Compare the 10 Best Laser PrintersOctober 2017

There are 2 main types of printers available on the consumer market - inkjet and laser printers. Both have strengths and weaknesses, and your choice will largely depend on what you plan on using your printer for. This guide will concentrate on information about laser/LED printers - for a detailed rundown of laser printers, please see the guide under the inkjet printer category.

Laser printers work by using a very fine laser to help minuscule particles of powdered ink (toner) ‘stick’ to the page in the shape of the letters and numbers to be printed. The page is then passed through between 2 heated rollers (a ‘fusing unit’), ‘burning’ the toner onto the page. Because the laser can move very fast, a laser printer can print at a very fast rate - far faster than any inkjet printer. Also, because the laser is extremely accurate, it allows for extremely crisp prints, with little chance of smudging or blotting.

However while laser printers are very good for black & white printing, they are very weak at anything involving colour. Many laser printers are simply incapable of printing in colour, since the toner they use only comes in one colour. Colour laser printers do exist, but have nowhere near the quality of inkjet or photo printers.

Cost

Compared to inkjet printers, laser printers are far more expensive - sometimes double or more the cost of an equivalent inkjet model. However while the initial cost is high, the day-to-day running costs are far lower: toner cartridges last far longer than ink cartridges, and are cheaper to replace. Both these factors mean that if you routinely print large amounts of documents, a laser printer will be far more economical over time compared to an inkjet.

Types of Laser Printer

There are 2 main types of laser printer on the market at the moment - laser and LED printers. Both work by the same process - using focussed light to trace a path for toner particles on a page. However while a laser has to track across the page from one side of a line to the other, an LED printer can use a static bank of LEDs to ‘flash’ an entire line in one go. This means that LED printers are far faster than laser printers which achieving the same high-quality prints. However since LED printers are a new technology, you can expect to pay more for an LED-enabled printer. If you find yourself regularly printing a lot of documents, the saving in time may well be worth the expenditure.

Black & White vs. Colour

Laser printers are primarily monochromatic, since they only use a single colour of toner. However colour laser printers do exist - they work by having 4 separate cartridges and drums (black, yellow, magenta and cyan) so the paper is passed through each colour of toner in turn, building up a fully-coloured print as it goes.

Because they involve far more hardware, colour laser printers are far more expensive than their monochromatic cousins. Moreover, the quality of the printing is nowhere near as good as inkjet or photo printers - you won’t be able to get professional-quality colour depth or detail from a laser printer. Therefore if high-quality colour printing is important for you, you may wish to look into buying an inkjet printer.

Print Speed

Laser printers are far faster than inkjet printers, and are capable of a very high rate of pages printed per minute. That said, there is a large variety in printing speed within laser printers, with some models capable of printing pages twice as fast as other devices. This is especially true of LED printers, which are capable of an extremely high page-per-minute rate. All of our printers have detailed stats on the number of pages they can print a minute, broken down into monochrome and colour, as well as by quality (draft, normal, high-quality). This will allow you to make the best decision as to the laser printer that best suits your needs.

Connectivity

Most newer models of laser printers have an array of network connectivity options to make printing easier and more efficient. Ethernet connectivity is now a common feature in modern laser printers - so data can be transferred over a network without having to plug your computer into the printer directly. This makes it far easier to share printers with groups: the printer can be placed in a central area and used freely by everyone around.

Additionally, many models of laser and LED printer also have wifi and/or bluetooth connectivity. These options mean that you do not even have to use a cable to use the printer - data can be transferred over wireless connection.

Finally, the newest models of these printers have support for cloud or app printing. These options allow you to send a document to print from anywhere in the world - from a browser over the cloud, or from an app on your smartphone. While you will pay more money for these options, the convenience they provide may be worth the extra expenditure.

Laser Printer Prices

We currently list 279 laser printers ranging from $21 to $5,074. The average price of a new laser printer is $677 and the 80% of laser printers are priced between $113 and $1,779. The Brother HL1112 is the cheapest laser printer at only $21, and HP M681f is the most expensive at $5,074.

