I found your web site to be very informative. One question that I still have is the total cost of ownership on the various business class color laser printers you offer. This information is very important since I have learned that the cost of the printer is really not as critical as the usage cost.
We currently have a Minolta-QMS magicolor 2200 that we are looking to replace. The output is fine but the cost per print is ridiculously high. The estimates of "pages per consumable part" were highly exaggerated. We've only printed 35K pages on it and we've gone through 3 fuser units ($500 each) that are claimed to last 100K each, not to mention thousands of dollars spent on toner and the other consumables.
We are a low volume (1-2K pages/month) user that prints color sales sheets about half the time and B&W letters and contracts the other half. Typical coverage is around 15-20%. I've already decided we need a single pass printer and have looked at the HP 4600, Xerox 6200 or the OKI 7300. Your printer suggestions along with realistic usage costs estimates would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks, Paul
Thanks for the kind words about our site. We work hard every day to be accurate and maintain the most up to date printer dedicated web site.
The Minolta 2200 that you currently have was actually a very good engine. We estimate the actual cost per page for the average customer to be approx. 14 cents per color page and about 2 cents per page for black only. Naturally, cost per page goes up proportionately with total coverage. Unless there is something uniquely harmful in the printer's environment, we feel that the probable reason you are going through the fuser units prematurely is due to the use of unsupported media. One example would be the use of card stock outside the printers limit of 60lb cover (163 g/m2).
Having said all of the above, you will find that the current best selling printers like the Xerox 6200dp have fusers that sell for about $200 and an overall cost of 9 cents per color page @20% coverage. In addition to better performance and auto-duplex, printers like the 6200dp and the Minolta 3100 also support stock up to 80lb cover ( 216 g/m2).
Always make sure that the media you are printing on is ok for laser printers. Feeding ink-jet paper stock or other heat sensitive material will not only damage the printer but also shorten the life of many printer components and supplies.
As for the three printers you asked about, the OKI 7300 and Xerox 6200dp are both just under 10 cents per color page @ 20% coverage (using high-capacity toners). The HP 4600 is more complicated due to the imaging drum and toner being in the same cartridge. This leads to the waste of unused toner or OPC life if one or the other runs out first. In some real life applications the 4600 is as much as 400% higher per page than most color laser printers. If you could somehow use all of the supplies evenly and completely, the cost per page @ 20% coverage would be about 11 cents.
We hope you find this helpful. Please contact us if you need additional information.
Editor
I use inkjet transfer paper for printing pictures to iron-on t-shirts, and now I wanna buy a minolta 2300 DL, please tell me if I can used this priter with a laser transfer paper , in order to print my pictures.
Jose
Jose, no current laser printer manufacturer claims their printer is capable of printing on trasfer paper. Your best bet is to contact the manufacturers of the laser trasfer paper and to find what printers they have tested if any. Otherwise, you may get samples of the laser trasfer paper and mail it to us for testing. At that point we could share our results with you.
You could easily damadge a laser printer by feeding ink-jet paper or other non-supported heat sensitive media. Printer makers would not cover such damadge and void your warranty.
Thanks and good luck,
Editor
Hello! I am in the market to purchase a new laser printer. I have several ink-jet's and even a dye-sub printer already. I am hoping that laser printer technology has come far enough that you might recommend one that could reproduce digital photos. Does such a printer exist? Get back when you can and let's do some business.
Ray
Some color lasers, like the Xerox 7700 or 6200dp, print at a high resolution and can reproduce fine detail and color. However, none can print continuous tone like your dye-sub and none use a six color process like some photo inkjets. The photo quality will not be as good on a color laser printer as a result.
Having said that, photo print quality is subjective. Many people find the cover of a magazine or a CD to be photo quality even though it is a four color process. As a result there are photo printing situations out there that demand the high production capabilities of a color laser. Either because they need something fast, or cheap to operate, or they need something that will print on various and plain media, or all of the above.
Ultimately you would have to see output from a color laser printer and judge for yourself. We tell our customers that if you are willing to wait for your printout and you are willing to spend on the high cost per print, a photo ink-jet is your best bet. Something like the seven color Epson Photo 2200 ($699).
If you need high resolution color fast, at a low cost per page, on plain paper stocks, then you get a color laser printer.
We hope this was useful to you. Thanks for your question.
Editor
Do you have a breakdown of estimated costs per sheet, or per thousand sheets, or something like that with which to compare operating costs of the printers you review and sell? If not, do you know where I might find such a comparative analysis?
