Monochrome Laser printer with duplex <$250-300

[redbox]

Hello, Anandtech forum members.

I'm looking for a b&w laser printer for dorm use.

$250-300
Priorities are:
1. Reliable
2. low operation costs
3. included duplex printing
4. mac, pc, linux compatible
5. network capable either wireless or wired. (wired would probably be easier for my use).
6. to a lesser degree space saving design. (While I can accommodate a moderately sized printer, I do live in a dorm)

Printers that I am considering:
1.Samsung ML-2851nd
2. Lexmark E250dn

If anyone has personal experience on the reliability and operating costs of these, or if you know another printer that would fit my needs, give me a heads up.

Thanks.

 

[Vincent]

I bought the Samsung a few months ago for about $100 on eBay. It's been working just fine for me, but I don't print a lot.

 

[heymrdj]

I use a Samsung 3170FN. It's color multifunction laser i know. Off it's black toner I get 1,800-2000 pages, though it's only rated or 1500. But I rarely print much. The first toner was over a 3 month period. However last month I did print 2400 pages. It gave no issue doing that over a 3 day period and 2 toners. Used on a network. The samsum Smart-Thru software does not like vista, so we just use their basic print drivers from the website. A vista desktop and XP laptop however seem to work fine with it. I don't know if there's Mac or linux drivers for it, although the printer allows for very basic IP/PORT connections in it's setup so I imagine CUPS could do it.

I know not much help, but seeing in that we use this samsung in our 4 person dorm I would throw in the two cents.

 

[Lemon law]

With a $250 to $300 budget, you can get all that plus an all in one print, copy, fax, and scan The desk footprint will not get much bigger but the height may. I ended up getting a used brother 7820 N for way less than a $100.00 shipped, and with more options than I can shake a stick at.

Were I in your position and setting duplex as a priority, I would pick economy of printing and ease of operation as selection criteria. Maybe go to a best buy or similar and look at the instructions on the various display models. Or download various manuals on the internet to find out how hard or how easy setting up duplex printing is.

 

[Vincent]

Setting up duplex printing on a printer with automatic duplexing is a piece of cake.

 

[Lemon law]

Originally posted by: Vincent
Setting up duplex printing on a printer with automatic duplexing is a piece of cake.

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I will give Vincent the benefit of the doubt, but I would have to go deep into my manual
to figure out how to do duplexing. And since duplexing is always somewhat of a Rube Goldberg process, I find it hard to believe its all equally easy.

But since duplexing is not my priority, I will admit some ignorance in that area. But we also have to admit, the theory and instructions may be sound, but if it fails in practice at any paper feeding step, it may not pan out for the end user or it may be incredibly slow on some brands.

 

[redbox]

Originally posted by: Lemon law
With a $250 to $300 budget, you can get all that plus an all in one print, copy, fax, and scan The desk footprint will not get much bigger but the height may. I ended up getting a used brother 7820 N for way less than a $100.00 shipped, and with more options than I can shake a stick at.

Were I in your position and setting duplex as a priority, I would pick economy of printing and ease of operation as selection criteria. Maybe go to a best buy or similar and look at the instructions on the various display models. Or download various manuals on the internet to find out how hard or how easy setting up duplex printing is.

Yeah, I had been entertaining the idea of an all-in-one. I don't know how often I'd use the added features, but I suppose it's always nice to have something and not need it than to need something and not have it. The copy feature would be pretty nice for text books.

I also started looking at Brother brand printers so far the customer reviews all look good, but whenever I see them at the store they feel cheaply made to me. Newegg had a sell on the HL-5250DN that I just missed, but it seams mono lasers go on sell pretty often there and ebay has several to choose from.

Thanks for the input so far guys.

Edit: Well my parents surprised me with an HP Laserjet 4300 they bought off of ebay. I'll let you all know how it works out.

 

[Vincent]

Manual duplexing, where you first print one side and then feed those sheets through again to print the other side, tends to be inconvenient and prone to error. On the other hand, if you have a printer with automatic duplexing, then printing on both sides of the paper is a piece of cake.

OP: You can buy add-on automatic duplexers for the HP LJ 4000 series printers, but you might be able to buy one of the printers you listed above for the price you would pay for a duplexer.

Originally posted by: Lemon law

Originally posted by: Vincent
Setting up duplex printing on a printer with automatic duplexing is a piece of cake.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I will give Vincent the benefit of the doubt, but I would have to go deep into my manual
to figure out how to do duplexing. And since duplexing is always somewhat of a Rube Goldberg process, I find it hard to believe its all equally easy.

But since duplexing is not my priority, I will admit some ignorance in that area. But we also have to admit, the theory and instructions may be sound, but if it fails in practice at any paper feeding step, it may not pan out for the end user or it may be incredibly slow on some brands.

 

[redbox]

Actually, I found some duplexers on ebay for ~$65 shipped, so I'll have to pick one up sometime. The hospital I worked at used these for all of the laboratory reports. We never had many problems with the HPs, and we printed tons of reports.