A3 laser printer guide

This article will give you information on everything that you need to know to make an informed decision when purchasing an A3 laser printer for your business. It will look into the suitability of this device for your business, the costs, and other aspects of the buying process to consider, to ensure that you have all of the information you need.

For a free price quote from several trusted suppliers, feel free to complete the form at the top of the page.

High quality vs. Cheap A3 laser printers – which is best?

As with many things, choosing between a large initial investment in the hope for lower maintenance costs against a cheaper, potentially unreliable solution can be a tough decision to make. Because of this, the next section will try to weigh up both options to see which is most likely a more worthwhile investment for your business, as well as put forward certain products that we recommend.

It is worth saying at this point that whilst the cheaper printers are not poor quality – and will still be worthwhile suggestions – they may have less functionality, may not last as long, be as capable, or generally be as useful as a more expensive model.

In addition to this point, what will make a printer good for your business will be the extent to which it matches you needs. An absolutely top end printer will be able to print quickly and efficiently, at a high DPI (dots per inch), and make use of the latest printing technology (such as auto-detection of printing errors).

If your business happens to be a law firm, though, then it is likely that you will require efficient, fast printing – but you may not need a top end DPI, such as 1200 x 1200.

Bear this in mind when choosing a printer, or when discussing your options with a supplier, and get the most for your money by buying only what you need.

Cheap A3 laser printers – are they worth it?

As mentioned earlier, printers at the lower end – and lower price range – will not automatically be of a worse quality.

Instead, they will be good in certain areas, rather than most areas, and may lack certain aspects of functionality that you would expect from a higher end printer.

This is not to say they will not be equally as useful as a more expensive printer, however. Put it this way – a printer that can scan, copy and fax, print in colour and comes with a 20cm touchscreen interface, will most likely not be necessary for the vast majority of businesses.

Some businesses may not need super high quality printing resolutions, or high printing speeds, for example, and may only require a printer that can make booklets well, for example in a classroom.

If you would like to save money for your business, then ensure that you look for a printer that does what you need it to do, without spending extra on a printer with added functionalities that you may not need.

Why should you buy an A3 laser printer?

There are a 3 key reasons as to why you should buy an A3 laser printer:

1. The benefits of the printer itself
2. Situational needs
3. More specific business needs

The benefits of the printer itself

• Having a printer that can also print A3 means a greater level of capability in your office/workspace, as well as home environments, if needs be. Usually, A3 printers will have more powerful hardware, meaning faster printing of A4 documents.
• Additionally, they will take much larger toner cartridges, and can handle more work, meaning less maintenance.
• The ability to print double sided, as well as other new features, has made the laser printer the greater option between it and inkjet printers.
• An A3 laser printer will aid any creative roles in capturing all kinds of images on paper, whether it be an architect’s design or a blueprint for customers, as well as other roles and needs such as photographs and presentations.
• Laser printers are excellent at handling heavy workloads, especially when printing lots of black text documents – although they can also produce professional-looking business graphics, too.
• It can do this, all while remaining a better investment in the long run, too. The printer itself will be more expensive than most inkjet printers, however it will print a lot more pages from one toner cartridge. This means that the cost-per-page – arguably the most important metric in printing – for laser printers will be much lower.

Situational needs

There will, of course, be a huge range of situations in which you will need an A3 printer. Some will not be as relevant to your business needs, however this is more of a comprehensive list. Feel free to consider whether you have needs that are missing from this list, too.

There will, of course, be different needs for different business types, too, that have not been mentioned.

Different business needs

An example would be a school, who will have huge printing requirements, for documents such as exams, letters, worksheets and more. Equally, businesses dealing with contracts on a daily basis, such as law firms, will have similarly large printing requirements.

As a business owner, or a person in a position to be considering a new printer, you will understand what you and/or your business needs, and whether you will benefit from an efficient, reliable and high quality laser printer.

Should this be appropriate for you, feel free to read on, where we will go into much greater detail about the buying process, including features, costs and more.

If you have already decided, though, that you do require a laser printer, fill in the form at the top of this page. It will take a very short amount of time and you will be put in touch with several trusted suppliers who will be able to suit your needs and give you a fantastic quote.

