Laser printers are the perfect addition to a home office. They are fast, and are great for printing high volumes of black and white documents.
Wondering which is the best Laser Printer on the market in Australia? Scroll down for our hand-picked list, followed by a guide on what to look out for during your search to ensure you get a printer that best suits your needs and budget.
1. Brother Laser Mono Printer (Top Pick)
This model from Brother is a no-nonsense, straight-forward printer that does away with all the frills and extra technology in favour of efficiency. The control panel is minimalist with only a few essential buttons; there is no LCD display or programmable features here.
The print speed is very fast, running at 30 pages a minute, and the print quality is reasonably good with automatic double-sided printing if you want it. This won’t produce a slick and glossy image or document, but for standard business fare, it does a great job.
It has wireless connectivity and it’s pretty easy to print emails and other documents from your phone or smart device. From click to print, it only takes around 5 seconds until you’re holding a document in your hands.
Overall, this is a great printer if you just want to print documents fast and aren’t interested in any unnecessary features.
What We Like:
- Fast print speed
- Good print quality
- Affordable
What We Don’t Like:
- Minimal features
2. Brother Wireless Colour MFC Laser Printer
The Brother MFC colour laser printer is fast and easy to set up. It prints at 22 pages per minute in both colour and black and white, and scans, copies, and faxes with no trouble.
The paper capacity is 250 sheets and it has automatic double-sided printing. The quality of a full-colour image is fantastic, as good as an inkjet printer; the colour-matching is near perfect.
This printer also runs very well; it doesn’t seem to have paper jams, doesn’t crash or freeze, or lose documents. It also works seamlessly over wifi whether printing from your phone or another smart device.
The unit is a little bulkier, but that’s more of a stylistic choice. It’s still quite easy to place in your office or home.
Overall, this is an excellent laser printer that will do everything you want it to.
What We Like:
- Fast
- Reliable
- Good colour printing
- Duplex printing
What We Don’t Like:
- A little bulky
3. HP LaserJet Pro Wireless Mono Laser Printer M15w (Best Value)
The M15w is an inexpensive laser printer that holds 150 sheets of paper and can print at 18 pages per minute. Its footprint on the desk is quite small and it is easy to set up with wireless connectivity. It prints quickly and easily from your phone, laptop, tablet, or desktop PC.
The print quality is not as good as the more expensive models, but that’s to be expected. It is a little too loud to print from all the time, but that’s not what it’s intended for.
If you need to print infrequently, it’s a great printer for documents and presentations. This is ideal for school projects, or printing off receipts and other occasional documents.
If you just want an occasional printer that doesn’t cost too much, then this one is perfect.
What We Like:
- Small footprint
- Inexpensive
- Wireless connectivity
What We Don’t Like:
- Not ideal for frequent use
4. HP LaserJet Pro Colour MFC Printer M281FDW
This laserjet printer from HP is one of the best laser printers you can get your hands on. It’s small and compact, so it’s easy to place, and it can connect wirelessly, so setting it up is a breeze.
You can print from your phone or laptop from across the room without having to worry about cables.
The print speed is good, running at 21 pages a minute, and it can print double-sided in full colour with no problems. The automatic document feeder holds 50 sheets, and the paper tray holds 250 sheets. Scanning and copying documents is fast and easy too.
The toner, photoconductor tray system is one of the best around; this is a really well-designed unit. The unit doesn’t accept toners that don’t have a compatible HP chip, but that is nothing new.
Overall, this is a great laser printer that has all the features you need.
What We Like:
- Easy to use
- Compact
- Wireless
- Touchscreen controls
- Duplex/two-sided printing
What We Don’t Like:
- Won’t accept non-HP toner cartridge
5. Brother Wireless Mono Laser MFC Printer
This printer from Brother is a good monochrome laser printer at a reasonable price.
It has pretty good print quality on documents, and prints blisteringly fast at 30 pages a minute, so it’s great for a home office where you may have to print a lot of documents at once.
It does scanning and copying very well, and has automatic double-sided printing, in case you want to save paper. The tray holds 250 sheets of paper and the automatic document feeder holds 50 sheets.
Set up is easy and the wireless connectivity lets you print from your phone, laptop, or other smart device, quickly and easily.
The design is neat and compact, although the lid may be a little clunky for some people. One point to note is that the toner cartridges are less expensive than some of the others, so keep that in mind if your budget is tight.
Overall, this is an excellent monotone printer for this price point.
What We Like:
- Very fast output
- Good print quality
What We Don’t Like:
- Clunky lid
Laser Printer Buyer’s Guide
What are you printing?
When choosing a laser printer, keep in mind the type of documents you will be printing.
If you want to print flyers with lots of images, you will need a colour printer, but if you are only laser printing business documents, then a monochrome printer may be better.
Try to balance speed and quality to get the best printer for you.
Duty Cycle
The duty cycle is the number of documents the printer can handle in a month.
For some laser printers, it may be as little as a few thousand documents, for other laser printers it may be tens of thousands of documents a month.
Choose a printer that has a duty cycle that matches the amount of printing you expect to do.
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Toner Cartridges
Replacement toner cartridges are one of the main expenses when considering a printer.
Before choosing a printer, look at the cost of the toner cartridges, and whether or not you can find cheaper alternatives on sites like eBay.
Paper Sizes
Note that most laser printers will only print in A4 as this is the most common document size, especially for high-output machines like these.
If you want a printer that is compatible with other sizes, such as A3, the size of the machine will increase dramatically, so you’ll want to ensure you have the space to accomodate it.
Laser Printer FAQs
Laser printers are faster than inkjet printers in comparison, and are more suited to printing black and white documents. Laser printers can still print colour photos, but the colour blending usually isn’t as good. Although, technology is catching up.
Inkjets tend to be better for printing high-quality colour images. They print much slower than a laserjet even when printing black and white. Because they spray ink droplets onto a page, they have much better colour blending, but photos printed this way may fade over time
In terms of the number of pages it will print, your laser toner will have a stated number of pages in its specifications, usually between 1000 – 3000 pages. In terms of useful life, laser toner lasts a lot longer than inkjet cartridges, as there is no ink to dry out (laster toner consists of plastic dust, not ink). Expect at least 1 year of useful life from your laser toner.
