Inkjet Printer
vs.
Laser Printer

Using the sliders, set the importance of each aspect.
Choozza will then find the best product for you.

Inkjet Printer

2
Cost
2
Extras
2
Paper Variety
2
Photo Printing
2
Size and Weight
2
Text Printing
2
Volume Printing

Laser Printer

Inkjet Printer

Inkjet printers work by shooting tiny droplets of ink onto the printing paper. The ink is stored in removable and usually disposable ink cartridges. Color inkjet printers will normally have four such cartridges - one for black ink and three others of different colors.
Cartridges are usually replaced and can sometimes be refilled.

Laser Printer

Laser printers usea a laser beam to process the images they print. The laser printer uses toner - which is a dry powder placed on the paper using electric charges.
The toner is encased in a disposable cartridge which is replaced when required.

Cost

Initially, inkjet printers are quite cheap. It's the ink cartridges that cost the bulk of money (and this is usually how the manufacturers make their earnings). The cost of running an inkjet printer over time is far more expensive than a laser printer. As your printing volumes build up, so do your expenses, and ink cartridges are more expensive then toner for the same amount of prints. Third party ink suppliers are almost always cheaper than getting ink from the original manufacturer. So you probably want to ensure you have this option if you're going for an inkjet. The general rule of thumb is that the cheaper the printer, the more expensive the disposable costs for the cartridges.
While more expensive upfront, Laser printers are cheaper in the long run. This is more true the more you print. This holds for black and white laser printers, and for when you are mainly going to print text pages. Colour laser printers are significantly more expensive, and depending on your print volumes and what you print, may not be such a good buy.

Extras

Almost all inkjet printers have memory card readers built in. This is very handy for printing photos directly, without a computer. Inkjets very commonly come in the "all-in-one" variety where you get a scanner and a photocopier as well as a printer. It is less common for home-grade inkjets to have wireless connectivity. This is mainly because inkjets don't normally have memory and must use memory from a computer they are hooked up to. This means that while an inkjet can be shared on a home network, and all computers can print to it, it can not work individually.
Laser printers are usually just printers. While you can find models that have memory-card readers and models that have a scanner and a copier in an "all-in-one" combo, they are not as cheap and widespread as their inkjet counterparts. On the other hands, laser printers always have their own memory, which makes them good candidated for being independant printers. Coupled with wireless networking capabilities, a laser printer can be added to your home network stand-alone - you do not need to hook it up to a computer in order to use it.

Paper Variety

Inkjet printers can normally print on many different paper types. They can do regular A4 papers, but also smaller A5, envelopes, glossy papers for photos, transparencies, etc.
Laser printers for home use usually have only one paper size - A4. This is very handy when all you print are text documents, but less so if you'd like to print your photos on glossy papers, envelopes, party invitations, etc.

Photo Printing

Inkjets excel at photo printing, especially when performed on specialty glossy photo paper. The colors and resolution provided by even simple models may be quite stunning and the top-end home printers can produce photos or graphs at an almost professional level. Most models sold today have slots for camera memory cards and take a variety of paper types, some of which are specific for photo printing. The only downsides are the slowness of printing and the fact that for some models, very few photos may require you to change ink cartridges.
Home grade laser printers use ink for color photos and graphics, and are really not well suited for printing photos. The quality is poor and they can not usually use the special paper types sold for photo printing.

Size and Weight

Most inkjet printers are compact and lightweight. They can be easily moved around the house if required, and do not take up too much space on the desk. Many people store the printer away and take it out to hook up to their computer only when they need it, thereby avoiding clutter in their work area.
Laser printers are generally heavy and rather on the large side. The size and weight are affected by the imaging drum, toner cartridge which is usually larger than the several unk cartridges of the inkjet, and the laser technology encasement. Laser printers are not easy to move about the house, and most people find that they need to set a permanent space for them in their work area. That being said, newer models targetted at home users are getting smaller and smaller.

