Hello techies
My Samsung ML-2165 does not work anymore after many years of faithful service. Will anyone please suggest an alternative. My needs are for low amounts of printing, Windows compatibility and an appropriate low cost. It doesn’t have to be a Samsung.
Any suggestions?
First thought, Mr M, is to watch out for low prices on printers whereby a tactical sales trick is to make the sales price, of the printer, look very low, whilst the price of the ink cartridges is upped, a lot, to compensate for that.
Before doing a search, of the shops, I’d recommend that you start out in the knowledge of a total price:-
i.e. the printer + the cost of the ink (over, say, 3 years usage), plus the details of any warranty (does it include any terms about what cartridges will be OK in the contract). And, does the printer come with a full cartridge, or a trick Installation only cartridge.
The printers with big ink tanks look good, to me, but, again, how much will you be printing?
If you don’t need colour, Laser looks good!
Avoid HP unless you enjoy your PC being loaded with many many GB of bloatware. And like Tedc said, look at the price of the printer cartridges before you buy a printer. A few years ago I paid £30 for a printer & then they wanted £60 plus for a pair of colour/black & white cartridges. So I binned it & paid for a new printer where I could buy cheaper cartridges.
Good advice … 
Some research and comparison is necessary but HP is definitely one to ignore.
Here’s a start:
The last cheap printer that I bought was an Epson Expression XP442 (no longer available) - it’s been dependable, trouble free and inexpensive to run (using compatible cartridges).
I suppose it depends on what you want to print and to what size paper. I have Epson XP-950 now superceeded by the 960 model. I have this one as it prints up to A3 size but only the size of an A4 printer. This does very good colour prints as well but the ink carts are not exactly cheap. however I believe one can get a continuous flow adapter if printing a lot of work
I have been happy with the HP Envy 5532 all-in-one I’ve had for years. The drivers and software might take up disk space but computers often have lots of that to spare. Also, HP wants you to have an account and install their software. if you prefer to fight against that sort of thing, then HP maybe isn’t the best choice. I’m not worried by that myself.
Quite a few other printers have been tried previously. A couple of Epson printers, a Brother and a Canon. None have lasted as long as the present HP. I signed up for the lowest ‘Instant Ink’ deal and would probably buy HP again if the present printer goes wrong.
I have a HP M102w LaserJet Pro Printer because it is wireless and was on sale (about 85 quid when I bought it):
Being wireless means I don’t need it in the same room, and of course other people can use it too.
I don’t buy HP replacement cartridges, just whatever is going cheap on Amazon 
I was going to say something along the same lines as Azz. For on going quality and cheap per page printing it is hard to past a colour laser printer unless you particularly want to print photos (and then it is undoubtedly cheaper to take them to a processor)
I bought a Fuji Xerox laser printer and use generic cartridges with it, they do an excellent job at little cost. it’s a network or USB printer so very versatile for any user.
I haven’t needed to print anything in years. Printers are a thing of the past as far as I’m concerned.
Which? say:
If you’re looking for a printer that can handle a wide range of tasks, go for an inkjet. Best Buy inkjets turn out text-heavy documents, images and photos with ease. But some inkjet printers expend ink to clean their heads, meaning it isn’t actually used for printing. If you go for a printer on our Best Buy list, its low running costs will keep your wallet happy.
If you’re all about productivity, a laser printer may be a better choice. Best Buy laser printers shine when printing black-text documents and professional-looking office graphics. Although laser printers are typically a bit more expensive than inkjets, they print a lot more pages from each toner cartridge, and so the cost per black-and-white or colour page is usually much less. As an office workhorse, a laser printer takes some beating.
… and a lot more besides in the article.
Very helpful …
Anyone looking to replace a printer, right now, might want to take a look at the Canon Pixma G650.
It’s their latest ink Tank WiFi Device.
Pricy, around £250, with the various tanks costing, around, £11 each.
Apparently printing is way beyond good and costs about 1p per sheet1
I’m saving up!
Buy Canon PIXMA G650 Wireless 3-in-1 Refillable MegaTank Inkjet Photo Printer — Canon UK Store
I did a bit of research into this a while back after my printer cartridges kept needing to be replaced. I only use the printer occasionally so maybe a few months between prints. If you use a printer all the time for business say then inject is good, but if you just use one now and again the inkjet cartridges tend to dry up. The laserjet uses a different technology and use a toner cartridge which does not dry out in the same way. I’m not sure whether they do colour printing but we don’t need that. The one we have is more bulky than the old inkjet but makes perfect prints. It was £79.99 a year ago when purchased but I see the RRP has now gone up to £102! No longer on sale at Argos.
Here is an update. On advice from my son, I purchased the HP Laser Jet Pro M14-M17.
I have now installed it and seems fine to me. I didn’t want anything fancy and the toner won’t need replacing very often. It takes only a tiny extra space as compared to my Samsung.
This is the one we have by Canon and it’s excellent.
