Affordable Toner and Dual-Sided Printing: Choosing a Reliable Laser Printer for Your Needs

Buy a laser printer that has inexpensive toner cartridges.

(Check the “per page” cost, don’t get a low-capacity toner cartridge by mistake, because it “costs less”.)

Buy a laser printer that automatically can print on both sides of the paper. That is a very handy feature, much easier than having to put the stack of papers printed on one side, properly back into the paper tray, to print the second side.

Figure out if you need a printer, or a printer/scanner.

Many people don’t need a scanner, can do the occasional “scan” by phone photo instead; or a separate device might work better. 

You don’t need to worry about a printer description saying works with OS/X or with Linux. They “all do”, since all laser printers use either HP’s basic command set, or Postscript, or both.

(Okay, check the reviews, there might be some “weird” printers that truly don’t work at all on OS/X.)

You might miss out on some special driver features, like telling you the current toner levels, or alerting you on your screen when the printer is out of paper. 

(In Arizona, buy a laser printer instead of an inkjet, unless you print Every Week, inkjet cartridges dry out quickly; if they dry out you might have to replace them. If you need a color print occasionally, send it to a Kinkos et. al.)

There might be companies in Phoenix that sell refurbished laser printers and refill toner cartridges.

I’ve had good experiences with HP, especially if you don’t need “latest greatest”, aren’t buying based on fastest print speed for hundreds of pages per day. Canon, Brother, several other brands are good too.

PC Magazine reviews from a few years ago might be good, the great printer a few years ago might be lower priced today. They would mention if a printer doesn’t work at all on (then current) OS/X.

A Hewlett-Packard HP LaserJet 400 M401dne has lasted for years.

Bonus tip: Keep your printer and your computer on a top-quality surge suppressor. Lightning can kill the brains of a laser printer. 

A few brands (APC is one, for both surge suppressors and uninterruptible power supplies) have a feature where, if the surge suppression part has failed, then it will not deliver power at all.

With most brands, you have no way of knowing if the surge suppressor is “still working”. If the surge suppressor stopped a big power surge, it protected your equipment, but can’t any more.