Although we want less and less paper, and we prefer digital, if there is one peripheral that is not usually missing at home, it is the printer. Therefore, today, we help you choose a laser printer for your home.
Firstly, explain that in a colour laser printer, unlike the usual injection printers, we do not have ink cartridges. Printing occurs after a laser is projected onto a photoconductive drum. There is a toner in it, and the areas where the laser hits are ionized, thus attracting the ink inside the toner. The roller is then responsible for transferring the ink to the paper, which is fixed by pressure and heat.
This offers us, mainly, two advantages over inkjet: speed and lower printing costs. In addition, the consumable of a laser printer is a powder so it will not dry out after a while, like ink.
Aspects and characteristics to take into account
Before embarking on the purchase of a new laser printer, you should ask yourself, in addition to your budget, several questions:
Do you need to print wirelessly? If the answer is yes, you need to purchase a printer with WiFi. This way, you forget about cables and you could print from any corner of your house. This is very useful, for example, to print from your mobile.
Do you need to print in color? If so, you will have fewer models to choose from, the outlay will be higher and, instead of a single toner, you will need to buy several: black, magenta, cyan, and yellow. In return, you will have great print quality and a lower cost compared to a color ink printer.
Do you need a multifunction (printer+scanner)? A multifunction allows us, in addition to printing, copying documents or digitizing them.
Another aspect to take into account, if you are going to print a lot, is the double-sided printing option, which some models already do automatically. Furthermore, we must not forget the number of pages per minute (dpi) that it is capable of printing.
Original or compatible toner?
The price of the printer should not be the only thing to consider when purchasing a laser printer. The price of toner is almost as important as that of the printer. A cheap laser printer is of no use to us if the toner has a higher price than the printer itself.
In addition, it is advisable to check if we have a large offer of compatible models. That is, a toner that is cheaper than the one distributed by the manufacturer, but that is perfectly valid for our printer and offers an acceptable printing result.
To give an example, the original toner for an HP LaserJet Pro M15w (the best-selling laser printer on Amazon) has an approximate price of 50 dollars. With it, you can print 1,000 pages (0.05 dollars/page).
If we opt for a compatible toner, also with the capacity to print 1,000 pages, its price drops to 23 dollars. That is, just 2.3 cents per page.
So, have you got a little idea about choosing the right laser printer?
