Looking for advice about printers...

[fajrdrako]

I'm thinking of buying a new printer. My trusty old HP Laserjet 4+ died last summer - well, actually, something jammed, and I pulled the paper out and killed it. So I replaced it with a reconditioned Laserjet 4, which was even older, but cheap and serviceable.

Or maybe less than serviceable. I've had a lot of problems with it, and it really just isn't up to printing much. It can't handle my apazine, for example.

I don't like Inkjet printers. The ink gets used up almost immediately, or dries out, and costs a fortune. And they seem kind of... tinny. Lightweight.

lunacy_gal told me about her beautiful new Brother Printer that prints on both sides of the paper and is $99.99 at Best Buy. I don't know exactly what model she has but I'd guess it's the Brother Laser Printer HL-2270DW. It looks good to me. deakat recommends it, and says she's heard that people who have it really like it.

I browsed at Staples on my way home, and saw they are selling the HP Laserjet P1102W for only $79.99 till the end of the month. Great deal. It doesn't do anything my current printer doesn't do, except be wireless, which isn't a big consideration - though it might be handy. I don't have a lot of experience with wireless electronics. And the Brother is wireless too.

I asked my trusty computer guru Sheila from Computertamers and she said I should phone our mutual friend Bobbi at Integrated Lasers - from whom I bought the HP Laserjet 4 - and ask her advice. So I did. Bobbi said that the Brother, besides needing toner cartridges, needs a new drum from time to time, which makes it expensive. She suggested an HP model that prints double-sided and costs about $300. I told her to research it more completely and get back to me; my thought is basically that it would be nice, but I really don't have $300 to spend up front on a printer, and don't want to wait to save up for one. And I might have more faith if the printer I bought from her last year wasn't a bit of a dud.

I did some research: a Brother HL-2270DW cartridge prints about 1400 pages, and you're supposed to get a new drum every 12,000 pages or so. A toner cartridge costs about $55. A drum costs about $200. The HP toner cartridge costs about $95.00 and has about the same output. That doesn't look like all that much difference to me; at $40 less per cartridge, I could buy a drum every 5 cartridges for the same money. (You'd tell me if I messed up the arithmetic, right?)

So the Brother's looking good. I could buy it at Best Buy for $99.99, and they deliver, but I hear their servicing is poor. I could buy it at Staples for $119.99, and they have a decent 2-year warranty. I could buy it at Amazon for $105, and they deliver too.

So: do any of you have helpful advice? Which would you buy, and where? Is there a decent printer that I'm overlooking?