Should You Buy A Refurbished Printer
Printing technology doesnt update often, so buying a printer thats a few years old isnt going to mean sacrificing any groundbreaking technology. If you do buy a refurbished or used printer, get it from a trustworthy source, make sure it has been recertified by the manufacturer, and look for a reasonable warranty and return period. Here’s what to know before buying refurbished electronics.
The Most Common Types Of Printer
Most printers are designed to print text, graphics, or photos. Generally, business models use laser technology and are geared toward text , while home printers favor photos. Within these considerations, printers still vary widely in output quality for these categories. Some business printers can handle all three output types well enough that they can be used for in-house printing of brochures and other marketing materials.
The Basics: Cheap Desktop Printers 101
Though choosing the right printer for your needs is not rocket science, you still have plenty to consider when buying a one. The good news? Nowadays, you dont have to worry much about paper jams, poor print quality, and other performance issues. Printer and scanner technology has matured enough that you can focus on productivity and convenience featuresthings like paper-input capacity and handy control panelsas well as on saving money, by comparing running costs.
Do you need to print and copy in color? Do you need an all-in-one printer that makes copies and scans documents and photos, or will a single-function model do? These are only two of the crucial choice points, so let’s take a look at them and some others, one by one.
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Best Budget Wireless Printers
Sometimes you just need a printer and arent bothered about the extra functionality that expensive ones provide. If this sounds like you, youre in luck! Weve found some of the best budget printers on the market and were confident theres at least one that youll like.
First up we have the HP OfficeJet 4650. Now, this costs a little under $80 but its an all-in-one printer. This means that it not only prints, it scans, copies, and faxes too.
This printer has an ultra-simple interface and its menus can be navigated using the touchscreen. It can print on both sides of the paper at the same time, and it even features an automatic document feeder so you can queue tasks while doing something else. Sounds good, right?
All of the most common paper sizes are supported, and on top of that, it comes with free, 24/7 tech support. In short, if you need a printer that just works, choose the OfficeJet 4650.
Next, we have the HP ENVY 5640. This is a sleek, professional-looking printer that can cope with nearly anything you throw at it.
Like the 4650, this printer scans, copies, and faxes. However, its even easier to use thanks to its huge 6.75 touchscreen display. The icons are large and easy to select, and this printer will even turn itself off after it idles for a certain period of time. Its not only useful, its economical.
The Best Inkjet Printer Deals This Week*
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Text quality used to be the Achilles’ heel for inkjets, but now many of them can print text nearly as crisply as a laser printer, though not always with the same archival quality. Surprised? We bust more printer myths in our inkjet vs. laser comparison.
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Duty Cycles And Paper Capacity
While most inkjet printers are designed for homes or home offices, inkjet technology is showing up in more and more business-oriented models meant for heavier-duty printing. Some high-end models can even rival laser printers in speed. They tend to do this by using printheads that run the full width of a page. Although their maximum monthly duty cycles still fall short of those of heavy-duty lasers, higher-end inkjets are capable of handling the printing needs of many workgroups and small offices.
Laser Alternatives: Inkjets For The Office
Office-oriented inkjets include the few single-function printers and MFPs designed for relatively heavy-duty printing, as well as those that have office-centric features. For instance, an office MFP can work as a standalone fax machine fax directly from your PC’s hard drive and scan to email easily, using your PC’s email program and automatically adding the scan as an attachment.
Office MFPs also add an automatic document feeder for easy scanning, faxing, and copying of multipage documents. Some ADFs can scan both sides of a page. Of those, duplexing scanners, which scan both sides of a page at once, are much faster than models with duplexing or reversing ADFs , which scan one side, flip the page over, and then scan the other.
Office-design MFPs generally offer paper capacities of 200 sheets or more. Should you want to print two-sided documents, you’ll want a model with an auto-duplexer. Get a model with two paper trays if you want the ability to print with two types or size of paper without having to remove and replace the paper each time you make a switch. A few office inkjets support printing at up to tabloid size, letting you get all those spreadsheet columns onto a single page.
A specialized kind of office inkjet is the mobile inkjet, meant for business travelers that need printing wherever they go. Indeed, inkjets are the only kind of printer with models for mobile use . If you’re looking to print documents while on the road, you’ll definitely want a mobile inkjet.
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Hp Envy Photo 7855 All In One Photo Printer With Wireless Printing Hp Instant Ink Ready Works With Alexa
As an all-in-one inkjet printer is capable of printing in full-color, the HP Envy 7855 easily handles printing documents as well as close to professional photo lab quality prints. It supports both Bluetooth and Wi-Fi for wireless connectivity, as well as Ethernet and USB cable connectivity. For functionality beyond printing, the HP Envy 7855 also has a built-in copier, scanner and fax machine.
