Printers

What you need to know when buying a printer

• Types of printer: Inkjet or laser, what’s the difference and which is the best choice for you?

• Other features to consider: Do you need a colour printer, or will a simple mono printer do the job? Here are some other things to consider when shopping for a printer.

• Long-term cost of ink: Ink is expensive, so it’s important to think about the ongoing costs of running a printer and what might be a cheaper option.

Printer ink 101

Even with the most efficient printers, the ink costs can stack up if you do a lot of printing, so here are some tips for keeping those costs in check.

• If you mainly do black and white printing, then steer away from tri-colour cartridges. Once one colour is empty, you’ll need to replace the whole cartridge even though there might be plenty of the other colour inks left.

• Make sure your document is set to print in black and white if you’re not printing colour, as some printers will use colour ink to produce the black colour.

• Third-party ink and refilling cartridges can be a great way to keep ink costs down, but not all printers will let you use another cartridge in the printer.

You can read more tips in our article on printer ink.

Which printers are most reliable?

We ask thousands of Consumer members about their products to find out which brands are most reliable and satisfying to own. The results are available to members and Digital Pass holders.

How we test printers

Our test assesses how well printers print in black and white and, depending on the model, colour across a variety of document types, including photos, letters and spreadsheets. For multi-functional printers, we also test how well each printer can scan and copy documents.

We also test ease of use, including how hard it is to connect the printer to a laptop, whether it can print from an SD card or USB drive and how long it takes to start up.

Our overall score combines:

• test performance (how well the printer prints)

• predicted reliability (how likely the printers from the brand are to remain free of faults)

• owner satisfaction (how likely owners of the brand are to be very satisfied).

We’ll only recommend printers you’ll love to own, that work well and that keep working well for a long time.