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Here are a few questions / things you should check & ask before purchasing a new printer:
Check List:
Questions you should ask before purchasing.
New Business Printer Buying Guide! (Nov. 2019)
HardwareZone has a new business printer buying guide sharing a number of common concerns faced in choosing the right printer + marrying it with options from Canon for your consideration.
HEAD OVER HERE
Topics and considerations covered:
Hope this guide helps you out.
Check List:
C1. Do I need a printer that can print on both sides of a page?
If Yes* - you would need a Duplex Printer.
*Technically: You can print dual sided using a non duplex (single sided) printer as well - pointed out by a fellow forumer here - by printing single sided and flipping it the other way.
For convenience, and the relatively low cost of Duplex printers however, it might be more convenient to purchase a Duplex Printer instead if you are a medium to heavy user who utilise duplex printing often.
Do weigh the pros, cons and costs before considering either options.
C2. Am I printing black & white pages mostly and minimal / no colour
If Yes - Get a monochrome printer.
If No - Get a laser colour / colour inkjet.
Though colour lasers and laser printers in general have dropped in price, it is
still expensive to purchase and to run too - there would be 4 toners in total - 3 for colours (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow) , and 1 for black.
C3. Do I need wireless printing or would it be plugged in to a stand alone PC and forgotten?
Wireless printing works by sending your prints over your connected network then to the printer which then prints your queued document. It is more convenient if you have multiple users co sharing a printer i.e. home printer
placed in a centralised location.
All wireless printers have I/O for conventional usb printing should you need them.
C4. Would it be cheaper to purchase a printer or print it at shops?
Here are a few cost criterias that you would have to consider.
1. Toner costs - they do cost a fair bit but make it up in terms of pages that can be printed before toner replacement - certainly more affordable than an ink jet, and hey being a powder, it doesn't "dry" out like its ink counterparts.
2. Drum / Photo conductor cost - a drum is basically the component that picks up images and then transfers this image on to the paper. It lasts considerably longer than a toner - probably 3 - 5 times longer before needing to be replaced.
In general a rule of thumb would be to.
Take the cost of the toner and divide it by its page yield.
For instance, a particular toner costs $90 and has a yield of 2600 pages.
$90 / 2600 pages
equals to $0.035 per page printed (Excluding paper, Drum per page costs and assuming negligible electrical cost ).
C5. Do I need an ALL IN ONE? (Scan / Copy)
A scanner can be useful at times for digitizing our documents such as receipts etc / quick duplication of documents. Good to have but adds to cost.
Questions you should ask before purchasing.
Q1. How many pages can this printer print?
Q2. What is the toner yield and also is there any high yield toners available for this model?
Q3. How many pages later would the drum of the toner need to be replaced and at what cost?
Q4. Lastly, any freebies? and got trolley?
New Business Printer Buying Guide! (Nov. 2019)
HardwareZone has a new business printer buying guide sharing a number of common concerns faced in choosing the right printer + marrying it with options from Canon for your consideration.
HEAD OVER HERE
Topics and considerations covered:
- Laser vs. inkjet: Current misconceptions
- Do you need to print in colour?
- How often do you scan or make copies?
- How much do you print, and are you the only user?
- How important is running cost to you?
- Specific needs & feature considerations?
Hope this guide helps you out.
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