For ink cartridges, its compatible with HP 64 Black and Tri-Color cartridges . Optional high-yield ink cartridges are also available. Print features include two-sided and borderless printing, as well as the ability to print wirelessly from any smartphone or tablet. For print speed, it clocks in at 15 pages per minute, and supports any paper size up to 8.5 inches by 14 inches .
The Envy 7855 will fit easily into most home office locations . The printer measures 17.87-inches by 7.6-inches by 19.33-inches and weighs just under 17 pounds. Controlling this printer can be done directly from your computer, via a free mobile app, or by using the printers own 2.7-inch full-color touchscreen.
The printer has two built-in paper trays and will automatically choose which paper to use based on the printing task at hand. The document feeder can hold up to 35 pages.
Keep in mind, this is an inkjet printer. Depending on the type of work you do from your home office, a black and white or full-color laser printer may be more appropriate to your needs.
Print Costs And Toner Considerations
Whether you use your inkjet regularly or leave it idle for weeks, you lose a bit of ink whenever you change cartridges or start up the printer and endure its cleaning cycle. The toner in laser cartridges isn’t subject to drying and tends to last longer when left idle, and toner cartridges also tend to last for more pages than most inkjet ones. This should, at least in theory, appeal to both the small office that frequently uses its printer and to the one that prints only intermittently .
The HP Neverstop Laser MFP 1202w all-in-one saves money and reduces its ecological footprint with refillable toner.
Now, lasers typically have a higher up-front cost. Traditionally, they make up for it with greater cartridge efficiencyâi.e., lower printing costs per page. But the rise of high-volume business inkjets has closed the page-cost gap, and depending upon the individual printers being compared, the advantage could now go either way. Some inkjets and lasers support bulk refills and cartridge subscriptions that can reduce the cost of toner and ink.
We discuss cost per page in our laser printer reviews, and factor in any other accessory costs that might apply to an individual unit, such as drums, fusers, transfer rollers, and pick rollers. In some lasers, these parts require periodic replacement, especially in higher-end models. For a heavy-printing office, these numbers are key considerations.
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Brother Compact Monochrome Laser Printer
Best for wireless printing.
The Brother Compact Monochrome Laser Printer comes along with a massive capacity for wireless printing. It can hold up to 250 pages. With a speed of 32 pages per minute, it offers one of the fastest printing modes than others. Even if the Brother Compact Monochrome Laser Printer comes with laser printing technology, it has very economical support.
Connectivity | Wi-Fi, USB, NFC |
Verdict: As per customer reviews, the Brother Compact Monochrome Laser Printer is highly economical to print with. It uses a minimal amount of ink even for printing color pages and gets you flexible printing. The product comes with a manual feed slot to offer you the best printing options.
Price: It is available for $149.99 on Amazon
Best Color Laser: Lexmark Mc3224
Loaded with features, the Lexmark MC3224 color laser printer can print, copy, scan, and fax. The tray can hold up to 250 pages, which means you wont have to refill it very often, and it prints up to 24 ppm, making this printer ideal for most office needs. It can also print wirelessly through Ethernet or USB connection.
Even more, this machine has a generous amount of ink in each cartridge: the black ink cartridge can print 750 pages, while the cyan, magenta, and yellow cartridges can print up to 500 pages. Best of all, it prints quietly at a maximum of 49 decibels, which is even quieter than most modern dishwashers.
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Epson Workforce Multifunction A3 Printer Black Wf
Print larger displays with this Epson Workforce A3 Printer, an ideal addition to your stay-at-home workspace or office. Copy, print, scan, and fax up to A3 sized documents. It has 2 x 250 sheet capacity trays so you can keep your printer loaded up with paper. The 50-page automatic document feeder for swift scanning works in a pinch. Embrace wire-free future with this printers compatible wireless printing from your computer, tablet, or even your smartphone.
Most Portable: Epson Workforce Wf
Maybe your office is a non-traditional one, like a library, coffee shop or workshare building. Or maybe youre a road warrior, out every week at a different client or on tour supporting your creative endeavors. Whatever your situation, if you need to print on the go, the Epson WorkForce WF-100 is the most portable wireless printer available. Print invoices, presentations, contracts, or other important documents from almost anywhere. At only 3.5 pounds, this Epson printer is the lightest and smallest printer on the market. Thanks to built-in wireless connectivity plus Wi-Fi Direct, print directly from your iPad, iPhone, tablet, smartphone or laptop. Designed for professionals on the go, this printer comes with a built-in battery that charges via USB or AC adapter so you have flexibility when searching for an outlet or other power source. The 1.4-inch LCD screen is petite but still allows for easy setup and use.
