Pricing Printers

Monday, September 05, 2005, at 11:34AM

By Eric Richardson

I'm looking into printers for Kathy, since her Epson still refuses to play nicely with Linux (even though the model is supposed to be compatible). She's decided that she doesn't really need color, which means I get to look into black and white lasers. Kathy prints a lot of papers, so I think in the long run the cost savings from laser will be substantial.

I hadn't realized until today, though, just how cheap black and white lasers had become. One really tempting option is the Samsung ML-2010, which newegg has for $79 ($129 minus $50 mail-in rebate). It's not at all a bad looking printer, and like all the Samsung lasers I've seen it includes Linux drivers in the box, but I'm thinking that we'll probably end up going with the Samsung ML-2250, which newegg carries for $148 ($168 minus $20 "instant savings"). The difference is in toner capacity -- the 2010 lists 3000 pages, while the 2250 lists 5000. Both toner cartridges are roughly the same price, in the $70 range.

The ML-2250 also supports adding a network card and Postscript support if you want to do so later on. That's not a consideration for Kathy, but it's something I'm a big fan of. These prices make me want to finally buy a printer. Well, a good printer... I've had a Lexmark z43 sitting under my bed for the last year, but I'm over having to fight inkjets.