Compare the Best Laser PrintersNovember 2020

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.

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.

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

The price range of laser printers is from £16 to £7,887 and in total we found prices for 428 laser printers. On average, a new laser printer costs £598 and 80% of laser printers are priced between £108 and £1,500. The HP M506 is the cheapest laser printer at only £17, and Lexmark MX910DE is the most expensive at £7,886.

Laser Printer Brands - Price Range

The average price of HP laser printers is £943 which is the highest average price of all laser printer brands. HP laser printers range in price from £17 to £4,722.

The average price of Lexmark laser printers is £760 which is the second highest average price of all laser printer brands. Lexmark laser printers start at £43 and their most expensive laser printer costs £7,886.

The average price of Xerox laser printers is £655 which is the third highest average price of all laser printer brands. Xerox laser printers start at £94 and their most expensive laser printer costs £2,620.

Laser Printer Brands - Average Ratings

We have analysed 407 expert reviews and 3,037 user reviews for laser printers and used this information to evaluate the average rating for each brand of laser printer. The top rated laser printer brand is HP with an average rating of 86%. The second best brand is Lexmark with 75% and the third best brand is Ricoh with 74%.

Biggest Laser Printer Retailers

We found 267 current offers for laser printers from Amazon UK making it the biggest laser printer retailer. That is significantly bigger than the second biggest retailer, Ebuyer Business for whom we found 180 current offers for laser printers. The third biggest retailer is Quzo with 172 current laser printer offers.

When Are Most New Laser Printers Released?

November to January is the most common period for new laser printers to be released in. That means that most of the latest laser printer technology was released in within the last 3 months, and now is good time to buy. Last year most new laser printers were released in January, with 40 new laser printers released that month. The biggest month in 2018 for new laser printer releases was August, with 19 new laser printers released that month. 90 new laser printers were released in November 2017 making it the biggest month that year for new laser printer releases.

How Fast Do Laser Printer Prices Drop After Release?

On average, in the first 6 months after release, laser printers drop in price by 2%.

That means that on a typical laser printer costing £598 you could save on average £10 by waiting 6 months before buying.

Maximum Resolutions

'Maximum Resolution' denotes the largest resolution that the laser printer is capable of printing at.

We found 358 laser printers that are 1200 x 1200 DPI laser printers, which makes this the most common maximum resolution amongst new laser printers. We found 130 laser printers that are 600 x 600 DPI laser printers, making 600 x 600 DPI the second most popular maximum resolution amongst new laser printers.

Print Speeds

'Print Speed' 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 range from 8ppm to 75ppm. The print speeds of most laser printers range from 35ppm to 40ppm. The HP 765DN, which is available at £1,853.08, has the fastest print speed and is a 75ppm print speed laser printer. The Xerox Phaser 6020, which is available at £93.81, has the slowest print speed and is a 12ppm print speed laser printer.

Colour Printing

'Colour Printing' 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 printing is roughly the same. 46% of laser printers do are laser printers which support colour printing and 353 out of 648 laser printers are laser printers which do not support colour printing.

Which Are the Cheapest Retailers for Laser Printers?

The chart below helps you decide which retailer is normally cheapest for buying laser printers. For each retailer it shows the total number of laser printers where they currently have a market leading price. The chart below helps you decide which retailer is normally cheapest for buying laser printers. For each retailer we took all of their prices and looked at what proportion of those prices where the cheapest on the market. The cheapest retailer that we found was Ebuyer Business. 145 of their laser printer prices were the cheapest that could be found anywhere.

Proportion of Laser Printers for Which Each Retailer is Cheapest?

Assessing how cheap each retailer is for laser printers by counting the number of cheapest prices for that retailer, makes the retailers that offer the greatest number of laser printer prices more likely to offer the greatest number of cheapest prices. The chart below considers the proportion of each retailer's laser printer prices that are the cheapest compared to other retailers. The cheapest retailer that we found using this approach was Ebuyer Business. 80.6% of their laser printer prices were the cheapest that could be found anywhere.