PC Peripherals All-in-one/Multifunction Print Scan Copy Laser Mono printer suggestions

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vishi

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Hi all,

I am planning to buy a new All-in-one Laser multifunction printer for home use. I did some market research and found Samsung and HP to have the best price-performance devices.

I am basically a home user (100 pages in a month) and am tired of getting my inkjet cartridges refilled every 4-6 weeks; so I decided its time to get a laser printer. My budget is 10K(max)

These are the products I have in mind:

  • Samsung SCX 4300
  • Samsung SCX 3201
  • Samsung SCX 4500
  • Canon imageCLASS MF4320d Laser Printer
  • HP M1005 Print Scan Copy Laser Printer

One of my main concerns is the cost of a laser toner cartridge. In all probability, I will go for a refill, instead of buying a new one. I read that some of the Samsung printer models make use of some chip in the cartridge that will make the printer show a "toner empty" error despite getting a refill. I also read that this has a workaround with some firmware upgrade / resistor shorting stuff .. which I'm clearly not inclined on doing. Do the HP / Canon toner cartridges have such limitations? If yes, please suggest some budget all-in-one mono laser devices that allow for easy toner refil, and where I don't have to worry about short-circuiting some chip, etc. Clearly, I dont intend to spend 3K on new toner every year!:ashamed:

Suggestions are welcome:)
 
vishi said:
Hi all,

I am planning to buy a new All-in-one Laser multifunction printer for home use. I did some market research and found Samsung and HP to have the best price-performance devices.

I am basically a home user (100 pages in a month) and am tired of getting my inkjet cartridges refilled every 4-6 weeks; so I decided its time to get a laser printer. My budget is 10K(max)

These are the products I have in mind:

  • Samsung SCX 4300
  • Samsung SCX 3201
  • Samsung SCX 4500
  • Canon imageCLASS MF4320d Laser Printer
  • HP M1005 Print Scan Copy Laser Printer

One of my main concerns is the cost of a laser toner cartridge. In all probability, I will go for a refill, instead of buying a new one. I read that some of the Samsung printer models make use of some chip in the cartridge that will make the printer show a "toner empty" error despite getting a refill. I also read that this has a workaround with some firmware upgrade / resistor shorting stuff .. which I'm clearly not inclined on doing. Do the HP / Canon toner cartridges have such limitations? If yes, please suggest some budget all-in-one mono laser devices that allow for easy toner refil, and where I don't have to worry about short-circuiting some chip, etc. Clearly, I dont intend to spend 3K on new toner every year!:ashamed:

Suggestions are welcome:)
Click to expand...

good short list, I do not own a multifunction but use a Brother HL-2170w laser printer, it's network ready. love it. Works just fine in linux as well, but the windows driver is way better.

it came with a standard 1500 page toner, with toner save mode on and lowering the dpi to 300, i got over 2000+ pages out of it. I do not know how much a refill costs and I do not have enough trust in the refill process to plug it in to my machine. So I went and bought a new high yield toner - 2500 pg output, now using toner save mode and with low resolution I am sure I will crack 3500 + pages.

now consider the cost per page with the manufacturer's supplies vs the refill process (and the risk of damaging your costly equipment, also losing warranty). For me it was not worth it. Just my two cents.

Back to the topic.

I am also looking for a laser 3 in 1 with the budget of Rs 10000

this is my list in the order of preference:

samsung SCX3201 - around Rs9000 - right now they have a 3 yr warranty special. good model except it has no option of high yield toner.

samsung scx-4601 - Rs 10000 - comes with high yield option as well, only 1 yr warranty. but 64mb ram and few more better options.

copy resolution on the following three models is crap only 600dpi. Where as the samsung ones have 1200dpi

brother Multi-Function Centres DCP-7030 - Rs 8500

hP laserjet M1005 - - Rs12000 - only 8mb ram

hp laserjet pro m1136 - 32mb ram - Rs10500

now this is an interesting choice -

Canon imageCLASS MF4320d Laser Printer - auto-duplex. I would go with it if the price is right in spite of its mediocre features.

all the prices I got are from the net and will make some calls next week to find the right price.

Would like to know which one you picked. For me lInux support is a must - so most probably I will go with samsung or HP
 
rarrr said:
now consider the cost per page with the manufacturer's supplies vs the refill process (and the risk of damaging your costly equipment, also losing warranty). For me it was not worth it. Just my two cents.

samsung SCX3201 - around Rs9000 - right now they have a 3 yr warranty special. good model except it has no option of high yield toner.
samsung scx-4601 - Rs 10000 - comes with high yield option as well, only 1 yr warranty. but 64mb ram and few more better options.

copy resolution on the following three models is crap only 600dpi. Where as the samsung ones have 1200dpi

brother Multi-Function Centres DCP-7030 - Rs 8500
hP laserjet M1005 - - Rs12000 - only 8mb ram
hp laserjet pro m1136 - 32mb ram - Rs10500
now this is an interesting choice -

Canon imageCLASS MF4320d Laser Printer - auto-duplex. I would go with it if the price is right in spite of its mediocre features.

all the prices I got are from the net and will make some calls next week to find the right price.

Would like to know which one you picked. For me lInux support is a must - so most probably I will go with samsung or HP
Click to expand...

I don't really know much about Brother - they are well marketed in the US. Not sure if they have reliable service here in India. Ofcourse, the Linux support comes into picture as well. I did some research on HP and found that the HP cartridge (88A) too has some sort of chip that "counts" the number of prints. I need to go back to the computer shops and find out if they really do that chip-reset toner refill stuff or if they simply fill in some black powder and give it back to us.

I also found out from Google that SCX4300 toner can be reset very easily - involves a firmware upgrade which might screw the warranty, but I dont really care because most devices WILL last out their warranty period and am pretty sure that at my printing rate, I will go past the warranty period by the time I end up with an empty toner. I really couldn't find any toner reset tricks for SCX-3201; probably because its a newer model.

I found out from a dealer that HP m1136 is available for 8750+5% tax. Looks like a good offer - just want to check if Samsung SCX4300 is available for lesser. I'm really not bothered about the resolution as my purchase intention is for home use only - no high resolution prints required. Canon again is a question-mark for me. None of the dealers suggested it (they may have different "margin"al reasons... hehe) ... but Canon is trustworthy. I really can't trust Samsung on Printers, when Big Boys like HP and Canon have products in the same price class.

I'll update the post when I have some more information on these.
 
Update: I finally zeroed in on the SCX 3201 when I got an irresistible offer online. I ended up paying 6.5K (with free shipping). I'm loving the printer so far and its just the perfect size for my desk and ideal for my usage. As far as toner is concerned, I'll probably check out some local shops that do reset that "chip" on the cartridges. If not, am pretty sure that the new cartridge price will come down as cheap laser printers are flooding the market. Let's wait and watch!
 
@vishi Can you update us about whether you are able to refill the SCX 3201 Toner ? I am also thinking about buying the same model but I want to be sure that the toner is refillable.
 
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