The Best Color Laser Printers to Buy for 2021

Compared to inkjet printers, color laser printers offer faster speeds, better quality black and white printing, smooth paper handling and are basically less hassle (I mean maintenance). Difficulty choosing between laser printers?

Here is our researched list of laser printers to help you find the best laser printers in India that meet your needs.

Here are the 10 Best Color Laser Printers.

Let’s take a look at the Best Color Laser Printers!

Finding the best was next up on our list of challenges. After several hours of testing, we decided on a few models that we think are suited.

A Comparison of our Favorite Best Color Laser Printers

How We Picked Top Ten Laser Printers?

You might be wondering how we picked the top ten laser printers from 100s of printers out there. Let me explain our process. We picked four important aspects of a laser printer which customers have the most appeal for (Four aspects: Printer cost, Features, Cost per print and Maintenance). Then we matched other aspects to these four main points (such as print quality, compatibility, release date, etc…). Then we started researching and collecting data on different printers from their official websites, and customer responses. This collected data then converted into points that we can rank all printers. Voila!!

We created this list keeping in mind that there are different needs, and there will be at least one printer for each of the needs.

Laser Printer Buyer’s Guide

Functions

There are two options to consider based on the functions of a laser printer: Single function and Multifunction.

Single function laser printers come without any additional features. It only prints. It’s advantageous if you only need printouts and no extra functions because you only pay for what you need and don’t spend money on other functions (scanning/copying) that will be hardly used. Another attractive advantage is their specialization in what they do; you will get prints of excellent quality compared to multifunction printers in the same price range.

With a multifunction laser printer, you can print, scan, copy and sometimes even fax. The multifunction printer is the most prefered printer because of its ability of multitasking ability. In this’ all-in-one’ era, one can avoid purchasing different machines for each task. Instead, one can get all the functions in one laser printer. Being money-saving, less space-consuming and easy to move makes it suitable for office uses.

Connectivity

Most laser printers today have high-speed USB and wireless connectivity. However, there are many other options too. The different common types of connectivity options in laser printers are Wi-Fi, Wi-Fi Direct, USB, Ethernet and Bluetooth.

Wi-Fi isn’t a new word now; most of the devices now support Wi-Fi connectivity, with which you can easily connect your system wirelessly to laser printers. Wi-Fi Direct can connect the printer to other devices without going through an access point as they can establish a direct ad-hoc network. Therefore Wi-Fi Direct helps to connect laser printers easily and take prints very quickly. The latest printers will have dual-band Wi-Fi over conventional single-band Wi-Fi which has a better transmission rate and low failure rate.

Bluetooth is another ‘not so common’ wireless mode to print by pairing the device using a Bluetooth connection. Even though it hasn’t quite reached laser printers, it is said to be the best way to save power while using the printer for the whole day.

A reliable USB cable is the best way if you worry about wireless signal issues, as you have a direct connection to the laser printer. The major issue with USB connectivity is that you should place the printer near the PC.

An Ethernet cable is the type of network cable which is also used for connecting laser printers and any other wired devices. This method is still used in a few offices for connecting printers into one network and enabling the users to share the device remotely.

Page Yield

The number of pages you can print with one cartridge can be termed as the page yield of a printer. However, cartridges come in different sizes, and clearly, the page yields vary. It can influence the running cost and maintenance requirements. The page yield is measured in the factory by printing out pages with 5% page coverage until the cartridge runs empty, and this is the ISO standard for measuring. A simple way to measure page yield is by visiting the product page for the toner of the printer.

The factors that decide the page yield are the content type, print quality and content size. If you opt for content that has more detail, like images, the page yield will reduce accordingly. Also, if you set the quality to high, the page yield will reduce.

Print Speed

As the name says, print speed is the speed at which a printer can print. The print speed may vary according to the model of the printer, the content of the printing, quality, thicknesses of paper and cartridge used. Laser printer speed is measured in pages per minute (ppm) rather than images per minute (IPM). In IPM the printed page is considered as image and not text, while in PPM only the regular text is calculated and other images and graphics are not considered. PPM is usually related to monochrome office documents, which is why PPM is preferred in measuring the print speed of laser printers. IPM measurement is mostly used in inkjet printers.

Cost Per Print

Cost per print is the cost incurred to print a page. To calculate the cost per print of a laser printer, divide the number of pages a toner cartridge can produce by the price of the cartridge (if the cartridge has two separate units, you need to change the calculations accordingly). Generally, the average cost to print on a laser printer varies in the range of Re. 1 to Rs. 3. However, this may vary according to the photos and heavy graphics when you use it for graphic prints. Some of the lastest Brother and HP laser printers have print cost less than Re. 1.

Toner Cartridge

As the name suggests, toner cartridges are the containers of toner particles, or plainly, the ink powder. The transfer of toner particles to the pages is facilitated by what is called the drum units. The two types of toner cartridges are based on how the printers are structured.

In some laser printers, the toner cartridge and the drum unit are designed as a single module. While in others, the two components are two separate units. Both the components are consumables.

