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The thing is, if you don't need color, laser is almost certainly better (clogged heads, toner cost, etc). They aren't all that expensive either - for instance, the HP p1102w printers my school has cost about $110 but print quickly enough (20ppm or something - who cares? It's good enough).

A rambling incoherent article that proves nothing.

Hello, this is Melissa Riofrio. I'd like to thank the readers who have commented so far and will clarify here that the article is comparing cheap ($400 or so) color laser/LED-based multifunctions to color inkjet multifunctions in the same price range. The numbers don't lie: The $400-or-so inkjets have competitive speed, better features, and cheaper consumables than $400-or-so color laser/LED's. However I also agree with commenter LiveBrianD that if you do not need color, a monochrome laser is a perfect fit. Also, higher-end ($600 or more) laser/LED printers of any brand are going to have far fewer speed, feature, and cost drawbacks than their lower-cost cousins. Basically I am saying that the lowest-cost color lasers have a lot of caveats. Thanks again for your comments.

The new genration of business class inkjets are a better printing solution vs laser in many office environments. Adaptive Ink has "business class" Continuous Ink Supply Systems up to 4 Liters for the HP 8100 and 8600 Officejets currently available. We aslo have these systems for all the current Ricoh Gelsprinter models. We will be releasing new Pro-series systems for the Lexmark OfficeEdge and Epson Worforce Pro in the next month. Our goal is to provide high quality "Penny-per-Page" ink cost (per ISO/IEC 24711) solutions. If you print just a few thousand pages per month, our systems pay for themselves in just a few months and can honestly save you $10,000+ over the life of the printer. We can provide contact references at companies using our systems to print 1000s of pages a day without any print quality or other performance issues.

The new genration of business class inkjets are a better printing solution vs laser in many office environments. Adaptive Ink has "business class" Continuous Ink Supply Systems up to 4 Liters for the HP 8100 and 8600 Officejets currently available. We aslo have these systems for all the current Ricoh Gelsprinter models. We will be releasing new Pro-series systems for the Lexmark OfficeEdge and Epson Worforce Pro in the next month. Our goal is to provide high quality "Penny-per-Page" ink cost (per ISO/IEC 24711) solutions. If you print just a few thousand pages per month, our systems pay for themselves in just a few months and can honestly save you $10,000+ over the life of the printer. We can provide contact references at companies using our systems to print 1000s of pages a day without any print quality or other performance issues.

With all things considered, I break it down to three distinct categories. Ink jets, for professional photos and business formal prints are the best and can run from $50. to $300. USD. Next comes the laset types, where a laser draws in a photosensitive drum, picks up toner and deposits it on the paper and then fused to the page with heat. These are excellent for black only and high speed orientated for network printing. Color on a laser jet is a complicated process of getting four different colors toners (black, cyan, magenta and yellow) onto the page. LED'd being used to do the drawing instead of lasers has advanced the process somewhat but remains a delicate balance with particle charges and fusing devices. Many users opt for an all in one device and this can complicate things even more. From a service point of view, the laser machines can have several methods of replacing toner and photo drums together as a single device or as seperate assemblies. These can also create user generated trouble. Replacing ink cartridges and a regular cleaning internals will yield exceptional lifetimes and refilling cartridges from bulk sources will help to keep the cost per page down. Laser and LED types will seldom need more than a little cleaning each week to keep trouble free. Laser/LED internals are susceptable to dirty conditions as any bridges across insulated parts can cause blurry, ghostly and streaked printouts. A simple paper jam can cause all manner of problems when sheets get pulled out or torn. Simple conclusion, Laset for black only, high volume, network type devices and inkjets for color. All number of options with built in network, WIFI, BlueTooth and other wireless links can support an office with all manner of inputs from BlackBerries to a laptop/desktop. Consider all the needs and options against the budjet and I would like the color laser unit but that would hang totally on the photo reproduction. In an AIO unit, a color copy will reveal acceptablity.

Why then do almost all the inkjet printers have many bad reviews, really bad reviews.

As for reliability, I am using an HP Deskjet 722C that I got in 1998.
Granted, it doesn't get used every day nor does it get used that heavily but, after 14 years, it is still functioning.

and also compare price=quality to your needs..being efficient, productive and cheap at the same time is a great option for choosing between the two

This post has been edited by blondeluna: 18 July 2012 - 12:08 AM