I’m moving! And one of the things I’ve decided to do as part of the move is to “upgrade” my printer (I don’t see the point in bring a ~10 year old inkjet over from Austria). I don’t print very regularly but as I’m now permanently working from home using the work printers isn’t an option - and there’s nowhere in town to print either.
I’ve concluded that a monochrome laser printer will do the job just fine, but I want one with AirPrint and would also like a scanner with an auto document feeder to scan in the piles of paperwork I’ll have to deal with as part of the move. Does anyone have any suggestions? I am in the UK which means looking at The Wirecutter doesn’t always work unfortunately.
A lot of people including me are big fans of Brother b&w laser printers. I’ve owned two, bought one for my mom (who then replaced it with an all-in-one that included a scanner and fax machine). Solid, affordable workhorses. We discussed them (and other printers) here:
The second one of these I bought. Satisfied as a black and white printer/copy machine. Overkill? (IPhone, tablet, iMac printing) Probably just me one was recalcitrant to get going but works fine now.
+1 for Brother printers. I’ve had the HL-3170CDW (which is a colour laser printer) since 2012 and it is a workhorse. Super reliable. AirPrint works great.
Would you consider an ink jet? I got the Canon G6050 as our main document printer which I’ve been pretty pleased with. The software support for Mac seems quite good and it does Airprint, plus there’s an app for printing / scanning from the iPhone.
The cost of ink is quite low too as you refill it from a bottle, this also means the consumable element is much smaller / eco friendly which was one of the points that swayed me towards buying it.
The G6050 doesn’t have a document feed but the G4511 & G7050 do.
I’m hoping to be printing very rarely - and I really only need black and white. Ink jets are cheaper off the bat, but when your ink cartridges dry out from disuse it’s very frustrating in my experience.
I have a Xerox B210DNI (B/W laser) and it works brilliantly with Airplay. I print all the time from my iOS devices and it’s instantly detected without any issues. The only hitch was that I had to set it up to connect to my network using Windows (to enable ethernet). I’m not sure if there is a work around but I have boot camp so I just booted into that and installed the Windows driver. After that, all the configuration is done on a web interface that works fine on Mac.
For a laser printer, it was great value for €115 including a cartridge. The quality of the prints is outstanding for the price.
100% agree. Bought a cheap brother b&w laser around 5 years ago. I don’t miss colour. I also like that it has google cloud print. Apparently that’s going away however, I’m guessing something will replace it by the time it’s done.
Rosemary - I’m sure you’re thought of this, but unfortunately a lot of companies are in the process of downsizing or closing their physical offices, and are unloading a lot of equipment in the process - especially printers. If you were in NY, I would know of a great deal for you on a HP laser printer, haha!
You might want to wait and see what you hear about locally, if you put the word out in your new location.
By now I have more then 60 Brother Multi Function Laser machines installed at my clients. Some of these printers are almost 10 years old and are still running strong. Very economical in use and reliable! Unlike many other printer brands Brother keeps up with the Mac OS printer drivers so that even the 10 year old one is still compatible with the current Mac OS.
Monochrome is limited options but you can check the box to to print in B&W if you don’t want to print in color. When its time to refill the toner opt for the hi capacity cartridge for a longgggg time printing.
Wirecutter’s top pick for b&w laser printer is a Brother model that’s under $90. I have the previous version of that model and it’s a workhorse. At that price point, new with warranty, and with b&w laser printers in general being similarly affordable, it doesn’t make a lot of sense to buy a used office machine without warranty even at a 50% discount.
The main reason I changed from an excellent (performing) inkjet. I miss the color but appreciate not fussing with the maintenance modes. Just don’t print enough…
When it all comes down to it, Inkjets serve only the needs of the manufacturers. They are deceptively expensive when calculating TCO and generate either more environmental waste or busywork to deal with the recycling of the cartridges. A guy in a shop once explained to me they only work out to be cost effective if you print a lot and have the ones with the tubes that come out to the external ink tanks.
Bottom line if you can tolerate B&W then go with an economical laser like the brothers. Fortunately most of the use case of low-volume reasonable-quality colour print outs has been taken over by us all having wonderfully capable digital devices with screens that far surpass the quality of the inkjet printout.
I have a 10+ year old Xerox that has been a workhorse. Photo quality is not great but does color text and line drawings well. Not sure how good the newer models are. I think the Brother color models rate highly.
Last ink jet we had was one my wife got free with her 2011 iMac. Did great for photos but burned through ink. Decided it was cheaper to outsource any color photo printing. Bought a few Fracture prints for display.
I have Brother L2700DW laser, scabs, copies, faxes (I don’t need that function) , It’s been a good replacement for the old HP laser jet. I’m not into monthly ink subscriptions.
Check carefully if buying Canon. They no longer support MAC OS. My Selphy CP900 now can only be printed from my smartphone. Cannot believe Canon are ok with ghosting hundreds of thousands of users,
