I’ve made the switch to a laser printer. The verdict, in short: it’s great (much better than an inkjet).

After our Cannon inkjet/deskjet printer nearly made us broke from the cost of replacement cartridges, we began purchasing off-brand cartridges. But the quality of printing went downhill fast — blurry ink, cartridges running dry all the time, we never bought color cartridges due to cost, and the printer itself going a little wonky.

After a good deal of research, I purchased the Brother HL-2170w on sale for $100 with free shipping from Amazon (sorry, the price went back up and is now $139.99). Overall, the printer has been pretty great and I recommend it.

Positives:

• fast crisp clear printing
• energy saver mode uses practically no power
• easy to print envelopes
• small size, looks good, minimal desk footprint

Negatives:

• by “duplex capable” it doesn’t mean it can print double-sided except if you select “print odd pages,” print, then flip them over and select “print even pages”
• when it’s actually printing it uses a ton of power — our lights flicker
• it makes a good bit of noise when printing (when it goes to sleep, it’s silent)

Unsure:

• a big bonus of the printer is its wireless capability, but as we’re sharing wireless with some friends, I haven’t tried to set this up
• not sure how long the toner will last, but even the initial drum is supposed to print over 1,000 pages (my idea is that it’ll save us money from the inkjet)
• there is some paper curl association with laser printing; it doesn’t bother me but might you

Overall, though I’ve only used it for a few weeks, I’ve been really pleased with this affordable laser printer. I’ve definitely not missed the inkjet. Laser printing is crisper and clearer, the printing just more professional.