In single-unit printers, you are forced to replace both the toner cartridge and the drum unit every time the toner runs out. On the other hand, in two-unit or separated cartridges, you only have to replace either the drum or the toner as required. Both of them have their own advantages and disadvantages. Disadvantages of a single unit cartridge are that the running cost will be a bit high, but the quality of the print will be consistent. For two-piece cartridges, the quality of the print will deteriorate over time due to overuse of the drum, but the running cost will be less. Though the single-unit cartridge is convenient, separate drum and toner are preferred by many when the cost is a major constraint.

User Interface (UI)

The User interface or UI is the visual display of the laser printer that enables the interaction of the user with the device and the display of information. A standard UI should be consistent, offer meaningful feedback and ask for verification of any non-trivial destructive actions. One of the important parts of the user interface is the display feature. The display screen is significant as it provides essential feedback and helps in configuring the functions.

In the most modern laser printers, advanced options are available such as Custom UI which allows the touchscreen control panel to be adapted to meet customer requirements. This feature is enriched by adding more targeted bespoke workflow shortcuts.

Usage

There can be low, medium or heavy usage requirements for a printer. This value will change according to each user. Low usage atmosphere may need to print an average of 100-500 prints per month, while medium users require a higher capacity range, say more than 500 prints on a monthly calculation. Then there are the heavy users that require continuous printing in a very busy office atmosphere, like 5,000 or much more prints every month.

One must check the duty cycle and recommended monthly usage of the printer before purchasing to know how many prints it can handle without diminishing the quality. One must also choose the page yield, speed, cost per print etc. based on one’s usage requirement.

Duplex

Printing on both sides of a sheet is termed as duplex printing. There are two types of duplex printing, namely manual and automatic. In automatic duplex, the page is flipped automatically without any user intervention, which saves a lot of time. Manual duplex printing requires human intervention since the printer will only assist us in printing on both sides. Duplex printing saves money, as well as time. Since it prints on both sides of the sheet, only less number of sheets is required. The average price of a good quality duplex multifunction laser printer ranges around Rs. 15,000 – 20,000. For a single function duplex printer, it’s around Rs. 9,000 – 12,000.

ADF

When you use scan/copy mode, Automatic Document Feeder (ADF) allows the user to place a bundle of documents, and the device automatically feeds one page at a time. There are two types, single-sided and double-sided. In single-sided, the bundle has to be reversed manually after one side of the pages is scanned/copied. In two-sided ADF, the printer will automatically turn over sheets to scan/copy data on the other side. But two-sided ADF is only available in heavy usage laser printers which will cost more than 30,000 Rs. ADF allows to scan, copy or fax multi-page documents without replacing each page manually. The price of an ADF printer starts from Rs. 14,000.

OS Support

The laser printer’s compatibility with the Operating System (OS) of your computer is very important. Almost all printers usually support Microsoft Windows. However, if you use a Mac or even Linux, check the specification to be sure before buying the printer. As Linux is a rarely used OS, many printers may not be supporting it. Also, one needs to make sure one’s OS is of at least the minimum version that the printer supports.

Memory & Processor Speed

The data of each document is entirely stored in the printer memory before it gets printed. This is a speciality of laser printers. The prescribed minimum memory requirement is 32 MB (not necessarily) for good quality monochrome/colour prints. Low memory creates a delay in printing and can also affect the quality. The time taken to process the print job depends on the processor speed too. However, one doesn’t need to worry much about the processor speed today as most modern printers come with amply high-speed processors.

Third-party Apps

Even though printer manufacturers provide mobile applications for both Android and iOS platforms, it might be easier for some to use in-built applications or third party applications for better flexibility. Major third-party apps are AirPrint, Google Cloud Print and Mopria.

AirPrint is an Apple technology to provide easy printing for Apple users. It facilitates printing via a wireless WLAN for iOS devices such as iPhone and iPad. AirPrint runs without printer-specific drivers, but its compatibility varies depending on the printer.

Google Cloud Print is a Google service in the Android platform that allows anyone to print over the web from anywhere. This app makes use of cloud technology for easy printing for users from any cloud print-aware devices.

Mopria is another application specifically for Android users. Mopria enables simplified mobile printing from any Android device. It boasts that its print technology is the default print service in many Android devices. Again this application requires a Mopria certified printer to work.

Other Important Terms

1. First Print Out Time (FPOT)

FPOT is the time a laser printer takes to start printing the first sheet after turning on the printer. This does not include the time taken for printing. FPOT is not always considered at the time of purchasing.

2. Print Quality

Laser printers are well known for their print quality with black and white documents which is why they are considered as the perfect match for office use. Laser printers can print very sharp lines which makes it suitable for texts documents. The average resolution of laser printers is in the range of 600 – 1200 dots per inch.

Another thing about the laser printer is that the documents are instantly ready to use since the ink gets stamped to the paper using laser technology.

3. Duty Cycle

The duty cycle can be referred to as the maximum monthly capacity of the laser printer. Every machine is designed to carry a specific workload. It is specified as the number of prints you can make in a month without diminishing the print-quality or creating a breakdown of the printer.

4. Recommended Duty Cycle

This value will be much lower than the duty cycle of a printer. By keeping the number of prints per month under the recommended duty cycle will ensure longevity to the printer.