Disclaimer: My day job is currently working for a marketing company contracted by HP. My past experience was working in a retail store, and currently I also have a 2nd job working in IT as a consultant and software dev for a local company. The opinions described in this comment do not reflect those of any of my employers or their affiliates and/or partners, and are solely my own.
I've almost always maintained two printers at home: a large, heavy-duty printer for everyone's prints in the family, and a smaller one for my own use. Our family had inkjet printers back in the day, from every imaginable brand, and we were spending an insane amount on our ink, so we ended up switching to laser at home. However, while lasers are certainly a great way to go, they aren't without their own problems.
My last Brother (an HL-4570CDW), at about 6-7 months into its use, started printing specks throughout the page. I cleaned the transfer belt and corona wires on the drums to no avail. Eventually I learned from my job at the time, working at a computer store, that there was a category of customers that showed up, who encountered the same or similar issue with their Brother lasers. Lastly, I found out that the color toner wasn't very cheap, costing around $90 or so for 3,500 prints. The black was decent, though, at 6,000 prints for roughly $80. Over the life of that printer, I spent a decent amount of time on its maintenance and less so using it. The HL-4570CDW (and apparently, from what I understand, every Brother laser) has a separate drum as well, but thankfully unlike some other Brother color lasers, it only had one drum for all the cartridges and not a separate drum for each cartridge. The thing was supposed to last for 25,000 pages (a lot) and cost $130 or so.
My smaller printer at the time was a Brother HL-2170W. It ran alright, and I never ran into any difficult issues with it. The toner was roughly $50 for 2,600 prints, and the quality was good enough for basic schoolwork. I wasn't very happy with the drum being a separate purchase, as it ran for about $80 and lasted 12,000 prints (I print a decent amount).
Between my two lasers, I was the happiest with my HL-2170W. I wasn't very happy with how much power each one of the lasers would suck up (far more than my PC ever has), and sometimes the light would dim as they printed. Page curl was a pain, but a relatively minor one. However, compared to the inkjets I was buying before, it was a much cheaper choice, and so I didn't complain much.
Then, I found business-class inkjets. These are inkjets that are supposed to deliver yields comparable to that of a laser printer, but cost less on ink. I was very skeptical at first. I had complete doubt that any of these printers would be even remotely reliable, or that the print quality would be terrible. But, after my HL-4570CDW finally took a dump on me, I was in the market for new options, so I decided to give it a go.
I ended up replacing the Brother HL-4570CDW with an HP Officejet Pro x576dw. This is an interesting printer, as it has print heads that are the width of the page, so it doesn't need to move a carriage back and forth. This lets this printer print enormously fast: 42 ppm ISO with its peak speeds at 70 ppm ISO. Now, speed aside, the cartridges were where I was impressed:
| Cartridge | HP x576dw | Price | Yield | Cost | Brother HL-4570CDW | Price | Yield | Cost |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Black | 970XL | $120 | 9,200 | 1.30 ¢/page | TN-315BK | $80 | 6,000 | 1.33 ¢/page |
| Cyan | 971XL Cyan | $110 | 6,600 | 1.67 ¢/page | TN-315C | $90 | 3,500 | 2.57 ¢/page |
| Magenta | 971XL Magenta | $110 | 6,600 | 1.67 ¢/page | TN-315M | $90 | 3,500 | 2.57 ¢/page |
| Yellow | 971XL Yellow | $110 | 6,600 | 1.67 ¢/page | TN-315Y | $90 | 3,500 | 2.57 ¢/page |
Granted, I was still worried about reliability and print quality, in addition to being concerned with the ink drying up. However, having used the thing now for almost a year, I haven't had a single issue with it. It's been extremely reliable, extremely fast, and runs on less than a 1/5th of the power my Brother used when printing.
After that lovely experience, I was much more open to considering a different printer in place of my Brother upstairs. Its wireless support was fairly cruddy, and I ended up wiring it over the network, but even so its ethernet port was made rather cheaply, so I had to tape the cable in. It wasn't pretty. Plus, it'd be nice to be able to scan. The printer I personally settled on was the HP Officejet Pro 8630, but to try and avoid bias, I'm also showing the stats for similar printers from HP's competitors compared to a laser with similar features and capabilities, as well as the laser I replaced. I'm using the highest capacity cartridges that each manufacturer sells.
