Inkjet vs. Laser Printers

Well the most important consideration you should have is how are you planning to use your printer. If you are using it for a business where you will need to be printing lots of pages in short periods of time, you should probably be getting a laser printer. If you are planning to use it for home where you will only print documents once in a while, perhaps the inkjet would suit you better. Laser printers usually have pricey refills for their toners though they can last to print up to above 1000 pages as compared to the ink cartridges of inkjets. If you do the math, it typically costs about 2 cents per page of printing for laser printers and around 5 cents per page for inkjets. In terms of speed, laser printers can zap out pages much faster than the typical inkjets though business model inkjets are now getting faster and quieter. Do note that for laser printers, some can only print in black and not colour so make sure you get the right one!

 

There are quite a bit of factors you need to consider. First is exactly what you need the printer to do, and second is the price of consumable in comparison to how much you are going to print and the price of the printer you are buying. There are more things you can consider but these two are a good place to start and the best way to narrow it down.

 

For me, it's cheaper to buy a laser printer. The inkjet printer are cheaper upfront because most of the money is made when you buy the inkjet cartridges. I got a great deal on a Brother laser printer. They are very durable workhorses. Their cartridges are relatively cheaper than the other manufacturers such as HP. I feel that I get a high return on my investment with my Brother laser printer.

Brother also makes a printer, scanner and fax combination. I bought one for my mother a few years ago. She loves it.

 

We've just bought an Epson Workforce Pro WP4535 combined printer, scanner fax and copier, and we've bought it because we think it will be pretty cheap on consumables, and it has great reviews. I think the advice I'd offer is not to go for the cheapest printer on the market, because you'll probably find that what you save on the printer itself, you'll end up spending on ink cartridges.

 

Are you referring to a color laser printer or a b&w laser printer? Also, are you looking to print photographs or just documents?

If you're primarily going to be printing photos, I would go with a good quality inkjet printer. Inkjet printers are slower but they print a much finer and sharper image. You can even find archival quality inks and papers for them if you're interested in going down that road. Color laser printers are more geared towards printing quickly, but when you look at the full color prints up close they are nowhere near as sharp as an inkjet, and they don't produce accurate colors. It's also easier to change the ink in inkjet printers, they're overall less maintenance.

On the other hand, if you just need a printer to prints stuff out quickly - mainly documents for work or business, then I would definitely go with a laser printer. I don't know what the cost per print is vs an inkjet, but I would venture to guess it's much less. The cartridges themselves usually cost about 3x as much as an inkjet cartridge, but I've gotten way more prints out of them than I ever would with an inkjet before needing refills. Laser printers however, particularly color laser printers, are a bit more messy when it comes to changing cartridges. There's powdery pigment that leaks out of them and gets all over the place. You periodically have to wipe down the rollers and other parts in the device.

 

Laser printers are pricey but it can be used very much in the long run. Plus it's easy to print and fast too. If you're tight on budget then go with Inkjets. A bit slow compared to lasers though. Plus the cartridge is pricey too when the ink runs out.

 

Actually I recently saw a deal on a new ink jet printer, the newer version of the one I now have. Pretty good printer and scanner. The newer version was selling for not too much over the cost of one of the two cartridges.
I would guess the decision re inkjet vs. Laser depends largely on how many pages the person will be printing.
When you can buy a new printer for less than the two cartridges, a buyer is tempted to move from new printer to another new printer instead of a refill. Seems rather wasteful though.
Ryder13

 

I agree with parker that inkjet cartridges are very costly. However, if you know how to refill a cartridge, you would no longer need to purchase ink cartridges every time it runs out of ink. Just purchase a refill kit and you're good to go. Google search how to refill an inkjet cartridge. You would be able to save hundreds of dollars.