"Best" personal laser printer? I duplex useful or gimmick?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Ajanta
  • Start date Start date
A

Ajanta

I am looking for a B&W personal laser printer for home use on a mac.

Not much volume but would still like decent paper handling, cost per
page, small footprint and low noise (it would sit right on my desk).

Is duplex a useful feature or just a gimmick?

A recent thread appeared to recommend Brother 5240 (basic) and 5250DN
(duplex and networking). The price difference between them is not huge,
I think $20, so no big deal. How do they compare against the offerings
from HP and Samsung?

Thanks for all the input.

BTW, I posted another question about which online price comparison
services are best. That reminds me, Brother 5250DN shows up as 'ships
next day' on Shopzilla, 'not yet released' on Amazon, and does not even
show up on Pricegrabber as of this morning. What is your expereince
with these sites?
 
Ajanta said:
Is duplex a useful feature or just a gimmick?
Click to expand...

That depends entirely on you.

I used to print a lot of multi page documents for postage. Duplex saved
paper cost, environmental impact and postal cost.

If on the other hand, you mostly print simple single sided letters...


Cheers, J/.
 
I wish my first laser had duplexing. I can do the duplexing manually,
but it is not convenient. For $20, I'd buy it. For my second laser
printer, duplexing was a "must have".

Paul
 
Ajanta said:
I am looking for a B&W personal laser printer for home use on a mac.

Not much volume but would still like decent paper handling, cost per
page, small footprint and low noise (it would sit right on my desk).

Is duplex a useful feature or just a gimmick?
Click to expand...

IT IS A MUST HAVE
 
Ajanta said:
I am looking for a B&W personal laser printer for home use on a mac.

Not much volume but would still like decent paper handling, cost per
page, small footprint and low noise (it would sit right on my desk).

Is duplex a useful feature or just a gimmick?
Click to expand...

What an bizarre question. Like saying 'Is colour printing a gimmick?' Do you
want duplexing or don't you?
 
: What an bizarre question. Like saying 'Is colour printing a gimmick?'
: Do you want duplexing or don't you?

It could be considered a gimicky feature in the following sense: If you
flip the pages yourself, you got 2 sided printing. However, with a BW
printer, you can't get color by any such simple trick.
 
: >> Is duplex a useful feature or just a gimmick
:
: No, it can save paper and labour if properly used.

I should have said "auto duplex". One can achieve the same effect
by turning the pages over oneself.
 
Ajanta said:
: >> Is duplex a useful feature or just a gimmick
:
: No, it can save paper and labour if properly used.

I should have said "auto duplex". One can achieve the same effect
by turning the pages over oneself.
Click to expand...

If you're printing a single sheet flyer, yes.

But if you're printing a book?

Will you print one at a time?
 
Elmo P. Shagnasty said:
If you're printing a single sheet flyer, yes.

But if you're printing a book?

Will you print one at a time?
Click to expand...

No, set up and print all odd pages, Then turn the whole stack over and print
even pages, Voila, double sided book and all in order.
works like a charm on my OKI C5150n Color led printer. I print all my
manuals this way.

Regards, Rene
 
Ajanta said:
It could be considered a gimicky feature in the following sense: If you
flip the pages yourself, you got 2 sided printing. However, with a BW
printer, you can't get color by any such simple trick.
Click to expand...

Then again, you could always write stuff out by hand !

But seriously, I think there are two issues to consider.

One is that duplexing by hand tends to result in a greater rate of jams
for me.

The other is the time taken to do significant amounts of duplex printing
by hand.


Cheers, J/.
 
Will you print one at a time?
Click to expand...

No, set up and print all odd pages, Then turn the whole stack over and print
even pages, Voila, double sided book and all in order.
works like a charm on my OKI C5150n Color led printer. I print all my
manuals this way.[/QUOTE]

And never have a problem?

An auto-duplexing printer knows when it's had a problem, and if there's
a jam it starts the entire sheet all over again.
 
I should have said "auto duplex". One can achieve the same effect
by turning the pages over oneself.
Click to expand...

Ajanta-

One problem I have had with manual duplex, is that IF there is a paper jam
halfway through a document, my printer will reprint the jammed page, but
on the next sheet. In other words, the remaining portion of the print job
would be ruined if I didn't abort.

Of course this might be a problem with a duplex printer as well, depending
on how smart it is.

If you are even considering getting duplex, either choose a printer that
can be upgraded or go ahead and get the duplex version now. HP says my
printer can't be upgraded. I suspect it can, but it would be cheaper to
buy a refurbished duplex printer on eBay!

Fred
 
No, set up and print all odd pages, Then turn the whole stack over
and print even pages, Voila, double sided book and all in order.
works like a charm on my OKI C5150n Color led printer. I print all my
manuals this way.
Click to expand...

And never have a problem?

An auto-duplexing printer knows when it's had a problem, and if
there's a jam it starts the entire sheet all over again.
[/QUOTE]

I've had problems with manual duplexing, inasmuch getting pages in order
and things. I haven't printed much, if anything, out with the auto
duplexer in my Canon IP5000.
 
One problem I have had with manual duplex, is that IF there is a paper jam
halfway through a document, my printer will reprint the jammed page, but
on the next sheet. In other words, the remaining portion of the print job
would be ruined if I didn't abort.

Of course this might be a problem with a duplex printer as well, depending
on how smart it is.
Click to expand...

Nope. If the auto-duplex printer prints one side, flips it, then prints
the other, on a jam it will know that the properly formatted sheet
didn't come out--and it will start over with a clean sheet.
 
Rene Lamontagne said:
No, set up and print all odd pages, Then turn the whole stack over and print
even pages, Voila, double sided book and all in order.
works like a charm on my OKI C5150n Color led printer.
Click to expand...

Great until it picks up two sheets at a time.


Cheers, J/.
 
Fred McKenzie said:
One problem I have had with manual duplex, is that IF there is a
paper jam halfway through a document, my printer will reprint
the jammed page, but on the next sheet. In other words, the
remaining portion of the print job would be ruined if I didn't abort.
Click to expand...

Interesting angle. My own experience and emphasis have been different.
I never use duplex printing for any of my formal documents, but my
writing style is such that I may go through ten drafts before I have
the final version. That is 100 pages for a ten page paper. It is on
these draft versions that I use duplex printing. It really wouldn't
matter of one of them got ruined.

I do agree that if the price differentce is not outrageous, it is
better to get a printer that duplexes automatically.

Julia
 
If you print a lot of long documents like user manuals, etc, then
automatic duplex printing can be a real time saver. If it is just
manual duplex, try to find out what they mean by that. FOr some it is
just software that allows you to match up the pages during printing, but
if one page gets skipped, all the rest will be off, and make a real mess
of things.

Art
 
Back
Top