Originally posted by: Ionizer86
Oftentimes you can get a Minolta 1350W for very cheap: down to $20 or less with appropriate price matching/rebates. This is a very fast printer, albeit the paper tray isn't too big and there's no manual feed. Another model that has good sale prices is the Samsung ML-1710.
The third model that is sometimes very cheap is the Brother HL-1440, but I wouldn't recommend one since I used to have one and the drum would start leaking after a few months, forming dots, and eventually, streaks on the paper. Most people have had similar experiences with the Brother drum.
I got one of the 1250W's from Staples, with a rebate, which I actually did get. I think it took less than a month for the rebate to get to me too.
Thus far, it works fine. The documentation is...well, there's a manual that's about 30-40 pages, but it contains instructions in nearly 20 languages. The English section basically says "plug it in, and install the software." That was really it - downloaded the latest stuff from Minolta's site, plugged the printer in, WinXP found it, and I installed the drivers. I never even used the CD that came with it.
My one complaint about it is that it is a Windows GDI printer, which basically means, no Linux support for it now. And there very likely will never be Linux support for it. As far as I can tell, Windows GDI is to printers like the "Win" is to Winmodems. Windows does a lot of the thinking, while the dumb printer or modem does the grunt work.
It can handle light or heavy use - sometimes it'll go a week with no use, or then my dad, who's going back to college now, will need to print out like 100 pages of something, and the printer goes through it all just fine. At 300x300, it prints very quickly, as in, press print, and by the time you walk to it (15 feet away, as it's serving as a network printer), the page is done. The text is still very sharp at this setting.
It does 600x600 and 1200x1200 too - excellent quality then, but it goes considerably slower, though still a helluva lot faster than any inkjet.
Geez, I did it again - someone just wants a recommendation, and I give a review.