Text Printing

Most inkjet printers sold for home use today provide good-enough quality for text prints. However, they can't match laser printers in clarity and quality of text and fonts. This is especially true for larger fonts where most inkjets fail to provide flawless letters. Freshly printed pages are a bit wet, and care should be taken to let them dry for a short while so as not to smear the ink.
Laser printers normally boast very high and very accurate print quality. The reason for that is that the laser printers generally have higher print resolution, and can lend more sharpness to the text they print. The fine print in laser printers is really fine.

Volume Printing

Inkjet printers print relatively slow and are not really designed for high volume printing. Additionally, the ink on the printed paper is still a bit wet when the paper emerges from the printer, and this could mess up large printing volumes. On top of that, the paper feed tray usually holds a smaller amount of pages than the laser printers' trays, meaning you may have to stop and reload paper half-way through a big document. All in all, the occasional hundred pages document is fine, but if you're going to print these amounts a few times a week - you may want to opt for another printer.
Laser Printers print fast and they are excellent at handling those large volumes. The text quality they produce is a lot better than what you get with most inkjets, and the printed papers do not have wet ink on them, and are less susceptible to smears.

Inkjet Printer

No extra images

Laser Printer

No extra images

Inkjet Printer

Average rating: 4 / 5
based on 288 customer reviews
Feel factor: 6


HP 3360 Printer

(Score 5/5)

Easy to set up and easy to operate. Great quality print including excellent color quality. A superb jp,e pffoce [rpdict/

Posted on: 2010-07-23
By AlanR



Devil Printer

(Score 1/5)

1. Devil Printer can only take about 10 sheets at a time, forcing you to constantly reload.
2. Devil Printer always interrupts what you're doing to see if it can download upgrades for its software. Said upgrades then cause Windows to crash. (Specifically, it requires an update of its "HP MediaSmart DVD Application Update" every couple of days, after which you have to restart your computer! What a hassle!)
3. Devil Printer will not stop telling you "it's ready!"
4. Devil Printer has a nasty habit of grabbing two sheets at a time and printing on 10% of one; 90% of the other, thereby ruining your print job.

Posted on: 2010-05-06
By Caraculiambro
Helpful index: 100%



Good by HP

(Score 1/5)

I have had several HP printers over the years starting with a HP 660 and have had good luck with them all. ( We still have a 722c that's 7 years old and still working ) But this 6310 is testing my patience. Right out of the box it would not recognize the black cartridge that came with it so, first thing I had to do was go buy a cartridge. Then tech support had me jumping through hoops for three days to fix all the problems. I don't mind spending some time to get a product working but when you pay for a printer, you expect it to work right out of the box not days or weeks later. I have reloaded the software several times ( lost count really ) and every time we try to print, a box comes up to tell me there is no printer and the printer feeds a blank sheet then the next sheet prints ?? The ink is very expensive and refills will not be recognized by the machine. The fax stopped working about a month ago at an inopportune time when a doctor was faxing important data. After 5 try's I told them to mail it. Very disappointed good by HP time to try something else.

Posted on: 2010-04-28
By Terry in Florida



More HP junk, pure and simple

(Score 1/5)

Just like the 6210, this has the dreaded "carriage jam" issue, which means you should avoid it like the PLAGUE. HP has become terrible when it comes to printers, and you'd be better off lopping your fingers off and writing your documents up with all the spraying blood seeing as it would be less painful than dealing with either the 62/6310 series.

Save yourself the infinite grief and just avoid at all costs. You have been warned.

Posted on: 2010-04-23
By John L. Williams
Helpful index: 100%



Ok printer, Ink costs will get you

(Score 2/5)

First off the main reason we bought this printer was to make our wedding invitations with it. We started with the 6200 series, but that printer wouldn't pull paper in straight for the life of it, so the resulting print was slanted on the page, and never at a predictable angel. We returned it and switched to this printer 3 1/2 years ago. It worked for what we needed, but never really wowed us. We were printing on vellum, which we know doesn't absorb the ink as well. We had troubles with the little bristles that stick down after the output rollers smearing the ink on some of the prints.

In the years to follow, we had the printer on a network, and constantly had problems with the printer showing itself offline. We would have to turn it on, and reset the network about 50%-60% of the time we wanted to print.

