TOP 12 laser printers for home according to customer reviews

Continuous ink supply systems are actively advancing in the inkjet printer market. They have not yet reached such a widespread level with laser models, but leading players are already making the first attempts in this direction. Time will tell whether we will see a radical reduction in the cost of printing in the near future. In the meantime, we can enjoy to our heart's content the race unfolding before our eyes: who will make a better printer and at a lower cost per print.

Today we have a very interesting model in front of us. This is the HP Neverstop Laser 1200w MFP, which, according to the words, claims to be the world's first laser printer without cartridges. The last phrase makes your imagination instantly draw some absolutely incredible pictures in your head, in which letters and words are formed on paper from mysterious nanoparticles flying in the atmosphere. However, let’s discard these phantasmagoric visions and listen to the voice of reason, especially since the answer to the question of how this printer works lies on the surface. But first things first...

⇡#Supply set

The printer comes in a regular cardboard box with side handles for carrying. Inside, along with the printer, we found the following accessories:

• power adapter with detachable cable;
• USB A to USB B cable;
• input tray with lid;
• a set of printed materials, including a brief operating manual in Russian.

In addition, the kit for review also included a refueling kit, shown in the photo. It is not included in the package that the end user receives, but the printer is already filled with toner to print 5,000 pages. In comparison, HP laser printers typically come with starter cartridges that only contain enough toner to print 500 pages, which is ten times less!

⇡#Technical characteristics

The line of new HP Neverstop Laser devices includes four models: printer, printer with Wi-Fi interface, MFP, MFP with Wi-Fi interface. We got the last one for testing - the older device.

The main feature of the new product is, of course, that it works without a cartridge. The latter does not mean that the pages in the printer are printed using magic. It’s just that in this case the toner is refilled directly into the printer tank. There is no separate cartridge for this. It turns out that, in essence, HP Neverstop Laser devices are laser printers in which the manufacturer officially allows refilling and even organized for this something very similar to the continuous ink supply system (CIS), which has long been used in inkjet printers. However, the manufacturer itself adheres to this terminology in its advertising brochures, calling its system SNPT - a continuous toner supply system.

Unit with photoconductor and toner container

The absence of a toner cartridge does not mean the absence of a unit with an image drum, because the printing technology of the new product has not changed. Moreover, this is where the toner is refilled! All this allows us to talk about a replacement unit as a combined cartridge for both toner and photodrum. This unit comes pre-loaded to print 5,000 pages. The recommended cost of a new refilled unit is 4,990 rubles. It is also known that the drum resource is sufficient to print 20,000 pages, and the toner in the separately purchased refill kit is enough to print 2,500 pages, that is, you can refill the HP Neverstop Laser replacement unit at least six times. As for the recommended cost of the refueling kit, it is also known and amounts to only 790 rubles. The savings compared to other laser printers will not be difficult to calculate. Even if we do not take into account the possibility of unofficial refilling of toner cartridges, the figures are quite impressive. The manufacturer itself claims up to 80% toner savings compared to original HP cartridges used in other HP printers.

Otherwise, the new product is a classic A4 laser MFP with a print speed of up to 20 pages per minute. By the way, the manufacturer separately notes that it will take only 15 seconds to refill the toner, so this system can really be called an NSPT, and not just a printer with the ability to refill manually. Please note that the toner container in the replacement unit is designed to hold twice as much as what is included in the refill kit. This was done for a reason, but to ensure safety when refueling. The printer is equipped with special sensors that will open the gate to add additional toner only after the first 2,500 pages have been printed. This technology allows you to avoid waking up. The refill module itself is also equipped with an HP chip, so it’s not so easy to refill this device with third-party toner. The printer simply will not open the gateway for refilling.

Judging by the recommended load of 2,500 pages per month, the new product is designed primarily for work at home, as well as in a small office. In this case, the printing speed indicated above will be quite sufficient. We also note that the HP Neverstop Laser 1200w MFP model, which we received for testing, has a built-in Wi-Fi wireless network interface. The latter allows you to connect the device to a wireless local network, perform remote printing from a PC and mobile devices, and also connect mobile devices directly using Wi-Fi Direct technology. Everything is the same as with other modern MFP models that we tested earlier.

