Looking for AIO Color Laser printer under $1000 for college

I'm looking for an All in one color laser printer for college. I'm looking for one that prints, copy, scans, faxes, has good durability, and isn't too noisy. I would also like so I can manually calibrate so it doesn't wake me up at the middle of the night. If anybody has any suggestions or know any good deals online right now, I would love to hear it. I'm going to need a printer this fall. The price range is under $1000.

thx.


(i know theres another thread about printer, but his thread is about $100 printers, while my price range is much different).

 

I personally own the HP color laserjet CM1015 MFP, but it doesn't have a fax and its fairly noisy.

 

Any reason a multifunction inkjet wouldn't suffice?

 

I've gotten tons of recommendations to go with laser instead of inkjet. But if you can make a case that inkjet is better, i could go with an inkjet. I just heard inkjet, if not used for 3 months, will dry up and turn into junk. Since I prolly won't be using the printer over the summer, I'm afraid it'll just dry up.

 

I worked for the student government at my school and we had the Dell color laser printer, and it was actually pretty awesome, I think they designed it for business use so quality wise it was excellent.
It was quick, color representation was very good, and it was a good price.
You should definitely check into them.

 

Eh, Samsung (who makes Dells last I checked) printers aren't really anything to write home about. In that price range, for a multifunction, it's all about HP and Xerox. You might check out an Okidata C5510n, but I really know nothing about their scanner optics and if they're worth a damn. They make nice lasers, though.

Really, in that price range, (which is a bit of a black hole), you're left looking at the HP 2800 AIO and Xerox 6115MFP. HP seems to be offering a second paper tray for free right now, though they aren't really promoting it. But then, with Xerox's tray upgrade you can hold a lot more paper.

I personally prefer Xerox, they have better drivers, and excellent scanners. I typically like the build quality better too, but not always. It also offers an option for automatic duplex, the HP has no such option. The Xerox also has a 5k impression higher monthly duty cycle (both of which are a lot lower than similarly priced printer only units) and prints slightly faster. First page is more significantly faster on the Xerox.

The HP scans higher resolution, the Xerox prints higher resolution. If scan resolution really matters much to you, you shouldn't be getting an AIO anyway, so I'd say the Xerox wins. Especially since I've been very happy with Xerox's lower resolution units in the past, they seem to take a quality over quantity approach to dots.

It looks like you'll do a lot better on toner cost with the HP, and in addition to that you'll need to change the drum separately while it looks to be included in the toner cartridges on the HP. I'm not sure on that, you'll have to take a closer look at consumable costs from third parties, and verify the HP's drums are integral to the toner cartridges.

I've been thrilled with Xerox's service in the past, I haven't dealt much with HP.

 

have you personally used both HP 2800 AIO and Xerox 6115MFP? I keep looking at reviews on one, but theres been a lot of user reviews that complain of the printer needing a part change every half a year, which really scares me.

 

I've used enough similar printers from both to have a good idea of where they two stand.

I'm guessing they're talking about the drum, which is going to be changed regardless if it's integrated with the toner. Probably more often than necessary if it's in the toner cartridge which ends up increasing the price of the toner cartridges. Though that's something of a moot point if Xerox toner is more expensive than HP toner.

I'm honestly not sure how these smaller machines handle developer, which typically needs to be changed every few drums on larger machines.

Honestly, don't be afraid of maintenance. It's what allows these machines to stay in use for so long, and keeps the print quality from going downhill irreversibly.

 

hmm very tough decisions.. hmmm....

 

I kept almost buying a printer, but keep holding back. Right now, I have a HP CM1015 MFP at home, but it doesn't have fax.

 

I emailed pcmag editor and he recommended lexmark x502. anybody have any experience with this?