How we test, review and rate on TechRadar Pro: printers
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If you want to learn more about our testing philosophy, check out our general “how we testpage on TechRadar.
How we test: printers
TechRadar Pro is committed to providing our readers with accurate and unbiased printer reviews. Our team of experienced reviewers take a thorough and objective approach to testing to ensure our reviews are complete and accurate.
When evaluating printers, we consider important characteristics such as printer category, speed, quality, paper capacity and paper size. We buy and test a range of printers from different manufacturers and retailers, using different methods to assess their performance. This includes setting up the printers and using them for everyday use, specialized use and pushing the boundaries to test what these printers are capable of.
After we complete our testing, we collect our notes and observations into comprehensive reviews. This review includes a detailed overview of the printer’s key features, our overall performance rating, and a pros and cons list to help readers easily understand the printers’ strengths and weaknesses.
Our goal is to give our readers the information they need to decide which printer is right for them. We strive to be thorough, objective and fair in our reviews, and we hope our efforts help our readers find the perfect printer for their needs.
| Header Cell – Column 0 | Weight (in %) |
|---|---|
| Print quality | 50% |
| Print speed | 20% |
| Functions | 20% |
| Price | 10% |
Why should you trust us?
At TechRadar Pro, we are committed to providing our readers with accurate and unbiased reviews of the products we test. Our team of reviewers has extensive experience evaluating a wide variety of products and we pride ourselves on our thorough and objective approach to testing.
When it comes to printers, we understand that these products can be a significant investment for many people. That’s why we make every effort to ensure that our reviews are as complete and accurate as possible. We buy and test a variety of printers from manufacturers and retailers and use different methods to evaluate their key features and performance.
We strive to give our readers the information they need to make informed decisions about these important purchases. We hope our readers find the perfect printer for their needs.
What we’re looking for
For each printer we test, we first categorize the printer into one of several categories to better understand where it ranks in the lineup of other printers. Our main printer types at the time of writing are as follows:
- Home
- 3D
- Photo
- All in one
- Laser
- Wireless
- inkjet
- Small business
- Mac
- Portable
- Cheap
- Ink tank
- Students
- Black and white
- Big format
- A3
- workgroup
Once we’ve determined what type the printer fits under, we’ll start testing the printer to see how well it works in real-world use.
Category
Within types like “home printer” there are several more printer types that can be used and built for home use. That’s why we like to create subcategories. This level includes all-in-one mono laser printers, all-in-one color inkjet printers, and printers without cartridges.
Print speed
We test the print speed with a simple black and white print test to maximize the potential speed. We print a base map, a gradient scale and a simple text document to determine the printer’s average print speed. When we test a color printer, we print color gradient files, images with color (especially skin tones), and images of nature.
Print quality
The most important element of a printer is quality. If the print quality is poor, the printer is not worth printing. We test and compare the final print quality on high-quality plain paper, unless the manufacturer suggests or recommends a different paper type.
Other tests
Outside of these standardized tests, there are always features of printers that make them unique and stand out. Sometimes these features make the printer stand out from the others in its class. We test these features by looking at what the manufacturer claims in a number of areas and see if we can get the same result. For example, if the manufacturer claims seamless wireless printing from any device, we’ll test that with every device we have at our fingertips (which is a lot) to see if that’s really the case.
For printers with built-in scanning or copying, we test that ability with multiple types of documents to see if the copying and scanning can keep up with color images as well as excel sheets or black and white text.
3D printers
For 3D printers, we test things a little differently, because they’re a completely different type of printer. That’s why we test printing technology, built-up area, printing area dimensions and speed.