Lexmark Laser Printer

I’m in the market for a mono-laser printer for home use.  I’ve been researching them for a while now and am currently leaning towards getting a Lexmark E232.  If anyone has any thoughts about this printer or company, please share them.  I’m starting to think that there really isn’t a huge difference between budget Laser printers.

What I’m looking for:  Basic text printing (speed isn’t an issue) graphics have to be okay.
                                  Must be very reliable - a work horse.
                                  Must be Mac OS X compatible.

Thanks for any thoughts on this issue.
                             

My advice:  don’t buy the absolute cheapest.  They’re usually loss-leaders to get you to buy toner and fusers.  The printer is cheap, but the per-page price will be expensive and in the long run you’d be better off buying a slightly more expensive model.

Don’t worry about Mac OS X compatibility, as you can just use gimp-print drivers.

I’ve had great experience with the mid-range HP stuff.  I ran about 40k pages through an HP LJ1100 (and then donated it to CHSS, where it is still chugging along with no problems.)  I now have an HP LJ1300. 

So look into the cost per page / and price of toner / fusers.  Don’t ask salespeople for their advice. :wink:

When you’ve settled on a printer, check out KPE (or whatever it’s called) down in the same building as Shutter Shack.  Check with Goodbytes across from Tim Horton’s as well.  I’ve great things about both of these places, and they’re more than willing to match prices.  Besides, if something goes wrong, you can deal with them in person.

there was a day I’d sing Lexmark’s praises about quality and cost per page. Then I sold a dozen E series and they’re shit just like anyone elses…
I’ve been using cheap Samsungs w no complaints since the last HP6 died and run my shop ones pretty heavy. About the only advice is avoid Brother, they’re so far beyond crap it’s like they invented it.

Thanks for the advice.  Obviously one should shop around until they find the best price for a toner cartridge, further reducing the cost per page.  Do you stick to buying brand name cartridges (e.g. HP) or have you ever used cartridges from a company like acelaser.ca (which sells compatible, remade cartridges)?

Speaking from personal experience, I’ve never had an HP cartridge that hasn’t worked.  I’ve also used refills and generic brand ones. 

I had to send a generic brand one back once, and then had to send back the replacement as well.  Both were just not fitting properly in the 1100. 

I had one bad experience with a refill (it basically fell apart and spewed toner everywhere).  Othesr swear by them, though.

Now I just use the HP brand stuff, just because the extra $10 isn’t that big of a deal. 

A friend of mine also swears by HP, he bought a HP laser for a little over $100.  I’m still using an Epson ink jet; it works quite well.  It sounds like my next printer will be HP. :smiley:

Hp printers are great printers. Doing the certifications for all there MFP’s & Photo Copier’s / laser printers was tought :frowning:

I’d pick a Lexmark / Hp

I, uhh… “liberated” an HP LaserJet 5L about a year or two ago. I think that it’s probably about 7-8 years old now, no problems whatsoever. When I acquired it, the former owner had reported that he figured it was probably pretty close to needing more toner.

2000 or so pages later, still going strong.

I have kinda been eyeing up a possible upgrade to a slightly higher resolution model though.

Nothing is as good as the old HP5 and HP6s were. I would have got them rebuilt if there werent so many cheap ones out there.
I did get a few noname HP cartridges s that were really messy and blotchy, and one thing that blew me away about my cheap Samsung: Linux driver on the CD! It does seem to take five bloody minutes for the first print of the morning to come out though…

My trusty Epson Stylus C86 is Linux compliant.  Are most HP laser printers Linux ready?  If they are not then they are worthless to me.

Pretty much every new laser is either PCL or PS compatible, so no worries. Even windows uses generic PCL5 and Postscript drivers.

So Linux, Mac OS X, whatever, just use the generic drivers and they’ll work fine. On the Mac, if it doesn’t work automagically when you plug it in, you can always use the open-source gimp-print drivers – they’re built in to the OS now.

Thanks for the reply, MiG!  Much appreciated, man. :smiley: