[TIPS] Inkjet, Laser or All-In-One Printer?
Are you in the market for a new printer? You might be wondering if you should you look for an inkjet printer or a laser printer. Or how about a basic printer versus an all-in-one (AIO) printer, scanner, copier, fax, and toaster? The choice -- inkjet vs. laser, and dedicated printer vs. all-in-one -- depends on what you print and how often you print it. Here's a look at the tradeoffs, and factors to consider when buying a printer... |
Buying Your Next Printer
So you're ready to buy a new printer. Here are some tips to help you decide. An all-in-one printer seems to be the de facto standard for all but the tightest budgets these days. But it's not the right choice for every one.
Laser technology is ideal for black text or graphics. It uses heat to fuse tiny dots of black toner to paper, creating a crisp and fade-resistant image of an all-black document or greyscale picture. There’s no “bleeding” as there can be with ink. High-volume print jobs are handled better by laser printers. Laser technology is inherently faster than inkjet, and a laser toner cartridge prints ten times more pages than an inkjet cartridge.
If you print a lot, if speed is important to you, and you don't need color capability, a monochrome laser printer may be your best choice. Color lasers are an option, but tend to be rather pricey. (More on cost considerations later.)
On the other hand, some bleeding is desirable when printing high-quality color images, like family photos. In nature, liquids blend together to form new colors; they do not just trick the eye by juxtapositioning dots of primary colors, as color laser printers do. Inkjet printers also lay down primary colors only, but they bleed and blend just enough to produce more natural-looking colors. Glossy photo paper is designed for ink; color laser prints don’t look as good as inkjet even on the expensive, glossy paper.
That brings us to cost, both upfront and over the printer’s entire lifecycle. A low-end inkjet printer may cost under $60 on sale. Consumer-grade color laser printers run between $250 and $350; the fastest inkjet printers are in the $300 to $400 range. As you can see, the difference in upfront cost is not that great, but it’s easily made up in the long-term costs of supplies and maintenance. (Printer prices rose during the pandemic, and this trend may continue as more people work and study from home.)
Don’t Forget To Factor in Supply Costs
An HP-branded black inkjet cartridge for an HP OfficeJet Pro 9025e All-in-One Printer costs avout $45 and yields about 2000 printed pages (about 2.2 cents/page). The color cartridges cost $35 each and yield 1600 pages (2.2 cents/page). But this $115 Brother TN-850 Black Toner Cartridge prints 8,000 pages (about 1.3 cent/page). So over time, your cost for inkjet printing will almost twice as much as laser.
The price gap between toner and ink narrows when you look at remanufactured cartridges, which can cost 25% to 70% less than OEM cartridges. It’s hard to compare cost-per-page in the remanufactured market because prices vary a lot from one recycler to another, and so does the amount of ink or toner supplied. See my article Should You Buy Discount Inkjet Cartridges? for my recommendations on suppliers for discount ink cartridges. And whether you go with laser or inkjet, always look for high capacity cartridges available because that will drive cost per page even lower.
Some printer vendors unfairly try to prevent you from buying third-party or refilled inkjet cartridges. In my article HP Playing Dirty Tricks? I tell the story of my HP printer suddenly telling me that all of my inkjet cartridges appeared to be "damaged," and how I found a solution.
So to summarize the laser vs. inkjet decision:
- Fast printing of black text and greyscale images: go monochrome laser
- Lots of black and occasional, mid-quality color: go color laser
- Low volume printing, upfront cost a major factor: go inkjet
- Printing color documents or high-quality photos: go inkjet
A few caveats, though... If you live in a very dry area, or you print only on rare occasions, an inkjet may not be a good choice. Ink can dry up in dry, hot climates, and print heads may clog if the printer is not used on a regular basis. Laser toner is powder, so it fares well in a dry place. But in high humidity, pages printed on a laser can stick together. If you manage temperature and humidity in your home or office, these problems will most likely not be an issue.
So what about a single-function printer version an all-in-one? As I said, the decision to buy an all-in-one version of a given printer model is really a no-brainer. Who wants to run to the office store to scan a document, make a few photocopies or send a fax? The price difference is minor, and the joy of digitizing all your paper clutter is immense. You’ll save money by not buying filing cabinets, folders, labels, and hours of time as well.
Your thoughts on this topic are welcome. Post your comment or question below...
This article was posted by Bob Rankin on 22 Sep 2023
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Most recent comments on "[TIPS] Inkjet, Laser or All-In-One Printer?"
(See all 21 comments for this article.)Posted by:
Ernest N. Wilcox Jr. (Oldster)
22 Sep 2023
Sorry Bob, but I've temporarily circumvented my add issue by installing the uBlock Origin add blocker. I'll happily remove it when I can again read your items without blocking adds. Note: FYI: While reading this item, 58 adds were blocked.
Ernie (Oldster)
Posted by:
ChrisR
22 Sep 2023
Hi Bob,
I switched from inkjets a couple of years ago after getting tired of clearing blocked nozzles and seeing stripey printouts. I've got a Samsung personal laser with duplex and it's been great.
Chris
Posted by:
Nigel A
22 Sep 2023
We bought an Epson ink tank printer for a volunteer organisation to which I then belonged. I was so impressed that when I needed a new colour printer I bought one for myself. It works really well and the bottles of ink are way cheaper than ink cartridges. Locally an Epson ink cartridge is C$39.59 and the bottle of Epson ink is C$20.89 and lasts a whole lot longer - win-win. I believe HP have an ink tank printer series as well but I have no experience of them.
