printer purchase advice request

[0392673]

Hello. I am in the market for the following.
1) a home laser jet printer in ideally white or gray That works with Mac.
2) I would prefer a smaller printer, nothing huge. Ideally it would sit up on a desk shelf.
3) I would like to be able to use generic toner carts.
4) I’m not sure of the details on this part but I see a few HP printers that seem to REQUIRE you use their app or set up an account to print. I don’t want to mess with any of that and I don’t want the company to store what I print, sign me up for some cloud service, etc. I just need a printer.
5) I’d like WiFi and usb connection.
6) If there is one that has a copy and/or scan feature that’s great but not required.
7) it seems that the top brands when I look on Amazon anyways are HP, Brother and Lexmark. I’d prefer an established brand so parts or service won’t be an issue a year from now.
Thank you in advance for your assistance with my questions, it is greatly appreciated.

 

[BotchQue]

My last two have been Brothers (one b-n-w and one color) and I've had no issue. I've replaced the toner in the b-n-w once, but can't remember if it was generic; at any rate, you won't be robbed blind like they do with ink. The b-n-white also had a very small footprint; the color one not so much.

 

[KALLT]

Laser printers with copier/scanner are typically larger multi-function printers that will not fit on the desk; they have a larger footprint, are taller and need sufficient clearance. You can find smaller laser printers, such as Brother HL-12xx and HL-L23xx series, in various configurations, some of which have USB and Wi-Fi. Two things to note here is that (1) a smaller laser printer will have fewer capabilities, e.g. the HL-12xx series have no two-sided printing whereas the HL-L23xx do, and (2) that you must consider the size of the printer as it is fully set up, especially the size of protruding paper trays.

I think you cannot go wrong with Brother printers, especially not compared to HP’s printers for the reason you mentioned. I have no experience with Lexmark, but some of their models are similar or identical to Xerox printers which work without online accounts (just a local web interface). When I last checked, Brother had a better cost per print where I live than HP’s and Lexmark’s printers and toner availability should not be an issue.

 

[Apple_Robert]

I have 2 Brother HL-L2370DW laser printers that I have been happy with. I like the reasonable cost of printing compared to many other models. This model can often be found on sale from Staples etc.

 

[akidd]

See this for printer results.
Might or may not be available in US

U Refill Toner | Laser printer cartridge refills you do yourself

Save money and cut CO2 by refilling your own laser printer cartridge. Get it right: first time, by following what we did in the test lab.

urefilltoner.co.uk

 

[glenthompson]

I have a Brother B&W laser that’s excellent and a HP color laser that’s our primary printer. Really happy with the HP. I only use OEM cartridges after an unfortunate event with a refilled cartridge. Almost ruined a printer. Took me hours to clean toner out of the printer. Was not worth the savings.

 

[maccompaq]

Which Brother laser B & W printer works with the M1 Macs? Or is there a print driver for older Brother laser printers to make them work with M1 Macs?

 

[PeteBurgh]

you cannot go wrong with Brother printers

Agreed. I have a Brother HL-L2350DW, and it works great. AirPrint is super reliable, and it's handy to be able to print stuff direct from my phone without installing drivers/profiles. Reasonable cost up front, toner is reasonably priced and easily available.

Which Brother laser B & W printer works with the M1 Macs?

I don't know the ins-and-outs of every model, but I could print straight away from my M1 MacBook Pro. I'm actually not sure if that is AirPrint making things work, or the drivers working successfully (I migrated from an older intel system)...but in any case it works flawlessly.

 

[chabig]

Which Brother laser B & W printer works with the M1 Macs? Or is there a print driver for older Brother laser printers to make them work with M1 Macs?

Any Brother printer that supports AirPrint (most of them?) will work perfectly, because no drivers are required.

 

[russell_314]

Hello. I am in the market for the following.
1) a home laser jet printer in ideally white or gray That works with Mac.
2) I would prefer a smaller printer, nothing huge. Ideally it would sit up on a desk shelf.
3) I would like to be able to use generic toner carts.
4) I’m not sure of the details on this part but I see a few HP printers that seem to REQUIRE you use their app or set up an account to print. I don’t want to mess with any of that and I don’t want the company to store what I print, sign me up for some cloud service, etc. I just need a printer.
5) I’d like WiFi and usb connection.
6) If there is one that has a copy and/or scan feature that’s great but not required.
7) it seems that the top brands when I look on Amazon anyways are HP, Brother and Lexmark. I’d prefer an established brand so parts or service won’t be an issue a year from now.
Thank you in advance for your assistance with my questions, it is greatly appreciated.

I can only tell you what works for me. You have to decide if it works for you.

I have a HP LaserJet Pro MFP M28w that I bought from Walmart maybe a year ago? Not certain on the timeline but it's been a while.

I use it to print out documents for work maybe once a week so not a large volume. I bought it because with me sometimes not printing for a while inkjet printers will clog up. I never had jam or misfeed. It's small and has a flatbed scanner that I rarely use.

Now to the negatives... Like most things they keep changing and updating them so I don't see it listed currently at Walmart. Maybe there's a new version IDK. It's also black and white and this to me is a positive because less toner to buy. If I want to print photos I'll get an inkjet printer because even the really nice laser color printers aren't as good as an inkjet for photos.

As to your list

1) It's white and works with my Mac, PC, and iPhone.
2) Fairly small
3) Not sure on the generic toner cartridges. I think it was maybe $60 for the HP one and with how little I print I didn't bother going cheap.
4) It's been so long since I set it up but I think for the initial setup you need the app just to tell it the wifi name and password. You can print just from the Mac printer thing.

 

[glenthompson]

Which Brother laser B & W printer works with the M1 Macs? Or is there a print driver for older Brother laser printers to make them work with M1 Macs?

My Brother HL-L2360DW works perfectly on most versions of MacOS. From High Sierra on a 2011 iMac to Monterey on a M1 iMac.

 

[now i see it]

There’s two main problems with all ink jet printers:
1. Insanely expensive ink
2. Printer nozzles eventually get clogged.

They’re also much slower than a laser printer and if you speed up the printing by using lower resolution output- it looks pretty bad.

I got a Brother B&W laser printer and I’ll never use an inkjet again. (Don’t care about color).

 

[glenthompson]

There’s two main problems with all ink jet printers:
1. Insanely expensive ink
2. Printer nozzles eventually get clogged.

They’re also much slower than a laser printer and if you speed up the printing by using lower resolution output- it looks pretty bad.

I got a Brother B&W laser printer and I’ll never use an inkjet again. (Don’t care about color).

My feelings exactly except that I care about color. A color laser handles most of my color printing needs except for the few high quality photos I want to print. I outsource those. Cheaper than buying ink cartridges.

 

[Baldy51]

I have a Canon i-SENSYS MF8280Cw laser printer and it works very well with Monterey. print , scan, copy, and takes amazon refilled toner cartridges.

 

[Diablo360]

Another vote for the Brother laserjets. I bought one of the cheaper ones ($100) and it runs like a champ for the last 6 years