Do you need a printer for your small business or home office? It doesn’t have to be big and fancy. A smaller, less expensive printer is often a better choice for a smaller business or home office. The reason? They’re easier to set up and use, and they’re often less expensive than bigger, pricier models.
Plus, you may find that you don’t need one at all! But don’t assume that a smaller, less expensive model can’t perform well. There are plenty of great choices in this price range. We’re here to give you some help by breaking down the most popular printers on the market today and telling you which one is the best printer under $300 for you.
Best Printers Under $300
Choosing the right printer can be a challenging decision, especially if you’re on a tight budget.
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Best overall: HP DeskJet 4155e
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Best value: HP ENVY 6055e
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Best purchased product: HP OfficeJet Pro 9018
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Best value product: HP ENVY Inspire 7255e
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Best affordable product: HP Laserjet Pro M15w
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Most sustainable: Canon PIXMA TR150
Things to Consider
While there are many important things to take into account when purchasing a home printer, most of them are obvious. How much ink is used each day? What level of print quality can you expect?
In this article, we will discuss a few useful tips that will enable you to choose the finest home printer for under $300.
Budget-friendly
The price of printers might be very unpredictable in terms of budget. In actuality, you ought to buy a new item for no more than you can afford. In contrast to a printer's initial cost, the budget issue is more complex. You should also take into account the ongoing expense of the occasionally replaced ink.
Since this is how most manufacturers generate money, it is extremely usual for the cheapest printers to use some of the most costly ink. Therefore, it is a great decision to do some research online before visiting the closest dealer to make a purchase. Make sure that the cost of the replacement cartridges is comparable to that of other printer models at the same price range.
Checking whether you can choose third-party ink cartridges for your printer and whether you can replenish the ink cartridges is also vital. You should be aware that using ink cartridges that have not been authorized could void your printer's warranty.
Types of Ink
There are primarily three standard ink cartridge configurations.
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Inkwells: In this ink cartridge layout, the printer draws ink from enormous, refillable wells rather than cartridges.
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Two ink cartridges: This is an all-in-one ink cartridge and a black ink cartridge.
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Four ink cartridges: This is a CMYK color model, which uses four ink cartridges. There is a black cartridge as well as cyan, magenta, and yellow cartridges that are all separate.
Inkwells are the most cost-effective of the three over a longer period of time.
Laser printers are another option because they use toner rather than ink.
Laser printers may create images with sharper edges and greater clarity when compared to inkjet printers.
Printing quality
The best quality is provided by laser printers, although they are more expensive and require more frequent maintenance. The ideal printer for you is an inkjet if you use it at home.
The print quality is impacted by a variety of factors, including the ink quality, print head design, and printer driver. The DPI, or dots per inch, of the printer is the essential specification to pay attention to.
It demonstrates how precisely a printer can duplicate the image's pixels from the original. The DPI range for inkjet printers is 600 x 600 to 4800 x 4800.
Print speed
It can be annoying to have to wait as a printer produces paper at a glacial pace. Print speed is a crucial consideration when making a purchase if you are someone who prints a lot, especially when printing papers with several pages.
Pages per minute, or PPM, is a unit used to express printer speed. Pages of text and pages of images print at various PPM rates on the same printer. There will almost certainly be one PPM rating on a box when you look at it at a store.
Additionally, it shows how many pages of black text the printer is able to print in a minute. The PPM ratings of inkjet printers again show a wide variety. You can locate anything from 5 PPM to 25 PPM.
FAQs
Whether you need an inkjet or laser printer, there are some basic things you should consider when choosing the right one.
1. Do I really need to buy a Laser Printer?
It depends. When you buy a laser printer, you need to consider a few things. First, what type of printing do you plan to do? If you’re just planning to print regular documents, then you don’t need a laser printer. You can use your smartphone or tablet for that.
If you’re going to print documents, brochures, etc., then you’ll need a laser printer.
Also, what kind of printing do you plan to do? Do you plan to print small text, images, graphics, and colors, or just black and white? If you plan to print in color, then you’ll need a color laser printer, and if you plan to print only black and white, then you’ll need a mono laser printer.
You can find a good deal on a laser printer from your local Staples store, Amazon, and eBay. Just make sure you get a model that suits your needs, and one that has a good warranty too.
2. Are printers better than tablets?
Printers are more reliable and effective than tablets in terms of quality, speed, and versatility. They have a wider variety of features like scanning, faxing, and more. You can also use them for business purposes.
Tablets on the other hand are limited to a small collection of applications, and usually lack any faxing features. Also, they don't print as efficiently and don't have a wide range of applications.
3. How much ink does a printer use?
Printers usually consume less ink than the average consumer realizes. However, if you're printing large amounts of documents, or running it on a continuous basis, you should opt for high-quality cartridges and make sure you change them regularly.
Conclusion
The following selection of printers is ideal for you if you're looking for the finest home printer under $300 that will allow you to finish printing duties quickly. All of the printers in this list are appropriate for small business owners with low to medium volume printing requirements.
These printers are all equipped with amazing features that increase their development and output. To ensure that you don't compromise your production, they give professional-grade images and papers with amazing performance.