Need help deciding on a printer

[RunMav]

Hi!

I'm in the midst of trying to buy a printer for an office, but can't decide if I want to buy an all-in-one printer or seperate printer and fax machines.

Can anyone help me decide:
1. Is a laserjet better than inkjet on print quality.
2. I was under the impression that HP is the best brand. Is this the case for all-in-one as well?
3. Are all-in-one printers better/worse than stand alone printers
4. An all-in-one printer needs to be on at all times for fax reception right? Will this dry up ink leaving on all the time?

Criterias for choosing:
-Will be doing couple thousand pages at least every month
-Total cost should be below or around $600, I see alot in the $400 range.
-Reliability

I did a search and didn't see anything on this, so hopefully this is not a double post.


Thank you for all your inputs!!!

 

[RunMav]

Anyone?

 

[chandler_andy]

In my opinion, you are better off getting a separate fax machine (at least). I would definately go with a laser printer, otherwise you are going to spend more than your printer's price in ink every month, not to mention laser printers are a hell of a lot faster than inkjet. I would also figure that you'll use the printer more than the fax machine. If you also need a copier, you could probably get a budget copier and fax machine, based on how much use it will get, and spend more money on a laser printer.

 

[RunMav]

Thanks for your input!

Is there much of a difference in the quality between a standalone fax machine and the all-in-one? I will do quite a bit of faxing, but not as much as printing.

The all-in-one printers that I think are nice:
-HP Laserjet 2055
-HP Lasetjet 3390
-Brother MFC 8840DN
-Brother MFC 8860DN
Out of these I hear the HP cartridge costs more and prints less than the Brothers. Does anyone know how quality/reliability these compare?

The stand alone printer that I think are nice:
-Brother HL-5250DN
Are there any good HP ones people can recommend?

Thanks!!

 

[nobly]

I agree w/ the previous poster on the stand-alone fax. The problem with an all-in-one is that if it dies, you're all out of options. Since its for a business, not being able to receive faxes or send faxes might be a bigger problem if you have some downtime.

Laser is better than inkjet quality-wise for text. I'm assuming you're doing b&w text here. Laser is also cheaper in the long run, and since you're doing thousands of pages a month, its the way to go.

HP is a good brand but they have high prices on ink/toner.
There have been some reviews on all-in-ones on tomshardware, I'd check those out.

I'd say the quality for the standalone vs all in one for a fax really depends on the machine. I've seen sucky standalone faxes. I have one. I've seen sucky all in ones. Can't really say unless you go and get some demo pages.

Can't help on the hp vs brother - I haven't seen a brother print out.
good luck!

 

[chandler_andy]

I agree with the above poster regarding demoing something. I know in the office I work at, we demoed our laser color printer for a week before deciding to purchase it. That gives you time to see what features you need and perhaps you could get away with a lesser model.

 

[WizardOZ]

You are better off to get a seperate printer and copy/ fax machine. Get a laser printer. You can get reasonably good colour lasers for around 400 to 600 dollars. The toner is a little more expensive, and the output resolution resolution isn't as good as an inkjets, but operational costs and long-term reliability are much better.

You should also look at the availability of the following features on the printer:

duplex (double-sided) printing

network connectivity and operation.

Your photocopier / fax machine should also have the capability to be connected to the network. Another feature that your photocopier should have is scanning. Again, scanning over a network is a good feature to have. Problem is that this kind of device tends to be fairly large and expensive.