I've supported a LOT of printers over the years, and the absolute worst are small office color lasers. You shouldn't even look at a color laser unless you are going to drop a couple grand on one and need the volume. Small inkjets have a rep for being the bane of technical support, but other than being expensive with ink carts that cost more than depleted uranium they tend to require less parts and support than small color lasers.
My rule is as follows: do you need color? If not, and it's a business environment you get a B&W laser. The cheap ones might not outlast civilization like an HP III or IV, but they do tend to earn their cost in my experience. Plus, most of them support native IP printing so they can be transformed into a workgroup laser, even over wifi, provided the person setting it up has the skills to do so, which seems to be a decreasing minority (groan)
The Ecotanks fit a niche vacated by the above mentioned small office color lasers which I strongly advise need to be avoided. Plus. the ecotanks, even the budget ones when using good paper will embarrass a $10k laser when it comes to color.
I agree. A small color laser printer is always the wrong choice. (IMO).
FWIW, I'm still happily printing to a small Samsung* color laser printer (CLP-325W) that I bought more than twelve years ago for $120. Except on a couple of occasions when my kids provoked trainwreck paper jams that required me to take it partially apart (nothing more than a Phillips screwdriver required) to clear, it's worked great. It started its life with a USB connection, but later I put it on our home wifi network, and now you can print to it from any of the connected computers (it's too old for Apple AirDrop and similar). It still quickly produces nice-looking office-type documents on plain paper. Sure, its color output can't touch even a modest inkjet--I actually profiled it, and depending paper, the gamut volumes were about 160k to 200k CCU--but I have an inkjet for photos and similar. Back when genuine Samsung toner cartridges were available, I averaged about two per year at maybe $50 - $60 each; now I have to buy third-party, but ones well-rated on Amazon are cheaper and seem to work fine. So for more than a dozen years, at a total cost of about $10/month for toner, paper, electricity, and amortizing the printer, we've had all the high-quality office-type printing we've wanted, in color, quickly, and with minimum fuss.
Sure, other people have different experiences, needs, and use-patterns, and no printer is a one-size-fits-all solution. But unless you want a printer to print photos or top-quality graphics and/or you need to buy a printer with the absolute minimum initial financial outlay, I think for many people a small laser printer is the best choice. And if you want color, sure, that adds some to the initial and running costs, but it doesn't change the fundamental picture.
Obviously YMMV, but I've been quite happy with my small color laser printer.
*Yes, Samsung exited that business and sold that line to HP--and kudos to HP, they still support it. I had no problem getting from HP a current W11-compatible driver and setting it up on my new computer six months ago.