Features to consider when choosing a printer

With such a large amount of printers on offer, it is important that you consider what your business needs and make sure this is a priority when you choose your product.

It may be that you do not need your printer to print colour, or perhaps you do not have much room in your office, so you need your new printer to be small enough to fit.

Some of the main considerations when choosing a A3 business printer are:

• Colour or mono printing
• Printing speed
• Added functionality
• (Wireless) connectivity
• Size of the machine
• Paper stock
• Toner
• Noise
• Delivery and installation
• Monthly duty cycle
• Duplex printing
• Single or multi-function printing?
• Other features to consider

We’ll also look at how we pull these A3 printer features together.

Colour or mono printing

Probably the most important aspect to consider, is whether you need to print in colour, just in black (monochrome), or both.

Monochrome printers will, for the most part, be cheaper than colour printers, although the difference in price is usually small.

As you would probably expect, though, colour A3 laser printers will be more expensive than their monochrome counterparts, so this is something to keep in mind when considering how you would like to print moving forwards.

Printing speed

Depending on the requirements of your business, this will be a crucial factor to consider. Speeds will obviously differ across various manufacturers and models, but the decision is relatively simple.

Generally speaking, printing speeds of anything less than 20 pages per minute (PPM) are more suited to small office environments with less printing requirements.

Any higher printing rates will be more suited to medium size (or growing) businesses, and, of course, the highest speeds will suit the largest businesses with very large printing demands, around the region of 80+ PPM. Printers at the top end will hit an absolutely huge 100 PPM – but obviously, their cost will reflect this.

Added functionality

Having additional features such as automatic feeders, stapling and folding, collating and other relevant additions will save you a lot of time in the long run, especially if you will be printing a large amount of of documents regularly.

Connectivity

There are several options for how to connect to your printer, that are not all always supported by every printer.

Printer size

With an increased capacity and printing capability comes a larger device, and this is something that is absolutely imperative you make sure you are aware of.

You should know the exact dimensions of your chosen device – and indeed the place you will be putting it – to ensure there are no issues with the installation of your new printer, as this will waste time and money.

The larger devices will tend to be floor-standing printers, while the lower-volume machines can probably fit on your desktop, if this is something that you will benefit from.

Paper stock

A3 printers will obviously be able to print in A3, and most likely A4, but it is important to make sure you know exactly what size printing you will need.

Misusing your device to print page sizes that it does not support could result in you damaging the printer, which will cost you in repair costs.

Main takeaway: make sure you know both what you want from your printer, and what your printer is capable of – especially if your business requires more non-standard printing sizes, aside from A4/A3 and so on. A2 printers do exist, so if this is something you may need, it is worth doing some research to ensure that your needs are met.

Toner usage and costs

Manufacturers do not make their money on the printers themselves, for the most part. Their profits come from the sales of toner and other accessories, so it is absolutely crucial to know that you are not just paying for a printer, but it’s lifetime requirements, too.

Do not be put off by this – as a rule of thumb, the more expensive a printer is, the cheaper it will be to run, but just make sure you are aware of the costs of toner, staples and paper, as well as any other requirements your printer may have.

Luckily, laser printers are very efficient, especially when compared to inkjet printers. Inkjet printers self-clean themselves using toner that is therefore not used to print – laserjet printers do not do this, meaning they are more toner efficient, and print more pages per cartridge.

With mono printing (black toner), aim for around 1 to 3 pence per page, and around 3 to 6 pence for colour.

Noise

This will likely not be listed on most product websites, but some printers can be especially noisy, and this can lead to be distracting if the printer is near enough to where you will be working.

Getting recommendations from other purchasers, asking suppliers and even trying to look at the printer in person are all good ways to avoid this. Do bear in mind that a large printer is likely to be relatively loud regardless, however – but do not let this put you off: the noise of printing usually becomes white noise very quickly, often useful for productivity.

Delivery and installation

Make sure you know how you will actually be transporting your new printer to your office/premises. If you do not have the facility to do so yourself, then you will need to ensure that your supplier provides a delivery service.

Similarly, if you are not able to install the machine yourself – which most will not be able to – then make sure that your supplier also provides an installation service

In many cases, these services can potentially be free of charge, however, it is definitely worth making sure you are aware of these potential costs to ensure that you are prepared for them.

