Top Electronics Reviewed

Should you be thinking about purchasing a new printer you might be wondering about the relative merits of a laser printer as opposed to an inkjet printer. To generalise we are able to say that laser printers create excellent text documents  and decent images and do so quickly. With inkjet printers it is the otherway about, first-rate pictures and graphics but less impressive text and both produced slowly.

To make this decision you need to consider;

Price – Laser printers are more expensive to buy, especially color lasers. As a result, if you print relatively small amounts and need color, an inkjet will be your best option.

Running costs – If your print volume is anything other than low ink cartridges will be a significant expense. Although laser toner cartridges are expensive they have a large capacity so, unless your print volumes are very low, a laser printer will cost less per page to run.

Printing volume – The greater the volume of printing you do the more cost effective a laser will be (as well as being quicker).

Type of printing – For pages of text the best option is a mono laser printer. It will produce high quality output at a reasonable price. For low volume personal use, including photos, then the best choice is an inkjet printer. If you print any volume of text, graphics or mixed documents then you should consider a color laser. Having said that you can always use a mono laser with an inkjet if you don't need color frequently.

Here are three mono lasers for consideration:

• HP Laserjet P1102w – This is a very compact wireless mono laser printer, ideal for home use. It is easy to set-up and produces good quality documents at up to 19 pages per minute and it is available at a very attractive price. A disadvantage of its size is that the capacity of the toner cartridge is only 1,600 pages.
• HP Laserjet 1320 series – This is an older printer which has been available since 2004. It has been described as a great “workhorse” office printer (mono). It can generate 10,000 pages per month at up to 22 per minute and will produce the first page in under 9 seconds. One key reason for its popularity is that it features double sided printing, although some issues with this have been reported with Windows7.
• HP Laserjet P4014n – A more recent mono laser for office use which can output at 45 ppm. It has a high build quality and its text output is excellent. It is highly expandable in that there are lots of optional extras that enable the printer to meet future requirements.  

For home use the P1102w is ideal as it is very small for a laser printer. On the other hand the P4014n is ideal for business use because you can buy the basic printer and add to it as your needs grow.