So I find myself in the unusual situation where I need a printer in 2022. The office downstairs where I used to print my very low amount of paper sheets, closed down. They also had great coffee
I don’t need much, just a laser printer that works with Linux. I’m ok with WiFi connection as the printer is used by multiple computers all with good wifi connection, but RJ-45 is a bonus of course.
I don’t necessarily need a scanner , I will never ever buy HP again, the same with Inkjet. I know consumer products, when it comes to printing, is a minefield of aweful software, proprietary bullshit and frustration.
You wont find anything decent in that category, you might get lucky to get a used one.
By decent I mean following:
Supports PCL5/6 and/or Postscript (you will regret it later on)
Doesn’t feel like it’s going to fall apart as soon as you touch it (paper feeder tends to die quickly on cheap ones)
Toner that doesn’t cost a fortune (I know about third party ones but many times they are of questionable quality)
LAN-port (wireless is unreliable and works poorly in general on printers/MFPs)
In general I’d highly recommend you do avoid cheap ones irregardless of brand that also includes Brother ones (HL-5*** are okay-ish but feels a bit cheap).
Kyocera printers are (mid-range and above) are tanks but they’re not small by any means, they feel very solid, just works and toner is in many causes geniunely cheap. Unfortunately the pandemic made them quite expensive and hard to find due to poor availability.
Having a quick look at what’s available right now…
Brother HL-L2370DN
Supports PCL6 according to Brother tech specs and LAN-port
Toner seems to be very expensive (as expected)
160 EUR (feels cheap, you get what you pay for)
Drivers in general are quite poor on Windows if it’s of interest, you can probably use HP’s Generic PCL6 driver though.
HP LaserJet Pro M404dn
Supports PCL6, HP Postscript level 3, PDF direct print etc
Expensive toner (about the same as Brother)
Build quality is noticably better
~240 EUR
Kyocera Ecosys P2040dn (what I would recommend)
Build quality is much higher
Toner is about 30% cheaper than the ones above (third party is cheaper if you want to go that route)
Emulates all decent printer languages (and very good vendor drivers on Windows)
PCL-XL/PCL5e/PCL6, Postscript 3, PDF Direct Print, XPS/OpenXPS
Usually around 260 EUR, (260 in .es and 320 .de right now)
Edit:
Both HP and Kyocera comes with a lot more built-in memory than the Brother (256Mbyte vs 64Mbyte) and have much higher duty rates than the Brother.
Well I have just an old MFC-295 model which does me good, primarily for my Windows machines but when I use a Linux VM from time to time it works well there too.
I’ve been using Kyocera printers at work all my life, they never let me down. Tireless workhorse. I wasn’t sure if they are still around and good. ~260€ is stretching the budget, but I have a good feeling about that model and also some nostalgia.
Seems like people are happy with their Brother. MFC line seems to be the line of choice and I have the MFC-L2710DN on my radar now.
Love it, thanks!
Not sure whether to get wireless or cable, I tend to prefer cable but with tablet/phone printing being a thing, I’m not sure. I may want to print some stuff ad-hoc via phone and my guests usually have tablet/phone with them. The WiFi printers hooks into the local SSID and act as a network printer? I don’t need WiFi then. I’m just worried mobile devices cant see a non-WiFi printer.
That’s a crap MFP printer that only does GDI (which you don’t want), it’s a HL-L2310D with a scanner bolt on to it basically. You need to step up to MFC-L2730DW or MFC-L2750DW, all these have very little memory for being a MFP so the only one I would imagine have somewhat reliable scanning/copying would be the L2750DW without replying on a computer etc to produce a PDF document by itself etc.
A somewhat reliable and decent MFP (laser) will be around 400 EUR so including one where the toner doesn’t cost an arm or a leg.
They’re quite nice, their web interface is crap (it’s by far the worst I’ve ever used) and the lower end models have pretty hefty toner costs. The user interface (touch) is good and they usually work without much hassle. They are a bit loud compared to the competition. Supports PCL and/or PS (depending on model) and comes with a decent amout of RAM =)
I used to have an older MF9130 way overkill but I got it dirt cheap due to a sale. Unfortunately it’s been by far the most unreliable machine I’ve ever used as far as printing goes (maybe a dud) but I wouldn’t use that as a reference for Canon in general.
A friend of mine uses a Canon LBP6750 that never missed a beat, (80k prints so far) the only downside is that it’s quite loud during prints. The equivalent seems to be i-SENSYS X 1643P which seems to be around the ~550 EUR mark or so. I also too a look at another printer that I know gets used a lot, a Kyocera P6230cdn that’s been doing 50k pages without issues. I would rate these nicer than LBP6750 however it is newer and can be found for as little as 300 EUR at times which is a steal. They’re quite bulky (and heavy (~27kg)) but extremely reliable
I have a HP LaserJet M401dn myself, works fine but toner is crazy expensive. The reason I got it is because I got it for free barely used with a high density toner in it.
Eh, idk, I’ve never had big issues with printers while on Linux, if something reallly doesn’t want to work, reboot both the PC and the printer and voila
)
