How to choose a laser printer

Before you start choosing and buying a laser printer, you need to decide on one very important question: what will this device be used for? After all, the scope of application determines what characteristics you need to pay attention to when purchasing office equipment.

Specifications you need to pay attention to when buying a laser printer

Choosing a laser printer, you need to pay attention to the following parameters:

1. Chromaticity (color or black and white printing);

2. Calculated load (productivity in sheets per month);

3. Print resolution (in dots per square inch);

4. The amount of internal memory (in MB);

5. Print speed (in sheets per minute);

6. The complexity of the service.

At the same time, most of these parameters need to be considered only if you purchase a laser printer in an office, print center, photo shop or similar organization. When buying a device for the home, it is enough to consider only the first parameter.

Advantages and disadvantages of laser printers

Today, the printer market is represented mainly by laser and inkjet devices. More exotic options, such as matrix and plotters, also exist, but are extremely rare and have too narrow a scope to be sold in regular stores of digital technology. Therefore, it is advisable to compare laser and inkjet printers.

Nevertheless, despite these shortcomings, laser printers remain much more economical and more practical inkjet.

Color or black and white printer

Here, it would seem, the selection technique is quite obvious.If you plan to print color documents - images, photos, presentations, infographics - then you need a color printer. If not, then black and white is enough.

However, choosing a printer for home, it is worth remembering that color models are much more expensive than black and white (in terms of the cost of both the device itself and its maintenance). And if you plan to print photos and images every few months, buying a monochrome model will be a much more profitable solution. And photographs and other pictures can also be “printed out” in a specialized center.

Design load

If it comes to buying a laser printer for an office or print center, then it is worth considering a parameter such as the calculated load. It means the number of copies that a device can make per month without losing or significantly reducing performance. For most modern models of laser printers it is 1-2 thousand sheets.

If you plan to print much more, it is recommended to choose a model with a higher design load. Of course, a simple device with those 1-2 thousand sheets at the end of this number will not break, but it will wear out much faster, which will reduce the service life.

Print resolution

This option is very important if you plan to purchase a printer for printing photos and other graphic documents. The higher it is - the better you can see the small parts on the finished "sheet".

For documents, 300 × 300 dots per square inch is enough. With this resolution, even relatively small text is well read.

For images, you must have at least 600 × 600 pixels.

There is also the so-called interpolation resolution of 1200 × 1200 pixels, but it is supported only by some printers. It is achieved using special firmware in the device firmware.

Finally, a printer with a native resolution of 1200 × 1200 pixels is desirable for “ideal” photo prints.

Built-in memory

Before you print a document, the printer places it in its RAM. Therefore, its volume is also desirable to consider when buying a device. If you plan to print only small documents (abstracts, contracts, etc.), then 2 MB of internal memory or even less is enough.

For "weighty" photos, presentations, etc. need a printer with a large amount of internal memory.

Print speed

Parameters such as print speed and time of first sheet output are important only if you plan to operate the printer “to the fullest”. That is, to print on it a lot and often.

However, too much attention to these parameters is not worth it. For example, if a budget printer has a first page out time of 20 seconds and a print speed of 20 sheets per minute; and at the top - 5 seconds and 30 sheets per minute, respectively; then a 50-sheet document on the first device will be printed in 170 seconds, and on the second - in 105. The difference is slightly more than a minute. Is this "time saving" worth the extra financial cost?

Maintenance difficulty

This parameter refers to such service procedures as toner refueling, cartridge replacement, minor repairs such as removing jammed paper, etc. It is advisable to clarify whether it is possible to carry out the last two operations on your own or will you need to call a specialist? And also call the nearest service center and clarify whether they refill cartridges of the selected model.

Other options

When choosing a printer for the office, you need to pay attention to some other parameters:

1. Is it possible to make a device network without connecting it to a PC (i.e., to include it in a local network separately)?

2. What operating systems can the printer work with?

3. Do I need to pay extra for multi-functionality (scanner and copier mode)?

However, it is worth remembering that the vast majority of these parameters are too narrowly specialized to pay attention to them when buying a device for everyday printing. For a home or a small office, it will be enough to choose whether you need a color or black and white printer.

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Attention! This material is the subjective opinion of the authors of the project and is not a guide to purchase.