Clive Page grunted in
:

With all printers the manufacturers tend to sell them cheaply and then
have a hefty mark-up on the consumables. Typically you can get
third-party ink or toner for a third of the price of the or less of
the official stuff. So the thing to research is whether 3rd party
toner is available for the model you choose. I'm told that HP are
getting much cleverer in their newer models so that you are forced to
buy HP brand toner, but don't know if that's true for all brands.

Thread hijack alert...

I'm just about to buy a new laser printer myself; although the vast
majority of my needs are for monochrome print, I'm quite tempted to get a
colour machine just for the occasional convenience. I'm interested in the
HP Color LaserJet Pro M254dw (https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B075GG7LZX),
which is £114 after HP's cashback deal. I'm well aware of the toner cost
issue, especially with colour, but at least this model includes 700-pages-
worth (allegedly!) of colour toner, which would last me a very long time!

So can anyone confirm whether this model will definitely work with 3rd-
party toner carts?

Secondly, if I were to run this printer until the bundled colour carts ran
out, and never bothered replacing them, does anyone know if the printer
would keep working in black-and-white? Or would it give up until the
colour carts were replaced?

Thanks
David