If you’re looking for the best home office printer for your needs, there are a few features to consider. The first thing to decide; inkjet or laser printer? Inkjet is generally better for family use or a small home business as it’s ideal for printing high-quality photos or printouts using special paper, which may be more suited to creative enterprises. Laser is usually more economical for general business use, where you mainly print black and white documents at higher volumes.
Other features to consider when choosing a printer are whether you need a wireless or non-wireless printer, what your budget is for the machine and ink, the space you have in your home office, and how many people will be using it each day. Printers also come with different print speeds and print resolutions. To take the guesswork out of buying a new printer, here’s our round up of printers for different home office and small business needs.
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An Ideal Printer for Part-Time Users: HP Deskjet 4120e All-In-One
If you’re not printing documents every day, and you’re after a unit that is simple to use, you can’t go past this handy model from HP. Download the HP Smart app and it’ll guide you right through set-up, too.
The 4120e connects via WiFi and you can send documents from your computer, phone or tablet so there’s no need to fuss with cords. It scans and copies as well, and prints at an excellent 1200x1200 resolution.
Printer type: Colour inkjet
B&W print speed: Up to 8.5 pages per minute
Connectivity: Wireless, Wired (cable not included) Airprint, HP Smart App
Paper: A4
A Speedy Printer for Your Home Office: Brother Compact Mono Laser HL-1210W
This black and white laser printer is laser-focused on its task: to deliver a lot of wordy pages, fast. It can hold up to 150 pieces of paper in its tray and takes less than 10 seconds to kick into action once you hit “print”.
Connect it to your computer wirelessly or via USB, or print from your phone using the Brother app. The drum unit and toner cartridge (both essential parts for laser printing) can be replaced separately, which could save money in the long run. And it copies and scans, too.
Printer type: Mono laser
B&W print speed: Up to 20 pages per minute
Connectivity: Wireless, Wired (cable not included)
Paper Size: A4
A Stellar Printer for Small Business: Epson Workforce Pro WF-4830
If you’re looking for a small business printer, this multifunction Epson printer is a great place to start. It holds 500 sheets of paper between its two cassettes, prints quickly and has all the functions you and your colleagues could need, including a 50-page document feeder for printing and scanning.
Other great features: auto double-sided printing can cut down on paper usage and the option of long-lasting XL cartridges means they need replacing less regularly.
Printer type: Colour inkjet
B&W print speed: Up to 25 pages per minute
Connectivity: Wireless, Wired (cable not included), Airprint, Epson App
Paper size: A4
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Hot Tip: Don’t know what to do with empty ink cartridges? Recycle them! Officeworks offers free ink and toner recycling so you can return your empty ink and toner cartridges to any Officeworks store.
The Perfect Printer for Small Groups: Canon Pixma Home Office TR8660a
This Canon multifunction printer is ideal for families, home office use or even a small business. Two or three of you sharing a workspace? Not a problem. WiFi connectivity gives you all the option of connecting quickly and easily, plus you can print from a phone, tablet or SD card.
There’s the ability to copy, scan and even fax, plus the extra set of inks in the box means you can print more for no extra cost. Automatic double-sided printing means you’ll be saving paper, too.
Printer type: Colour inkjet
B&W print speed: Up to 15 pages per minute
Connectivity: Wireless, Wired (cable not included), Airprint, Canon App
Paper size: A4
A Standout Printer for New and Growing Businesses: Brother INKvestment MFC-J4540DW
Ideal for small offices, this Brother printer comes with enough black ink to print roughly a year’s worth of pages¹. It has WiFi connectivity and the ability to print from a mobile device, too. With a 20-sheet automatic document feeder, scanning and copying is a breeze.
As well as that, the dual paper trays mean less getting up to refill the machine or you can have letterhead and blank paper ready to go, while a manual paper feeder allows you to print on paper and card up to 300 gsm.
Printer type: Colour inkjet
B&W print speed: Up to 20 pages per minute
Connectivity: Wireless, Wired (cable not included), Airprint, Brother App
Paper size: A4
The Clever Cash-saving Printer: Epson EcoTank ET-2811 MFC
Kiss cartridges goodbye! This Epson EcoTank multifunction printer, copier and scanner in one also boasts super-sized, inbuilt ink tanks that are easily refilled from a bottle.
Why’s that a good idea? Each ink bottle holds the same amount of ink as about 203 cartridges2, meaning big cash savings, a huge reduction in waste and less last-minute dashes to source replacements. Print with or without wires from the convenience of your PC, laptop, smartphone or tablet.
Printer type: Colour inkjet
B&W print speed: Up to 10 pages per minute
Connectivity: Wireless, Wired (cable not included), Airprint, Epson App
Paper size: A4
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A Sharp and Superior Office Laser Printer: Brother MFC-L3750CDW
This speedy, full function Brother wireless laser unit prints in high-resolution colour, perfect for all business print needs. Ideal for presentations, your documents will look crisp and professional.
It automatically prints on both sides of the paper to minimise waste and supports applications like Google Print, so you can print wirelessly from your smart devices. And the 50-page automatic document feeder means no longer standing around while you print, copy or scan.
Printer type: Colour laser
B&W print speed: up to 24 pages per minute
Connectivity: Wireless, Wired (cable not included), Airprint, Brother App
Paper size: A4
An Excellent Value Printer for the Office: Epson EcoTank Pro ET-5170
Apart from looking high-tech, this Epson machine is what you need if you’ve got more people jostling for print time. Like its other EcoTank siblings, the ink in this printer is held in tanks, meaning it costs about half a cent to print each page.
And this time around, there’s enough ink in those tanks to spit out 13,300 pages in black3. This unit also has a 250-sheet paper tray, fast auto dual-side printing, and auto document feeding for up to 35 pages.
Printer type: Colour inkjet
B&W print speed: 17 pages per minute
Connectivity: Wireless, Wired (cable not included), Airprint, Epson App
Paper size: A4
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1Based on average monthly print volumes of approximately 150 pages at 60% black pages/40% colour pages in accordance with ISO/IEC 24711 using 4 cartridges provided in-box. 2Individual cartridges estimate based on print yields of replacement black and colour ink bottles as compared to Epson standard-capacity ink cartridges for similarly featured printers as of August 2021. 3Yields based on the ISO/IEC 24712 pattern with Epson’s methodology. Actual ink yields will vary considerably for reasons including images printed, print settings, temperature and humidity. Yields may be lower when printing infrequently or predominantly with one ink colour. All ink colours are used for printing and printer maintenance, and all colours must be available for printing.
