printer status, how much toner, and similar. I can also see most of things things directly on the front panel LCD.

HP has the largest market share. This means that it is usually supported everywhere, even in those off beat operating systems like Linux.

Did I mention that my printer is a beast? It takes two people to move it. This is a strong consideration. I can now get a decent color laser that will do what I want and is much smaller. Well, when my big one finally fails (if it fails), I can get something smaller.

[Shawn Pixley]

We have a Samsung CLP-315W. It works through Wifi and/or cabled connection and with both Mac / PC friendly. It is ~4-5 years old and has been very reliable. If I got one today it would be Airprint capable for iPhone / iPads.

[Brian Elfert]

I quit networking my color laser printer because if the router ever lost power the printer almost always got a different IP address from the DHCP server. I know I could set a static IP and exclude it from the DHCP range, or make a reservation on the DHCP server, but not worth the hassle for one PC. I ended up connecting to the printer with a USB cable.

[Andrew Pitonyak]

I quit networking my color laser printer because if the router ever lost power the printer almost always got a different IP address from the DHCP server. I know I could set a static IP and exclude it from the DHCP range, or make a reservation on the DHCP server, but not worth the hassle for one PC. I ended up connecting to the printer with a USB cable.

I configured my router to always give it the same IP address; easy to do generally. If you never connect anything else, then it is a non-issue. That seems to be the exception these days, however. In fact if you only have one computer, then I don't expect you to be running a DHCP server or have an external router or switch. Hmmm, then again, the new DVD players and TVs all want an internet connection these days.

[Andrew Pitonyak]

We have a Samsung CLP-315W. It works through Wifi and/or cabled connection and with both Mac / PC friendly. It is ~4-5 years old and has been very reliable. If I got one today it would be Airprint capable for iPhone / iPads.

Don't know much about macs.... I wanted to use my phone and write software for it and with an iPhone I would need to purchase two phones so I opted for not Apple :-(

But... if you are a mac person, you need to consider it.

[Dan Hintz]

I quit networking my color laser printer because if the router ever lost power the printer almost always got a different IP address from the DHCP server. I know I could set a static IP and exclude it from the DHCP range, or make a reservation on the DHCP server, but not worth the hassle for one PC. I ended up connecting to the printer with a USB cable.


I configured my router to always give it the same IP address; easy to do generally.

Yeah, bought my wife an Oki color last year, connected through a tiny Tenda repeater... worked beautifully until the first power outage. Took me another couple of power outages to realize what was happening, and each time I had to uninstall/reinstall the huge print driver. Finally said enough, you'll have to print using USB sticks until I can get around to hardwiring a port close to the printer.

Kind of ruined the ease of access...

[Andrew Pitonyak]

Yeah, bought my wife an Oki color last year, connected through a tiny Tenda repeater... worked beautifully until the first power outage. Took me another couple of power outages to realize what was happening, and each time I had to uninstall/reinstall the huge print driver. Finally said enough, you'll have to print using USB sticks until I can get around to hardwiring a port close to the printer.

Kind of ruined the ease of access...

I don't know about your setup, but, if the tenda is a repeater, then I assume that you have a primary wireless router serving as a DHCP server so you should only need to connect to that wireless router and tell it to serve up a particular IP address for your printers MAC address. Easy to write, but, probably difficult to find in the routers configuration menus.

[Brian Elfert]

I configured my router to always give it the same IP address; easy to do generally. If you never connect anything else, then it is a non-issue. That seems to be the exception these days, however. In fact if you only have one computer, then I don't expect you to be running a DHCP server or have an external router or switch. Hmmm, then again, the new DVD players and TVs all want an internet connection these days.

Even with just one PC I still have a wireless router for WI-FI for my phone plus I need a network connection for my OOMA phone device. The DHCP server is built into the router. I was just too lazy to setup a static IP for the printer since I could just use USB instead.

[Andrew Pitonyak]

Even with just one PC I still have a wireless router for WI-FI for my phone plus I need a network connection for my OOMA phone device. The DHCP server is built into the router. I was just too lazy to setup a static IP for the printer since I could just use USB instead.

I totally get that. I have not had much cause to attempt to print from my phone... although I did install some sort of HP application that knows how to print certain document types to my HP printer because someone asked me if it could be done. I figured out that "yep, I can do it", but, I still have not had any particular need to do so. I can build a use case for it in my head, but, most of them assume that i am at home with my desktop machine sitting there that is easier to use for that sort of thing.

