Question on Laser Printer Toners

A

a_yalci

New Member
Hi all,

I plan to buy a laser printer for using at home, HP 1020 or Canon LBP 2900. I wonder if their toners come completely full or not when I buy them. The retailers have confused my mind... Thank you in advance...

A. Yalci, Ankara, Turkey
 
some brands (actually, just samsung) come with "start packs" which are 1/2 or 1/3 capacity toner cartridges to reduce the purchase price of the printer.

Another thing to consider is that although all brands have now standardized 3000 pages per cartridge for consumer-grade printers, and 5000 pages per cartridge for commercial printers, HP and samsung both have the printing drum contained IN the cartridge, so the toner is the only operational cost, vs. some other brands which still make you purchase the drum and toner seperately!

Buying a laser printer demands a lot of attention, but once you make the purchase, it will save you lots of $$$ and should last you a VERY long time.
 
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Thank you Simon and Heyman,

There are numeruous rumours about the cartridges. Some retailers say they come with complete cartridges and some say they come with start packs. Also, I couldn't find any information at printer manufacturers' websites. But I guess I will buy one of the HP or Canon, when I beleive they come with completely full cartridges. They both have a yield of 2000-3000 papers per cartridge.
 
Don't thank me, i wasn't any help!

I have an old school HP Laserjet 4+ that has so far lasted me 14 years, I'm on my second fuse and about 5th toner. You definitely get your monies worth out of a Laser!
 
heyman421 said:
some brands (actually, just samsung) come with "start packs" which are 1/2 or 1/3 capacity toner cartridges to reduce the purchase price of the printer.

Another thing to consider is that although all brands have now standardized 3000 pages per cartridge for consumer-grade printers, and 5000 pages per cartridge for commercial printers, HP and samsung both have the printing drum contained IN the cartridge, so the toner is the only operational cost, vs. some other brands which still make you purchase the drum and toner seperately!

Buying a laser printer demands a lot of attention, but once you make the purchase, it will save you lots of $$$ and should last you a VERY long time.
Click to expand...

Pretty much all of that is incorrect... Brother as well as Samsung include a partially full cartridge in the box. Furthermore, the statements about the cartridge yields is somewhat incorrect as well... Many of the HP's are around 2500 for their lower priced machines, the more expensive the machine, the higher yield the cartridges... However, Brother offers low and high yield cartridges for many of their B&W printers (some as low as 2500, some as high as 6700). HP does have a page yield page on their website at: http://www.hp.com/pageyield/ If you need to find out other page yields, doing a google search for such and such brand for such and such cartridge usually page yield will usually turn it up somewhere... :)

Oh, and there are certain inkjet printers that come very close to the same cost per page as the laser counterparts, especially if you looking for a full color machine.

And to answer the original question HP has full cartridges, and Canon does as well (mainly because Canon manufactures HP's B&W printers, HP just designs the shell around it; but HP does make their own color printers)
 
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It really depends on the printer and what you want to do with it. If you are concerned about cost, there are quite a few HP inkjet office grade printers that are virtually the same cost per page, and are a few hundred dollars cheaper than a similar laser. For quality (I assume you mean sharpness), there are Canon inkjets that have a resolution of 9600x4800, much higher than any laser. Finally, Epson inks are completely water-proof, and won't smudge, even if you try to rub it right as it comes out of the printer (the ink is sprayed at room temperature, allowing for a much faster drying time, especially on photos.) For photos ink is definitely the way to go.

The one area that lasers still have a leg up is if you only want B&W, then you can get a $100 - $150 printer that is pretty cheap to maintain, or if speed is your primary concern. Ink is a long way from even getting close to the speed of laser (think those large copiers at Kinko's, OfficeMax, Office Depot, etc.)
 
the 1020 comes with a full toner cartridge. it is only black and white printer though. no color.
 
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