This makes sense. The traditional home computer market has been absorbed heavily by mobile devices, while office computing is still going strong. Inkjet printers are ideal as photo printers and for relatively low-volume printing, while laser printers are masters at big print runs. While the toner cartridges for lasers cost quite a lot, the actual cost-per-print for laser printing is generally much less than that of inkjet-printed pages. Also: The best printers of 2023 All that leads to a vibrant, growing market for laser printers with a wide range of solutions for home offices, small offices, workgroups, departments, and the enterprise. In this guide, we look at 11 of the best laser printers and help you understand why you might choose one over another. Here’s our recommended list of office printers. We’re going to start with a set of less expensive (under $700) small office printers. Then we’ll up the game and move into departmental-level larger scale printers.
Small office printers
One thing you learn very quickly when comparing laser printers is that the naming conventions are odd. They often have a very long mishmash of letters and numbers. Sometimes, a printer even has “enterprise” in its name, when it’s clearly more of a small office printer. When choosing a small office printer, look at sheet capacity, print speed, whether you can print on two sides or one, any added features, and – of course – replacement cartridge cost. The printers we’ve listed below all fall under about $700 and should work well for any office with a relatively small number of people putting them through active use.
Enterprise-level departmental printers
The printers we’ve categorized below as enterprise-level printers are definitely more expensive. They often add security features, very large paper capacities, and much greater duty cycles. And, hey, let’s give Xerox a big ZDNet shout-out of thanks for the mouse and graphic UI that you and I are probably using right now, which originated at the company’s PARC research center all the way back in the 1970s. Pros:
Quick scansReasonably quick printsThat old-school Xerox name
Cons:
Laser toner can be expensiveSome users report connectivity issues
This one also exploded in price. It started at $318. A few months ago it was $448. Now, it’s $539. Pros:
Comes with a complete set of toner cartridgesDual trays for two different types/sizes of paperSolid Wi-Fi connectivity (plus other options)
Cons:
It’s a laser, so that toner refill is going to hurt your walletIt’s print only: no copying, scanning, or faxing
When we last looked at this printer, it was $448. Like most home office gear, the price has ballooned. It started at $448, jumped a few months later to $598 – and now is a whopping $892, a breathtaking jump in less than a year. Pros:
ADF scans both side of page as it readsComes with full cartridgesQuick print response
Cons:
Some color banding on photo printingSome users report card stock jamsPainful price increases
The HP product folks I’ve been working with wanted to tell you this: “The HP Color LaserJet Enterprise M455dn, part of the HP LaserJet Enterprise 400 Series, is the world’s smallest enterprise-class MFP, fitting to where employees are working, no matter where they are. The HP Color LaserJet Enterprise M455dn is also the most secure enterprise-class printer, featuring advanced technologies such as HP Trusted Platform module, HP Sure Start, Run-time intrusion detection, and more. Plus, individual devices and entire printer fleets come with easy installation, configuration, and remote management capabilities via Embedded Web Server (EWS) and HP Web Jetadmin. Lastly, the HP Color LaserJet Enterprise M455dn has double-sided printing by default, reducing paper waste and enabling automatic savings, as well as includes HP low melt EcoSmart toner and HP Auto-On/Auto-Off Technology that reduces user energy consumption.” There’s undoubtedly some serious marketing hype in their statement, but the fact that it’s a very capable, fast printer can’t be denied. Pros:
Simpler pages print bonkers-fastBuilt-in enterprise-level securityLarge management displayCan be managed remotely
Cons:
No Wi-FiNo scan, copy, or fax
Shockingly, this printer actually went down in price before it went way up. It was $286 last year. A few months later, it was $269. Now, it’s $439. Pros:
The speedSmall without attachmentsCan grow to very large capacity
Cons:
Holy cow, that price jump!Wireless only, odd for an enterprise printer
The duty cycle is a measure of just how many pages a printer can print in a given month before it starts to break down. This is not just a random stat. My company once bought a $13,000 printer (in 1990s money) that we killed inside of two months because we ran roughly 10-times the number of pages through it in the first month than the vendor recommended. We had that thing running 24/7 without giving it a chance to cool down. Keep in mind these are mechanical devices with many moving parts and a lot of friction. If you’re cranking hundreds of thousands of pages through your printer, you’ll need an enterprise-level printer. You can follow my day-to-day project updates on social media. Be sure to follow me on Twitter at @DavidGewirtz, on Facebook at Facebook.com/DavidGewirtz, on Instagram at Instagram.com/DavidGewirtz, and on YouTube at YouTube.com/DavidGewirtzTV. If you decide to add one of these to your printer fleet, definitely shop around. We found almost a thousand dollar price difference depending on the vendor. Pros:
2,500 sheet feederLarge capacitySpeed
Cons:
Large price variabilityExpensive accessories
Pros:
Solid security protocol supportPIN codes for up to 1,000 usersBig ADF and dual-sided, single-pass scanning
Cons:
Considerable price variability: shop aroundAdd-ons can give it a large footprint
Here’s an interesting note. TROY printers are based on HP printers. TROY takes the standard HP printers and add MICR fonts, MICR toner, and firmware for added check printing security. Pros:
Added security featuresMICR capabilitiesLarge sheet capacity
Cons:
It’s basically a custom hack of an HP printerYou’re paying for the printer plus the customization markup
Pros:
Connectivity extravaganzaSecurity protocol buffetFive paper trays
Cons:
Difficult to findNo Wi-Fi
While we weren’t able to perform hands-on tests with these printers, we did factor in customer satisfaction. In all cases, we looked at and read customer ratings and reviews – in particular, searching for comments that would disqualify a printer from consideration (like, for example, many users complaining of jams or failures for a given model).Finally, we did a literature review of other reviews on the web, again looking for the printers that were very well reviewed and searching out and eliminating any printers that were described as having characteristics we thought would give you difficulty.If you’re not sure whether you want an inkjet or a laser printer, be sure to check out our Best inkjet printers guide. We look at Epson, HP, Brother, and more.The result is the list above. Feel free to let us know your favorite printers in the comments below. Do you own any that we’ve identified here? How do you like them? Consumables can be quite an issue with laser printers, particularly at the lower end. Most printers come with starter toner cartridges that will print a few hundred to a few thousand pages. Then you have to buy the cartridges, which can be quite expensive. Many of the more popular printers can also use a discount aftermarket toner cartridge, which can save you money but could reduce print quality or damage your printer. We did not test toner cartridges, so pay attention to user reviews when making purchase decisions. We looked at printers that generally fall into three categories: Enterprise printers, workgroup printers, and small/home business printers. Enterprise printers are characterized by their much higher price, huge paper trays, and specialized features like folding, stapling, and enterprise integration. Workgroup printers are also fast and have great capacity, but they drop in price considerably compared to their enterprise brethren. We generally chose workgroup printers that were capable of printing tens to hundreds of thousands of pages per month. The small business/home business printers are generally fast but usually limited to about 250 sheets in the paper magazine. These are much less expensive printers, but they often have replacement cartridge costs that come close to the original purchase price of the printer. In choosing smaller printers, definitely be sure to check out cartridge costs as well as the purchase price. Also, I want to point out that prices are very inconsistent and change regularly. In the week between when I initially chose the products and put them up online in this article, the prices for a few of them changed. If you’re interested in a product, look at multiple vendors and perhaps wait a little while. Prices may come down (or they may go back up). Caveat emptor.
