Great Printing At A Great Price

Hewlett-Packard’s LaserJet 5L Xtra exemplifies the new breed of printers that offers laser quality at appealing prices of about $350.

Unfortunately, and fortunately, we’re faced with almost too many choices when shopping for a small-office printer. You’re likely to find these three types of printers as you shop: line printers, inkjet (or Bubble Jet), and laser. The good news, however, is that prices have been falling while quality has been improving among all of the choices. Competition within the laser and inkjet technology markets, as well as between the two, is creating a great opportunity for anyone shopping for printers now. You can get a basic monochrome 600 dots per inch (dpi) laser printer for less than $400 now and a color inkjet for as little as $200. In all categories, the print quality/price relationship is more favorable than ever for small offices trying to look good.

  Line & Dot Matrix Printers.

Yes, these printers that operate like a typewriter are still out there and still serve a purpose. Their rough print quality makes them unacceptable for communication with the outside world, but nothing beats their speed and cost-effectiveness (prices ranging from $99 to $200) for some jobs. If you print a lot of inventory or order reports, these printers spit them out fast and in quality that’s good enough for internal use. They’re also impact printers, so they can handle multipart carbon forms. If you can have only one printer in your office, this won’t do because a letter or contract printed on a line printer just isn’t up to today’s standards for professionalism. Keep in mind, too, that they’re far from quiet as they pound out page after page.

 Jet Printers.

Printers that use inkjet or Bubble Jet (Canon’s inkjet-like printer) technology have probably caught your eye because their prices are so remarkably low. The technology behind these printers that spray ink onto the page has advanced sufficiently over the past several years so that the quality of output is pretty good, too. For as little as $200, you can see clean output from your PC in multiple colors, if that’s what you want. These $200 printers are great for the kind of occasional use you might expect from a home user. In fact, you can start adding options such as more sophisticated color handling and software to help you make your own greeting cards and banners.

Brother's HL Plus series cranks out six pages per minute without going above the $350 mark.

The downside comes in speed, maintenance costs, and output degradation over time. Output degradation has to be the problem of greatest concern to business users. Even if you can wait the extra time it takes to print on an inkjet printer, you can’t afford to have a contract smear in your hand or fade in the files. Printer manufacturers have been working hard to perfect inks and speed up printing, and they’re starting to bring some improved products to market.

 Laser Printers.

Laser printers still provide the best combination of features for small business: superior print quality, fast output, and quiet operation. Best of all, market forces are driving laser printer prices down to previously unheard of levels. Printer pricing is starting to behave like PC pricing. Fierce competition among laser printer manufacturers, the closing-in of inkjet technology as an alternative, and decreasing component prices are all converging to make lasers more affordable than ever and probably cheaper than you’d expect. With the high-quality, quiet speed of lasers starting at prices less than $400, there’s no better choice for your small business.

 Before You Buy.

Shop carefully, and you’ll be able to pick up a high-quality laser that fits your needs. As with any other product—technological or otherwise—options such as those discussed below drive up prices, but some are worth every penny. Consider your specific needs and the options carefully, though, as you make your purchase decision. Buying based upon the information below can make sure you don’t buy a bargain printer that turns out to be an expensive lemon down the road. Here are some key elements to keep in mind as you make your choice:

Cost of use. This is easily one of the most important—and most often overlooked—things to consider when you’re choosing a printer. You’ll ultimately spend far more on consumables over the life of a printer than you spent on the printer itself, so look into costs now. Laser printer toner cartridges tend to cost more than inkjet cartridges, but the toner cartridges will produce more sheets. As you close in on a laser printer that you like, check the prices for its toner. (Toner is a powdery substance used in lasers instead of ink.) The toner should be available for purchase where you buy the printer. If it’s not, consider it a bad sign; there may be availability problems. The documentation (or the salesperson) should also be able to tell you how many printed pages to expect from a cartridge so you can figure out a cost per page; they even may have it calculated for you. Toner-only printers, such as Kyocera’s Ecosys line (http://www.kyocera.com), present an alternative to expensive cartridge replacement. All you do when it runs out is add the toner itself instead of the entire cartridge.

