Peripherals New laser printer - mono or colour?

I bought Brother HL-2250DN in 2013 and I'm thinking about upgrading for scan copy function.
It's good, prints lots of pages, rarely jams and toner and drums are cheap on eBay. I've been using CamScanner but they went from a premium model to subscription + malware.

I see that something like the Brother DCP-1612W A4 Mono Laser Printer with the scan and copy is £89.00. However, today I printed some colour pages at snappy print and was charged £32 for 24 pages of colour which has me wondering if I should go colour laser.

What are printer recommendations these days? Laser or colour laser for documents. I don't often need colour but I would use it more if I had it.

The Brother DCP-L3550CDW and HP Color LaserJet Pro MFP M281fdw are both just shy of £200.

 

I have a Dell E525W which they don't make anymore. I can print ~2000 pages for £32 and I doubt I'll ever get to the point I need a maintenance kit - at which point a new one will be cheaper anyway.

It scans, copies, prints in b&w or colour, and also has a fax function I don't need/use.

It's detected automatically by Apple devices via AirPrint, and also shows up on Windows 10 automatically or very easily if not.

Speaking as someone who's on the other side: it's definitely worth it, I'd even suggest you make sure you get a duplex model, and look for AirPrint if you have any iDevices because then you can print directly from the phone/tablet.

The HP unit you mention above I was going to get - and the Brother unit or a very similar model my sister currently has and is very happy with it.

 

How is the quality of the prints? I wouldn't mind paying for the odd colour job, but not when they charge over £1 a page (the first page is almost £4). That was the cheapest option for document printing.

 

If you are considering colour laser then Samsung / HP have a cashback deal on ATM - just Google 'hp Samsung printer cashback' and you should find it. I've recently bought a mono laser from printerland.co.uk and was impressed by the service and the cashback makes them very reasonable

 

Brother DCP-1612W - £89.00 - Budget Laser Mono 3-in-1
Brother MFC-L2710DW £138 - Laser Mono 3-in-1

Brother HL-L3210CW £122.57 - Laser Colour

Brother DCP-L3550CDW £197.29 - Laser Colour 3-in-1
HP Color LaserJet Pro MFP M281fdw £197.99- Laser Colour 3-in-1

 

HP Colour LaserJet Pro MFP M281fdw Wireless Multifunction Printer with Fax - £197.99
T6B82A HP Color LaserJet Pro MFP M281fdw £60.00 22/08/2019 - 31/10/2019

£197.99 - £60.00 = £137.99

This is a pretty decent price.

If you have a student ID it is £197.10 directly from HP which may make the discount easier.

If I'm mostly printing B/W will I notice any difference in operational cost compared to my Brother mono laser?

 

I've always been impressed with HP printers. Since my family's first computer, we have had HP printers (inkjet at first), and each printer has lasted 10+ years before replacement. Replacements have never been due to failure. Only replace the first printer as we couldn't get an AppleTalk to USB adapter.
I switch from ink to laser because I was tired of the ink cartages drying up long before I used them. My only compliment with HP printers inkjet printers, this might be common to other brands. I initially went looking for a B&W printer but opted for a colour unit as it was a small price bump. I've replace one of the colour cartridges once and the black twice in just shy of 10 year ownership. No I don't print at home frequently, hence my ink drying out on me.

 

I had some HP and Epson inkjet printers but needed to clean the heads every time I would print something.
Around the start of college I bought myself my first Brother mono laser printer and loved it.
My dad picked one up when I moved out and eventually upgraded to a 4-in-1 with the same base.
I really love the cost of toner for the Brother HL-2250DN, 2x TN-2220 is £12.99

The black toner for the HP is 1x CF540X is £27.80
Toner for the Brother 3-in-1 isn't any better 1x TN247 for £29.99

 

Colour printer will still use CMY toners then printing in greyscale/b&w, even if you force it to use only black (for tracking dots, cleaning, calibration, etc), so yes, overall cost of a print is still higher than a true mono printer.

 

Is this a significant difference? I'm not finding a lot of data on the running cost or cost per page.
I found some articles but they were talking about 2013 printer prices and didn't have a date.

 

For a workhorse printer I tend to look at the cost and reviews of compatible ink/toner before looking at the actual printer. There is a huge variation. I have an Inkjet and a Laser both from Brother. The quality is fine and the running costs are practically negligible.
Auto duplex is definitely something to have too.

 

I use third party toner in mine. Same results just half the price. When you print b&m it literally just uses the black toner. Only uses the rest when you print colour unlike some ink based ones. Works out well for me anyway!

 

I was looking at third party toner on ebay. The toner for the newer printers are around the same price but are four times the cost of the cartridges I currently use.
It is great if they don't use colour toner with B/W prints.

 

Brother also regularly do cashback promos. I quite like the Borther MFDs in that - unlike many laser printers - you do not need to fartarse around with official toner cartridges or flashing the chip on existing cartridges to refill them with bulk toner, just a little plastic cog you pop off and rotate back when you put new toner in.

Occasional colour printing is perfect for a laser: the toner never dries out or goes off like with inkjets, so even if you only do a page ever year or so it's always ready to go.

 

Is this an issue with HP printers?

 

Brother gives another option

MFC-L3710CW 4-in-1 wireless colour LED laser printer £150 with promo
HP Colour LaserJet Pro MFP M281fdw Wireless Multifunction Printer with Fax is £137.99

 

It depends on the printer. It looks like some but not all HPs need chip replacements, but almost all need you to melt a refilling hole in the toner cartridge and cut into the toner bag, and then glue a plug back in afterwards.

 

That sounds like a faf, thanks for the warning.

 

That was one thing that I've come to accept with a Samsung printer is that, when the time comes, I will have to buy an official replacement toner - they chips their cartridges which means it's very unlikely that a 3rd party toner will be recognised. Makes colour VERY expensive (think £300+ for a full set of CMYK replacement cartridges) which is why I decided to stick with mono.

 

Do you know of any resources where I can confirm which models have this "feature"?