Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!rutgers!sri-spam!ames!aurora!labrea!decwrl!pyramid!prls!philabs!sbcs!bnl!drs
From: drs@bnl.ARPA (David R. Stampf)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st
Subject: Laser Printers and the ST
Message-ID: <320@bnl.ARPA>
Date: 28 Jan 88 14:40:40 GMT
Organization: Brookhaven National Lab
Lines: 29

I've seen the atari laser printer at the local stores and I have a few
questions that the salespeople have not been able to handle.

First - does it make a great deal of sense to by the laser engine for $2K when
right next to it is an HP going for $1.7K, which has .5 Meg of memory, and
the ability to upgrade it to almost anything. (Postscript included).  Is the
quality of the Atari Laser so great as to outweigh all other factors?

Second - consider the following two scenarios.  I buy a mono-mega4 and an atari
laser printer for $4.5K, and lets say Word Perfect, a page publishing program.

		-or-

I buy a mono-ST for .9K and a AST Turbo Laser for $3K -> for a total of $3.9K.
I have the same software.

	It seems to me that the second system is a BIG win.  The laser has
3Meg of memory, 35 fonts, postscript, and a serial and parallel port so that
it can be used with other computers.  Most importantly, it seems to me that
when one of the programs I use composes a page, I send it to the printer
and let it worry about the printing - I get the ST back to do some useful
work - essentially multitasking my home system (NO FLAMES!).  I've seen more
systems sitting at dealerships doing nothing but composing a page and otherwise
being as useful as a doorstop.  It also saves $600 - enough to buy a hardi
disk. 

	Anyone care to point out the error in my thinking?

		< dave stampf