Throw Money at It. Inkjet and Laser (LED) - Why Not Both?

I have not owned an inkjet printer since I left college in 2004. It was some cheap Lexmark that I would always buy cartridges for but I was glad I had it so I didn't have to go to the computer lab for prints. Now looking back on it, I don't know why I did that since I had an allowance of "free" prints baked in from my tuition fees.

I have had access to laser printers ever since then even though I didn't own one for myself until five years ago when I moved into my new house. I got the cheapest monochrome laser from Walmart - the Brother MFC-L2685DW. Fantastic printer. The only thing was that it didn't have color and at the time, I wasn't going to pay big bucks for a color laser printer.

Recently, I bought into the hype around tank printers. I was attracted to the prospect of having a smaller printer, finally being able print in color, and ink refills were sooooo cheap in comparison to the cartridges. I watched and read some online reviews and noticed that people were saying that their prints were so sharp. So I thought maybe the technology has progressed enough that I could buy a new printer. With some of my tax return in hand I got this:

Epson ET-3850

The Epson EcoTank ET-3850. $299 from Costco.

I set it up, easy peasy and started some prints. Then the regret came. 

When it came to pictures, it was good. I've never had a printer that could print photos like I got from developers. The colors were off from the pics that I see on my computer but that wasn't any different than I experienced when I sent my pics to be printed by professionals.

When it came to printed text, I hated it. The text still had this fuzzyness that I couldn't get over. Also, despite, my efforts to calibrate - I could still see the misalignments.

So I resigned myself to keeping the two printers and I would decide which one I needed based on what job I had. 

Now what follows may seem dumb to you and I get it. I think it's dumb but I'm a lot happier for it.

I got a bonus at work. $1,000. I took $353 of it and got the Brother MFC-L3720CDW. A color "laser" printer. It's not really a laser printer. It's similar but the principal difference is that it uses LEDs rather than a laser to create an image. Please see this video by from Technology Connections.

Brother MFC-L2685DW (monochrome) and MFC-L3720CDW (color)

So how does my Epson and Brother compare?* Glad you asked.

Text

Epson

Brother

You can see that there is a misalignment in the line containing, "John Turner was Prime Minister," on the Epson. Also, look at the apostrophes and how much more crisp they are on the Brother.

Color

Source file

Epson


Brother

Picture

Source

Epson

Brother

For pictures, I'm happy with the Epson and prefer it for that alone. However, with my type of usage of printers--I'm far more happier with with the Brother LED printer. I print documents that may have pictures or use color in them. I've always had pictures printed by 3rd parties and I rarely have that done. Also, there are long stretches where I don't print - that's a danger with inkjets. Ink will dry and clog.

You know you and I'll leave you to decide which one you rather have. As for me, I'll probably keep both. I mean they are already paid for!


*Scans are at a resolution of 1200 dpi.

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