The Samsung color laser printer is quite afford-able now.
If compare with the same price range ink jet printer.
Which one is better?
Think about this, the ink carts is quite expensive also.
For good quality color laser printers you would want to go
above the low end models. Over the long term the low end
models also cost about as much and sometimes more because
their replacement toner cartridges have less toner, a higher
cost per page... so you might think about how long you
expect the printer to last. Printing some things in color
like charts, graphs, photos, you'll use up a typical color
laser's 2-3K page cartridges fairly quickly, since that 2-3K
pages is a rating for 5% coverage, text.
So essentially, comparing same price isn't such a good idea
as lasers inherantly cost more to manufacture, and the cost
of replacement supplies is also a factor as these printers
may seem disposible based on initial cost but manufacturers
tend to place a careful eye at the price of refill ink or
toner such that you usually don't come out ahead throwing
away the printer to buy a new one instead of refilling it,
unless you are fortunate enough (Or spend a lot of time
watching for sales/rebates/etc, with the time ultimately
offsetting a certain bit of savings) to continually find a
good deal on a replacement printer. This is also less
environmentally friendly, throwing out a printer that still
works when it only needs a cartridge.
With higher priced lasers you also, often find their starter
cartridges have more toner, that pricing is sometimes fairly
related to how much toner they ship with so you might get a
better printer with the same TCO over a few years by just
paying more up front and of course looking for deals as some
of the middling range color lasers may have sizable rebates.
In general a good color laser will not have as good a photo
quality output as a merely average quality inkjet, but
shopping wisely for the color laser, the cost per page is
lower, you don't have the hassles of more frequent changing
of ink cartridges or running out in the middle of a larger
job, and printing is much faster with a laser. Do you need
display quality photorealistic output? How often? If it is
not a continual need, a local drugstore or photomat, even
someplace like Kinkos may be able to handle that specific
printing need which may be a bit of an inconvenience, but so
is fiddling with ink cartridges if you don't have a volume
high enough to offset that.
Ink cart price depends a lot on whether you can find
aftermarket carts with a quality you can accept, and if the
inkjet printer manufacturer hasn't taken so many steps to
prevent 3rd party cards through chips/etc that it's either
not supported or it drives up the cost.
The other option is to own at least two printers, getting
the color inkjet for the photorealistic output and either a
color laser (if you ever need fast drafts or lower
resolution color output), or a B&W laser to lower the
associated costs.
