Which One Should I Pick? Inkjet or Laser?

It’s been years since inkjet and laser printers were released in the market but up to now, people are still weighing the pros and cons as to which type of printer to purchase.

Personally, I am using a laser jet printer and i recommend it to my friends and colleagues. Why? Well, think of it in terms of economy. Inkjet printers may be cheaper than laser printers but ink cartridges costs more than toner cartridges (whether remanufactured or OEM). Printer manufacturers are probably thinking that they can sell their inkjet printers at lower prices in the hope that they can make more money through ink cartridge sales.

Let’s do the Math, if you get an HP OfficeJet Pro K5400 Inkjet Printer, current price is probably between $149.99 to $169.00. if you have to replace the ink cartridges, it will cost you about $79.99 per OEM cartridge. This can only give you a maximum yield of 820 pages. Supposing that you print a lot and a cartridge would last for only a month or two then after two or three cartridge replacements, you would have spent more than the cost of the printer unit.

Now, let us take into consideration laser printers. An HP Color LaserJet CP1215 costs about $ 189 to $299 per unit. Each OEM toner cartridge costs about $77.45. This can give you a standard yield of 2,200 pages, meaning, you can print more than 2,200 pages of you print in draft mode or with minimal graphics.

Based on this, the use of laser printer may seem more expensive at first but it actually gives you lower cost per page. Also, you only have to pay more for the printer unit but you will eventually pay less for toner replacement over time since you don’t have to replace frequently and you get more pages from it. There are also cheaper toner cartridge alternatives like buying remanufactured or compatible toners instead of OEM toner cartridges.

So which type of printer should you choose? It depends on what you need to do. For example, if you print only once in a while and your printed documents do not have to “stay for a long time”, then you can go for an inkjet printer. But if you print a lot and you need your printouts fast, then you should go for a laser printer.