Canon business printer buying guide: The correct questions to ask

Laser or inkjet ⁠— that has been the perennial first question to ask when shopping for a new printer. But is it the right one? In this guide, we walk you through the more important considerations of buying a printer in 2019.

By Ng Chong Seng - 8 Oct 2019

How to buy a printer

I’ll admit it: even after testing and writing about printers for many years, I still don’t have a straightforward answer whenever someone asks me for a printer recommendation —


or how he or she should go about choosing one.

The answer really is: it depends.

The easiest way to start this discussion is to understand the different types of printing technologies. More importantly, the strengths and weaknesses that each has. But as you’ll see below, thanks to various hardware and software advancements, the traditional lines between, say, laser printer and an inkjet printer are blurring.

That said, for the benefit of those new to the topic, this lead-in is inevitable.

Laser vs. inkjet: The tech involved

Both laser and inkjet printers have been around for decades, which means comparisons between the two technologies are out there just as long.

In very simple terms, laser printers use laser (and mirrors) to draw the image on a photographic drum. The negatively-charged drum is then used to attract the positively-charged toner, which leaves an inked image on the drum. Next, the paper is brought near to the drum so that the ink powder particles on the drum can jump onto the paper — and finally, the image is fused to the paper using hot rollers.

Instead of ink cartridges, laser printers use toner cartridges. You can think of toner as powder ink.

Inkjet printers are easier to understand. While one inkjet maker may use a slightly different technique to fire the wet ink than the next, the premise is the same: thousands of super-tiny nozzles on a printhead is used to place millions of equally tiny ink dots on the paper every second to form the image.

Inkjet printers are able to place super-tiny ink droplets on paper. How small? For instance, a single 2pl ink droplet has a diameter of just 0.016mm! (Image: Canon.)

Laser vs. inkjet: Current misconceptions

Because of their origins, the inherent characteristics of each method and the fact that they’ve been in the market for years now, the typical strengths and weaknesses of laser and inkjet printers are well known to many people. Here’s a rundown of common impressions people have of the two:

Laser

Prints faster than inkjet
Prints sharper text than inkjet
Can handle higher volume printing than inkjet
More expensive than inkjet
Bigger and heavier than inkjet
Typical conclusion: More suitable for business than home use

Inkjet

Prints better photos than laser
More affordable than laser
More compact than laser
Text quality isn’t as good as laser
Prints don’t last as long as laser
Typical conclusion: More suitable for home than business use

As I mentioned earlier, printer tech has come a long way. While the above may all be true at some point in time, because printers today come in so many shapes and sizes, with so many features now shared between the two categories, and with products at so many price points, it’s increasingly less relevant to decide your next printer purchase based on such loose rules of thumb.

Take for instance the Canon imageCLASS MF269dw mono laser printer. It offers print, scan, copy and fax functions, has a top print speed of 28 pages per minute (ppm), and comes with a lot of advanced features including a 50-sheet duplex auto document feeder (ADF) and network printing. If I didn’t tell you that it’s priced at just S$379, would you’ve (wrongly) assumed based on the specs that it costs at least S$700 and therefore drop it from your shortlist?

The Canon imageCLASS MF269dw prints up to 28ppm and has a duplex ADF, but only goes for S$379. (Image: Canon.)

The point I’m trying to make here is this: when buying a printer today, making decisions based on hardware specs and conventional wisdom (which may well be misconceptions now) isn’t the smartest move. Because the pro and con lines are blurring, instead of choosing between laser and inkjet, it’s better to start with identifying your printing needs or user profile and then narrow it down from there.

Let's explore that in the next page, shall we?

Buying a printer: the correct questions to ask

Buying a printer is hard — if you've been asking the wrong questions and don't know what are the truly important things to pay attention to.

Before you even drill down to specific models, consider these first:

1.) Do you need to print in colour?

The first few questions you should ask yourself are: what do you usually print, how much of it is in colour and how important is the colour quality to you?

Laser printers are known for their quality text and graphics output. Their printouts don’t smear as much too, which is a huge plus if you print a lot of important documents. All this is why businesses tend to favour laser printers over their inkjet cousins.

But for the longest time, colour laser printers were too expensive for individuals or small businesses — and fast colour laser models cost even more. Thankfully, prices have come down quite a bit in recent years, so it’s not difficult today to find a speedy colour laser printer that SOHO (small office/home office) users can afford today to print their business documents, brochures and the like. For instance, the new Canon imageCLASS LBP623Cdw color laser printer has a high print rate of 21ppm, supports wireless printing and direct USB printing, and is reasonably priced at S$389.

