The HL-2170W, released recently by Brother (along with the HL-2140), offers some great features:

• Wireless B/G networking
• Wired Ethernet and USB networking
• 23 pages per minute
• 250-sheet paper capacity

The street price is $149.99. ($99.99 for the HL-2140, with a $20 rebate at the moment.)

And it also has a Price/Yield Index of 333, compared to the HP LaserJet 4000 at 80 (using a remanufactured cartridge). Once again, remember that there are trade-offs when purchasing inexpensive printers.

For a number of years, HP has been publishing a “monthly duty cycle” in the specifications for its LaserJet printers. This has—to me—been a misleading number, as it appears to grossly overstate the hardiness of the printer. For example, the HP Color LaserJet 1600 has a monthly duty cycle of 20,000 pages, which seems way out of line for a “personal” office printer.

Many of our customers have purchased printers that are unsuited for the load placed upon them, based on the number of pages they think the machine will be able to print each month. The result is that these machines experience a high failure rate—and accompanying downtime—because the machine in truth cannot keep up with their demands.

HP recently moved to eliminate the confusion of the monthly duty cycle by also publishing a “recommended monthly print volume.” Their footnote for this spec reads “HP recommends that the number of printed pages per month be within the stated range for optimum device performance, based on factors including supplies replacement intervals and device life over an extended warranty period.” In other words, “recommended monthly print volume” means exactly what it says, and your machine will work best—and last longer—if you print no more than that each month. In our Color LaserJet 1600 example, the recommended monthly print volume is 300-1500 pages, a more reasonable figure for this model.

The monthly duty cycle is still published, but its footnote indicates that this spec is best used to compare models of similar printers. When looking at the paper output of one of my customers, I would in no way base the purchase of a printer on this number. Instead, the recommended monthly print volume will provide a far more accurate basis for the suitability of a given printer. Kudos to HP for making this more clear!

Low-cost color printers have previously been found only in the ranks of inkjet printers, but two recent arrivals have brought that distinction to laser printers.

The Konica Minolta magicolor 2500W and the HP Color LaserJet 1600 couldn’t be more different. The former is a five-page-per-minute printer (in color), the latter is an eight-page-per-minute-printer. However, when printing in black-only mode, the magicolor 2600W blows away the LaserJet 1600 at 20 pages per minute compared to eight pages per minute.

Don’t let that sway you, however: if you’re buying a printer to print mostly text, you want that text to be readable. PC Magazine reports that the quality of the text on the 2600W is sub-par and the color output is such that the reviewer “wouldn’t hand the output to a client I want to impress.”

The cost per page is slightly lower for the 2600W at $0.11/0.022 (color/mono), but that’s based on purchasing the “Value Kit” of three, high-capacity color toners; most users will find spending $70 at a time on the color they need is preferable to buying the package deal at $349, so the cost per page for color printing will jump to $0.172. (The 1600’s cost per page is $0.154/0.03.) Keep in mind, too, that manufacturers don’t base their stated page yields on real-world examples of usage (or a consistent standard) and your cost per page for both machines will likely be higher.

Neither printer offers network printing at this price, but I wouldn’t be using either printer in a multiple-user environment, anyway. Either printer can accept an external network interface and the 1600 also accepts a second 250-sheet paper tray. (The 2600W is limited to a single, 200-sheet tray.)

Given their low cost and the fact that the machines ship with $162–$444 worth of initial supplies, these printers are essentially disposable when they break down. It’s not worth repairing either printer when the effective cost of a replacement is less than $200. My own personal experience in servicing printers leads me to believe that the Hewlett-Packard will perform better over time.

All of these factors cause me to concur with PC Magazine’s designation of “Editor’s Choice” for the HP Color LaserJet 1600.

Well, apparently the bar on disposable printers has been raised. After talking to Hewlett-Packard today, I found that a $500 printer is now not worth being fixed. My customer’s OfficeJet 7410—still a currently-shipping model—would be replaced by HP if it was still under warranty, but as it is not, HP will not even repair the printer at my customer’s expense.

I would, of course, repair the printer for my customer if parts were available, but HP doesn’t make them available. This is odd, since the ADF (automatic document feeder) pickup assembly and separation pad are similar to those available for the OfficeJet 7210—a $300 printer!

HP’s suggestion was, of course, “upgrade to a new printer.” The technician’s suggested upgrades (with the “discount” prices he offered) were the Photosmart 3210 ($160), the Photosmart 3310 ($313), and the Photosmart C6180 ($265). Umm, the first two are discontinued and the third can be purchased from shopping.hp.com for $240. Of course, there are other product options, but, in the end, my customer must buy a new machine.

It used to be that fixing your equipment was an attractive alternative to buying new. In this case, neither option is appealing. In a rare departure for me, I blame HP, who should have made these parts—common failure items—available.

(BTW, it’s been my long-held opinion that an ADF on a low-end machine is a repair waiting to happen. If you’re attracted to an inexpensive copier because it has an ADF, consider buying a more-expensive machine with an ADF that will withstand the rigors of regular use.)