Laser Printer Brands - Price Range

The %8highest average laser printer price out of all brands is OKI laser printers with an average price of $1,047. OKI laser printers start at $100 and the most expensive OKI laser printer costs $3,864.

The average price of Lexmark laser printers is $805 which is the second highest average price of all laser printer brands. Lexmark laser printers start at $40 and the most expensive Lexmark laser printer costs $3,799.

HP laser printers start at $52 and the most expensive HP laser printer costs $5,074. The third highest average laser printer price out of all brands is HP laser printers with an average price of $778.

Laser Printer Brands - Average Ratings

We have analysed 315 expert reviews and 2,458 user reviews for laser printers and used this information to determine the average rating for each brand of laser printer. The top rated laser printer brand is Brother with an average rating of 88%. The second best brand is Ricoh with 84% and the third best brand is HP with 84%.

Biggest Laser Printer Retailers

We found 227 current offers for laser printers from Amazon US making it the biggest laser printer retailer. That is significantly bigger than the second biggest retailer, eBay for whom we found 161 current offers for laser printers. The third biggest retailer is Newegg US with 161 current laser printer offers.

When Are Most New Laser Printers Released?

The most common period for new laser printers to be released in is between January and February. If you wait until January 2018 then you might be able to get better features on your laser printer. Also the price of the current laser printers may drop off just before the latest models are released in January. The biggest month in 2016 for new laser printer releases was February, with 35 new laser printers released that month. In September 2015 168 new laser printers were released making it the biggest month that year for new laser printer releases. January was the biggest month in 2014 for new laser printers, with 43 new laser printers released that month.

How Fast Do Laser Printer Prices Drop After Release?

In the first 6 months after release, laser printers drop in price by 15% on average. That means that on a typical laser printer costing $677 you could save on average $102 by waiting 6 months before buying.

Maximum Resolutions

This denotes the largest resolution that the laser printer is capable of printing at.

Amongst new laser printers, the most frequently found maximum resolution is 1200 x 1200 DPI. We found 309 laser printers that are 1200 x 1200 DPI laser printers. We found 117 laser printers that are 600 x 600 DPI laser printers, making this the second most frequently found maximum resolution amongst new laser printers.

A larger resolution means that the print-out is comprised of more pixels, meaning greater detail and a higher-quality print.

Colours

This denotes whether the laser printer has the ability to print in colour, or whether it's limited to black & white.

The number of new laser printers that do and are laser printers which do not support colour is roughly the same. 266 out of 536 do are laser printers which support colour.

Print Speeds (black, Normal Quality, A4/US Letter)

This measures how long it takes the laser printer to print a single black & white A4 page at normal quality.

Across the range of laser printers, the print speeds (black, normal quality, A4/US Letter) range from 8ppm to 75ppm. The print speeds (black, normal quality, A4/US Letter) of the majority of laser printers range from 25ppm to 34ppm. The HPM609 has the fastest print speed (black, normal quality, A4/US Letter). This laser printer is a 71ppm print speed laser printer and is available at $1,473.49. The laser printer with the slowest print speed (black, normal quality, A4/US Letter) is the HPM609, which is a 14ppm print speed laser printer and currently retails for $283.22.

A faster print speed means the laser printer is more efficient and can manage larger print jobs faster.

Biggest Laser Printer Retailers

The biggest laser printer retailer by number of products currently for sale is Amazon US. We found 227 current laser printer offers from Amazon US. The second biggest laser printer retailer is eBay with 161 offers. That means Amazon US is significantly bigger than eBay when it comes to laser printers. Newegg US is the third biggest retailer with 161 current offers.

Which Are the Cheapest Retailers for Laser Printers?

With the cheapest price on 117 laser printers, eBay is most frequently the cheapest laser printer retailer.

Proportion of Laser Printers for Which Each Retailer is Cheapest?

eBay most frequently has the cheapest laser printer prices (found to be cheapest for 72.7% of its laser printers).