The 21ppm Canon imageCLASS LBP623Cdw color laser printer supports both wired and wireless networking as well as auto duplex printing. (Image: Canon.)

That said, monochrome-only laser printers are still a thing, so you’ve options too if black text is all you print. Case in point: this S$159 imageCLASS LBP6030w.

Inkjet printers remain an option, of course. If you print more photos using glossy media than documents or homework on plain papers, or if the split is fairly even, then an inkjet printer like the Canon PIXMA TS707 may be a more sensible choice. Finally, there exists a special category of printers for photographers who want to print their own masterpieces, and these are usually inkjet printers because the system allows for extremely fine-grained control of a dozen or so inks.

2.) How often do you scan or make copies?

If you start all your print jobs from a computer, a single-function printer with USB connectivity is enough. For those with very tight budgets, the cheapest printers are usually single-function inkjets.

If you need to make duplicates or convert hard copies into digital copies from time to time, then getting a multi-function (a.k.a. all-in-one) device is a no-brainer. In general, I recommend an AIO over a single-function printer because that’s always less expensive than if you were to buy separate devices.

For AIOs, you should pay attention to the scanner design. A flatbed scanner is the minimum as it gives you the flexibility to scan other things such as photos or even books. The downside is that it’s not as convenient as printers that lets you scan through the ADF or paper feed.

If you scan multi-page documents frequently, get a printer that includes an ADF to save time. A typical ADF allows multiple single-sided pages to be copied or scanned at a go without any user intervention. Some AIOs have something called an RADF (reversing ADF) or a DADF (duplexing ADF), which is capable of scanning double-sided documents without you flipping the stack over.

If you do a lot of copying, scanning, or faxing of multi-page, two-sided documents, get a printer that's equipped with a duplex ADF. How can you find out if a printer has this function? It will be stated in the specs sheet.

Finally: fax. You’ll notice that many printer makers often sell two very similar AIOs with maybe a S$100 price difference between them. The most likely reason is that one of the models include fax functions. Just get the print/scan/copy model if you have no need for fax and save some money.

3.) How much do you print, and are you the only user?

In addition to their fast print speeds and sharp black-and-white text, businesses like laser printers because they’re usually designed to handle more users and tougher workloads.

Because they hold the entire job in memory, laser printers, especially workgroup models, typically sport faster processors and more RAM than inkjet printers. If you print a lot of large images or complicated graphics and you’re trying to decide between two laser printers, it helps to get the one with more RAM.

Most printer manufacturers publish a duty cycle spec expressed in number of pages per month. Because there’s no industry standard for deriving this figure, in my opinion, this is best used for comparing the robustness of different printers from the same manufacturer than the reliability of printers across different brands. If the printer lists it, use "recommended monthly print volume" instead — this is a more realistic number that tells you how much you should use the printer to keep it performing at its best.

While monthly duty cycle does not refer to actual maximum image output per month, it helps to give you an idea the maximum "punishment" the printer can take.

That said, it’s generally true that laser printers, because of their traditional target audience, are built to be used more frequently than inkjets. Again, don’t treat any of these numbers as a be-all and end-all durability spec, but take note of them so that you get an idea how much stress the printer can take.

Lastly, whether you’re buying a family printer or a business printer for the team, you need to get one with network connectivity, either wired Ethernet or wireless. Wireless will give you more flexibility in terms of placement.

4.) How important is running cost to you?

Most laser printers outperform inkjet printers when it comes to yield. While it’s true that laser toner cartridges cost more than ink cartridges, they also let you print more pages (thousands vs. hundreds).

But this equation is changing in the last few years thanks to the arrival of ink tank printers, which are basically inkjets that use large built-in tanks to hold more ink. And because their replacement inks (in bottles rather than tiny cartridges) are affordably priced, the result is some of the lowest cost per page numbers we’ve ever seen.

For instance, the new Canon PIXMA G6070 is a 3-in-1 ink tank printer that uses high page yield ink bottles. Each black ink bottle costs S$14.70 and prints up to 8,300 B&W pages, while the three colour ink bottles (each S$13.70) combine to print up to 7,700 pages.

Ink tank printers such as Canon's PIXMA G6070 and G5070 are gaining popularity because of their affordable ink refills. (Image: Canon.)

Of course, being inkjets, such ink tank printers inherit most of the strengths and weaknesses of the underlying tech I’ve listed above. In my experience, for the same price, laser printers still offer better text and graphics sharpness and zippier print speeds —


so if you’re deciding between the two, you’ve to ask yourself if the low cost per page is important enough for you to ditch the laser’s other benefits.

5.) Do you’ve specific needs?

