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Laser printer recommendations (midwest.social)
submitted 3 weeks ago by sxan@midwest.social to c/buyitforlife@slrpnk.net
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Recommendations for a color, full duplex, laser printer?

Another printer company (Brother) has fallen to the allure of "remote disable" if they object to you using your own device in a way they don't like: trying to self-service, use third party inks, whatever. It's at their discretion. Given printers are the sorts of devices to which you tend to want to have network access, preventing this is a lot of work.

I've been looking at color duplex laser printers, and Brother has been at the top of the list, until they recently announcement that they'd disable printers using third party inks.

BIFL to me implies that the company isn't going to actively sabotage self-service, or restrict your usage of the thing, so I think this is an appropriate question for this c/.

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[-] VacuumVigilante@lemmy.world 3 points 3 weeks ago

I’ve not read beyond the headline rants, but isn’t the Brother kerfuffle over third party toner? Perhaps I’m in the minority, but I couldn’t care less. Toner lasts FOREVER for the average home user. I bought this printer in 2018 and it is phenomenal: https://a.co/d/5Khc2Xn

So far I’ve only had to replace the starter toner it came with. It’s been telling me for over a year that some colors are low and so I have $400 of toner sitting in a closet: https://a.co/d/eYtMZma

My BIFL recommendation is for this Brother. It’s never given any sort of issue. I do let it automatically update its firmware, but that’s an option and not a requirement.

I don’t trust cheap toner and think buying OEM is worth the cost given how long it takes to use up. It’s not like inkjet crapola that dried up.

this post was submitted on 08 Mar 2025
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