Round 2: Economical Printers, Color Laser Printers vs. Inkjet Printers

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This is part 2 in the series of “Most Economical Printers, Laser vs. Inkjet”

Ok, last time we looked at black and white laser printers vs. inkjet printers to determine what was the most economical printer. The Samsung ML-2525 squared off against a HP Deskjet D1660. A few comments on that match up before we review the results. The Samsung was much more highly rated than the HP. In fact the HP printer had several reviews that said you’l be lucky to get between 200 to 400 pages period, before the printer wore out. So, not very economical there. Still, for the purposes of the comparison, we were going on cheapest printer period. Another thing to consider was that we had two fictional printer users, one who printed a hundred pages a year (2 a week, approximately) and one who printed 500 pages a year (10 a week approximately). Some people print more, some less but we needed a baseline for comparison. Another thing to consider is that we didn’t use up all our fictional ink/toner – you can’t buy half a toner cartridge. So we still had some pages left in our printers. We also compared black and white, which is probably not indicative of how most people user there printers. Your average user probably does a mixture of print and photos. Anyway, lets compare our color printers here. Let’s make the same assumptions as before.

One user printing 100 pages a year
One user printing 500 pages a year
Both printers are kept 5 years
We’ll factor the cost of the printer.
We’ll compare the cost of OM ink /toner vs. off brand or remanufactured
We’ll round up to the nearest dollar.
We’ll assume that all manufacturer info is accurate (number of copies, etc.)

Casual Color Laser Printer vs. Color Inkjet Printer

Ok Lets go with the laser printer first. We’ll use the Konica Minolta magicolor 1600W at $100. It was very difficult finding toner for this printer, in fact I couldn’t find any OEM toner in color, although I did find black. What was consistent among toner is that the colors cost the same as the black toner. I had to look off of Amazon to find print yield and the number I found the most was 2500 pages. Of course with photos some use more of one color than another so results will vary, but we’ll go with 2500, and we’ll assume that’s what the original has. So the cost for the 100 page a year user would be $100, and they’d still have 2000 copies left on their printer.

Ok, let’s look at the inkjet. We’ll use the same printer the HP Deskjet D1660 at $30 dollars. We’ll use 200 prints as our baseline again. So for the casual user, you’ll need 2 replacements of the ink cartridges. The color ink seperately is $18, but you’ll need black too, so let’s use the combo pack which is cheaper per unit at $27 for black and color. So $30 for the printer and $27 for two replacement ink cartridges. Which is $30 + ($27×2) a total of $84. Advantage: Inkjet printer by $16. Recycled printer ink for the HP is $16. So $30 + ($16×2) for a cost of $62. Advantage, Inkjet by $38.

Power User, Color Laser vs. Color Inkjet Printer

Now, let’s look at the user that makes 500 copies a year. We’ll make the same assumptions. The laser jet would still be $100 because you’d get 2500 copies, then you’d need to replace the toner. I couldn’t find any Konica toner in color, but assuming that the color cost the same as black replacements would run you $58×4 or $232, and $140 for refilled or generic combo pack with all colors and a black cartridge. But remember, in our scenario, we won’t need any refilling for the laser printer.

Let’s take a look at the inkjet printer. We’ll assume we’ll get 200 pages out of the ink that comes with it, then we’ll need 11.5 more refills, since we can’t buy a half a refill we’ll say 12. So for OEM at $27 that will be $30 + ($27 x 12) for a cost of $354. Advantage: laser printer by $254. With generic or refilled ink cartridges at $16 it would be $30 + ($16 x 12) for a cost of $222. Advantage: laser printer by $122.

Pretty interesting isn’t it? For the casual user, using strictly black and white, a laser and an inkjet are just about dead even in our scenario. Remember you’d still have 1000 copies left on the laser after printing 500 copies. And if you bought the printer in this color scenario you’d still have 2000 copies left, having only spent $100. For the 500 pages per year user, the advantage would clearly go to the laser printer.

For our color user, you’d actually save money using an inkjet – but your quality wouldn’t be as good. Close probably, maybe even close enough to not spend the money on the laser printer. However if you consider the 500 pages a year user, the laser has a huge advantage, the inkjet is 3x as expensive using OEM toner, and 2x as expensive using remanufactured ink.

So, for the average user which is probably in between our two users, a laser printer would be cheaper doing what average users do, printing out black and white documents with some photos from time to time. So don’t look at the cost of the printer, it’s usually the cheapest factor in the whole equation. You’ve got to consider cost vs. value, and make your decision accordingly.

The next post will be a breakdown of all our equations in handy chart form so you can see just how much you’re spending when you “save” money buying the cheapest printer.

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