Monthly duty cycle

Usually, printers will have a monthly duty cycle that states the model’s recommended maximum prints per month without damaging the printer. This is usually part of the small print and is definitely something that most people miss.

To avoid coming into any problems with this, try and generate as accurate a guess as possible as to how many prints you will be doing per month. Obviously, the phrase ‘how long is a piece of string’ comes to mind, so perhaps try to consider your printing needs in a day or week and extrapolate this over a month.

Make sure that this estimate is much less than your new printer’s maximum monthly duty cycle – otherwise, expect repair costs heading your way.

As a general rule of thumb, the higher a printer’s monthly duty cycle, the better the build quality.

Duplex printing

This is the technical term for printing on both sides of a sheet. This will be useful to save paper and reduce your carbon footprint, but it will also be useful from a design perspective, should you need to print double sided leaflets or brochures. Duplex printing is not necessarily automatic – beware of ‘manual duplex’, where you will need to turn over the paper and feed it back into the machine yourself.

Single function or multi-function?

At this point you should consider what else you will need from your printer, besides the actual printing. You may require it to scan documents, work as a photocopier, and even a fax machine – in which case you should look for a 4-in-1 multifunction device.

You may not need to send faxes, in which case you should look for a 3-in-1 printer, or perhaps just a simple copier-scanner. Obviously, these will be cheaper, but may limit your options in the future.

Other features

There are of course plenty more features that you may want to consider – be sure to also put some time into researching the following:

• Do you want a display on your printer? Simple or full LCD?
• How much internal memory will you need?
• Multipurpose tray or manual feed slot?
• Input/output trays

Pulling all of this together

As you will be able to see, there is a lot to think about when deciding on which A3 laser printer is right for you. If you feel like you have enough information by this point, and you are ready to receive several trusted quotes from our suppliers, fill in the form at the top of this page.

Many of you, however, will still be looking for more information, so read on to find out about the difference between a high and low cost printer (and the argument for both), the costs involved with purchasing and maintaining an A3 laser printer, and ways that you can deal with these costs.

Additional costs when purchasing an A3 laser printer

When calculating the cost of your new printer, it is very important that you bear in mind that the upfront price will not be the only cost involved. This may seem obvious, but it can be easy to forget that maintenance and supplies for your printer can often cost more than the printer itself quite quickly.

This is one of the reasons that it is often more worthwhile to invest in a higher end printer that will likely be more cost-effective and use less toner when printing, as well as require less maintenance and last longer.

The two main costs that should be kept in mind are maintenance costs and supplies for you printer.

Maintenance

The main components of a laser printer that will need maintaining are:

• Fuser assembly – including damaged paper sensors, electrical failure and power supply, cleaning toner build up, torn fixing film sleeves, worn feed and transfer rollers, damaged gears and the heating element’s Quartz bulb failing. Often, vertical lines on your printing will often be a sign of scratches on the rollers caused by a build up of dust/dirt.
• Rollers and assemblies – Rollers that have become worn should be replaced. The paper versions can be cleaned with chemicals and a damp (lint free) cloth.
• Adding RAM – while this may seem odd, upgrading your printer’s RAM – assuming it has the capacity to do so – will ensure your printer can handle high resolution images with much greater speed.

It is advised that if your printer needs maintenance, seek advice first, as any mistakes may void your warranty, or worse.

Supplies

Paper and toner will be a constant cost for your business, and it is important to bear this in mind when planning your finances, as well as during your initial purchase of a printer.

Buying paper for your laser printer can actually be more complicated than you would expect. Because of the heat used in fusing the toner to the page, laser printing paper must be able to stand a high heat. It must also not have too much of a coating, like inkjet paper (to help absorb the ink), as it may melt and damage your printer.

Paper will also come in different weights – the most common is probably around 90 gsm, but make sure you know what your printer can handle, as incorrect paper can cause jams and further damage.

Plain office paper will usually suffice in a laser printer, as they can usually provide excellent printing quality on general purpose paper – but it will not be the best if you are looking for the utmost quality.

Toner can be very expensive, although toner cartridges tend to have a much higher yield than inkjet cartridges and will therefore last much longer, making laser printers cheaper to run in the long term.