Printing For The Penny Pincher These money and timesaving tips can ensure that your smart buying extends beyond the initial printer purchase. • Look beyond the price tag. Consider costs of use over the expected life of printer, including toner/ink prices, special paper requirements, and printer life expectancy. • Get a quality cable that meets the printer's specifications. For a parallel connection, a bidirectional parallel cable that states on its label that it meets the IEEE-1284 specifications will usually fit the bill. (Make sure you know what the connectors are on the PC and the printer side.) • Check out alternative toner sources. Most printer manufacturers sell their own brands of toner and toner cartridges, but you don't have to buy them, and it won't affect your printer's warranty. For comparison with printer manufacturers' prices, check out Cartridges USA at (888) 866-3787 or http://www.cartridgeusa.com. • Print drafts of documents in a lower-resolution "draft mode" to save toner. When pages start looking spotty, take out the toner cartridge and rock it back and forth a few times. This will usually get a little bit of extra life out of a cartridge. • Keep your printer clean for efficiency and long life. Follow the manufacturer's recommendations for regular cleaning and maintenance.

Resolution. Resolution, measured in dpi, determines the clarity and level of detail a printer can achieve. Today’s standard for laser printer resolution for typical business use is 600dpi. There are still 300dpi machines out there, and you can find resolutions as high as 2,400dpi, but the majority of entry-level printers are 600dpi. Resolution affects cost of use, so consider your needs carefully and try not to overbuy. Printing at 1,200dpi can use twice as much toner as printing at 600dpi; do you really need it?

(NOTE: The end of this article explains what level of resolution and other factors you should expect at various price ranges.)

Duty cycle. This simply refers to the number of pages a printer is designed to print during a specified period of time, usually a month. If you know how many pages you’ll be printing, make sure you buy a printer that will accommodate your volume well and allow for growth. If you don’t really know how many pages you’ll print in a month, estimate and use the published duty cycle numbers as a tool in comparing printers.

Speed. Printer speed is measured in pages per minute (ppm). This speed isn’t necessarily what you’ll really get from the printer but the best the printer is capable of. Multiple fonts, graphics, and everything else in a typical document slow it down from there. Like the duty cycle, though, the speed rating is a good tool for comparing printers. If you print a lot of long documents, print multiple copies (as opposed to using a photocopier), or if you have a lot of people accessing a single printer, you should buy the fastest printer you can reasonably afford.

Memory. A laser printer operates by taking a full page of information into its memory, then putting that page image onto paper. As you can imagine, if you don’t have enough printer memory, this process is going to be slow, or worse, the printer will choke. Most printers today use memory-enhancement technology that compresses data to make more of a little memory. Still, if you’re going to print graphics or table-intensive pages, start off with at least two megabytes (MB) of memory in your printer. If your print jobs tend to be simple text documents, as little as 512 kilobytes (KB) may be sufficient. Whatever your needs now, be sure to buy a printer that will let you add memory in the future. You don’t want to be stuck with a printer that can no longer meet your needs if your output gets more table- or graphics-intensive in the future.

Paper size & feed options. If you frequently print to different sizes of paper or to envelopes, be sure that your printer can accommodate the paper and other media sizes that you need; not all can. You even may want to consider a printer with multiple input trays if you switch pap ers often. In a one-person office, switching paper in your single input tray may be tolerable, but if multiple users are printing on multiple output media, you’ll go crazy. You’ll also waste a lot of paper printing on the wrong kind! Consider how often you’ll need to reload, too. Some printers’ input trays hold as few as 20 sheets of paper; others hold multiple reams.

Sharing. Some mid-range printers can manage connections to two PCs simultaneously and will switch between them as needed. If you’re planning to share a printer between more than two computer users, get a network-ready printer. A network-ready printer can be connected straight to your local-area network without being tied to a PC on the network that acts as its server. If you don’t have a local-area network now but you envision setting one up at a later date, consider buying a printer that can be upgraded to a “network-ready” state. All you’ll have to do once the network is in place is add the specially designed network adapter to the printer, and it can be a free-standing network device.

Need color? Think carefully about whether you need color. It’s great to have—you can print brochures, fliers, and high-impact color presentations—but it will cost you. The increased “costs” come in the form of slower printing, higher initial purchase price, and high er consumables pricing. If you’ll need only occasional color, one alternative to going to a color laser, which will cost thousands of dollars, is to use a $200 inkjet for that occasional color job but have a monochrome laser workhorse for more typical and higher-volume office documents.

 Making The Choice.

To sort through the selections, you first must determine your needs and then pick the right printer technology. Then, you can get to the details of specific models. Here are some examples of reputable printers divided into price/feature categories that make it easier to see what types of printers might fit your budget.

