Which printer should you buy under £110? The buying guide

Which printer should you buy under £110? The buying guide

At £110 the decision is not about spec sheets. It is about one number: how many pages you print a month, because above roughly 50 the maths flips entirely. There is also one very specific trap in this bracket, where a £75 printer costs more to run than a £110 one. Below is how to decide.

• Running cost matters more than the sticker price, since it overtakes it within months

• Above about 50 pages a month the maths favours laser

• The Brother HL-L2400DW at £85 to £110 is the default answer for mono printing

• Its TN-2510 toner runs under £15 for 3,000 pages in third-party form, roughly 0.5p a page

• Cartridge inkjets cost three to four times as much per page as laser

• Watch the HP Instant Ink trap: a £75 laser can work out dearer than a £110 one

The one printer most people should buy

Unusually for a buying guide, this bracket has a clear default, so we will start there rather than bury it.

The Brother HL-L2400DW, at £85 to £110, offers 30 pages per minute, automatic duplex, dual-band Wi-Fi and a 250-sheet tray.

The running cost is what settles it. The TN-2510 toner is widely available in third-party compatible form for under £15 for 3,000 pages, which works out around 0.5p a page. Even the genuine high-yield TN-2510XL, at about £75 for 3,000 pages, lands near 2.5p.

The verdict in the UK trade press is blunt. If you print under 500 pages a month from a home office, this is the printer, and there is genuinely no reason to spend more unless you have a specific need it does not cover.

Worth adding on reliability: consumer surveys from Which? and PC Pro have ranked Brother top for printer reliability for the better part of a decade.

Work out the running cost, not the purchase price

This is the most common mistake in the category and it deserves its own section.

The device price is a one-off; toner or ink you buy for the printer's whole life. Verified UK figures, checked against Amazon UK, John Lewis, Currys and Printerbase, look like this:

Mono laser: roughly 0.5p to 2.5p a page, depending on whether you buy third-party or genuine toner.

Refillable ink tank: around 0.2p mono and 0.7p colour.

Cartridge inkjet: three to four times the laser figure.

One honest caveat on all published yields: they are manufacturer numbers measured at 5 percent coverage, so real-world use can run 30 percent lower with heavy graphics.

And one factor nobody prints on the box. Spreading the purchase price over the printer's life adds 1p to 3p a page for low-volume users, and disappears for heavy ones. That is why a cheap printer used rarely is not actually cheap.

The 50-page rule

The decision rule is mercifully simple. Above roughly 50 pages a month, laser wins on cost. Below it, the amortised purchase price starts to dominate and the calculation changes.

There is a second reason that favours laser at low volumes, and it has nothing to do with money. Toner does not dry out if you only print twice a month. Ink does.

The HP Instant Ink trap

This deserves flagging because it catches people out, and it is specific to this exact price bracket.

The HP LaserJet M110we sells at about £75, but that price assumes you sign up to HP+ Instant Ink at £3.49 a month for 100 pages. That is 3.5p a page minimum, and unused pages do not refund; rollover only goes so far.

Step outside the subscription and it gets worse. Genuine M110we toner runs over £60 a cartridge, putting real-world costs at typically 3p to 6p a page, often worse than a Brother.

So the £75 printer can cost several times more per page than the £110 one. Sticker price and running cost point in opposite directions here.

A related piece of advice worth repeating: if you cannot predict your monthly print volume to within plus or minus 50 percent, a refillable tank printer is cheaper, because it does not punish underuse.

Laser or inkjet

Mono laser

Strengths: lowest running cost, toner does not dry out, ready immediately, sharp text, 30 pages per minute against 10 to 15 for most home inkjets, proven reliability.

Weaknesses: no colour in this bracket, and lasers are genuinely poor at photo printing. If you want gallery-quality holiday snaps, you want a dedicated six-ink photo printer, not this.

Inkjet

Strengths: cheap entry, compact, colour, far better photos, usually all-in-one with scanner and copier.