By now, you should have a preferred printing technology and a clearer understanding of your priorities. Your next step should be to drill down on the features (not technical specs!) different printers offer and decide which of them will have a meaningful impact on real-world performance and user experience.

Here are a few considerations:

Auto duplex printing and scanning

A printer that supports auto duplex printing is able to prevent paper wastage by automatically printing on both sides of the sheet. If a printer claims to have “duplex printing”, don’t assume the “auto” — it may well support manual duplex printing, which means you still have to turn over the page yourself!

Also, know that auto two-sided printing and auto two-sided scanning or copying isn’t the same thing. While auto duplex printing is now increasingly being added to home printers, auto duplex copying (which requires a scanner that can scan both sides) remains a premium feature usually reserved for business-oriented machines. The cost is also higher if you want the duplex ADF to be able to do one-pass scanning.

Some higher-end printers, like the Canon imageCLASS MF746Cx multi-function colour laser printer, come with a single-pass duplex ADF. This means it has two image sensors to allow both sides of the document to be scanned simultaneously. (Image: Canon.)

Mobile printing solutions

Thanks to the popularity of smartphones, tablets and laptops, any printer worth its salt today will offer a few mobile printing solutions, such as wireless printing over the same network or via a direct connection without a router and cloud-powered scan and print services for when the user is away from the home or office. What used to be premium features, Apple AirPrint, Google Cloud Print and Mopria features are built into most printers now, save for the most entry-level offerings.

Apps

Some printer makers will make their own apps to offer features that you can’t get through third-party standards. For example, Canon’s free PRINT Business iOS app for its imageCLASS laser printers lets you print photos, documents and webpages, read scanned data, adjust print settings and check device status right on your iPhone or iPad.

Canon's Application Library is a combination of apps that help automate certain tasks. (Image: Canon.)

To help you work smarter and more efficiently, the Japanese manufacturer has even gone the extra mile to create what it calls an 'Application Library'. In a nutshell, these are little apps that help to automate common workflows, or frequently-used forms that are stored on-device for you to quickly retrieve and print.

A good example is the Name and Scan app, which lets you send scanned documents to pre-defined destinations and easily retrieve saved files according to usernames. Another is Enhance Text Copy, which allows you to enhance the quality of copy output with pre-determined settings — useful if you print a lot of receipts with very fine text. Always scanning documents and sending them to the same places? Scan to Preset Destination lets you scan documents with preferred settings and send to pre-defined destinations, essentially condensing a multi-step process into a one-step operation.

Canon's Application Library lets you customise your laser printer's home screen with task shortcuts you configured yourself. (Image: Canon.)

Secure printing

For organisations that handle a lot of confidential information, secure printing solutions, which can be on-device or server-based solutions (or both), are big selling points.

For small business printers (especially shared printers), it’s good to have the ability to secure a document with a PIN, which you only unlock when you walk up to the machine to print it. Some form of administrator control, like allowing system admins to authorise functionality for different user groups is also good to have.

If you want to protect the data as it moves across your network, there are high-end printers (usually laser printers) that offer features such as IPsec encryption, IP traffic filtering and device/network authentication. Some manufacturers offer online solutions too: for instance, Canon's new imageCLASS MF645Cx and MF746Cx work with uniFLOW Online Express, which is an online print management solution that also offers simple but secure cloud-based authentication.

Expandability

For big companies or businesses that are growing, printer expandability is another important consideration. Print more than 1,000 pages a month? Unless you’re willing to keep loading the paper, maybe that printer with a single 250-sheet tray isn’t the right one to get.

Or what if you don’t print that much now, but foresee the volume to increase over the next year? Then maybe that printer that comes with a standard 250-sheet tray but has the option of another 550-sheet tray is a better choice than the other model that has a 300-sheet tray but can’t be expanded.

Also, do you know that some printers allow you to upgrade the RAM? This is usually a feature in enterprise printers because when you’ve hundreds, if not thousands of users accessing the machine to print complex documents, it’s easy to hit a memory bandwidth wall.

Some laser printers can be expanded with another paper tray, which is good if your needs grow down the road. This is the Canon AF1 cassette, an optional 550-sheet paper cassette that works with select imageCLASS printers such as the MF746Cx.

Canon Business Printer Recommendations Guide (CBPRG)

Now that you know how the two main printing technologies differ from each other, understand your needs and have answers to your topmost considerations, you can begin researching and building your shortlist.

As reported from our annual HardwareZone.com + HWM Tech Awards event, Canon has a wide variety of products to cater to a diverse range and needs, easily making them our Reader’s Choice Winner as the best brand in both inkjet and laser product categories according to our readers. In fact, Canon is also our Editor's Choice Winner for the Best Mono Office Printer segment.

