Latest Printers Price In Malaysia

How to choose the right printer for your home office
A printer is an essential piece of home office equipment. Having one at your disposal is much easier than transferring files to a hard drive and going to a printing shop. A printer is worth the investment, especially if you need to use it daily. If you’re not sure what printer to get, here are some topics that will help you make a smarter investment:

Inkjet vs Laser printers
A printer effectively has one job: to turn digital images and documents into physical copies. To do that, it uses specialized software to convert digital files into a language it can understand. Your documents are then recreated to a physical medium i.e., paper, using a series of “dots” that form an image or a text.

If you’re in the market for a printer, the first thing you need to decide is whether to get an inkjet printer or a laser printer. Quite simply, inkjet printers use ink cartridges to print while laser printers use, well, lasers.

Inkjet printers
As the name suggests, inkjet printers use water-based ink encased in cartridges. These cartridges have printheads that separate ink into microscopic droplets. You can almost always tell an expensive inkjet printer from a cheap one by looking at the number of cartridges. The more cartridges, the more expensive the inkjet printer.

This type of printer often uses four colours: black, cyan, magenta, and yellow, also known as CMYK (K for “key” or black). The combination of these four colours at a microscopic level allows the printer to create different colours that represent the document you want to print.

So, how does an inkjet printer work?

1. The printer receives and processes the image or document that needs to be printed.
2. Hundreds of nozzles or “jets” connected to the cartridges spray ink as the paper passes by. An inkjet printer uses electricity to heat the ink, causing it to expand and bubble. This build-up of pressure releases the ink through the nozzle.
3. As the bubble bursts, it creates a vacuum within the tip of the nozzle to siphon more ink fed from the cartridge.
4. This process repeats until the image or document is finished printing.

One advantage of having inkjet printers is the unit itself is affordable. Thanks to the wide range of colours from its CMYK cartridges, inkjet printers are often used to print colourful and detailed images. However, the ink cartridges are more expensive than toners (used by laser printers). This presents a major problem because an inkjet printer can barely function without adequate levels of ink in the cartridges.

Cheaper inkjet printers can have problems: cartridges can get compromised and ruin your document, running out of ink during inconvenient times, and paper jams. In fact, we’re quite sure that inkjet printers can “smell fear” and will always malfunction whenever you want to print something important.

Laser printers
Laser printers are more complicated machines. Like with inkjet, they also use microscopic dots but with powdered toner instead of water-based ink. By rolling a drum inside the printer, they creates static electricity that attracts the toner and melts with the paper. A laser printer has four major components: a light source or LED, photoreceptor drum, and toner.

How do laser printers work?

1. The printer receives and processes the image or document from your computer.
2. The photoreceptor drum starts revolving to give off a positive charge to the paper.
3. A laser or LED light is then reflected to the drum that outlines the image or text to be printed. This outline maps out the areas where the toner will and will not be applied.
4. Using a series of rollers, the powder toner is transferred to the paper. The positively charged areas of the paper mapped by the laser will repel the toner while areas that are not will absorb to create the image.
5. The paper will then pass through a hot roller or a fuser unit to melt the powder toner to the paper and create a permanent image.

When it comes to pros and cons, laser printers are the exact opposite of inkjet printers. They are great for printing large amount of black and white documents as well as large chunks of text. The powder toner used by laser printers is also cheaper compared to ink cartridges.

However, while printing large amounts of text documents is no problem at all, coloured images can be a struggle for laser printers. Laser printers are also more expensive than inkjet printers.

Other types of printers
Besides inkjet and laser, there are also other types of printers worth mentioning:

* Photo printers – used to print ‘proper’ photos, as opposed to images on paper. Instead of the usual bond paper, photo printers use coated, glossy photo paper, resulting in beautiful, brightly-coloured photographs. The latest photo printers are even portable, allowing you to print photos on-the-go by connecting your smartphone or digital camera.

* All-in-one printers – this is the “Swiss Army knife” of printers. All-in-ones or AIOs have several useful functions such as faxing, copying, and scanning besides the usual printing. Both inkjet and laser printers can have multiple functions and are the perfect peripheral for a home office. Many find all-in-one printers to be an economical choice, especially if you simply need a printer for occasional hard-copy documents.

What specs you need to consider when buying printers
There are also other specs that we need to consider finding the right printer for your home office. This will help you determine the capabilities of your printer, how data is going to be transferred to your unit, and what extra features you need to get the job done.

Speed, resolution, and colour claims
Back in the day, it was easy for manufacturers to make claims about how fast their printers were or about the quality of the prints. Nowadays, many brands follow the standards imposed by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) to level the playing field. This allows consumers to gauge a printer’s performance based on ISO standards on speed, resolution, and colour claims.

* PPM or picture per minute – this refers to how fast your printer can print pages in 60 seconds. When looking at printer specs, you may find different ppms for black and white and colour printing. This number is essential, especially if you need to print large number of pages at a given time. Typical black and white ppm for a home office printer is about pages and pages for colour.

* Duty cycle – this is how much a printer is expected to print per month. Ideally, you would want to print below this number per month so you experience less wear and tear. This spec is important especially if you are printing a large number of documents at home or in a busy office setting.

