How does a Laser Printer Work?
Understanding how a laser printer works can help you know if a laser printer is for you or not. Laser printers use a laser beam to create an image. These very fine in dots give you a lot of detail in your printing jobs.
Understand the Difference between Laser and Inkjet
There are some very specific differences between inkjet printers and laser printers.
The first difference is that an inkjet printer uses ink which is sprayed onto the paper as the print head moves across and your image is created. Laser printers use toner which is actually an electrically charged powder that is combined with the fibres in the paper to give you your image.
This type of printing helps you avoid any smudges or blurring because they do not need to dry out like a document printed from any inkjet. The next difference is the cartridges vs. those toners. Ink cartridges in inkjets can sometimes cause fuzzy edges around your words in smaller fonts. Inkjets are great for photo prints, graphics, and other inexpensive colour printing.
The type of paper used will also affect your printing job. However, laser printers will give you better ink longevity and are better for larger workloads. The toner powder in a laser printer will not dry up if your printer sits unused for a length of time. In an inkjet, however, if the ink sits for too long it does have a tendency to dry out.
Printing speeds are also significantly different between the two types of printers. Laser printers are much faster and can handle multiple jobs at once. Some can even handle up to 35 pages per minute versus an inkjet which does around 15 to 20 pages per minute.
Though you may spend a little more at first on a laser printer, over time you will save more money because laser toners typically produce more pages per refill.
An average inkjet ink cartridge costs around $30 and laser toner costs about $50. The difference comes in when talking about replacing the cartridge. Like mentioned previously, you will replace ink cartridges much more frequently.
Top 10 Best Laser Printers UK 2021
We all hate throwing away money for buying more ink cartridges, and if you have a home office, investing in a Laser Printer could be of the best solutions to save your expenses.
The following are some of the best laser printers 2021 in the UK. Let’s check it out!
1. SAMSUNG Xpress M2026
If you’re looking for either the smallest or the cheapest monochrome laser printer, there’s only one model that fits both criteria: the SAMSUNG Xpress M2026 Laser Monochrome Printer. It’s very compact and lightweight with dimensions of 35.04 x 33.1 x 17.81 cm and a weight of 3.95 kg. The price of this device doesn’t even reach £50.
It’s extremely cheap but it’s still very useful if you’re only going to use it for producing personal monochrome printouts. The resolution of the device is 1200×1200 dpi and it has a print speed of 21 pages per minute for letter-sized paper. It has a max duty cycle of 10000 pages per month, so you can easily print up to 300 pages of printouts every day. Not only that, it’s also Energy Star qualified so you get the best out of this very small and very cheap printer.
2. HP LaserJet Pro M118dw (4PA39A0)
If you’re looking for a monochrome multifunction laser printer that offers not only a wide array of functionality but also excellent performance, we recommend the HP LaserJet Pro M118dw. This model has automatic duplex printing functions and can produce printouts as fast as 28 pages per minute.
The total resolution produced by the model is 1200×1200 dpi and It has a duty cycle of 20000 pages per month, giving you an average of 600 pages per day. In terms of connectivity, the device has been equipped with wireless networking capabilities so you can print directly from your mobile devices with ease.
HP also packs this product with HP Auto-On/Auto-Off feature so we can be sure this product is energy efficient.
3. HP LaserJet Pro M254dw (T6B60A) Colour Laser
This is a colour laser printer with a very cheap cost and a very compact and stylish design. It’s also capable not only of wireless capability but also of wired networking. It has a speed of 21 ppm for black and up to 21 ppm for coloured printouts and its maximum resolution is 600×600 dpi. It even has a 2-line graphical LCD display for easy monitoring of print activities.
The maximum duty cycle of this device is 20,000 – 49,999 pages per month so it can surely answer all of your monochrome and colour printing needs. It also has built-in wired and wireless network connectivity so it’s a very easy device to connect to smart devices and share with all of your employees and colleagues. This printer can also print double–sided, which is handy. According to some users, the print output is clean and sharp as well.
4. HP Colour LaserJet Pro MFP M281fdw
This is an excellent but affordable model of an all-in-one colour laser printer (Fax/copier/printer/scanner), and it even has a speedy performance where It can print up to 21 pages per minute for both coloured and black printouts, and it has a maximum resolution of 600×600 dpi. It has an automatic duplex printing feature for easy back to back production of pamphlets, brochures, and other coloured handouts.
The internal memory of this device is also high so you can use it for heavy-duty printing of long and complex documents. The duty cycle of 40000 pages gives you an average of 1.100 prints a day which is definitely enough for small businesses’ or offices’ mass printing needs. It even has a 2.7 in colour touchscreen LCD display and a wireless network connectivity feature for easy sharing.
5. Brother HL-L2350DW Mono Laser
This Brother laser printer is an inexpensive printer, compact and functional personal laser printer for the home or home office. It has a higher printing speed of 30 pages per minute and a higher maximum resolution of 2,400×600 dpi. Its maximum duty cycle is 3,000 pages per month and it has a built-in memory of 64 MB. It has a toner saver mode and it’s also Energy Star compliant so it’s a very energy-efficient and ink-efficient device to use.
It has duplex printing capabilities and it’s also both wired and wireless connectivity-enabled so you can share it to other devices easily and you’ll be able to print directly from your mobile devices. With its fast print speeds and combined with a large-capacity paper tray of up to 250-sheet, regular printing tasks can be done easier. This device is Energy Star compliant so it’s a good investment for your all-purpose printing needs.
6. Brother MFC-L2710DW A4 Mono Laser Printer
If you need a speedy wireless laser printer, we recommend the Brother MFC-L2710DW laser monochrome printer. It has a printing speed of 30 pages per minute and a printing resolution of 1200×1200 dpi. Its duty cycle is 15,000 pages per minute so you can print up to 500 pages every day, on average.
