Can anyone recommend a cheap colour laser printer — my Samsung has just died at only 6 years old.

It only has to cope with light usage — my biggest file is 40 pages and that's only printed about once a year. I don't need wireless connectivity, just usb. I don't want an all-in-one device, as I have a good flat-bed scanner.

Looking on Amazon, I saw one Brother (HL-L323CDW) and two Lexmarks (C2325Dw and CS417sn). I know that Brothers are usually good, but what are Lexmarks like these days?

Avoid Lexmark like the plague. There's nothing in their cartridges.
Generally, the cheaper you go, the more they rip you off on cartridges. I had an €50 hp laserjet that took an €80 cartridge! The hp ones usually do postscript, and wired, you don't have an issue. I prefer laser mono because I don't need color and toner doesn't dry out.

Don't know if it's still made, but I've been quite happy with my HP Color Laserjet 1415fnw.

DavidMcCann,

I agree with business_kid, avoid Lexmark!

It is standard practice for new machines to contain starter toners or cartridges with reduced ink volumes.
How long they will last is anybody's guess.

Brother laser and inkjet printers usually accept third-party compatible inks without any problem.

I have found that Stinky Ink’s replacements work perfectly and the company has a 100% refund guarantee.
https://www.stinkyinkshop.co.uk/

I think most manufacturers do that but Lexmark will nearly give you a printer to rip you off on cartridges. Don't be fooled. I spent ~£150 on a HP Laserjet MFP M130 some months back, bought the spare cartridge (€30 - €40), done ~20 pages, but haven't needed it yet. I also did several hundred invites, but I was just putting an address on them.

The two HPs recommended are no longer available. The cheaper Brothers turn out to lack Linux support. And I see what you mean about Lexmark: £90 for the printer, £80 for a black toner cartridge!

It's very difficult to find things on Amazon. You search for a colour printer and it suggests mono ones. The data given is often wrong: a printer is described as two-sided when a reviewer says it's not, or in one case the specification calls the laser printer a dot matrix! It looks like I may have to head to the shops.

Ebay isn't bad sometimes … it's worth 5 minutes.

David, while I use mono laser, I must say that I have never had trouble with Brother printers and Linux, regardless of the distro, they offer drivers in .rpm and .deb.
https://support.brother.com/g/b/prod...=en&content=dl
and for that specific brother laser you mentioned: https://support.brother.com/g/b/down...30cdw_us_eu_as

PS: In case you consider mono, I currently have (for several years) the HL2270-DW. Holds up very well for personal and business abuse (lots of printing).

DavidMcCann,

As ChuangTzu mentions, Brother has very good Linux support.

The Linux driver for the Brother HL-L3230CDW you mentioned is available here:
https://support.brother.com/g/b/down...s_eu_as&os=128

For what it's worth, I eventually got the HP Color Laser 150 — the cheapest but it works.

It's so new that none of the installation methods recognised it, so I had to get a ppd for CUPS. It seems that you can no longer download them. I had to get the HP installer package: a 6 MB zip! Inside was a folder. Inside the folder was a tarball. Inside that was another folder, with a shed-load of stuff. I ran install.sh — and it did nothing. Eventually I unearthed the ppd file and passed it to CUPS — all 36 KB of it. The world's gone mad, mad I tell you

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I discovered on earlier threads that the very cheap HPs are to be avoided for 2 reasons

1. They charge more for the cartridge than the printer.
2. They are a bitch to install, particularly on WiFi.

I had an €50 mono Laserjet that cost me €80 per cartridge. On wifi, I needed (spit!) M$ Windoze to set it up with an IP, via the (spit!) M$ Windoze installer. I felt shame, until one of the moderators verified that was the only way.

My new one @ €170 (=~$190) has a scanner, fax, etc. and sets up an IP over WiFi. I'd advise pricing replacement expendables while you can return it.

The printer cost £140 and a toner cartridge (1000 pages) will cost £36. I can live with that, so nothing will be sent back. Nothing is wireless around here (except the radio!) — it's all simple, reliable cables.

You're OK so.

I have found using a network (ethernet) HP printer has been the most reliable way to get printing. Android phones. tablets and my 3 Linux boxes all immediately had it available without me doing anything - cannot get easier than that!