Thanks for any help!
Peter
Thanks for the question. Cost per page is a question we get a lot. Cost per page is very hard to gage in the real world because cost-per-page is based on page coverage, colors used, resolution, and paper thickness (OPC Drum life affected by paper thickness). Bottom line is that there is no absolute cost-per-page in the real world. One page may cost you $0.14 based on your analysis of page coverage and the next page may cost $0.40 becasue of higher coverage and saturation. The only way to compare printers is to use the manufacturers rated life of consumables that is based on 5% coverage. This at least will give you a way to see what the toner will cost at a fixed page coverage so that you may compare different printers. For example, a printer may have these supplies and rated yields:
Black Toner
$45.00
approx. 8,500 prints with 5% coverage
$.005 per page
Cyan Toner
$145.00
approx. 6,000 prints with 5% coverage
$.024 per page
Magenta Toner
$145.00
approx. 6,000 prints with 5% coverage
$.024 per page
Yellow Toner
$145.00
approx. 6,000 prints with 5% coverage
$.024 per page
OPC Drum
$349.00
approx. 30,000 pages continuous use
$.0116 per page
We can then say that a color, letter size page, with 20% coverage ( 5% each of four colors), on this printer would be about 9 cents. This example did not take into account standard maintenance items like the "Fuser" which would get replaced about every 60,000 pages. Add an additional 3 cents per page. This method allows you to compare printers to each other. Another competing color laser printer may be slightly higher or lower but ultimately your real cost per page is very application dependent. Increasing the degree of dificulty are variables like high and low capacity toners for the same printer, service, printing in B&W, and media used.
The bottom line is that you can't really predict very accurately what the cost per page will be on a specific printer on any given page. The most accurate measurement is an analysis once a job has already been printed. Our typical color laser printer customers average about 14 cents per page. This does not include cost of paper paper.
Editor
I am looking to purchase a printer that would produce the same quality pages (color) as used in a library-style book but yet economically priced. What would be your suggestions.
Kelly
Thanks for visiting our web site and for the question.
I'm not exactly sure what you would consider economically priced. However, color laser printers will be the least expensive printers to use. Also color laser printers generally produce the same look as a four color press which is how most publications are printed.
Major considerations for you should be resolution (dpi) and cost per page. The 1200 dpi PostScript3 color lasers will produce the best quality and color accuracy. Cost per page will be determined by the cost of supplies divided by yield but will also greatly depend on the amount of color coverage on a given page.
You may want to read some of our reviews on color laser printers. The Minolta-QMS 3100DN is worth a look. It may be the best combination of price/ performance today. There are other good printers out there as well however.
I hope this helped and feel free to drop an email in the future.
Editor
Dear Madam or Sir: I found it very disappointing that you don't show the Lexmark printers on your site. I'm especially interested in the C750 or its equal. I hope you find it rewarding to show them in the future.
Thank you,
Earl
Thanks for the email. We encourage users of our site to provide some feedback in order to help make our site more useful. Your point on the lack of coverage on the Lexmark line of laser printers is valid. The Printer Showcase does not actively market the Lexmark color lasers right now. However, you could make the same argument for the Tally, Brother, Samsung, NEC, IBM, Xante, and many other manufacturers with single digit market share.
We don't want to crowd our site with information overload so we focus on the most popular printers currently. Things change all the time. About five years ago our best selling color laser was in fact the Lexmark SC1275N. We felt that it was the best combination of engine and controller. Of course there were not as many printers to choose from at the time and most of them were not good. HP was selling a Color Laserjet 5M that was such a horrible printer we refused to sell it. Xerox was selling a C-55 that was almost as bad( didn't sell it). Minolta was selling a Color Page Works that was a prety good printer. The Lexmark SC1275 was actually made by Minolta but had a better controller then the Color PageWorks. Now the color laser landscape is crowded. Xerox has had the best line of color lasers overall since they bought Tektronix. Minolta is up there too since they bought QMS.
HP's new printer, the 4600, is not that great but it is HP so we must address it. Okidata was first with a single pass engine and is a very good service organization. Unless Lexmark has a model with tangible advantages over the market leading brands it does not make sense for us to promote them.
If you end up with the Lexmark printer maybe you can submit to us your own review of the product. However you should consider some of the Xerox and Minolta models. You should be looking at price/ performance but don't overlook service and supply availability as well.