Managing the costs of business A3 printers: renting vs leasing

The upfront costs of a new printer can be daunting for some businesses, and perhaps unmanageable. Fortunately, paying for a printer up front is not the only option for businesses – often, renting or leasing a printer can be a more cost effective solution.

By spreading the cost over a certain period of time, rather than paying for everything up front, your business can often actually save money – notably because these contracts will often provide service, maintenance and supplies. Read on for some further benefits of renting/leasing:

Renting

Rental agreements run from one month to the next, with no long term requirements. At the end of the 30 day period, both parties can change the terms of the rental agreement. This includes dates of pay, rental price and so on.

If you would like some information about renting a photocopier, read our guide on photocopier rental leasing.

Renting advantages

Better equipment

By only paying a small monthly fee, companies can afford to rent higher end printers that would otherwise be out of their normal price range when paying in full up front.

Flexibility

Rentals in particular can be done on a rolling monthly contract, meaning your business will not be locked into a long term contract – and usually, these contracts are easily cancelled.

In addition to this, you will be able to change your printer whenever you need to, meaning you can find a better match for your business, whether this be a long term solution, or short term during busier or quieter periods.

Maintenance/supplies

Usually, your rental contract will include all maintenance and supplies, meaning you will avoid unexpected costs and get expert assistance as and when you need it.

Can upgrade whenever you like

If new hardware comes onto the market and your supplier has it in stock, you can upgrade quickly and stay on top of any new features and trends.

Can avoid large upfront costs

The main reason you would probably consider renting is simple: your business may not be able to afford the large upfront cost of a printer – so by renting you can reduce this to a small monthly sum.

Renting disadvantages

Beware of low printer rental contracts

Be very wary of low cost rental contracts, which are – like many things – usually too good to be true. Pay close attention to the smallprint, which will often reveal a large deposit requirement.

You may also be forced to make additional payments throughout your contract to ensure that your low rental cost stays the same.

Rental maintenance charges

Maintenance charges will always come separate from your rental agreement, as rental agreements are usually paid on a ‘cost per copy’ basis.

Minimum billing amount

Be sure to check whether your agreement has a minimum billing amount that you will need to pay despite whether you make an copies a month or not.

More expensive than leasing
Monthly rental fees will usually be more expensive than leasing fees due to the nature of their shorter, more flexible contracts.

Renting will eventually be more expensive
Eventually, renting a printer will likely become more expensive than if you bought it outright.

The pros and cons of renting an A3 business printer

Leasing

A lease agreement will have a set term – for example 1 year/12 months – in which both parties must adhere to the agreement throughout. Neither can change any aspect of the agreement without breaking the lease.

Leasing advantages

Low upfront cost

Gives businesses with less capital a chance to get a high end printer for their business without a large up front payment, by spreading the cost over several years.

100% tax deductible

Leasing payment schemes help your business manage cash flow by being 100% tax deductible.

Stable pricing
As per the terms of leasing, the monthly price your business will pay cannot change during your agreement.

Option to purchase at end of agreement
When your agreement comes to an end, you will be given the option to purchase the printer at its current Fair Market Value (FMV).

Leasing disadvantages

Long commitment

Leasing contracts can tend to be very long, often three years at a minimum, which could present an issue for businesses for several reasons. Your business could quickly grow out of the product you are leasing – or not require it anymore. It can be hard to predict what your business will need in 3 years time.

Early exit fees

There will be fees involved if you want to end your lease agreement early, change the terms, or upgrade/downgrade your printer.

Bound to the agreement, no matter your circumstances
You are legally obliged to complete all payments according to lease agreement, even if your company fails, or you do not want the printer anymore.

The pros and cons of A3 business printer leasing:

Finding the best A3 photocopiers for small businesses

If you are looking for more information on photocopiers, visit our page on photocopier rentals – and if you are looking for our picks for the best office photocopiers, read about our top 5 office photocopiers.

Hopefully this guide has presented you with enough information to help you decide on whether you want to purchase/rent an A3 laser printer for your business.

If you would like to receive several tailored quotes from some of our trusted suppliers to help you find a printer that is right for you, then fill out our form.