The best laser printers for the office

KYOCERA ECOSYS P2335dn

The KYOCERA ECOSYS P2335dn printer has excellent print speed (35 ppm) and good cartridge life (3000 pages). And it produces the first sheet very quickly - 6.8 seconds.

A minor drawback of this model is the lack of Wi-Fi, but for those offices that have a local network, this is absolutely not critical. But the large-volume tray (850 sheets) can be very useful for large-scale work. In addition, 256 MB of internal memory allows the printer to store a sufficient number of jobs.

The price of the KYOCERA ECOSYS P2335dn printer is also quite reasonable (approximately 12,000 rubles), but it is recommended to refill it only with the original TK-1200 tonic. However, this does not prevent us from considering it the best laser printer for the office.

Price: RUB 11,813

Canon i-SENSYS LBP6030B

Fourth place in this category undoubtedly goes to the Canon i-SENSYS LBP6030B printer. It is inferior to its competitor in terms of technical indicators, but it is lighter (5 kg) and more compact (364x199x249 mm), which is sometimes important for small offices.

This is a compact model without unnecessary functionality: very reliable and capable of producing 18 A4 prints per minute. And it costs less than its competitor - less than 11,000 rubles.

Price: RUB 9,990

⇡#Appearance and ergonomics

The appearance of the new product can be described as classic. This is a fairly compact MFP that can be placed on a cabinet or even on a desktop, if space allows. The color scheme is chosen to be neutral. The design includes beige, light gray and dark gray colors. No overly rounded shapes - sharp corners and smooth edges. In general, the device looks quite strict.

The layout of the HP Neverstop Laser 1200w also does not present any surprises to the user. At the bottom of the case there is a removable plastic feed tray for 150 sheets, which can be closed with a lid.

On the middle “floor” there is an output tray designed to store 100 prints. This tray has a retractable plastic tab to hold paper.

Control panel
Well, at the very top there is traditionally a flatbed scanning module, next to which there is a compact control panel with a two-line character LCD display.

Toner indicator

And only little things in the appearance of the HP Neverstop Laser 1200w reveal that it is not quite an ordinary representative of its class. Thus, on the front panel there is an original backlit indicator, which clearly shows the user the level of remaining toner.

Gateway and refill kit
Well, above it there is a sliding hatch, behind which there is a hole for refilling the printer with toner. To perform this operation, you will need to open the top of the MFP. The refill kit for HP Neverstop Laser models is designed in the form of a giant syringe with a microcircuit at the end of the refill head. This side of the “syringe” should be inserted into the filler neck and gently press the piston. The toner will be poured into the appropriate printer container neatly and without the slightest dust.

As we mentioned above, the toner container of the new product is combined with the photodrum module. It is replaceable, and therefore access to it is ensured. To get it, you need to open the printer body and pull out the module, which occupies almost the entire internal part.

In general, the design of the HP Neverstop Laser 1200w MFP does not raise the slightest complaints. Access to all major organs and replaceable parts is well thought out, and the workmanship is of the highest level. It remains to be noted that the new product does not have a power control key. Its role is played by the power button on the control unit. We also note that the device has a single connection port - USB type B. But the main operating scenario for the HP Neverstop Laser 1200w model is, of course, wireless.

Working with the device

The Readiris Pro application
Drivers for MFP operation are suggested to be installed from the manufacturer’s official website, where by entering the model on the search page, you can find the latest version. The complete installation package includes the PCL 5 and PCL 6 drivers, as well as the Assistant, a scanning utility, and a small PDF document application, Readiris Pro, which is offered free to HP users.

We are already familiar with the “Helper” from other models of HP printing devices. Its Russian-language interface is quite simple. Here you can view current tasks, change printer settings, launch the scanning utility, and also try to automatically correct printing or scanning errors, if any.

In addition, through the “Assistant” you can launch the MFP toolbar, where you can also explore a detailed table of device settings or change settings.

