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:
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| 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.
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| Brother MFC-L2685DW (monochrome) and MFC-L3720CDW (color) |
So how does my Epson and Brother compare?* Glad you asked.
Text
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| Epson |
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| 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
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| Source file |
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| Epson |
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| Brother |
Picture
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| Source |
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| Epson |
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| 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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