Your son is wise in suggesting a black and white laser printer for this
type of use. They are durable, quick, do not dry out, or clog between
printing, and therefore you can get full use of the toner cartridge.
With most you can remove the toner cartridge easily and pack it
separately for shipping or transporting back and forth without damaging
the printer or cartridge. They are less costly to run, as well, and the
result is fade, smear and waterproof unlike some inkjets.
What I would look for in such a printer is:
Small size to lessen the desktop clutter. The new ones can be pretty small.
Quick start, and energy conserving: Many now only heat up the fuser just
before use and then shut down and go to sleep. This saves wear and tear
on parts and electrical usage, and some respond more quickly to the
document input as a result of the quick heating fuser.
Try to get one which is quiet when on and when printing, so if he has
roommates it won't wake them late at night or early in the morning.
Try to find one which has an on/off switch. This is both a safety
precaution and again saves electricity and wear and tear on components.
Many today have no switch, and go into deep sleep after a certain
period of time, but I still prefer a real on off switch.
Try to get one that can handle the occasional legal size paper, card
stock and envelopes for those special printing situations.
If the printer has memory expansion slots, make sure it takes common and
cheap PC memory rather than propriety types that are costly. The extra
memory may help with complex diagrams or speed up printing of multiple
page documents or multiple documents which get queued up.
Try to get one which has a toner cartridge included which is completely
full. Many now come with partially filled cartridges good for only
1/3rd the impressions, and the replacement may cost upwards of the full
cost of the printer to replace.
Try to find out if the printer's toner cartridge can easily be refilled,
either by your son, or a refilling service. Some cartridges can't or
have chips that disable some features, slow the printing speed
drastically or simply will not work on refill. This save money on
consumables, and is better for the environment.
I agree with other comments that Brother has recently won (I think for
the second or third year) the best customer and warranty service award
by survey of US users. In general, their products are well built and
reasonably prices, but I don't know specifically about print quality,
toner cartridge use, etc.
Lastly, don;t assume the cheapest one you can buy is the best value.
Often spending slightly more can save a lot of money due to larger or
more filled cartridges in the original purchase, refillability, more
memory on board, cheaper cartridge cost, and more reliability.
You do not have to spend a lot on a laser printer these days. For
around $100-150 US you should be able to get a reasonable product.
If your son will benefit from a photocopier, there are now many units
which offer both photocopying and printing options for not a lot
additional cost. They are somewhat larger if you get one with a flatbed
scanner top (I would recommend this over a sheet scanner, which cannot
scan books and other thicker materials), some also offer fax is that is
of value.
Lastly, make sure the printer can work with the computer and operating
system your son is using, and that it can interface easily by having the
correct plugs (such as USB, or wireless IR, if that is what his computer
has).
Art
If you are interested in issues surrounding e-waste,
I invite you to enter the discussion at my blog:
http://e-trashtalk.spaces.live.com/
