Printer Buyer’s Guide

Ease of use - manual & auto modes

Auto modes are easy and hassle-free, making it perfect for beginners. The camera does it all for you, adjusting aperture, shutter speed, and flash.

But manual mode is for you if you want more creative freedom to capture your memories.

Colour or B&W

One of the most important features to consider when buying a printer is whether you'll print in colour or want black-and-white printouts.

Depending on your preference, inkjets, lasers or ink tanks will be a perfect choice.

Most printers come with a single colour cartridge that uses four colour tones black, cyan, magenta and yellow (CMYK) to produce a full-colour spectrum. Some printers have block cartridges where the colour black has its own ink cartridge and a tricolour or singular cartridge for cyan, yellow and magenta (CMY).

Apart from your CMY/CMYK individual or combined ink cartridges and ink bottles, you now have light grey ink. Newer techs use 6 to 12 dye-based inks to achieve basic colour documents and gallery-quality prints for exhibiting or selling.

Size

The size will depend on what you'll use it for, how much room or space you have and how many people will use it.

Corporate offices will need a larger printer that can handle large volumes of documents and comes with multiple functions.

In contrast, home offices and casual users prefer a compact model that fits nicely on a desk.

Printing volume

If you're a business churning large volumes of documents, consider a large-capacity printer designed to manage multiple prints with ample input and output trays.

Home offices typically print lesser; hence a less expensive print-only model will work. If your daily demands involve printing and scanning, then a basic all-in-one will serve the needs of every single person in your family.

Connectivity

Most modern printers come with wireless connectivity, which is also popular among home users—allowing you to print directly through Wi-Fi or Bluetooth from handheld devices like phones and tablets.

Overall costs

Factor in initial and lifetime costs – initial purchase price, ink or toner costs and maintenance costs.

Sustainability & eco-friendliness

Purchasing a multifunction printer that can print, copy, and scan is more beneficial since running one machine will reduce energy consumption.

New models come equipped with energy-saving features and eco-printing modes. Be kinder to the environment and reduce paper waste with 2-sided print or duplex printing, using ink tanks to eliminate cartridge wastes and their one-use packaging when a single colour runs out.

The latest models from HP are made with over 45% recycled plastic content. Companies like Brother and Epson also provide recycling program facilities for their consumables and products, reducing landfill wastes in New Zealand and allowing for materials in consumables to be reused.

Paper handling - input & output

Look into how much paper you can feed in and how many pages the output tray can handle. Tip: make sure the printer you want can hold a little over the number of pages you'll print in a day.