I strongly prefer USB over the older Parallel cables. I think that I finally disposed of all of my old "printer cables", I just have too much computer junk at my house. I got rid of a couple of large boxes of stuff.

[Bryan Rocker]

We bought a Brother HL-4040CDN several years ago and it is been very reliable and prints very nice as well, and it prints duplex without the additional cost of a duplexor :)

[Greg Portland]

Thanks for the responses. Brian, I am familiar with the larger office grade Phasers, they are nice, was not aware they had smaller versions. Thanks Greg, when you say "Research the driver situation" what are you referring to?
Do a Google search for people complaining about the print drivers (HP printer not working, etc.).

Again, my current Office Laser is working flawlessly and IIRC cost ~$300.

[Shawn Christ]

+1 on Brother. Highly-rated multifunction color laser printers at a good price point. You can routinely find the machines on sale and OEM replacement toner is affordable. I have the MFC-9325CW which I picked up around $250 thru Staples. Wireless copy/scan/print/fax. Nice color documents. Only downfall is photos are okay, not great. These printers come with low-yield starter toner cartridges but the replacements last forever (I use aftermarket).

[Curt Harms]

+1 on Brother. Highly-rated multifunction color laser printers at a good price point. You can routinely find the machines on sale and OEM replacement toner is affordable. I have the MFC-9325CW which I picked up around $250 thru Staples. Wireless copy/scan/print/fax. Nice color documents. Only downfall is photos are okay, not great. These printers come with low-yield starter toner cartridges but the replacements last forever (I use aftermarket).

Photos is the common shortcoming of color lasers. Depending on how many photos you print, it might make sense on those infrequent occasions when you need a quality photo to take a memory card to Walmart, Target, etc. etc. and print it there.

[Jessica Pierce-LaRose]

I've had great luck with gear from Brother, but our color laser is a business model OKI we bought second-hand and we've had decent luck with that, although we need to get a new drum for it (which we kind of new when we got it). The easiest place to set it up was far away from any network gear, and it didn't have built-in WIFI, so I added a cheap TP-Link branded router that was flashed with the DD-WRT firmware (an open source router software) for under 30 bucks. That's set up with a static IP address in bridge mode connected to my wireless router, and so far we've been able to print to that from all the computers in the house via the WiFi connection.

[Jerome Stanek]

Buy lase printer is good for dedicated photo and graphics user. Its device is in performance well. You can buy between $60-$70. (link removed) is the best service provider for selection and tech support.

He probably got one years ago as this post was from 2014.

[Adam Clap]

The HP Color LaserJet Pro MFP M281fdw is a small, entry-level AIO laser printer designed for small offices, home-based offices, and small workgroups. Its small size also makes it a good fit as a personal color laser. It prints fast enough for its class, but it lacks a few features, such as the ability to scan and copy multipage, two-sided documents without your having to flip them manually. In addition, its high running costs will, for most users, relegate it to being a low-volume printer capable of churning out only a few hundred pages each month. If you need more than that, several models, especially inkjet alternatives and higher-volume laser AIOs, are available with the ability to deliver monochrome pages at under 1 cent per page, and color pages for 5 cents or less.
If you need better-looking graphics and photos, the Canon MF634Cdw, our Editors' Choice, should serve you well. If, on the other hand, a couple hundred every day-use prints and copies are what you need, the M281fdw is a decent alternative for an entry-level, low-volume color laser for small offices and workgroups.

[Jerome Stanek]

You know this thread is over 4 years old and he most likely bought one

[roger wiegand]

We have an old, discontinued HP Laserjet multifunction machine that has worked flawlessly through about 60,000 pages at this point. I recently bought a HP LaserJet Pro M281cdw from Costco that seems to be a direct descendent of the machine we have. The only complaint I have about it is that it can't do a wired and wireless connection at the same time, it's either/or. (For most purposes I prefer a wired ethernet connection to the printer, but it would occasionally be convenient to print from my phone. It's quick, does two-sided copies, and prints are excellent.

For photos I use one of the online services. Home inkjets are too expensive (for the ink) and don't have enough ink colors to print well, laser printers are the wrong technology, and again only four inks, which can't give good color resolution. If you need to print photos at home the Canon P1000 (11 colors) or Epson P800 (9 colors) both are supposed to be good, but expensive to both buy and maintain. Using either one seems to be more expensive than a quality online printer, but useful if you need prints instantly.

[roger wiegand]

"You know this thread is over 4 years old and he most likely bought one"

oops :rolleyes: