Top 8 Best Mid-Range All-in-One Multifunction Wireless Colour Laser Printer for the Classroom

Want something bigger and more robust than your budget laser printer. We explore 8 of the best all-in-one multifunction wireless colour laser printer in the mid-range segment.

If you are willing to spend a bit more on a colour laser printer, read on. Not only are these multifunction printers capable of copying, scanning and printing, they are packed with plenty of connectivity options too. You can print directly to it wirelessly without the need to connect to a wireless network with WiFi Direct.

You can print from your iDevices; iPads and iPhones via AirPrint. And, you can even print over the cloud using cloud print services from Cortado and Google. Furthermore, theses smart printers also come with companion app that lets you scan and print wirelessly to the tablet or smartphones. Truly, a complete package.

As a mid-range device, expect traditional connectivity options such as USB for direct connection to a Computer or Server and Ethernet for wired connection to the Local Area Network. You can also expect coloured touchscreen control panel on some, more expensive models. This lets you control and customise the settings easily.

Top 8 Best Mid-Range All-in-One Multifunction Wireless Colour Laser Printer for the Classroom

When it comes to getting a robust and reliable printer for the family or small classroom, you can’t go wrong with one of these mid-range printers. With a recommended monthly volume of up to an average of 1000 – 1500 pages a month, that’s enough to keep everyone happy. Here are our line-up.

1. BROTHER DCP-L3550CDW All-in-One Wireless Laser Printer – COLOUR
2. Canon Color imageCLASS MF743Cdw All-in-One Wireless Laser – COLOUR
3. BROTHER MFC-L8690CDW All-in-One Wireless Laser Printer with Fax – COLOUR
4. HP Colour LaserJet Pro M281fdw All-in-One Wireless Laser Printer with Fax – COLOUR
5. HP Color LaserJet Pro M180nw All-in-One Wireless Laser – COLOUR
6. HP Color Laser 178nw Wireless Multifunction Laser Printer –COLOUR
7. SAMSUNG Xpress C480FW All-in-One Wireless Laser Printer – COLOUR
8. HP Colour Laser 179fnw All-in-One Wireless Colour Laser Printer – COLOUR

1. BROTHER DCP-L3550CDW All-in-One Wireless Laser Printer – COLOUR

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First among our mid-range AIO multifunction wireless colour laser printer is this DCP-L3550CDW from Brother. It is by no means a small printer. It has a huge dedicated in tray that takes up to 250 sheets of paper, one of the biggest in our line-up.

It is capable of printing up to 18 pages of black and white or colour per minute. Again, for a mid-range printer, that is quick. It also has an automatic double sided printing feature to cut down on the use of paper to half. What this means is that a built-in duplex printing unit to take care of printing on the reverse side.

Additionally, the printer has a high optical scanner with up to 2400 x 1200 dpi resolution to scan to the companion app, a computer with Brother scanner software installed or to copy a document directly on the unit with a press of a button. Above the scanner is an automatic document feeder (ADF) that can take up to 50 sheets of paper in the in-tray which makes copying multiple pages even easier.

To take control and configure your printer, there is a friendly 9.3cm Full Colour control panel which makes the unit a treat to use.

Advantages

• Easy to setup and use with tonnes of features
• A fast printer, printing and copying black and white or colour up to 18 pages per minute
• Good print quality, sharp on both mono and colour
• It can scan real quick too and the automatic document feeder makes it easier to copy multi-page documents
• Plenty of wireless connectivity options including printing over cloud and scanning to app
• Duplex printing by default, saves paper
• Helpful and big display screen with touch interface

Disadvantages

• It is big and heavy and weighs 23.2 kg
• It does not support double sided copying
• app lets you scan to email, images, OCR, file or FTP but not to PDF
• high yield toner cartridges available, 3000 pages for black and 2300 pages for each CMY colour components but its going to cost you
• Configuring via touchscreen with menu system can be challenging at times so use the app
• Sleep power is 9.7 watts while standby power is 80 watts. We recommend only turning on the unit when you need to use it and do not leave it on.
• First print out is 15.5 seconds so be prepared to wait

Features

2. Canon Color imageCLASS MF743Cdw All-in-One Wireless Laser – COLOUR

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The do it all Canon ImageClass MF743Cdw colour laser printer has a big and user friendly touchscreen control panel that measures 5-inch diagonally. It is also full colour and angled so you can see the intuitive icon driven menu easily. The multifunction printer not only scans, prints and copy but it does so at a super fast speed. It is also one of the few printers that does two-sided scanning on top of double sided printing.

What this means is it can scan both sides of the document using the automatic document feeder in a single pass saving you plenty of time. Design for small to medium businesses, it will work perfectly in a small classroom. The colour toner cartridges offers up to 2100 pages while the black toner offers up to 2300 pages. For high volume printing, opt for the high yield cartridges with up to 7600 pages for the black cartridge and 5900 pages for each colour cartridge.