The Brother MFC-L2710DW is complete in functions such as printing, scanning, copying, and faxing. It also has built-in automatic duplex printing that allows you to print on both sides of papers easily. It even has a nice and compact size that’s easy enough to place on any tabletop or desk. It’s also Energy Star qualified.
Other features of this printer are Wired+WIRELESS connectivity, Large 250-sheet paper input and including 700-page in-box toner
7. Lexmark C2325DW A4
The Lexmark C2325DW is a speedy printer with speeds of 25 ppm for both black and coloured documents. Its maximum resolution is 1200×1200 dpi and it has a built-in memory of 512 MB for printing very long and complex documents or many short documents without difficulty. The device also has built-in duplex printing capabilities so it can be used for producing coloured brochures or pamphlets with back to back prints.
Its duty cycle is 500 – 5000 pages per month and it even 2 line monochrome LCD with keypad display for easy operation and navigation even without a PC. For connectivity, this Lexmark printer has a number of options including USB, gigabit ethernet and built-in WiFi. The manufacturer also includes the Mobile Print app for iOS and Android so you can print directly from your smart devices with ease.
8. Xerox WorkCentre 3335dni
If you are looking for a fast laser printer for home or a small office and can be used by a single user or a small team as well as wan to increase productivity, you should consider also the Xerox WorkCentre 3335dni. Besides its main function as a printer, this Black and White printer also allows you to scan, copy and fax documents easily.
Printing and copying feature has the same speed of up to 33ppm and can handle 250-sheet of A4 papers and combined with 50-sheet ADF. Its maximum resolution is up to 1,200×1,200 dpi and it has automatic duplex printing for easy double-sided output.
Just like other high-end printers, this device also comes with wireless connectivity, the connection can be paired with ease from your laptop, tablet or smartphone, Apple AirPrint and Google.
9. Pantum P2200W Wireless A4
Yet another cheap laser printer on the market, the Pantum P2200W with monochrome technology. The printer that comes with Startup Toner is a quality laserjet printer that can help get our work done very quickly. It’s only a monochrome printer so there is a limit to the businesses and office workplaces that can make use of this device but still, can be used for home, home office or business workplace printing activities.
The device is powered by 600MHz processor and combined wuth128MB large memory, its monthly duty cycle is up to 15.000 pages so of course, it can boost home or office productivity and it has a printing speed of 22 pages per minute. Then what about connectivity ?? This simple laser printer comes with wireless connectivity and the ability to print directly from a mobile device.
Even if it isn’t a well-known brand name of laser printers, Pantum still has a good line of products that can really provide all of your printing needs, especially from a laser printer.
10. Brother HL-L3270CDW Colour
The Brother HL-L3270CDW is a very affordable colour laser printer with excellent connectivity, sporting both built-in wired and wireless connectivity options. It has a printing speed of 24 ppm for both black and coloured printouts, and it has a maximum resolution of 600 x 600 dpi, 2,400 dpi class (2400 x 600) quality and it also comes with has automatic duplex printing capability.
This printer has a monthly duty cycle of 30.000 pages per month (with 1,500 pages suggested monthly volume) and it also has a 6.8 cm colour touch screen display which makes it simple to navigate and you can complete all of your printing tasks easily
Other key features from this Brother printer are NFC connectivity, 250-sheet paper capacity and 800 MHz of the processor which makes it great to handle large printing volume.
Laser Printer Capabilities
A simple laser printer means that you can only print on one side of the printer.
These are great for basic printing jobs for home and small offices; they take more paper consumption and don’t often jam as easily as others.
A duplex laser printer will turn each side of the paper over so you can print on both sides.
These are much better for detailed jobs, and for jobs, you want less paper consumption for.
They can at times be less reliable because of the type of paper turning mechanism, as well as being more susceptible to getting jammed.
Where will the Laser Printer be Used?
Personal/Home
Personal laser printers are often quite small and don’t take up much space on your desk. These are also simple laser printers instead of duplex printers because the duplexing mechanism would make them too large.
These are often not very fast and typically produce around four pages per minute as well as not holding many sheets of paper at one time.
If you need a simple printer for your home office this type of might work for you.
Office
Office laser printers are a good mid-grade type of printer to get. They are bigger than personal printers but still small enough to sit on a workspace with other Office Equipment. They can be used individually or shared by a small group of users.
These will typically print with a speed of 8 to 12 pages per minute. The holding trays can also hold over 200 sheets at one time.
A printer like this may be connected directly to several different personal computers, or even shared by several computers that are connected to a network.
Workgroup
Workgroup printers are designed to be shared between a certain number of users on a network. Most of these are designed to be free-standing, although some are small enough to sit on a desk or other surface.
These will print around 15 to 30 pages per minute and can hold a very large amount of paper around 2000 sheets or so.
These are much easier to use with computer networks that are comprised of several personal computers, microcomputers, or both.
Key Features in Laser Printers
Speed
Speed is measured in pages per minute, or images per minute. These are typically shown as ppm or ipm.
The speed of that is advertised is the maximum that the printer can handle. If you use a colour laser printer that features four different colours, your colour printing speed is slower buy 1/4.
Resolution
Most printers print 300 x 300 dots per square inch. Many of these printers have the same resolution both horizontally and vertically.
You can find newer printers that offer 600 dots per inch. Keep in mind that the greater the resolution, the finer and more detailed your images will be.
Advantages
The best things to note about laser printers are their speed, their precision and printing, low running costs, and workload they can produce.
Conclusion
Home laser printers are available both as monochrome and coloured devices, and depending on your priorities in printing, there are a lot of choices that you can select from. Refer to this list as a starting point and you’ll be sure to find a printer that suits your needs well.
