There has never been a better time to buy a Laser printer. Laser printers provide the highest quality text and images available today. They are ideal for small businesses and home offices—and there are even some reliable low-cost models that are perfect for everyday personal printing. With price points at all time lows and feature sets at an all time high, owning a laser printer has never been more affordable. Choosing the right model for your needs however can be a bit daunting.

Our Buyer's Guide will help to make you a savvier consumer and help you navigate the through the wide array of Laser Printers available today. Becoming a savvy shopper means not only knowing your budget but also asking yourself the right questions about how you intend to use your printer. Here are some questions to keep in mind as you work through our buyers guide:

• What is my budget? Have I considered the cost of consumables (Ink and paper)
• How much printing do I plan to do, what is my monthly average?
• How much space do I have?
• Do I need it to run on Mac or Windows?
• What type of printing am I going to do? Mostly text, graphics, photos, a combination?
• Will I need this printer to connect to more than one computer?
• Will I need to connect this printer wirelessly?

With some of these questions in mind, our buyers guide will now take you step by step through the some of the most important aspects of choosing an Laser Printer most suitable for your needs.

Print Color

The first step in the decision making process will be to determine whether you want a monochrome or color laser printer. While this decision used to be mostly budget based, today there are several moderately priced color laser printers available on the market.

Maximum Print Resolution

The Maximum Print Resolution refers the maximum dots per inch the printer can place on a page with higher resolutions offering better image quality. Most laser printers will have at least a 600X600 DPI rating which will print perfectly crisp text. Of course the higher it is the better. Higher end printers may have a maximum print resolution of 2400 dpi or more.

Maximum Mono Print Speed

The speed of a laser printer is measured by the ppm (pages per minute) ratio i.e. the number of pages a laser printer can produce in one minute. Generally the speed increases as the price of the printer increases. Printers have 3 levels of quality settings: draft, normal, best. The higher the quality, the lower the speed.

Bear in mind that the speeds stated by the manufacturers are often higher than real life speeds. While testing the speed, the manufacturers often print the basic text with lowest print quality and come up with such fast speeds. The real speed is likely to be nearly half the speed stated by the manufacturer if you use the normal printing quality.

If monochrome print speed is of particular importance, then we suggest choosing a Laser Printer with a Mono Print Speed twice that of what you expect to actually print. So if you expect a normal output of 20 ppm then we suggest you choose a printer with a rated ppm of 40 or more.

Maximum Color Print Speed

The speed of a laser printer is measured by the ppm (pages per minute) i.e. the number of pages a laser or laser printer can produce in one minute. Generally the speed increases as the price of the printer increases. Laser printers have 3 levels of quality settings: draft, normal, best. The higher the quality, the lower the speed.

Bear in mind that the speeds stated by the manufacturers are often higher than real life speeds. While testing the speed, the manufacturers often print the basic text with lowest print quality and come up with such fast speeds. The real speed is likely to be nearly half the speed stated by the manufacturer if you use the normal printing quality.

If color print speed is of particular importance, then we suggest choosing a Laser Printer with a Maximum Color Print Speed twice that of what you expect to actually print. So if you expect a normal output of 15 ppm then we suggest you choose a printer with a rated maximum color ppm of 30 or more.

Summary

With price points continually coming down and feature sets continually going up, it is a great time to purchase a Laser Printer. With all of the above considerations in hand you should now be better equipped to make an more informed choice when choosing a Laser Printer that best suits your needs.

Thank you for using our buyers guide. We hope you enjoy your shopping experience!