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Simon · 08:59 AM

OK, my brother and is buying a complete new Mac setup with an iBook. He wants a printer too, but is not quite sure what to get.

It should be cheap and USB is good enough (doesn't need to be Ethernet). He will be using Jaguar.

Since he doesn't need color, but he likes good and fast black&white printing he started thinking about a laser printer - especially when he saw what ink cartridges cost.

I went to my local Mac dealer's web page and saw a very cheap laser printer: Samsung ML-1250.

Now it seems to be a good buy, but I have no idea how it will really perform.

Does anybody here have experience with it? What about the Jaguar drivers? Are they good? Do they work? Are they stable?

Thanks in advance for any help.

macrophyllum · Jun 3, 2003, 12:26 PM

I bought a Brother HL-1440, works great.

Duo · Jun 3, 2003, 03:19 PM

I have the Samsung ML-1430 and its great. I paid $200 for it a year ago, you should be able to find it for cheaper.

Duo

pysan · Jun 3, 2003, 03:26 PM

I have the Samsung ML 1450 and it has worked great with both my ibook and QS G4. The only issue with the drivers that I have is that from MS Word it seems to add an extra 1" margin to the top of any page, and no amount of playing with margin settings and such help. Anyone else having this issue?
It's still a great printer, just a little annoying that all my pages are pushed down.

Simon · Jun 4, 2003, 12:31 AM

Thanks for the feedback guys.

I've also seen a cheap OKI laser printer (Okipage 8w lite) priced similarly to the Samsung ML-1250. The OKI only has 600x600 dpi and claims to do only 8 pages/min vs. the 1200x600 dpi, 12 pages/min and PCL6 of the Samsung. So I would naively think the Samsung is the better deal, but of course I haven't seen these two in action. Can anybody here compare? And what about OKI drivers for OS X?

solitere · Jun 4, 2003, 01:00 AM

Originally posted by Simon:
OK, my brother and is buying a complete new Mac setup with an iBook. He wants a printer too, but is not quite sure what to get.

It should be cheap and USB is good enough (doesn't need to be Ethernet). He will be using Jaguar.

Since he doesn't need color, but he likes good and fast black&white printing he started thinking about a laser printer - especially when he saw what ink cartridges cost.

I went to my local Mac dealer's web page and saw a very cheap laser printer: Samsung ML-1250.

Now it seems to be a good buy, but I have no idea how it will really perform.

Does anybody here have experience with it? What about the Jaguar drivers? Are they good? Do they work? Are they stable?

Thanks in advance for any help.

I would rekommend HP 1200/1300 laserjet model. In Europe they cost about 360-420 Euro with tax. Great printers and they have postscript and USB and optional Networking!!

Simon · Jun 4, 2003, 02:46 AM

Originally posted by solitere:
I would rekommend HP 1200/1300 laserjet model. In Europe they cost about 360-420 Euro with tax. Great printers and they have postscript and USB and optional Networking!!

Lucky you.

Where I'm living the HP 1300 is about 600 Euro (VAT incl.) while the OKI or the Samsung are about 280 Euro (VAT incl.).

You see, I personally would prefer a HP as well, but since my brother is on a very tight budget, I won't be able to get him to pay twice as much for a printer that has PS and Ethernet - simply because he doesn't rely on those features. The stuff he needs is also found on the half as expensive Samsung and OKI.

That's why I'm wondering about their quality and drivers. If they work, he'll take one of them. If they are really crap, he'll probably get an inkjet and swear for hours after he has to buy ink cartridges...

MacNStein · Jun 4, 2003, 06:58 AM

Maybe look into the QMS/Minolta 1250E. It sells for under $300US and has some pretty nice specs. I've seen it in action in OS X and it's very fast and has really nice output.

OldManMac · Jun 4, 2003, 08:59 AM

Samsung for me. I bought an ML-1210 about a year ago, which has been superceded by several models since, and it has been very reliable. I print about 500 pages/month. I also sell Macs, and when I recommend inexpensive lasers, I always go Samsung, and I've never had anyone complain to me yet.

Macpilot · Jun 5, 2003, 08:17 AM

Check out

www.dealmac.com

and put in a search for laser printer.

There are a lot of choices.

I bought an Epson 5700i about 3 years ago and it is great. Works with OS X.

Sander · Jun 5, 2003, 08:24 AM

My vote would be for Samsung as well. I have been using my ML-1210 for about a year now and I love it. It still prints like new and more importantly, I like the fact that Samsung seems to keep Mac OS X users in mind whenever they update their drivers. I like that. I believe they were one of the firsts to offer drivers for OS X way back when.

Another factor that comes to mind is that Samsung toners are cheaper so in the long run, it will save you even more money.

I hope this helps.

Cheers.

Simon · Jun 5, 2003, 09:11 AM

OK, thanks a lot guys. That has been quite some help.

I'll take my brother (and my sister in law

) to the dealer and will have him take a look at the Samsung.

I guess if he is willing to spend the money this printer should be a good choice.

Thanks again for all your help.

escher · Jun 5, 2003, 09:41 AM

Originally posted by Macpilot:
I bought an Epson 5700i about 3 years ago and it is great. Works with OS X.

Macpilot: Don't you think the Epson laser drivers are terrible? The EPL-5700i was certainly a good deal when I bought it 4 years ago, but the drivers have rarely been updated and are terribly crappy, especially when printing pages from web browsers.

Escher