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choosing an economical colour laserjet?

For very low printing volumes, I usually get my clients a Canon Inkjet with separate ink cartridges. Unfortunately, the newer printers don't seem to be very economical anymore and even for light printing, it goes through ink far too quickly. Also the build quality of the Canon Pixma has declined over the last three years to such an extent, that I am unimpressed with Canon at the moment. I am trying to find a colour laserjet printer that would replace the inkjet, so it needs to be 1: cheaper to run 2: not much larger than an inkjet as we are talking about putting it on a table, where you would normally put an inkjet. I am not worried about the upfront costs as long as I can get the running costs down. I have looked around, because I also want to consider manufacturers that I have not considered before like Oki, Xerox. I won't buy HP or Brother as brother are expensive to run and HP - the quality is not what it used to be adn their support is dreadful. I believe Xerox might be a good choice or Ricoh? What is also a consideration is support, which is why I will never Samsung printers again, because Samsung support is horrendous as is HP. Has anyone got any recommendations for laser printers that will effectively replace the ink jets - thus I don't want to buy a printer designed to print for an entire network - its going to have the same printing usage as an inkjet ie low volume! I am not looking for answers saying get this specific model, but rather anything that would help me choose an economical, but reliable colour laser printer. For example Xerox do solid inks as opposed to powder - is this better ?

Public Comments

1. HP would be better
2. There's nothing wrong with HP. Support your claim. Anyway, I've purchased and supported HP printers for a university for about eight years. The primary reason is that service manuals, parts, and consumables are easy to acquire. I just worked on an optimization project for Bank of America and they were replacing all of their Xerox and Ricoh printers with HP printers. These HP printers costed about $7,000 - $12,000 each. I also installed an upgraded HP printer at an office for Ford Motor Company. Best two resources I can point you too are: HP Product Selection Guide - http://www.hp.com/sbso/special/ipgselect.html?jumpid=ex_R295_go/selectionguide/printing HP Print Cost Calculator - http://www.hp.com/sbso/productivity/color/print_cost_calc.html Both are designed for small business. In reference to any color laser printer you have other things to consider than just the toner and paper. There is an image belt kit, fuser, feed and pickup rollers that have to be replaced at certain intervals. All of this depends on the print volume of course. As far as speed, well unless you are going to spend more than $300, the print speed can be relatively slow by the time the calibration cycle is over. My suggestion is to look at HP's business inkjet line with the large capacity ink cartridges. If you have a business handling print needs for clients you really should talk with a sales rep at HP. They are very nice and are not out to just make a profit. If you decide to go with a color laser print look in to toner inclusive programs. Companies who offer these programs will cover your maintenance costs so long as you purchase toner from them. This includes the maintenance cycle.