Weaknesses: ink dries with irregular use, cartridges three to four times dearer per page, slower.

Other models worth knowing

Brother MFC-J1010DW. Widely rated the best-value compact inkjet all-in-one if you need scanning and colour.

Canon PIXMA TR4750i. The keenest budget all-in-one, covering print, scan and copy.

HP Envy 6530e, the UK name for the 6555e. A cheap 3-in-1 with more features than the price suggests, including a scanner with automatic document feeder, copier and mobile fax.

Canon PIXMA G3270. A low-cost tank printer using cheaper bottled ink, delivering strong value if colour volume is high.

Pantum BP2300W. The lowest-cost route to sharp, cheap black text.

Above this budget, the Epson EcoTank ET-2850 is frequently named best overall for homes that print a lot of colour, but it sits well past £110.

Where to buy

Here we should be straightforward with you. Our UK partner network is thin on electronics retailers, so the list below is short rather than padded out with shops that would not actually help.

• Canon UK, shop page at Soleback and go to Canon UK

• AliExpress, shop page at Soleback and go to AliExpress

Buying Canon direct makes sense if a PIXMA model is your pick, since the manufacturer runs its own promotions on printers and consumables. For Brother models, compare the usual UK electronics retailers on price; we simply cannot offer cashback on those yet.

The click through Soleback has to be the last one before the shop, and cashback clears once the returns window closes.

Our promotions section is worth checking too.

One practical tip for this category, and the most valuable line in this guide: check the price of replacement toner or ink at the same time as the printer. With the L2400DW that means looking up TN-2510 compatibles; the difference between genuine and third-party here is roughly 0.5p against 2.5p a page.

FAQ

What is the best printer under £110?

For mono printing, the Brother HL-L2400DW at £85 to £110. It offers 30 ppm, automatic duplex and dual-band Wi-Fi, and third-party TN-2510 toner brings the cost to around 0.5p a page.

When does laser beat inkjet?

Above roughly 50 pages a month on cost. Below that, laser still wins on convenience, because toner does not dry out between jobs.

How much does a page actually cost?

Around 0.5p to 2.5p on a mono laser, about 0.2p mono and 0.7p colour on a refillable tank, and three to four times the laser figure on a cartridge inkjet.

Is the £75 HP LaserJet M110we a bargain?

Not necessarily. That price assumes HP+ Instant Ink at £3.49 a month for 100 pages, which is 3.5p a page minimum with no refund on unused pages. Outside the subscription, genuine toner runs over £60 a cartridge and real costs reach 3p to 6p a page.

Can I get a colour laser at this price?

No. Colour lasers cost considerably more. Under £110 you are choosing between mono laser and inkjet.

Can a laser print photos?

Not well. Lasers are poor at photo output. For proper prints you want a dedicated six-ink photo printer or a print shop.

Are third-party toners worth it?

On running cost, decisively. Third-party TN-2510 compatibles sit under £15 for 3,000 pages against roughly £75 for the genuine high-yield version, which is the difference between 0.5p and 2.5p a page.

What if my monthly volume is unpredictable?

If you cannot forecast it to within plus or minus 50 percent, a refillable tank printer is the safer bet, because unlike a subscription it does not penalise months when you print little.

In summary

This category comes down to one number, and for once it also comes down to one product.

The Brother HL-L2400DW at £85 to £110 is the default answer for mono printing. Thirty pages per minute, automatic duplex, dual-band Wi-Fi, and toner at roughly 0.5p a page in compatible form.

Above about 50 pages a month, laser wins on cost. Below it, laser still wins on convenience, because toner does not dry out while ink does.

And the warning worth carrying away: the cheapest printer on the shelf is often the dearest to own. A £75 laser tied to a £3.49 monthly subscription bills you 3.5p a page whether you print or not, while a £110 machine with compatible toner charges you half a penny.