Last Summer we carried an article on a laser printer that was cheap enough to be regarded as disposable (see here). There's now another one that possibly represents even more of a bargain. At the time of writing, Tesco are selling the Ricoh SP 201N for just £34.00 in some of their stores. This is a B&W networked laser printer (Ethernet, not wireless), with a 150-page paper tray and a claimed print speed of 22 pages per minute. As such, it may be suitable for use in a very small business. It's reasonably compact, and looks quite well made. It includes a toner cartridge; it is not apparent from the documentation whether this is a full or starter cartridge. But even if the latter, if it's good for say 500 pages then that's still a printing cost of less that 7p a page. If so, then even if you threw it away once the cartridge runs out you'd still be getting a bargain.
The story of the laser printer is both fascinating and inspiring. It was invented by Xerox in 1969; it filled a room and cost $1 million to make. The development team showed it to the directors, one of whom reportedly said: "That's quite interesting. Now make one that is 1/1000th of the size and 1/1000th of the price and we might have a product". So they did, and about 15 years later it was possible to buy a desktop laser printer for a couple of thousand pounds. Only the printers were from Canon and HP; as with so many things to do with computing, Xerox invented it but were unable to fully exploit it themselves. Fast forward another 30 years and it is now possible to buy a DISPOSABLE laser printer. Well not quite, as in it is not exactly designed to be disposable, but to all intents and purposes it might as well be. The printer in question is the Aficio SP100e from Ricoh, the world's largest photocopier company. Amazingly, it can be purchased for just £24.00 including P&P from Dabs Online (or £24.96 from their ebay outlet). Okay, it's not the world's greatest laser printer and the paper tray only holds 50 pages, but it is small and compact and provided you're not printing more than a few hundred pages a month is good enough for many people. It comes with the all important toner cartridge, but here is the catch. As with most printers, it is a 'starter' cartridge. Ricoh rate it as good for 500 pages; obviously it depends on what you are printing but many people find they only get about 300 pages. To buy a full cartridge, rated for 1200 pages, costs in the order of £60-£80. They are not that easy to find and, as yet, nobody is offering cheaper refilled or third party cartridges. So, here is the dilemma. Do you buy one of these printers and when it runs out try and find a toner cartridge that will cost 2 or 3 times what you paid for the printer? Or do you just throw it away and buy another printer? Another strategy might be just to buy a couple of the printers to begin with, thereby giving you an instant spare! LOOK! If you enjoyed this, you might also like to read this article as well. Like most items of technology, colour laser printers have plummeted in price. Some years ago I was involved with a small company; the people in marketing and sales were desperate for a colour laser, but they were very expensive at the time. "I promise", said the boss, "that as soon as they drop below £5,000 we will buy one". And when they did so, he was as good as his word. It actually used a sort of wax as ink and was prone to jamming, but when it worked it gave good results, certainly by the standards of the time.
Last week I was in a well-known store doing some research on printers for an associate. A customer was nearby, contemplating the purchase of a small Samsung colour laser printer and discussing it with a sales assistant. The price was very keen - just £80 and this was for the wireless version, too. The customer asked the assistant about toner cartridges, to which he replied: "It does come with toner, but they are only starter cartridges and will soon run out. I recommend that you buy a full set of spare cartridges." "And how much are they?" asked the customer. "They are £60 each and you need 4 of them: one for black, one yellow, one cyan, one magenta" replied the assistant. "So the printer is £80 and the cartridges are another £240?" asked the customer incredulously? Needless to say, he did not buy it. Of course, it's not the store that is at fault. It's the pricing model adopted by the printer manufacturers, which is to sell you a cheap printer and hook you in to buying expensive toner cartridges on which they make a lot of money. The basic thing to keep in mind is: the cheaper the printer is to buy, the more expensive it will be to use and own. In general, so-called 'personal' colour lasers, priced around £100 have very high running costs. It's only when you go for a workgroup printer costing several hundred pounds that things become more affordable, and you have to spend around £500 to buy one with what might be called 'reasonable' running costs. Costs vary by brand, too. In general, the less well known brands have more expensive toners, plus there is less competition and choice. In contrast, it may be possible to purchase cheaper or refilled cartridges for big name brands such as HP and Brother (don't use them why the printer is still under warranty, though). Heard of the expression "there's no such thing as a free lunch?". Well, there's no such thing as a cheap colour laser printer, either. |
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