Color Laser Printers... Are they worth it?

I print a lot. I've been looking into color laser printers but not too seriously, so this is just a question out of curiosity. I've been using my HP Deskjet F380 for all my printing work and it has treated me pretty well, but at work we just got a brand new color laser printer and the color quality seems to be sharper and nicer than most inkjet printers. I just wanted to hear what anyone's opinion was on them.

For high speed printing of color text, charts, etc. you'll probably get better performance from a color laser.

For photographs, color laser printers can't touch the flexibility and capability of a good photo inkjet. But you sacrifice speed and, in some cases, ink costs.

It's also worth noting that a basic color laser printer will cost as much or more than a very nice inkjet.

The way I see it, from a price perspective, and usage. Most consumers will be fine with a decent inkjet, but a business should have lasers for the quality at faster speeds.

StretchR said:

The way I see it, from a price perspective, and usage. Most consumers will be fine with a decent inkjet, but a business should have lasers for the quality at faster speeds.

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I see what you're saying. The Color Laser printer where I work is about $900 I believe and it's big enough to probably make my desk collapse.

We have three color lasers in my office. We got them for a steal. A color refill is about $300 and we got the printers for $400. It's almost silly.

The 2 things I hate about inkjet
1) You have to constantly use it. Otherwise everything gets all gunked up and you have to shell out cash to replace non-empty ink carts.
2) The pages get wet. Depending on the paper, it'll wrinkle. Or if you're not careful, smudge.

Laser color does not have either of these problems. I love them to death. If I really want a real photo print, I'll beam my photos to CVS 2 miles down the road (same machines/output as sending through iphoto).