What will it really cost me?
The prices of personal printers look pretty enticing, especially those sub-AU$200 models. But keep in mind that the purchase price is just the start: the care and feeding of a printer can quickly exceed the original cost. Before pulling out your credit card, be sure to compare the costs of consumables.Ink and toner
Inkjets are the least expensive printers available, with many models starting at less than AU$150. The catch? The consumables, such as replacement inks and specialty papers, can cost you an arm and a leg. Ink typically costs between AU$30 and AU$120 per cartridge and can last for 100 to 200 pages. More expensive printers, however, tend to be more economical to operate because they have higher-capacity ink tanks and separate ink tanks for each colour so that you don't need to replace everything when only one colour runs dry. To save some money, you can purchase a compatible ink-refill kit from a separate company, though you may not get the same reliability or print quality.
Laser toner cartridges vary greatly in price, yield, and print capabilities. Toner cartridges generally cost from AU$30 for a small cartridge for a personal laser printer to as much as AU$700 for a high-capacity cartridge for a networked workgroup laser printer. Toner costs seem high, but so is the yield. A cartridge typically prints between 2,500 and 10,000 pages (although some claim to print as many as 30,000), so the cost per page is a few cents for text (at 5 percent coverage) and not much more for images (with 15 percent coverage). Pay attention to the expiration dates, though; some cartridges (HP's in particular) will stop working at a set time, no matter how much ink is left. Also, consider paying a little more for a separate toner cartridge and drum kit, rather than the usual combination unit. That way, you don't have to replace the drum, which is often capable of handling many more print jobs, every time you replace the toner.
Factoring in the cost of the printer and the cost of the printed pages, lasers still cost more in total, but that's because their purchase price is so much higher. The cost of printing pages on inkjets, however, can easily overtake the cost of purchasing the actual printer.
| Printing Costs | |
| Printer: | Rough Cost per 1,000 pages printed |
| Budget inkjet* | AU$150 |
| Personal laser | AU$52 |
| Business laser | AU$30 |
| Note: * Assuming 750 black pages and 250 colour pages | |
Snapshot printers based on dye-sublimation use ribbons that are often sold in packs with matching paper. Their output quality looks similar to that of professional photo processing, but the ribbons and paper can be exorbitant, sometimes as much as AU$4 per photo.
Paper
If there's one thing we've learned from our Labs' extensive printer testing, it's that better-quality paper yields better-quality printouts. For the best results, you really need to bite the bullet and buy the coated or specialty paper recommended by the manufacturer of your model. This is particularly true for inkjets, photo printers, and multifunction devices. Special paper can cost 20 cents to AU$4 per letter-size sheet, but it is essential if you want to print crisp-looking text or high-resolution photos.
Other extras
The biggest gotcha with many printers is the printer cable. Incredibly, many manufacturers don't even include one because retailers want to sell you one separately, and it lowers the manufacturer's warranty coverage somewhat. Before leaving the store, read the box to determine whether you'll need to buy one separately. For some business inkjets and laser printers, network connectivity is optional, as well.
If you're purchasing a workgroup printer or an advanced multifunction printer, you should also consider some paper-handling features that are frequently offered as add-ons, such as larger-capacity input trays; output bins for collating, stapling, and other finishing options; and auto documents feeders for copying and faxing multipage documents.
| What
kind of printer is best for me? Are you a home user, photo enthusiast or high-flying executive, and what printer is best for each type? |
| What
are my options? What's the difference between each printer type? |
| How
do I sort out the specs? If DPI means as much to you as PPM, check out our guide to demystifying printer specifications. |
| How
do I judge print quality? Text, image and photo printing quality explained. |
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Great site....I've learnt heaps, still not sure whcih printer to go with but am far more informed thaks to you. Well done & thankyou