In our experience a typical ink cartridge would only last for about 100 pages, so for us I would estimate our print costs to be about $0.25/page. We only used the printer for very light duty, probably 30 pages/month, and just last month we got an error message "Power Reset." Tried turning it off and back on, got the same error again, tried unplugging it, didn't work. Tried a few more times, then it started showing the same error, and turning it's self off, but kept the camera light blinking. soon it wouldn't even attempt to turn on. So I got online and searched for a solution, and found out how to do 4 different types of reset, Tried each, and on the full reset, I got it to power on, but all I got was the "Power Reset" error and every light blinked, and it beeped continuously. So I called HP, they said they couldn't help me because it was out of warranty. Said they could sell me a service plan, but weren't confident they could fix it. There solution was "Why don't you buy a new printer?"

I'm only really upset because from a $250 printer you would expect to get more than 1500 pages through it before it fails. It wasn't abused with heavy use. The actual hardware is in great shape and worked fine, it was only the software we ever really had problems with.

Guess HP was right, now I'm shopping for a new printer, But I'm not shopping for a HP.

Posted on: 2010-04-05
By Tyler Maricich
Helpful index: 100%

Laser Printer

Average rating: 4 / 5
based on 593 customer reviews
Feel factor: 4


good printer

(Score 4/5)

Replaced a Dell, this is faster at cold start. I hope it lasts as long. Supplies are cheaper.

Posted on: 2010-09-25
By Duff Lacy



A very good laser printer for home or small o

(Score 5/5)

Brother HL-2170W is a very good laser printer for personal or small office use. I bought it for my personal home use. Initially I though that I would buy a color inkjet printer. However, after a lot of research, I settled on this one.

I am not disappointed at all. The printer is comparatively easy to setup, though I am using it hardwired, through an USB cable.

It takes less than 10 seconds, which is really a charm, comparing to the bigger HP laserjet printer at my office, that can take upto a few minutes. It is a bit noisy, but
is bearable.

The quality of the printer is excellent event compared to that of the bigger ones. Overall, this is really a value for money.

Posted on: 2010-09-25
By Nirmalya



Easy Setup

(Score 5/5)

I installed the printer using an ethernet cable hooked up to my router. Both Windows 7 and Ubuntu 10.04 picked up the printer without any issue by going to their respective "add network printer" screen and doing a scan. Both OSes already had drivers for it. However, to access some of the more advanced features (e.g. the double sided printing mode) you will need to use the drivers on the CD (or better yet, download the latest ones from their website).

Right now I have it hooked up to one of non-battery outlest on my UPS. Every once in a while I'll hear a relay click in the UPS when the printer warms up but I haven't had any problems yet. Like all laser printers this does require alot of wattage when printing but nothing typical home wiring can't handle.

The construction of the printer feels a little flimsy to me. Pulling out and reinserting the paper tray feels alot more clunky that I'd like. I'm used to dealing with the workgroup laser printers at work that cost an order of magnitude more than this, so I know comparing the two isn't really fair, but you definitely won't be mistaking this printer for a high end one. That being said, I don't think it's going to fall apart on me and maybe the paper tray mechanism will get smoother with age.

Posted on: 2010-09-25
By Anand Thakur



Easy wireless setup

(Score 5/5)

Just wanted to add my experience with wireless setup. Received the printer today and set it up in about 10 minutes without ANY cords, using the instructions at:

[...].

These instructions were NOT included in the paper manual that came with the printer.

In a nutshell: reset the printer, initialize its wireless adapter, and connect your PC directly to the printer with a wireless connection. You access the printer through your browser, give it your wireless router's settings, and the printer connects to your router. From then on, you can access the printer through the router. Install the driver from the CD and you're done.


Posted on: 2010-09-24
By Lynn R. Blickenstaff



Easy to setup

(Score 5/5)

Don't believe what some of these other reviews are saying about the setup, it is easy. Just follow the instructions. I have 4 computers (PC) on our home network. I followed the directions to the T, and plugged the printer into the router like it says - then used the disc on 3 of the computers with flawless results.

For the 4th computer, I didn't realize I hadn't installed the printer, and it automatically installed the drivers for me just fine. Simple. Just don't get cocky, do what it says! :)

Posted on: 2010-09-21
By Erilyx

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