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Monday, September 19, 2016

Bought a cheap printer because that's the economical thing to do

Bought a printer, more than half a decade after buying the last one. The HP whatever model that I bought was not bought out of my own pocket, so technically I didn't buy it. By father did.

So this is my first printer.

It's a black and white one. But it's a laser printer, made by Brother. The model number is HL-1210W; W is for Wireless. That makes things easy, because there is no place to keep the printer either near the PC, the server or the router. It is a single function type (so no scanning or copying) but I think I can do just fine with Tiny Scanner app in my phone for scanning (and hence copying).

So, how much did it cost? Not much. Just AUD 59. I bought it from Staples. The usual price is $79, but it was on sale for $69 (sadly, it is slightly cheaper now at AUD 66.50). Stock take? Who cares? And for first time buyers of Staples, they were giving a $10 promotional discount if the total purchase price was above $60, so it ended costing $59. Funny thing is that the non-wireless model was going for $59 as well everywhere. Haha, so funny. But every once in a while, that model goes on sale for about $40, if you are a bit patient.

I checked the prices of the toners before the purchase. Compatible (not OEM) toners can be bought for about $18 on eBay. It's way more economical compared to an InkJet printer. Before buying the printer, I used to print documents at the Clayton library for $0.20 a page. Expensive, I know. But it appeared to me that this wasn't that expensive compared to an inkjet printer after all. Basically, buying an inkjet printer was only a convenience, not a cost saving solution. The laser printer is about 5 times more economical.

Getting the printer hooked up on the router took a bit of effort because I was trying to be a smart ass and didn't refer to the manual at first. After it picked up the network, it was a walk in the park. The printer would automatically connect to the network after turning it on. I didn't properly time the printing speed but print outs are reasonably fast. I didn't feel it was slow in any way. Either those Canon hardware I used to write drivers for were junk or I'm getting old.

Anyway, no regrets with the purchase. Doesn't happen often.

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