| Brother HL-2170W | Brother MFC-9130CW | HP Officejet Pro 8630 | Epson Workforce WF-4630 | Canon MAXIFY MB5320 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Black | TN-360 | TN-221BK | 950XL | 786XL Black | PGI-2200XL BK |
| Price | $50 | $60 | $38 | $42 | $37 |
| Yield | 2,600 | 2,500 | 2,300 | 2,600 | 2,500 |
| Cost | 1.92 ¢/page | 2.40 ¢/page | 1.65 ¢/page | 1.62 ¢/page | 1.48 ¢/page |
| Cyan | - | TN-225C | 951XL Cyan | 786XL Cyan | PGI-2200XL C |
| Price | - | $70 | $28 | $40 | $28 |
| Yield | - | 2,200 | 1,500 | 2,000 | 1,755 |
| Cost | - | 3.18 ¢/page | 1.87 ¢/page | 2.00 ¢/page | 1.60 ¢/page |
| Magenta | - | TN-225M | 951XL Magenta | 786XL Magenta | PGI-2200XL M |
| Price | - | $70 | $28 | $40 | $28 |
| Yield | - | 2,200 | 1,500 | 2,000 | 1,295 |
| Cost | - | 3.18 ¢/page | 1.87 ¢/page | 2.00 ¢/page | 2.16 ¢/page |
| Yellow | - | TN-225Y | 951XL Yellow | 786XL Yellow | PGI-2200XL Y |
| Price | - | $70 | $28 | $40 | $28 |
| Yield | - | 2,200 | 1,500 | 2,000 | 1,520 |
| Cost | - | 3.18 ¢/page | 1.87 ¢/page | 2.00 ¢/page | 1.84 ¢/page |
| Ink Type | Toner | Toner | Pigment Ink | Pigment Ink | Pigment Ink |
| Black ISO Print Speed | 22 ppm | 19 ppm | 21 ppm | 20 ppm | 23 ppm |
| Colour ISO Print Speed | - | 19 ppm | 16.5 ppm | 20 ppm | 15 ppm |
| Input Trays | 1 x 250 sheet | 1 x 250 sheet | 2 x 250 sheet | 2 x 250 sheet | 2 x 250 sheet |
| Duplex (Double-Sided Prints) | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Manual/Specialty Feed | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes |
| Flatbed Scanner | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| ADF Scanner | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Duplex ADF Scans | No | No | 2 pass | 2 pass | 1 pass |
| Power Usage (Standby) | 80 watts | 70 watts | 6.8 watts | 7.5 watts | 2.9 watts |
| Power Usage (Printing) | 460 watts | 380 watts | 35 watts | 20 watts | 22 watts |
Another thing to note is that many of these models have similar printers in their line, give or take a number of features, but with the same ink yields. They are worth looking into if the printers above are a bit pricey.
Each brand also has their own quirks:
- Brother: High-maintenance if you want your printer to last. Cleaning is mostly manual, and the software isn't the most user-friendly.
- HP: Forget about ICC profiles. HP doesn't provide them for anything but their professional-class printers.
- Epson: Not very user-friendly; menu options are poorly organized, worded, and take a long time to navigate. Additionally, their paper trays are very picky about how far you push the paper in, and prone to misfeeds.
- Canon: Similar to Epson with user-friendliness, but marginally better. Their MAXIFY printers will not let you change the cartridges until the printer decides its time (why they did this I have no idea).
And pros:
- Brother: Of all the laser printers I've seen, these seem to generate the least noise.
- HP: Extremely user friendly and easy to set up; takes the least time to use. Large 4.33" touchscreen on their 8620 and 8630, a 3" touchscreen on their 8610.
- Epson: Provide ICC profiles on their website with easy access. Lots of controls over your print.
- Canon: Single-pass two-sided scanning on the 5320 is remarkable. Fairly sturdy construction.
At my second job (IT), I convinced my boss to tear out all the laser printers they were using and replace them with business-grade inkjets. Currently they're using 2 of the HP x576dw's (one more on order), and 3 of the HP 8620s. Their costs have gone down significantly, and under heavy usage, no one's had an issue.
Before settling on a laser printer, typically I'd recommend looking at business-class inkjets and seeing if any of them will fit your needs. Many times they cost you less on ink, are just as reliable, use less power, and often times are much more user-friendly.
Picking just any inkjet, though, is a gamble. Many times manufacturers will make similar models in the same line that are significantly less reliable. For HP, I know this to be the 6830. While the 8600 series printers almost never require cleaning (I've printed after 3 months of no use, and the print quality was just like new on my 8630), the 6830 may require cleanings for infrequent use. Another example: Epson has a similar model, the WF-3640, with tiny ink cartridges compared to the WF-4630.
Last note: Much of the problem with wet ink and dried up cartridges when it comes to color prints is due to the cheap dye ink found in a lot of cheaper inkjets. This stuff has inconsistent print results, runs, fades in UV light, and dries up much more often in a cartridge. These business-class inkjets use pigment ink, essentially a powder suspended in liquid, that has none of the problems dye ink has, along with providing near-instant dry times and water-resistance. I've never had a problem with my printer ruining a highlighter, either.
EDIT: Accidentally overshot the 950 XL's page yield, changed from 2,500 to 2,300 and updated cost per page to reflect change; found out that the WF-4630 does do two-sided scans, it's just poorly documented
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