* DPI or dots per inch – this spec indicates how many dots of ink or toner a printer can apply to every square inch of paper. This is especially crucial if you are hoping to print high-quality and high-resolution images. Some experts consider this spec as outdated, since newer printing methods work with software to enhance the print quality without changing DPI.

Connectivity
Before USB, Wi-Fi, or any wireless technology, printers need to be connected via 25-pin DB25 to parallel port. Nowadays, there are more ways to connect to your printer than just plugging in a cable from your PC. Here are some ways you should be able to connect to your printer:

* USB or “universal serial bus” – probably the most common connection you can see in any modern printer. Printers with a USB port allows you to plug your external drive to the printer and select files directly from the printer’s screen. Cameras that support PictBridge can also connect directly to your printer. Do keep in mind that most home office printers only support USB-A but we will definitely see USB-C printers in the near future.

* SD cards – like with USBs, most modern printers nowadays also have SD card slots. All you need to do is use the printer menu to navigate which file you need to print. This type of connection is crucial for photo printers so that photographers and creative professionals have instant access to files they want to print.

* Ethernet – these are printers with an RJ-45 port used for LAN or local area network connection. Like creating a network of computers, you can connect your printer directly to your PC using these special optic cables. Ethernet ports are mostly used in office printers and are less important for home use, unless you have an extra ethernet cable lying around.

* Wi-Fi – this is practically a must-have for any modern printers today. During setup, you would need to connect your printer to the Wi-Fi network by entering your internet credentials. This allows your printer to have access to the web, enabling it to send files via its own email function or allow you to send printing jobs directly from your computer or another device. Some multifunctional printers also have access to cloud storage platforms such as Google Drive, Dropbox, or Sharepoint so you can print your files without opening your PC or smartphone.

* NFC or “near-field communication” – uses the same technology in modern credit and debit card chips, allowing contactless transactions. NFC printers can connect to your phone or tablet (also with NFC).

Ink costs and price per page
Besides the upfront cost of a single printer unit, another expense to consider (besides paper) is ink. Believe it or not, you can actually calculate on average how much you’re spending per page based on the cost of an ink cartridge and its page yield, or the number of pages you’re expected to get out of one cartridge. Thankfully, most printers and cartridge manufacturers often have this spec on a sticker or published on a manual.

The cost of ink can depend on the model and its design. For example, an expensive printer will print a black and white document at 4 cents/page, and a coloured pages at 8 cents/page, while cheaper models can be less. The difference is often negligible for printers for a home office, unless you are printing thousands of pages a day or in a printing business.

Duplexing
A feature mostly found on multifunctional printers, duplexing is printing or scanning both sides of the page without manually flipping the document. This is accomplished by printing the front side first and pulling it back into the printer, flipping the page, and printing on the other side. All-in-one printers with duplex scan have an automatic document feeder or ADF that automatically scans both sides. A printer/scanner without ADF cannot duplex scan and require you to turn the page over.

Best printer brands in Malaysia
Printers can come in different shapes, sizes, and models. Now that we understand what to look for, here are some good brands to start your search with:

Brother
Brother is a Japanese brand that started its business making sewing machines in the early 1900s. In 1955, they further expanded to include typewriters, desktop computers, and of course, printers. They are considered one of the best printer brands today in both home and business models. Their home printers are mostly inkjets for versatility and affordable price while the business line focuses on laser printers.

Canon
Another Japanese brand, Canon is well-known for their cameras and lenses. Besides this popular line-up, they are also known for their printers and even MRI machines across the globe. Canon printers are primarily inkjet printers for both home and office. They have high-end ‘supertank’ systems that produce high page yield for business-oriented printing.

Epson
Epson is an iconic Japanese printer brand thanks to the EP-101 – the first-ever electronic printer created in 1966 thanks to their partnership with Seiko. Like with the rest of the brands on this list, Epson has a home and business category plus their own line of photo printers. The brand’s ‘supertank’ series is also popular because it is cost-effective and refillable.

HP
Founded in 1939, HP is mostly known for their line of consumer electronics such as desktops and laptops. In 1984, HP first created their first desktop laser printer – the HP LaserJet. HP has quite a selection of home and business printers and even has an affordable line for students like the HP DeskJet 3755.

In conclusion
Fundamentally, printers have not changed in the past few years, except to incorporate more functions and become more efficient and less expensive. When looking for the right printer, think about what you’ll mostly be using it for. This will help you pin down what type of printer you need, how fast you need to print, the quality of the print, and so on.

In a home office setting, we recommend using all-in-one printer that is capable of both scanning and printing. A printer with a wide selection of connectivity options gives you extra flexibility. If you’re being very budget-conscious, consider how much printing you normally do so you can save extra on ink.

If you’re doing your research on printer price – look no further! We can give you a price list of printers from various merchants in Malaysia so you can compare which models have the best deals.

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Marjorie Mae Mendoza

iPrice Tech Writer

Marjorie (MJ) is iPrice Tech Writer in Residence. Always on the hunt for the inside scope on the newest smartphones, computers, and electronic devices, MJ provides a no-holds-barred analysis on what’s hot (and what’s not) in the latest tech releases. In her free time, MJ enjoys first-person video games and digital illustrations.