How to choose a printer Our guide to inkjets and laser options
There are more printers available, at a wider range of prices than ever before. Here’s what you should consider when trying to choose the right one for you
Inkjet or laser?
Laser printers want to convince us that they’re as home-friendly as their inkjet counterparts, while some inkjets are as fast as laser printer. So which of these very different animals is right for you?
Laser printer toner cartridges last several thousand pages but cost a fortune. Colour models tend to slowly use up the colour toners even if you only print black, then refuse to print at all when any of them is empty. This makes colour lasers awkward if you only print occasionally, and even for higher volumes they don’t necessarily work out cheaper to run than inkjet to run. They do offer crisper text and solidcolour graphics, but aren’t great for photos. For most of us an inkjet is the best choice, or a budget mono laser for black only.
Multi-function
It’s more common than ever to find printers with a scanner stuck on top. There are differences in quality and speed between scanners, so always read our reviews. For everyday occasional photocopying and digitising paper documents, any ‘multi-function printer’ (MFP) should be fine. A few models still support faxing.
Paper handling
Most printers can accommodate 250 A4 sheets in their main tray, but others only fit 100 (sometimes inn a vertical hopper on top, op, which isn’t as neat). Many ny MFPS now have an automaticutomat atic document feeder (ADF,DF, see e image above right) for the scanner,canner, typitypicallyll taking 25 sheets, whichich is great for multi-page copies. It’s rarer to find a ‘straight-through’ rear paper feed, which avoids the need for thick card to wrap around rollers, so most printers are limited to about 300gsm (grams per square metre) paper. A few A4 printers, notably made by Brother, can print single sheets of A3, but full A3 and larger printers are much pricier.
Getting connected
A printer can connect to a PC via a USB cable; to a PC or router via an Ethernet cable (meaning you can share it with other devices on your network); or to PCS and mobile devices via built-in Wi-fi. Most Wi-fi models support Airprint (Apple’s technology that allows printing from IOS apps) and Mopria (for compatible Android apps). A few rely on the printer manufacturer’s own app, which will also let you scan pages from an MFP to your phone or tablet.
Ink and toner costs
Our reviews always work out the cost per page for you based on current prices for official ink or toner cartridges. Roughly, expect around 2.5-4p for black text or 7-10p for colour. These figures are useful for comparisoncomparison, but the industry-industrystandard definition of a ‘page’ assumes there’s not much on it, so in fact a fullpage photo could use dozens of pages’ worth of ink or toner. Printers also waste ink/toner in maintenance tasks.
Larger ‘XL’ cartridges save money. Tank systems such as Epson’s Ecotank ( www.snipca.com/24643, see image below) can work out even cheaper, as well as creating less waste. With HP’S Instant Ink option ( www.snipca.com/ 24642) you pay a monthly fee and ink arrives in the post whenever you’re running low, but to be sure of saving money you’ll need a clear idea of how many pages you’re likely to print.
Unofficial ‘compatible’ cartridges often work fine, and can save money. But printer manufacturers hate you using them, so expect your printer to harangue you about using an unapproved cartridge. Heavy users of colour laser printers, for example, can easily save hundreds of pounds by finding a reliable brand of compatible toner.
Laser and inkjet printers have things in common, but are very different animals
WHAT IS THE OPTANE SYSTEM?
Over the last few years, SSDS have been replacing hard drives in laptops. They’re faster and can take up a lot less space. In desktop PCS, the problem is that they are still much more expensive per gigabyte. This makes the sort of capacity most of us need in our main PC – a terabyte or two – unaffordable. The M.2 socket providedrovidedvided on the latest motherboards supports even smaller and fasterer SSDS, but doesn’t make them any cheaper. Intel’s Optane system tries to square this circle: a very small (and thus cheap) amount of Ssd-type storage is plugged in via M.2 and linked to a conventional hard drive, serving as a cache that speeds up the transfer of regularly used data, including parts of Wi Windows 10. It’s not quite an SSD on the cheap, but it seems to make more of a difference than previous ‘hybrid’ or ‘ffusion’ hard drives.