[NewOldbie]

Staying with the printer theme. . . .

Anybody have recommendations on a decent color laser printer? Preferrably has duplex printing and is no more than $3000.00

What kind of color outputs do you have experiences with? Good/bad?

[Back up 15 and punt]

Originally posted by NewOldbie:
Staying with the printer theme. . . .

Anybody have recommendations on a decent color laser printer? Preferrably has duplex printing and is no more than $3000.00

What kind of color outputs do you have experiences with? Good/bad?

Take a good look at the HP Laserjet 2500. It rated at 15 pages/minute in black and white and 4 in color.

http://www.shopping.hp.com/cgi-bin/h...e=C9705A%23ABA

[Back up 15 and punt]

I'm sorry I recommended the wrong printer. I misread the the requirement. Try the Laserjet 4600DN. It cost about $2500 and it has network card, duplexor and 500 sheet tray. The black cartridge is rated at 9000 pages and each of the color cartridges are rated at 4000 pages. It's speed rating 17 black and 17 color.

http://www.shopping.hp.com/cgi-bin/h...mp;cat_level=2

[OreoCookie]

I'd recommend the new Oki 5300. If you expand it with a second paper tray and a duplexer, you should be well below that. The printer itself starts at about 1,500-1,600 ?. It does 12ppm in full color and is far cheaper if you consider the consumables. (HP is *very* expensive at that.)

If you print photos, inkjet photo printers are still the way to go, but for presentations, diagrams and other stuff, laser printers are the way to go.

[Back up 15 and punt]

I would disagree about the Oki. You have more consumables to deal with than the HP 4600 DN. The only consumables on the 4600 are the toner cartridges (9000 pages black, 8000 for each of the color). The other consumable is the fuser which is 120,000 or 150,000 pages respectively. Couple that with HP's longevity and you end up with a printer than is cheaper to operate over a longer period of time.

[OreoCookie]

Originally posted by Back up 15 and punt:
I would disagree about the Oki. You have more consumables to deal with than the HP 4600 DN. The only consumables on the 4600 are the toner cartridges (9000 pages black, 8000 for each of the color). The other consumable is the fuser which is 120,000 or 150,000 pages respectively. Couple that with HP's longevity and you end up with a printer than is cheaper to operate over a longer period of time.

The new HP makes about 10 % of their turnover with consumables ... go figure.

I've had six HP printers, the quality of the printer itself is ok (so far, three out of six had to be replaced after a long period of intensive use, two are still in use), but I switched due to the consumables.

No, the Oki is the smaller Oki printer. The toner will last about 5,000 pages. If you want to spend 2,100 ?, then you get the larger model that prints 16 ppm in color (24 ppm bw) and the toner lasts a whopping 23,000 pages.

Both Okis already feature a network card. An HP 4600N (including network card) costs about 3,000 ? here in Germany ...

Depending on what you wanna spend, the Oki 5300n or 7100n is the way to go IMHO. If you don't print in large volume, I think the 5300n should be sufficient.

[Back up 15 and punt]

Originally posted by OreoCookie:
The new HP makes about 10 % of their turnover with consumables ... go figure.

I've had six HP printers, the quality of the printer itself is ok (so far, three out of six had to be replaced after a long period of intensive use, two are still in use), but I switched due to the consumables.

No, the Oki is the smaller Oki printer. The toner will last about 5,000 pages. If you want to spend 2,100 ?, then you get the larger model that prints 16 ppm in color (24 ppm bw) and the toner lasts a whopping 23,000 pages.

Both Okis already feature a network card. An HP 4600N (including network card) costs about 3,000 ? here in Germany ...

Depending on what you wanna spend, the Oki 5300n or 7100n is the way to go IMHO. If you don't print in large volume, I think the 5300n should be sufficient.

I've seen the HP 4600DN online for a little more than $2100 here in the US. The DN is this case stands for Duplexor and Network card. The 4600 does not have a drum to replace like many of the other color laser printers. Although inline printing is now becomming the standard over imaging drums. There are now several manufactures that produce an inline laser but there are considerable differences in what kind of maintenance that needs to be supplied to keep each of these units operating. I hate having to hassle with something that should just work.

[OreoCookie]

Originally posted by Back up 15 and punt:
I've seen the HP 4600DN online for a little more than $2100 here in the US. The DN is this case stands for Duplexor and Network card. The 4600 does not have a drum to replace like many of the other color laser printers. Although inline printing is now becomming the standard over imaging drums. There are now several manufactures that produce an inline laser but there are considerable differences in what kind of maintenance that needs to be supplied to keep each of these units operating. I hate having to hassle with something that should just work.

The main difference in the price is that in Germany, every advertised product must be priced including taxes (VAT). Even if the printer itself is more expensive, you will save on the consumables.

The prime example of that is Kyocera-Mita, the printers cost a bit more, but the toner costs next to nothing. In fact, it is so cheap that there are no third-party suppliers ...

[Back up 15 and punt]

Originally posted by OreoCookie:
The main difference in the price is that in Germany, every advertised product must be priced including taxes (VAT). Even if the printer itself is more expensive, you will save on the consumables.

The prime example of that is Kyocera-Mita, the printers cost a bit more, but the toner costs next to nothing. In fact, it is so cheap that there are no third-party suppliers ...

In the US, if you order online (mail order), then you don't necessarily pay sales tax. However, in most situations you will pay for shipping and handleing. I checked Kyocera toner cost here in the US and I found to be a little cheaper but not that much.