Eight color laser multifunction devices tested

One can wonder about it: How can color laser multifunctional devices with top equipment for under 400 euros be offered? They are practically “imperishable”, right? A HP Laserjet 4L was bought and then printed the next ten years his correspondence without problems. With toner change you did not have to fight, the cartridges held forever. And that is different today.


Cost-intensive


Every convenient device is now equipped with a Starter toner pack: And the few toner in the cartridges really does not last long, let alone years. Strictly speaking one should therefore when purchasing a complete toner replacement to the device price. A few examples of toner replacements: Brother 205 euros, Canon 237 euros, OKI 245 euros, Xerox 330 euros.


Costs of photoprint


Test: WLAN multifunction devices


This is somehow still in order, because the price is still well below the purchase price. Lexmark and Samsung, on the other hand, will be quite surprised: for the large toner replacement 550 or 400 euros are due, much more than the purchase price. However, depending on the system, there are additional costs.


By the way, in our cost calculations per page we always assume that the largest possible toner is used, because with these the side price is the cheapest. If you re-order toner is worthwhile in any case also a price comparison. Especially for original toners there are marked price differences.


Download: Table


The different toner systems can roughly be divided into two bearings. There are cartridges that already contain a complete phototube. The big advantage is that you almost never get into contact with toner, because the system is well sealed and usually also the residual toner container is implemented. These combined cartridges are used by HP, Canon, Brother, Ricoh and Samsung. Of course, a lot of material is wasted, because with every change of cartridges a picture drum is disposed.


OKI, Lexmark and Xerox use toner cartridges without built-in image drum. This seems to be the more environmentally friendly solution in terms of material consumption. With the user, there is, of course, a greater risk of getting in contact with toner via the airways. With these systems you have to change the picture drums, too, and they can be very costly.


For a few years now, the color laser devices have evolved into neat photoprints. HP's imageREt-3600 technology is at the forefront when it comes to photo quality. However, we always give the page prices for color prints with a cover of 15%. A full-fledged photo is worth about 70 cent ton costs.


Properly expensive, it becomes, and in unison for all printer manufacturers, if you want to upgrade the usually rather sparsely equipped main memory of the device, in order to be able to print large graphic and photo files.


Buying advice: Color laser printer under 1,000 euros


For example, to expand the Canon MF-8080CW with 256 MB of memory, you have to print at Amazon 391 euros. At Brother, an SO-DIMM with 256 MB costs 359 euros. This is extremely hard, considering the fact that standard SO-DIMMs with 144 pins and 256 MB in shipping do not cost 30 euros.