picard@milton.u.washington.edu (Mary Stumpel) (05/13/91)
In the battle between "low cost" laser printers, which is better - the new Apple LaserWriter LS, or the similarly priced GCC PLP II? Has anyone had any experience with any of them? Can someone suggest a better printer at the same price (approx $999 - $1299 suggested retail)? Thanks to all the Hardware Gurus in advance. Post or E-mail - whichever is more convenient.
afry@uhura.cc.rochester.edu (Alan R. Fry) (05/13/91)
In article <1991May12.212028.1977@milton.u.washington.edu> picard@milton.u.washington.edu (Mary Stumpel) writes: > >In the battle between "low cost" laser printers, which is better - the new >Apple LaserWriter LS, or the similarly priced GCC PLP II? Has anyone had >any experience with any of them? Can someone suggest a better printer at >the same price (approx $999 - $1299 suggested retail)? Thanks to all the >Hardware Gurus in advance. Post or E-mail - whichever is more convenient. In the May 1991 MacWorld, there was a comparison of 12 personal printers, including the LW LS and the GCC PLP II. Directly comparing the latter two, MW says: "The Personal LaserWriter LS costs more than the PLP II, but offers more." (p. 149) Their points were that it has a superior engine, a serial connection rather than SCSI, a better software driver, background printing (using the Print Monitor under multifinder), and that it was faster in text-oriented tasks (but slower with graphics). One big drawback of the LS, however, is that it is not upgradable, whereas the PLP II is. As for other printers in the price range you mentioned, I'd seriously consider the TI microlaser PS17 and PS35. Both are postscript printers (one with 17 built-in type faces, and one with 35), both have 6-ppm engines, both are AppleTalk networkable (although some places sell them without the AppleTalk, so be careful) and both are really small sized. I've seen the PS17 advertized for about $1400, and the PS35 for about $1700. I think one would have to spend another $100 for a memory upgrade if you were going to do anything fancy. A few months ago, a dude who bought one posted his impressions of it, and I have is somewhere on my disk, so if you're really interested, I could send it to you. Aside from that, I'd go grab the MacWorld (May 1991) and read through the article on printers. For me, postscript would be a must if I were going to spend that kind of money, but you might be perfectly happy with a quickdraw printer. Cheers, Alan -- -------------------------------------------------------------- Alan R Fry | You know what I hate? afry@uhura.cc.rochester.edu | Rhetorical questions --------------------------------------------------------------