How to Buy the Best Personal Laser Printer

The personal laser printer is perhaps the most useful accessory for the home PC user. Page for page a personal laser printer is far cheaper than an ink jet printer. There are dozens of manufacturers making laser printers from Hewlett packard to Brother and Xerox. Features vary greatly in personal laser printer models and the decision process can be confusing at times. I'm going to run through the different things to consider when trying to purchase a personal laser printer.

How fast does the personal laser printer need to be?

All personal laser printers advertise their speed, but honestly, for the average home user does it matter if a page takes three seconds or two seconds? If speed isn't really a consideration, and it really shouldn't be, then don't consider it. The price of a personal laser printer climbs drastically the faster it prints. A personal laser printer speed may be an issue if you print 100's of pages at a time, if you print this kind of volume though you shouldn't be looking at a personal laser printer.

How big can the personal laser printer be?

There is a trend these days to make the personal laser printer smaller and smaller, this is called a space saver design. Personally I'm all for this, but consider this, the smaller space saver personal laser printer has to sacrifice something, and usually this is having less paper types to choose from. If you tend to print in 11 x 17, or even envelopes then you need to read the features carefully to make sure the personal laser printer you are interested in can support the paper types you want to use.

What will you print with the personal laser printer?

All laser printers have different resolution capabilities. Check the stats to see what they are. For average, day to day text printing all laser printers are fine for the job. If you want to print color photos though you should be aware that color laser printers are generally terrible at it, you're better off buying a cheaper color ink jet printer.

How much do the replacement toner cartridges cost for the personal laser printer?

Unfortunately many manufacturers sell their personal laser printers cheap, but literally rip you off when it comes to getting a new replacement cartridge. Make sure you research how much they cost before you buy the personal laser printer you're looking at. It's also a good idea to calculate the cost per page, just divide the number of pages the printer cartridge is rated for by the cost.

How does the personal laser printer connect to your PC?

Amazingly very few, if any personal laser printers come with a printer cable. You'll need to buy one of these too, around $20. A good option, if you have a home wireless network, is to get a personal laser printer with built in wireless networking. Not only will you be able to save on the printer cable, but every computer in the house will be able to use the personal laser printer from anywhere in your home. A great option for you laptop users!

Finding a great price on a personal laser printer

Personal laser printers on Amazon.

Perhaps the easiest way to find the lowest laser printer price is to read laser printer reviews on such sites as Consumer Search or Consumer Reports. Not only can you read unbiased laser printer reviews from home users such as yourself but often times they'll list the lowest laser printer price available on the web. You will of course find many more helpful links right here on the page to help you.