Are color laser printers good for printing photos?

[Smooth Groove]

I've had to print lots of crap this semester and I'm getting sick of my ink jet's slow printing speeds. 

How well do color lasers handle photos?  It's my one concern with getting a laser.  I know that lasers are much faster and have more legible texts than ink jets. 

[Arbys Roast Beef Sandwich]

I've had to print lots of crap this semester and I'm getting sick of my ink jet's slow printing speeds. 

How well do color lasers handle photos?  It's my one concern with getting a laser.  I know that lasers are much faster and have more legible texts than ink jets. 

Pretty damn well, much better than inkjets in my eyes.

We have one in the office and I used it to print out my portfolio and it turned out well, even on regular paper. The only thing is that toners are expensive as shit.

[MrAngryFace]

Keep in mind that laser jet ink is super expensive, so make sure you make those prints count.

When I worked at Staples we generally didn't recommend lasers for color pictures, almost ever.

[Smooth Groove]

So, per dollar, I'd actually get less color pages than I would from a typical inkjet?  I currently have a HP photosmart and it eats up ink like crazy.

Right now, text printing is more important for me though. 

MAF, would you recommend a laser if printing word documents is 80% of what I do? 

[MrAngryFace]

yes, you'll save a lot of money if what you print is mostly text, plus laser printers rule at clean text. Just get a low end black and white laser and then a seperate inkjet for pictures

[Bildi]

I agree, a little cheap B&W laser for text is awesome - we use little Brother ones on our desks at work and they print just as well as the big central office printer.

The only downside is that the replacement cartridges can cost more than the entire machine so you're better off throwing the whole lot in the bin and buying a new one sometimes.

[MrAngryFace]

Yeah but if you look at page output per cartridge its pretty insane. Brother toner cartridges, bw anyway are pretty cheap

[MrAngryFace]

color is an exception because of how much toner goes in one picture. You think of black for example, how do you make black? You use every color. So imagine a lot of color pictures Add to that the fact that you will probably run out of one cartidge at one point, then another at some other point.

[MrAngryFace]

stupid quote...I mean to correct. laser color USUALLY has a seperate black cartridge but iirc its reserved for b&w operations

[Bildi]

Oh yeah, I agree they're a great price per page for B&W even if you buy a new machine every time the cartridge runs out.  I've noticed by the time the first or second cartridge runs out, the drum is often getting dirty and they can be hard to get perfectly clean again so it's better to chuck it and buy a new one sometimes.

They're still dirt cheap per page even with all of that - the cartridges go a hell of a long time.

[Smooth Groove]

Thanks for all the advice.  I think I'll do exactly what MAF suggested and get a cheapo B&W laser. 

What are some good brands/models?

[Bildi]

We've had a bunch of Brother 2040s in the office, and a couple of my friends have used them too.  They've always worked well.  They've now been replaced by the 2140 as per this page: http://www.brother-usa.com/printer/BW_Monochrome_Laser_Printers/

If I remember correctly, Brother are pretty good about giving you a decent amount of toner in the supplied cartridge.  Some manufacturers skimp pretty heavily on this.

I bought a 2140 a couple of weeks back for AUD$100 (about USD$65), but haven't had a chance to try it yet.

[Smooth Groove]

How's this model?  Newegg had it on their frontpage.  23pg/min sounds awesome. 

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16828113291&cm_sp=DailyDeal-_-28-113-291-_-Homepage

[Bildi]

It uses the same cartridge as the 2140 so I imagine it will all be much the same otherwise - it should print text really nicely.  It seems to have a lot more memory than the 2140 (32MB vs 8MB), and it has wireless ability apparently.

Looks good to me, especially for that price.  Cnet's review seems good: http://www.cnet.com.au/printers/desktop/0,239035459,339285902,00.htm