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Lowest Running Costs For A Color Laser Aio
Pros
Pros
- Solid feature set, software bundle, and paper capacity for a bulk-ink model
- Superb print quality, especially photos
- Auto-duplexing print engine and ADF
- Super-low running costs
- Faster than previous MegaTank models
- Up to 18,000 pages worth of black ink in the box
Cons
Pros
- Two years of unlimited ink
- Excellent print quality
- Thousands of pages worth of ink in the box
- Two-year warranty with registration
Best Value: Hp Laserjet Pro M148fdw
Courtesy of Amazon
If youre looking for an affordable four-in-one printer for a home office or small business, the HP Laserjet Pro M148fdw checks all the boxes. This machine has lots of useful features youd expect to find on printers designed for larger offices, including wireless printing, a document feeder for fast scanning, automatic two-sided printing, and an LCD control panel with a keypad.
Whether you print 200 or 2,000 pages per month, be assured that you wont run out of ink easily, thanks to the printer’s high yield toner cartridges which can print up to 2,800 pages before needing a replacement. Better yet, the highly-rated HP Smart app makes it easy to set up the all-in-one printer. It also has features youll use regularly like printing and scanning from mobile devices and cloud services including Dropbox, Google Drive, and iCloud.
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Printer Size And Connectivity: Do You Have The Space
MFPs tend to be bigger than single-function printers, and even some home MFPs can be tall enough to make you feel like they’re towering over you if you put them on your desk. Be sure to check out the MFP’s size and weight, though chances are you won’t be moving it very often.
Then there’s the connectivity, which might tie in to where you place your printer. In addition to a USB port, some MFPs include an Ethernet port, and almost all but the least expensive support wireless Wi-Fi connections for easy sharing. If you prefer Wi-Fi, keep in mind that if you have a wireless access point on your network, you can print wirelessly to any printer or MFP on that network, whether the printer or MFP offers Wi-Fi or not.
Some MFPs now include support for Wi-Fi Direct , which lets the printer effectively become its own access point so you can connect a phone or computer to it directly, instead of connecting through a wider network. A few offer support for Near-Field Communication , which allows you to initiate printing from a compatible mobile device simply by tapping the printer with the phone or tablet.
Canon Pixma Endurance A4 Colour Inkjet Mfc Printer G3610
This Canon PIXMA G3610 MFC Printer utilises an ink bottle system rather than traditional cartridges, making it easy to refill without the need to dispose of added cartridge waste. Feel productive making high volume prints with this high-volume ink tank. Your documents will come out stunning with this printers 4800 x 1200 dpi. You can even upgrade and to even speedier prints by purchasing a hi-speed USB for this printer.
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Canon Pixma G3010 All
This printer offers great value for money. It is a wireless all-in-one printer. With high page yield ink bottles of up to 7000 pages, users can enjoy printing without having to worry about the cost of ink or ink supplies running low. Built-in integrated ink tanks create a compact printer body. Users can also view remaining ink levels easily at a glance. A neat trick is that you can embed hidden messages. Just download the app and place your device above the photo to unlock the secret messages. The ink bottles come with a unique tip design that reduces spillage during ink refilling, making it more efficient.
Best Cheap Laser Printer
Brother HL-1210W is the best budget laser printer. It priced below RM300 and its refill toner is widely available in the online store or offline retail.
Affordable laser printer
Best deal on Lazada Best deal on Shopee
For online sellers or merchants, we recommend getting the laser printer instead of an inkjet printer. Because the main purpose of printing is to print the airway bill of parcels. With a laserjet printer, it is guaranteed that the printed text is crisp and clear. And there is less worry of exposure to rain or water because the printing will not be easily smudged.
Another important thing is that a laser printer drum tends to be more reliable and less failure problem compared to the inkjet print head. Furthermore, there is also no problem with clogged print heads due to low usage of printers. Laser printers also do not dry up over time like those cheap inkjet cartridges.
Online merchants should spend time to focus on making more money instead of dealing with a problematic print head.
Brother HL-1210W Monochrome Laser Printer has a very small footprint. You can easily get this printer for less than RM300 on Lazada.
We recommend Brother HL-1210W over Brother HL-1110 for its wireless connection. Both printers are actually similar. They can only serve for printing b/w documents. There is no scanner, photocopy, or colour printing. And it only can print up to A4 size.
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What Is A Wireless Laser Printer
Nowadays its difficult to imagine our life without printers. No need to mention that its a device that prints text and images, stored on our computer or mobile device, on paper sheets of different types. Inkjet printers were the first to appear on the market. To work properly, cartridges of these printers needed to be changed frequently and it caused some inconveniences. Laser printers were invented to solve the problem they had a high print speed and a toner capacity was enough for printing scores of paper sheets. Finally, to make the usage of a printer as comfortable as possible, manufacturers developed printers supporting the wireless data transfer technology. Owing to this upgrade, you can send files from your laptop and mobile devices and no wires are required. All you need for using a wireless printer is to install the necessary software on your digital device . Look through 5 best wireless printers in our review and take your best pick!
If you need a printer primarily for color images and photos, consider one of Color Laser Printers, whereasAll-in-One Printers will help you scan and copy all sorts of documents, using a single device.