Posted by:
mike
22 Sep 2023
Funny Ernest, but I do not see any ads blocking my view of the article. Maybe something is not set correctly on your viewing device. Sounds unique to you.
Posted by:
Tem Moody
22 Sep 2023
I tried to read the article but was unable to because of the ads. Even when I closed the ads it would not let me see the article. Personally, we use an old HP LaserJet 4050 and a Brother all-in-one. I love my old Laser-Jet.
Posted by:
Frederick
22 Sep 2023
I was wondering how I was going to read the article with all those ads in the way. Glad to see I was not the only one. I resorted to copying and pasting in a Word doc. That fixed it.
Posted by:
Sandy
22 Sep 2023
I also had adverts overlying the article. Very annoying. Needs fixing.
I use Brother Inkjet and my printer is years old. No problems.
Posted by:
Sandy
22 Sep 2023
I also had adverts overlying the article. Very annoying. Needs fixing.
I use Brother Inkjet and my printer is years old. No problems.
Posted by:
Jeff
23 Sep 2023
I wish you would discuss details of the new lines of inkjet printers that don't use cartridges with the print heads in the cartridge, but have tanks that you fill with each color of ink. Certainly seems more economical than the ripoff that most brand-name inkjet cartridges have always been, but I haven't tried one to know what trade-offs there might be. Please do an article on those and how they compare to traditional inkjet printers. thanks!
P.S. we get our inkjet cartridges for our HP printer at Microcenter, where they have some third-party brands that work great and they're MUCH cheaper than HP-brand.
Posted by:
Jou Baur
23 Sep 2023
I'm upset you ignored the most important kind of printer: Epson EcoTank printers.
You buy your ink in bottles, not those silly little cartridges, and those bottles have massive amounts of ink in them which you use to refill your printer at a much cheaper cost!
Since you did not include them in this article it seems only fair you do an article about them exclusively.
Posted by:
Thomas
23 Sep 2023
There is another option not mentioned in your article Bob. I use a Cannon Pixma G7065 hich I have had for some years. Before buying this unit, I have used HP, Brother and Epsom AIO inkjet printers which had(non-original)outside ink tanks attached. Of the outside tanks, I have used two versions, however, the thing that annoyed me most was the ink clogging. The machines would be used until they were no longer useable and then be replaced. Since using the Pixma, in all this time, it has never given that problem. The Pixma has inbuilt tanks and I can see the ink levels at all times. The colors hold 70ml each and the black double. I refill them about five to eight months and do a lot of printing. Based on my experience, I would never buy another HP, Brother or Epsom printer again as they are purely milking machines that are guaranteed to fail short of a reasonable life span. The best option is the Cannon with built in tanks - on the proviso that you do a lot of printing. It is sheer brilliant.
Posted by:
Gary
23 Sep 2023
Good article Bob. One problem: an H & R Block ad was covering part of it and I could not get rid of it.
Posted by:
Bernie Crowley
23 Sep 2023
Could not read the whole article due to ads covering the text.
Posted by:
Terry Hollett
23 Sep 2023
I have three inkjets, a Canon, and two HPs. The HP with the built-in wireless support is my main. Easier sharing over a network. As far as the ads, I use Opera without a blocker but your ads do seem to have run amock. Maybe the AI invasion has begun. :-)
Posted by:
Terry Hollett
23 Sep 2023
About your ads. They look like small ads in gray boxes and the ads scroll up or down in these boxes depending on if you are scrolling up or down on the page. But otherwise, all content is readable on my system.
Posted by:
Kenneth H
23 Sep 2023
I only have experience with HP and Epson. I have thrown out Epsons before they expired. My HP Office Jet Pro 6978 is the best. I have never had a serious problem with any HP printer. I love being able to print from my iPhone. I don't even have to be nearby. I have aso thrown away more after market ink cartridges than I consider acceptable, so I have no problem paying extra for reliable HP cartridges. Occasionally the printer disconnects from my PC for some unknown reason, but I just fire up the HP smart app and it is quickly back in touch.
Posted by:
Ed Morris
23 Sep 2023
I once had an Epson ink cartridge printer, but ran into the clogging problem because of not using it often enough.
Now I have an HP Neverstop laser printer that uses toner refill kits instead of more costly laser cartridges. The printer prints well, is fine for light duty and very economical with toner refills for 2,500 pages costing only about $36 for a pack of two from HP.
Posted by:
Jay B
23 Sep 2023
My wife has an Epson EcoTank inkjet printer (I have a Samsung Laser printer, which I like greatly). My only complaint about the Epson is that it needs to have the heads cleaned every so often. Even in central Texas which I would say is fairly humid the heads will clog if it is not used regularly. Since she has started to print something on it at least once a week they seem to keep unclogged. I am considering finding a printer exerciser document that she can print once a week, it seems to me that would be a lot less expensive in the long run than having to run the clean heads cycle three or four times to clean out clogged heads.
Other than the head clogging it has been a great printer for her. Before we purchased it I did an analyses of ink cost for it versus a low cost inkjet printer. Even with the higher up front cost the EcoTank came out way less expensive to operate over a theoretical year than a cartridge style inkjet.
Posted by:
Nate
24 Sep 2023
What ads? I have not seen an ad.
Posted by:
barbara frank
25 Sep 2023
No ads at all on my computer!! AIO DeLL.