We make your life easier by picking out the best business-class printers on the market today.
Buying a business printer for your office can be a daunting task due to the huge range of business printers on the market. This can mean making the right decision is difficult, which is why we’ve created this guide to show you the 10 best business printers for your office.
When buying a new business printer you will need to take into account a number of factors – such as how fast you need the printer to print, if you need color printouts, and if you need scanning and photocopying functionality as well.
By making sure you know what you need out of a business printer, you can begin narrowing down the choices available, making it easier to find a business printer that suits you and your office’s needs. That means you won’t spend money on features you won’t use, while also making sure you have a printer that is capable of meeting all of your demands.
The choice can be doubly tough when you realise why there is so much competition; the real money is made on the many consumables your business will be purchasing to maintain that new printer purchase. What might initially seem like modest costs can soon add up over time.
Here, we will list the 10 best business printers on the market today, and afterwards explain the best ways to find and buy the business printer that suits your needs.
So where do you need to start? Even the most modest office will likely be networked, and sharing a resource as useful as a printer is an essential. So you should only be looking at printers that are capable of networked use. Wired offers speed and robust function for a fixed office. Wireless is flexible, cheap to deploy but not as fast in use.
Here are the best 10 printers for businesses – as chosen by the Techradar Pro team – large and small, from a basic monochrome lasers suitable for a small business and a home office through to a small departmental multifunction printer.
An impressively wallet-friendly laser printer
The notion of the large, expensive laser printer should have long been dispelled and if nothing else can do that then the Ricoh SP-213w will. This small-footprint mono printer costs less than many inkjets but has the capability to provide basic wireless-based print services to a home office or smaller office. With a monthly duty cycle of 20,000 pages per month, a 1200 x 600dpi print resolution and a print speed of up to 22 pages per minute, its small size shouldn’t hide the fact that this could be a little workhorse. Beyond these basics, the Ricoh SP-213w offers manual duplex, a Print and Scan mobile app, support for PCL and a two-year pan-European warranty.
A mono printer that does everything right
If you want an affordable printer for your business that excels in black and white print quality – and is a speedy performer to boot – then you really can’t go wrong with the Samsung Xpress M2835DW. Its small and compact body contains a huge host of features, and its easy to use and understand buttons makes quickly firing off prints a piece of cake.
It supports both wired and Wi-Fi connectivity, runs quietly and can even be controlled via smartphone. Its Eco mode allows you to control the amount of power and ink it consumes while printing, and overall this is an absolutely fantastic business printer.
A great all-rounder
The Brother HL-L8360CDW is an excellent all-round printer for the office. Thanks to its large capacity and fast print speeds, this is a printer that won’t grind to a halt in a busy environment.
It’s not just fast either – the print quality is also very good as well. It prints in both black and white and colour, and it has low running costs as well, making this an economical choice in the long run.
A tempting laser printer, but a hefty piece of hardware
There was a time, not so long ago, when colour laser printing was exorbitant. That has fortunately changed with the likes of the Ricoh SPC-240DN doing their best to bring prices down. This is a massive printer at nearly 24kg so you will need to have a strong back and enough desk space to take it on board. Its starter toner kit will produce around 1000 pages and probably better than inkjet ones which dry out with time. It can print up to 16 pages per minute (colour or mono) and has a duty cycle of 30,000 pages per month. It offers both Ethernet and USB ports and, with a 250-page input paper tray, has enough to make a small office pleased. However, at 600 x 600dpi, its print resolution may leave some wanting for more.
A true workhorse MFP with connectivity and features in spades
The HP PageWide Pro 477dw isn’t going to win any design awards but what it lacks in aesthetics it really does make up for in functionality and speed. This entry-level office multi-function inkjet printer offers all the standard print, copy, scan and fax features you’d want to see in an office workhorse. Add to that wired Ethernet alongside wireless networking and it has all the connectivity, too (including Wi-Fi Direct and NFC) . Suited to the home and smaller small office, it has a conveniently compact footprint, until you open its paper trays to print. A top speed of 55ppm is stunning for this class of printer, particularly considering its asking price. The inclusion of a 50-sheet automatic document feeder adds to an all-round excellent paper handling capability. Its ability to multitask with print and copy jobs nicely complements the large touch-capable LCD screen.
A printer that comes with two years’ worth of ink
Consumables are usually expensive when it comes to printers. So it is quite surprising that one vendor, Epson, single-handedly decided to challenge that status quo by allowing users to refill their printer using ink bottles. What’s even more surprising is that Epson includes two years of ink with the package; no more expensive cartridges and instead, you have enough material to deliver 11,000 pages worth of black and colour inks (that’s 700ml worth of liquid) . Oh and there’s even a three-year warranty making this a great choice for bean counters fixing the TCO of their printers. The ET-4550 lacks the features found on cheaper competitors – it is relatively slower (although it has a higher printing resolution) and has a small paper input tray.
An excellent budget printer that punches well above its weight
Ricoh makes it four in our shortlist with the SG-2100N, a bargain basement printer that brings together the best of inkjet and laser technology. It delivers the sort of performance usually associated with devices costing three times its price. A water insoluble, viscous ink combined with a higher-than-average print resolution and a print speed – 29ppm – that surpasses anything at this price range (albeit in draft) make this Ricoh printer one of the best on the market for very small offices. Other features worth noting are manual duplex capabilities, a two-year onsite warranty (parts and labour) , a well thought out design, affordable consumables, an Ethernet port and a generous input paper tray.
A neat and simple colour laser printer
This is a colour laser printer, plain and simple. It has a relatively small footprint on the desk thanks to a surprisingly compact design. The printer is fitted with a 150-sheet main paper tray and a 100-sheet output tray, with an integrated drum/fuser unit and manual duplexing capabilities. Controls are adequate, with a two-line LCD display and a number of buttons for basic menu navigation. The C1760NW also offers an Ethernet connector, 802.11n Wi-Fi and a USB 2.0 port; although there is no USB host connectivity. The printer is aimed at office or small workgroups and has a high-rated speed of 15ppm for black and colour.
