We've bought a Canon PIXMA E510 to replace the yellowed old HP multi-function printer that was pretty much unusable these days at my old home. I think it's actually very nice, seeing as I'm receiving great print quality again, without paper jams, either.

I was deciding whether to get just a printer, or an MFP, or go laser. It was something like this...

The ink-efficient inkjet model (what I'm using right now)

• Pretty versatile, if a bit fat.
• Somewhat heavy, but still portable.
• Oversize ink cartridges as default and only choice (21 mL for black, and 15 mL for CMY). Very cheap, too (USD13 and 16 converted for the former and the latter).
• Upfront cost is very much in line with the other MFP.

• Forget about scanning or copying.
• Relatively lightweight compared to the others.
• Tiny, expensive ink cartridges. Cheap upfront cost, but...

• Now it comes with Wi-Fi and stuff!
• Around the same price as the ink-efficient model.
• Cartridges are comparatively tiny, though, and larger sizes aren't as large as what I got in the end. Very expensive, too.

• I can't print in colour. Forget about photos.
• On the other hand, it lasts forever printing black and white pages.
• Toners are... a completely different beast.
• Where are we going to put this thing?!

We have some sort of all-in-one Kodak inkjet thing, after our HP one (two years old, way to make a long-lasting product) gave out. We also had a laser printer alongside it, which lasted like 7 years or so and can still print, with some difficulty. And holy crap, that thing was a beast compared to those bare-bones inkjet models.

Laser all the way. I hate the ink monopoly, and I don't like inkjet printers at all. As said by several comics (edit: notably the one in Quad's following post) around the 'net, inkjets are just as horrible now as they were when they first came out; they're just a little faster now.

From what I've noticed, I only use printers to print out documents for class assignments nowadays, so colored printers would be a bit useless to me. I'd probably go with the laser printer so I wouldn't waste money on too much ink.

Also, a word about printers: Boop (warning: may contain some harsh language)