11-27-2008, 12:57 AM
In my (limited) experience you do get what you pay for, but you have to decide if paying for an expensive printer makes sense. We have an expensive, high end HP networked laser printer at work that prints many hundreds of prints per day with nary a pause. We just toss in a new cartridge every once in a while. The thing has been running for 6 or 7 years.
At my house, I use the cheapest printer I can find (currently a Samsung 2010, I think), buy cheap cartridges from somebody I found on Google (I recently bought 2 3000 page cartridges for $53) and throw the printer away when it gets wonky. I have 12,000 pages on the Samsung and I've owned it for 3 years. I paid somewhere in the $40 range for it (after a rebate that I received). My current one is starting to make strange noises, so I'll look for a new one soon. If I printed a lot more than 10 pages a day, I'd get a better one. But, for me, buying one that is disposable makes more sense. I just don't have to worry about it ever needing repair since I pay so little.
At my house, I use the cheapest printer I can find (currently a Samsung 2010, I think), buy cheap cartridges from somebody I found on Google (I recently bought 2 3000 page cartridges for $53) and throw the printer away when it gets wonky. I have 12,000 pages on the Samsung and I've owned it for 3 years. I paid somewhere in the $40 range for it (after a rebate that I received). My current one is starting to make strange noises, so I'll look for a new one soon. If I printed a lot more than 10 pages a day, I'd get a better one. But, for me, buying one that is disposable makes more sense. I just don't have to worry about it ever needing repair since I pay so little.