The new product has very few print quality settings. We couldn't even find basic quality settings. By default, the printer prints at the highest possible quality. There is only a paper selection function. The same settings can be seen when printing a document from any application.

Additional settings

But the device can adjust to the humidity of the environment and even the altitude above sea level, for which there are corresponding selection lines in the “Toolbar” menu.

The HP Neverstop Laser 1200w MFP has quite a lot of network settings. In addition to selecting the usual network settings, here you can connect the Bonjour and AirPrint services, set up Google Cloud Print, and also configure SNMP access.

As for scanning, for this you can use the “Helper” to call up the special HP Scan application, which we are also already familiar with from other HP printer models. Using it, you can save a document or photo in different file formats, adjust the required scanning quality, and also carry out minimal operations with the image: crop, rotate, change exposure. Everything is as usual.

We also note that to fully work with the HP Neverstop Laser 1200w MFP, it is not necessary to have a PC at hand. All setup, printing and scanning operations can be carried out directly from your mobile phone. To do this, you need to install the proprietary HP Smart application, as well as the HP Print Service module, on your smartphone, tablet or any other mobile device running Android or iOS.

Testing

The main testing of the printer consisted of checking the printing speed and assessing the quality of the resulting prints. To check the printing speed in each test, 10 sheets were printed from a PDF file with five percent text filling. When printing, the page output speed was 21 ppm, which is even faster than the stated value of 20 ppm. In this case, the first page was printed in approximately 12 s. When printing a batch of various documents, including images, presentations, tables and texts, the printer was slower, but the speed was quite expected - about 10 ppm.

The second stage of testing was to check the print quality. For printing text, and any other office documents, such as tables, graphs or diagrams, this printer is no worse suited than any other HP laser printer. Below you can evaluate the quality of the different types of prints obtained. Test prints were made on ordinary A4 office paper with a density of 80 g/m2 and scanned at a resolution of 600 dpi, and then saved in Adobe Photoshop in JPG format with maximum quality.

Printing a sheet with a uniform fill of black went without any complaints. There are absolutely no background distortions. The black background test print shown below was made on ordinary A4 office paper with a density of 80 g/m2 and scanned at 600 dpi, after which it was saved in Adobe Photoshop in JPG format at maximum quality.

Example of printing a black background

The scanning quality of the scanner built into the MFP seemed to us even higher than that of some other HP office MFPs. Texts and images are clear, with smooth edges, very well detailed, without color distortion. Below you can see an example of a scanned image with a maximum resolution of 600 dpi, saved in JPG format with maximum quality.

During the entire testing period, the printer never jammed paper. As for noise, it can be described as average. When printing in the silence of the night, the printer is clearly audible - it’s not annoying, but it can get in the way. If the device is intended to be used in an office, then this noise will not be noticeable at all.

⇡#Conclusions

Despite the fact that the HP Neverstop Laser 1200w MFP still has a cartridge, the new product turned out to be really very interesting. Laser printer with continuous toner supply system and minimal cost per print! It's a pity that so far only with black toner. At the same time, the quality and print speed of the new product are no worse than those of other HP laser models.

The only thing that might scare a home user away from such a device is its relatively high cost, which, hopefully, will become lower in the future. But the cost of the device itself is more than compensated by the cost of the print, so this fact should not be considered a disadvantage. The only drawback is the insufficient number of quality settings. Otherwise, this is a very good device, the design of which is the future.

Best Laser Printer for A3 Size

Xerox Phaser 5335N

The Xerox Phaser 5335N printer is quite expensive (about 70,000 rubles), but it is definitely the best in its segment.

The printing speed of this model is quite high - 35 ppm (A4), 20 ppm (A3). This device is not equipped with a wireless connection, but it has an additional parallel port (LPT), which can be very useful. A wide range of paper weights (60-216 g/m²) provides additional opportunities for work.

The disadvantage of the Xerox Phaser 5335N printer is the small internal memory (64 MB), but it can be increased if necessary. But in general, the price/quality combination allows us to call it the best laser printer for A3 format.

Price: RUB 69,500