This is why we've partnered with Canon to bring you our very first office printer recommendation guide to get you started in finding an ideal business printer based on user profiles and needs. We hope to make short work of your purchasing decision and better equip your office.

Canon imageCLASS LBP113w - For small business owners who only print in B&W

Canon imageCLASS LBP113w. (Image: Canon.)

A monochrome laser printer, the Canon imageCLASS LBP113w is best suited if you’ve absolutely no need to print anything in colour.

Though priced at just S$199, the compact LBP113w is no slow slouch: it offers a print rate of up to 22ppm in A4 and a first-page-out time of 6.5 seconds.

While it has no Ethernet connectivity, it does support wireless networking, so it’s easy to print directly from your mobile device. Several mobile printing options are available, including Apple AirPrint, Google Cloud Print, Mopria and Canon Print Service. For more control, you can also use Canon’s own PRINT Business app.

Canon imageCLASS MF269dw - For SOHO users who need additional copy, scan and fax capabilities

Canon imageCLASS MF269dw. (Image: Canon.)

For business users who don’t just print but also need to make copies frequently or fax invoices to clients, there’s the Canon imageCLASS MF269dw.

A multi-function mono laser printer going for S$379, the MF269dw can hit a maximum print speed of 28ppm and has a very fast first-page-out time of 5.2 seconds. Auto duplex printing is also built-in.

In addition to USB, the MF269dw is equipped with wired and wireless LAN connectivity, and allows you to do network printing and scanning and sending of documents to network destinations.

Another very useful feature is its 50-sheet duplex ADF. This means you can copy, scan and fax two-sided documents without having to manually change each page for a 50-page stack! If you're interested to know more, we've also reviewed it here and compared it too.

Canon imageCLASS LBP623Cdw - For individuals who must print in colour

Canon imageCLASS LBP623Cdw. (Image: Canon.)

Don’t need a copier but need to print in colour? Perhaps you can take a look at the Canon imageCLASS LBP623Cdw, a single-function laser that can print in colour (and mono) at a very fast rate of 21ppm.

Priced at S$389, the LBP623Cdw has a 5-line LCD display and comes with wireless printing, auto duplex printing, direct USB printing and even secure printing features. It supports PCL and Adobe PostScript 3 printing languages too, making it suitable for both simple and complex jobs.

The LBP623Cdw is able to produce printouts at a 1,200 x 1,200 dpi-equivalent resolution (600 dpi native). Canon’s V2 colour technology is also used to enhance overall sharpness and colour saturation.

Canon imageCLASS MF645Cx - For SMEs that need a do-it-all workhorse

Canon imageCLASS MF645Cx. (Image: Canon.)

If you want everything — print, scan, copy, fax, fast print speeds, single-pass duplex ADF, lots of connectivity options — the Canon imageCLASS MF645Cx is one of the more powerful colour laser AIOs you can get.

The MF645Cx has a top print rate of 21ppm, and that’s for both colour and mono printing. It too offers PCL and Adobe Postscript 3 for added compatibility with different business applications, Canon’s V2 colour technology, auto duplex printing and a slew of mobile business solutions, including Canon PRINT Business, Google Cloud Print, Apple AirPrint and Mopria Print Service.

Additionally, the printer has a built-in Application Library filled with apps to ease your work process. For instance, the Fax and Store app lets you to keep a backup of sent faxes for easy reference. A network-capable device, it also has native security features such as Department ID and Secure Print.

With high print yields of up to 3,100 pages (black) and 2,300 pages (colour), the S$599 MF645Cx is ideal for small workgroups.

If you’ve a bigger team, there’s the S$899 MF746Cx, which prints up to 27ppm, uses toners that last for 7,600 pages (black) and 5,900 pages (colour), and can be expanded with an optional 550-sheet paper cassette.

Canon PIXMA G6070 - For users looking for the lowest running cost

If you prefer inkjet quality or wish to a printer that offers a very low per page cost, Canon also makes ink tank printers, such as the PIXMA G6070.

Priced at S$439, the G6070 is a 3-in-1 device (print, scan, copy) with a maximum print speed of 13.0ipm for black and 6.8ipm for colour. It supports both wired and wireless LAN, mobile and cloud printing, auto duplex printing, as well as borderless photo printing.

The biggest draw of the G6070 is its high page yield ink bottles. Since each black ink bottle costs S$14.70 and prints up to 8,300 pages and each colour ink bottle costs S$13.70 and prints up to 7,700 pages, you’re looking at a cost of S$0.0018 for a page of mono printout and a cost of S$0.0053 for each colour printout. Don't really require all the functionality? Canon has other ink tank printer models too.

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