Laser Color Printers - What to Look for When Buying a New Color Laser Printer

If you’re looking to buy a new laser color printer then this is the article you need to read. First we will look at the main features that you will find on a color laser printer, then move onto looking some additional features you should look out for. We will then finish with a look at the top brands and the product ranges available.

Essential Features of a Laser Printer

Although there are many factors to consider when buying a new printer, here are the main features you need to look for:

Paper Volume: if you’re planning on printing bulk jobs, you need to make sure your new printer has a large paper tray.
Availability & Price of Consumables: some people make the mistake of buying a very cheap printer, only to have to spend lots of money every month buying new ink cartridges.
Duty Cycle: this is the number of pages the printer can safely print in a month without wearing out. Think seriously about the number of pages you are likely to need to print in a month, and make sure your new printer can cope with it.
Memory: if you plan on printing a lot of graphic-intensive documents, make sure it has a lot of RAM to cope with it.

Extra Features of a Color Laser Printer

Although the list above gives you the main features to look out for, here are some other features which you may find useful to look for:

Duplex Printing: this automatically prints on boths sides of the paper, thus saving you lots of time. If you’re in a busy office with many other people, then this feature could be extremely important. However, if you’re a single user then this feature is not necessarily essential as you could print all the odd pages first then flip the paper and print all the even pages.
Speed: cheaper printers print slower than more expensive ones. However, unless you are in a busy office with many other people printing high volumes, this will probably not be too much of an issue.
Networking: if you want your printer to be part of your computer network, get one with built-in networking capabilities. Try to find pritners with the letter N at the end of their model number.

The Top Printer Makes & Their Products

HP: $175-$5,300. Loads of products spread across an extremely large price range. You’re bound to find something to suit your requirements and budget here.
Lexmark: $249-$4,700. Rather a lot of products across quite a big price range.
Xerox: $220-$5,200. An extremely good printer make. A good collection of products across an exceptionally wide price range.
Samsung: $150-$770. Not very many products to choose from, but they are a decent make.
Brother: $240-$600. Again, not a lot of products but a decent make.