Inkjet or color laser printer?

by philg

I have an HP 2605 color laser printer workhorse that periodically gets dust inside and needs a multi-hour cleanout before it will print colors properly again (step-by-step process). I am thinking it is time for a new multi-function printer. My last purchase (for a different office) was the older model of this HP multi-function color laser printer and it has worked reasonably well, though the scanner is painfully slow and noisy (so I use a Fujitsu ScanSnap for anything that I can). Supposedly this can handle 40,000 pages/month (though perhaps this is not quite true since the “recommended” volume is 1000 to 2000 pages). I print at most 300 pages per month. Can I get better color photo quality with one of the high-speed HP inkjet printers? HP OJPro x576dw is an example. One reader review on Amazon says that it has terrible photo quality. Another says that the photo printing quality is much better than laser printers. I don’t want to compromise black and white sharpness for printing PDFs of patents and other boring business stuff. I also like the idiot-proof nature of laser printer toner replacement. But I’m wondering if I am just prejudiced in favor of laser printers because I have been using them since 1979 (starting with the awesome Xerox Dover!).

11 thoughts on “Inkjet or color laser printer?”

  1. For business documents I don’t think you can beat a laser. If you have the space you can get a simple B&W laser just for your business documents – at your volume one of the $99 kind would be fine (although I prefer a printer than has auto duplexing on BOTH the printer and the scanner – much more convenient). I like the Brother ones because they don’t force you to replace the whole drum every time you need toner.

    One thing to keep in mind is that ink jet ink is water soluble while toner is wax based. Try wetting a page of laser printed text vs. getting an inkjet page wet.

    For color documents/photos, I prefer inkjet. So my choice would be (IS) two printers – a color inkjet and a B&W laser. Either one of them (but no need to have both) can be a multi-function type. Even the B&W multifunctions have color scanners.

  2. I have a HP X551dw, and really like it. Unlike other inkjet printers, the head is the full width of a page, so it doesn’t have to scan back and forth as the page is feeding, and the speed is phenomenal, way faster than any personal laser printer, and limited mostly the CPU and RIP in the printer. There was another company called Memjet that pioneered this, in cooperation with LG, but those printers never found their way to US shores. The only drawback is these printers are on the larger side due to the full-carriage print heads.

    B&W quality is just fine. I made some printouts using the X551dw and my older HP Laserjet 1320 (admittedly an older and inexpensive printer), and took photos of the results using a USB microscope:
    https://majid.info/images/print_quality.jpeg
    (the laser printouts are a little smaller because that printer is loaded with A4 paper and thus it had to shrink the document to fit). The original is here: https://apsalar.com/get/onesheet.pdf

    Photo quality is far better than any color laser I’ve seen, but of course can’t compete with a 6-ink Epson or equivalent. It’s good enough for civilians if you use photo paper.

  3. I’ll never buy another inkjet. The last one lasted for about 5 days before something clogged up. I’ve never had a problem with my black-only laser models. Current HP is 10 yrs old and still prints fine.

  4. Pop Photo just review Epson Surecolor P600 for $800.
    It has nine inks.

    Here is their conclusion.

    “For our money, Epson’s SureColor P600 is worth the price. It’s not every day that a groundbreaking printer comes along. We were truly blown away by the depth of shadows, color saturation, sharpness, and detail on all of the media we tested it with. Being able to print fast (especially with matte media and canvas) with only a small sacrifice in quality was another big plus. And having a printer at the ready to print straight from a phone was icing on the cake.”

    8×10 can take between 1:34 – 7:47 to print depending on different mode.

  5. I like the Brother MFC-9340CDW. I have found that the driver support from Brother is much better than HP. Also the toner replacement is separate from the drum so the cost is lower and it is easy to reset the low toner messages to get the last little bit. You can also set the mode to print in just B/W to save on color toner. I have had issues with non Brother replacement toner so now I stick with the real stuff. BTW Staples will match the lower Amazon prices so when you run dry you can get a new toner locally at a reasonable price.

  6. Regarding inkjets clogging, I have had good luck with the Brothers inkjets (as well as their lasers). What they do is run a periodic automatic cleaning cycle to keep the jets clear. The downside is that they consume ink even if you are not printing anything but the upside is that mine has never clogged even if it is not used for a long time. The ink is pretty cheap anyway, esp. the aftermarket cartridges which seem to work just fine (or at least good enough for my needs). They are just plastic cartridges without the printhead and without any anti-refill chips.

    Speaking of anti-refill chips, look for a printer (either laser or inkjet) that lacks these. These are chips that are in each print cartridge whose main purpose is to make it impossible for you to use aftermarket ink/toner so that you have to buy the manufacturer’s stuff. Printers, esp. multifunction devices, are sold on the “give away the handle below cost, make money on the razor blades” model and aftermarket razor blades mess up their profits so they do everything possible to keep them out. Usually the aftermarket guys figure out a way to reverse engineer the chips but it adds to the cost of the aftermarket refills. Some of the aftermarket chips can retail for as much as $20 and you need a new one for EACH refill, so this adds up over time. YOU are paying extra to be locked out of your own printer for the manufacturers benefit. Printer manufacturers have really gotten shameless in adding these things just because technology allows them to do so and obfuscate what is going on to the average consumer. If someone who made a toaster required you to buy only their brand bread people would not put up with it. (BTW, Keurig is trying to do this with their coffee capsules, so toast is not far behind).

  7. I second Tom’s recommendation of the Brother MFC-9340CDW. I got mine on sale from one of the office supply sites who had better prices than Amazon. Was about $380 no shipping. It won’t win any contests for output beauty but it works wirelessly and flawlessly across our menagerie of computers and devices and that alone is worth something. The scanner interface could be a whole lot more convenient ala ScanSnap so keep that in mind if you’re looking for scanning convenience above all else.

    P.S. My son ran a t-shirt transfer through the printer which melted its plastic all over the internals and by a) picking through the rubble and b) just printing, it’s cleared itself up just fine. So there’s some robustness to the device, too.

  8. Want an inexpensive + reliable laser printer? Try buying a used business-grade printer rather than a new consumer printer. They are far more robust. Kijiji has many of in the $500 range (eg: I bought a HP LaserJet 5500hdn). Bonus: they can print 11″x17″; once you start printing technical diagrams @ 11″x17″ you can’t go back to puny 8.5″x11″.

  10. i have the HP OJPro x576dw and scansnap. as a real estate investor/developer, i’ve found that i just don’t print all that much anymore and i want my scanner to be ready all the time. this combo works perfectly, with the exception that the photo print quality is only marginal on the HP printer. the first page out speed (which is important for me) is much faster than you will find on a laser. the operating costs are considerably cheaper than my old xerox phaser 8560, and the HP is rock solid and hasn’t had any issues at all. i love the combination of the HP and the scansnap!!

  11. I will offer a third recommendation for the MFC-9340CDW.
    I’ve been using a Brother MFC-9340CDW for the past 5 years and love it. It’s performed flawlessly.
    The thing is a beast (in a positive sense). (It’s also a sizable piece of machinery.”
    Great printer.
    Laser printer over ink-jet: no brainer.

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