 Budget Laser Printers: $350-$500.

It’s all about features; you don’t have to go to an off brand to get a laser printer in this price range. At this price, you’ll typically find a 600dpi laser with a rated print speed of four to eight pages per minute. These units are usually compact in size, connect to the PC via a serial or parallel cable, and are designed for workloads of 2,000 to 5,000 pages per month.

Step up to the $600 range to find printers such as the Okidata OL810e, which produces eight pages per minute and is ready for multiple users.

Hewlett-Packard’s offering in the price range, the LaserJet 5L Xtra, sells for around $350 and offers 600dpi laser printing at a rated speed of 4ppm. It has a 100-sheet paper input tray and single-sheet feeder for odd-size papers, envelopes, and card stock. The 5L Xtra comes with several free programs, including a version of Netscape Navigator that’s set up to take you right to the HP Web site. The 5L Xtra starts out with 1MB of memory, and you can easily add more. It works with Windows and DOS computers.

Brother makes the HL-720, a 600dpi Windows printer, that sells for about $360. Windows printers are a fairly new concept; they rely on your computer to process information for printing rather than on a processor inside the printer. This keeps costs down and works great if you don’t need to share the printer. The HL-720’s paper tray holds 200 sheets of paper, and you can feed envelopes and other odd-sized media. It has one-half megabyte of memory that can be expanded to two. But remember: It’s relying on your PC to process the page, so the computer’s configuration is more critical. Your PC must have a 486 or higher processor with at least 4MB (8MB recommended) of memory and 10MB of available hard drive space. Of course, it also needs to run Windows 3.1, 3.11, or 95. Brother also offers the newer 600dpi HL-730 Plus, which prints six pages per minute, has 1MB of memory, and has an expected street price of $350.

The NEC Superscript 860 is notable in this class because of its 8ppm speed. And it’s still in the range of around $390. The 860 uses the new Adobe PrintGear architecture. Its sophisticated software lets you print proof sheets and make booklets. Rather than choking on a complicated page, it drops resolution if it runs out of memory. Replacement toner cartridges are expensive at a suggested retail price of $149, but they make up for it by printing 5,000 pages each (double the usual output per toner cartridge).

 Mid-range Lasers: $600-$1000.

When you step up to this level, you get the added benefits of multiple paper trays, more memory, and a speedier output rating. Duty cycles tend to be more in the 10,000 to 20,000 page-per-month range. You’ll also see more upgradeable printers in this ran ge. Many of the units can have networking, duplexing, and other options added later.

Tektronix's Phaser 350 carries a free offer of black ink, but it's still costly enough at $3,000 to suit only roomy office budgets.

The HP LaserJet 6P is an 8ppm, 600dpi printer with two trays; one holds 250 sheets, and another holds 100 or feeds odd sheets. Two parallel ports let you share it between two PCs now, and you can add the JetDirect EX Plus networking package to share it over a network later. If you have a portable computer properly equipped, this printer also can receive wireless commands via its built-in infrared technology. This printer’s street price is around $800.

Okidata’s OL810e does 1,200 x 600dpi at 8ppm. It has parallel and serial inputs with auto-switching, so you can hook up two computers to share; multiple paper input trays make sharing easier, too. It sells for about $600.

 High-end Lasers: $1,000-$5,000 (and higher).

It all diverges here. It’s a broad price range that brings a broad range of feature directions. Stepping up to this price range can take you to workgroup printing, entry-level color, or complex page handling. Duty cycles are 30 to 100,000 pages per month for the monochrome models and lower, of course, for color.

The Tektronix Phaser 350 is a color laser that’s fairly economical to operate. The ink comes in sticks, which you replace individually as they run out. Tektronix currently offers free black ink, which draws the cost per page down. If you’re ready to spring for a color laser, this $3,000 printer is a good place to start.

The Hewlett-Packard LaserJet 5M comes ready for use with all major operating systems and has an Ethernet network adapter (10Base-T) on-board, which means it’s ready to be plugged into any Ethernet network system. It has 6MB of memory and offers 12ppm at 600dpi. It’s definitely a workhorse made to print 35,000 pages per month and sells for about $1,600. Move up to the Color LaserJet 5M for a little more than $5,000.

Clearly, these higher-end printers may be outside the budget of many small offices. But they may not be for long. Remember that today’s affordable printers were yesterday’s high-priced dream machines.  

by Tyna Callahan and Kimberly Maxwell