How to Choose the Best Printer for Your Home

With so many choices across various price brackets, selecting the right home printer is no small feat. However, it needn’t be a headache. Printers are a crucial part of any effective home office setup, especially as more people than ever continue to work from home following the COVID-19 Pandemic.

As demand has increased, so have the available options. Brands including Brother, Canon, Epson, HP, Lexmark, and Samsung all now produce what amounts to a dizzying array of home printers. So, how do you select the best for your needs? Thankfully, there’s a science to the matter, starting with the price per page printed.

One of the easiest ways to pick a suitable printer for your home is by exploring what it’ll cost to use. Essentially, that’s the price per page printed. It’s not something manufacturers tend to advertise, possibly due to the number of variables involved. In almost all cases, though, the main cost in terms of price per page comes down to the required ink.

To work out a figure, divide the price of an ink cartridge for a given printer by its specified page yield. That’s the average number of pages that a user can expect to get from each cartridge, which should be listed on printer companies’ websites. Costs can vary significantly, so it’s an important factor to take into account.

To demonstrate, the price per page of the HP Envy 6055e, printing in black using a high-yield cartridge, is just over 10 cents. By contrast, the HP LaserJet M209dwe will produce comparable printouts at closer to 3 cents per page. That’s less than one-third of the cost from an identically priced printer from the same manufacturer.

Another major factor in printer pricing relates to connection options. Wired printers are cheaper and invariably easier to set up. Meanwhile, wireless options are more versatile, but they’re also more expensive and can be tricky to get up and running.

If a printer will sit next to a laptop or desktop computer, a wired option will generally be fine. However, if multiple people will be printing from numerous devices, a wireless solution may prove more convenient. A wireless printer that’s shared can negate the need to buy a second device if more than one person is likely to be printing on a regular basis, too.

There’s every chance that a printer’s primary purpose will be to produce basic black and white letters and other documents. If so, there’s no need to shell out on a version capable of high-quality printing.

Many printers are designed to reproduce photos and other images. These tend to be far costlier than more basic options. They cost more to use, too, owing to the necessary consumables. Accordingly, it’s often inadvisable to purchase a more feature-packed or powerful printer than is strictly required.

Especially in a home office environment, larger printers can take up a surprising amount of space. Often bulky and difficult to move, it’s for this reason that compact printers continue to grow increasingly popular. Where a printer will only see occasional or otherwise light use, a compact and potentially even portable model often represents a great choice.

That said, smaller and more compact doesn’t always mean cheaper. Despite their diminutive size, some compact printers are surprisingly costly. Accordingly, be sure to shop around.

Another important consideration when choosing the best printer for your home concerns functionality. Printers are typically divided into two categories. These are print-only and multifunction. The former simply print. On the other hand, multifunction devices will also allow buyers to scan and tackle other tasks.

This extra functionality can be beneficial. At the same time, it may be wholly unnecessary. As a rule, a multifunction printer is a good idea where it negates the need for other devices that are also required. Where that’s not the case, a print-only solution will usually suffice.

With the perfect printer selected, it’s advisable to protect it with an extended warranty. However, that doesn’t have to mean paying for an overpriced manufacturer or store warranty. Instead, consumers can cut out the middleman by choosing an extended computer accessory warranty from Upsie.

With Upsie, buyers have up to 60 days after purchasing their new, used, or refurbished printer to lock in a comprehensive, affordable, and easy-to-understand warranty. Post-purchase, activating an Upsie warranty is as simple as uploading a picture or copy of a printer’s receipt to the Upsie website or app.

By cutting out the middleman and dealing directly with Upsie’s warranty experts, it’s possible to save up to 70 percent on the cost of coverage. That’s versus policies sold elsewhere, including in-store, online, and from other warranty providers such as Allstate.

As part of Upsie’s extended laptop and computer warranty lineup, policies are available for printers, monitors, scanners, routers, modems, and more. For further information, head to upsie.com/laptop-computer-warranty.