Choosing an Office Printer
Choosing the wrong printer for your office can be a costly mistake. How much should you spend? Which is better, inkjet or laser? Here are just a few tips to help you choose the right printer for your business needs.
If you’re currently on the lookout for a new office printer, please check out our Office Printer Deals, our Printers with Unlimited Ink deals, and if you don’t live near Lucan and can’t come to our store, please check out our Printer & Ink Combo Deals in our webshop., but before you do, here are a few words of advice.
What are your print volumes and could they increase?
1Try gauge print volumes and breakdown of black-only to colour printing. (Tip: Ream of paper is 500 sheets. How many reams do you go through in a month)
2Remember, Cheap printers cost more to run etc. Always think about “total cost of ownership”. Cost of printer and cost of all supplies over the course of its life
3Always look at the “cost-per-page “of a printer, not the cost per cartridge
4You don’t want to be re-ordering inks/toners more than twice a year as it’s a drain on your staff’s time, so make sure to choose a printer that takes high enough capacity cartridges to last that length of time
5The most common problem we see is companies not factoring in growth, underestimating their print volumes and then under investing in their printing hardware. Then they are stuck with a device that isn’t fit for purpose, is expensive to run and requires a lot of effort to continually re-order short life supplies.
What printer features do you absolutely need?
6With office printers, you can have as few or as many features as you want and these features affect the price. Think about features that are important to your company
- Copy
- Scan
- Fax
- Colour or black only
- Connectivity (wifi, networkable)
- 2-sided printing,
- 2-sided copying/scanning,
- A3 printing,
- A3 copying,
- Page yields of inks/toners,
- Print speed,
- Running costs,
- Availability of refills/compatibles and do they work?
Inkjet versus Laser
7Historically home users would have chosen inkjet printers and offices would have opted for laser printers but things have changed dramatically in recent years.
Business Inkjets
- In last few years the “business inkjet” category has really exploded
- Offers far lower cost per page than laser printers in same price range
- Although business inkjet printers do offer really low running costs, they do not produce the same crisp vibrant colours of a laser printer when printing on basic office paper
- Do offer the option of printing on photographic paper but this would be slow
- If your business needs colour but only for internal company use, then I would definitely advise going with a business inkjet as you get more bang for your book
Laser Printers
- If you need high quality colour printing for presentation to clients, then I would advise opting for a colour laser printer
- If you do opt for a colour laser machine, be aware that the running costs on the entry level devices (sub €500) tend to be very high. Always calculate the cost per page of the printer you choose. It may make sense to invest more in the printer, in order to achieve lower printing costs
- If you print a high volume of high quality colour pages each month, I would advise investing in a Managed Print Solution
- Laser printer are the only option for high volumes of black only printing
Talk to an Expert
Finally, try to speak to an expert before buying your printer. Try to locate a local printer & cartridge specialist as opposed to a large electronics store or an online retailer.