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Advantages

• Easy to setup and program and very simple to use
• Super fast printing at 28 pages per minute
• High Quality print outs with vivid and vibrant colour
• Huge colour touchscreen measuring 5-inch
• Duplex document feeder offers double sided scanning and copying
• Automatic double sided printing with duplex printing with one pass scanning
• High toner cartridge yield of up to 2300 pages means lower printing cost
• Fast scanning and copying, one pass cuts time to half
• Fast first-print time of 7.5 seconds, no waiting around

Disadvantages

• Big paper tray capacity but with optional paper cassette only
• Large footprint and very tall
• Duplex printing can be slow sometimes

Features

3. BROTHER MFC-L8690CDW All-in-One Wireless Laser Printer with Fax – COLOUR

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Next we have the Brother MFC-L8690CDW. This is one of the more expensive mid-range printers in our list. The printer tops even the Canon ImageClass MF743Cdw at printing with an ultra fast 31 pages per minute printing speed for black or colour. The unit also features a high optical scanner capable of 2400 x 1200 dpi resolution. What is also impressive is the 9.3 cm colour touchscreen control panel and automatic double sided printing as well as big capacity automatic document feeder with dual sided canning on the scanner.

Not only does it do fast printing, it handles fast scanning too at up to 28 image per minute. The automatic document feeder is one of the biggest we have seen on a multi function printer capable of taking up to 70 sheets. There is a dedicated high capacity 250 sheet input tray with a 50 sheet multi purpose tray for envelopes and other media. There are options to add another 250-sheet tray or a 500-sheet tray for a total capacity of up to 1300 pages.

This is truly a high performance all in one printer perfect for a medium to large classroom with support for multiple simultaneous operations such as printing and scanning.

Advantages

• Ultra fast printing at 31 pages per minute
• Automatic double sided printing
• Double sided scanning
• High capacity automatic document feeder
• Dedicated high capacity input tray
• High toner yield options
• 9.3 cm LCD colour touchscreen with easy menu navigation and 64 customisable shortcuts
• Good mobile app and cloud printing support

Disadvantages

• High initial cost but amazing deal for a high performance printer
• High resolution printing will cost more
• Big and bulky and weighs nearly 28 kg

Features

4. HP Colour LaserJet Pro M281fdw All-in-One Wireless Laser Printer with Fax – COLOUR

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This HP Colour LaserJet Pro M281fdw is a copier, printer, scanner and a fax machine rolled into one. It is capable of fast first page out time and can print from a thumb drive. For the latter, there is an easy to access USB port up front right under the 2.7-inch colour touchscreen. Other features that we deem a must have for a multifunction printer which is also included in this unit are the Automatic Document Feeder (ADF), automatic double sided printing and dedicated input paper tray.

The mid-range all-in-one multifunction wireless colour laser printer is also one of the more compact printers we feature here. On the down side, the ADF does not support double sided scanning and the print speed is a tad slow at only 21 pages per minute. It quickly makes up for this in connectivity with mobile printing support via HP ePrint app, Apple AirPrint, Mopria, WiFi Direct print and scan-to email, network folder or cloud.

Initial cartridges, what HP calls introductory toner cartridges have low print capacity of 700 pages per colour and 1400 pages black. Standard cartridges offer 1400 pages per black toner cartridge and 1300 pages per colour toner cartridge. Finally, the printer is designed for high volume printing with recommended monthly page volume of 150 to 2500 pages.

Advantages

• Great image and text quality
• Compact for its class
• Easy to setup and use with 2.7-inch colour touchscreen
• Automatic double sided printing
• Automatic Document Feeder with high 50 sheet capacity
• High input tray capacity of up to 250 sheet
• Front USB port access

Disadvantages

• Print speed is a little on the slow side
• No double sided scanning
• Low yield introductory toner cartridges
• You will be needing to replace the toner cartridges real soon

Features

5. HP Color LaserJet Pro M180nw All-in-One Wireless Laser – COLOUR

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The first thing you will notice is there is no automatic document feeder on this HP Colour LaserJet Pro M180nw, neither does it have a colour touchscreen control panel. Instead, it has a basic flatbed scanner and a two line LCD display with back light and a soft touch panel. This also makes the printer cheaper as it is the entry level model in the M series but what gives apart from the recommended monthly volume of 150 to 1500 pages.

The printer has an even slower print speed of 17 pages per minute in colour or black and white. The input tray capacity is only 150 sheets as oppose to the higher average of 250 sheet. There is no automatic double sided printing and no optional high yield cartridges. You also do not get print front USB drive function but it does support HP Smart app and mobile printing including print from the cloud such as iCloud, Dropbox and Google Drive. Here is an entry level colour laser printer that is affordable to buy if you can live with some of its shortcomings.

Advantages

• Good print quality
• Small and light
• Compact and takes up little space on the desk
• Good Mobile Printing support
• Affordable and cheap to buy
• WiFi and Ethernet support

Disadvantages

• Slow printer at 17 pages per minute print speed
• No automatic document feeder
• No double sided printing
• No high yield toner cartridge options
• No touchscreen control panel
• No front access USB port
• Small input tray capacity

Features

6. HP Color Laser 178nw Wireless Multifunction Laser Printer –COLOUR

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Here is another affordable mid-range printer from HP, the HP Color Laser 178nw. This compact all-in-one multifunction printer is quick enough for use in schools. The lack of auto duplex printing and automatic document feeder might put some people off but these are typically premium features that come at a price.

For a small and entry level printer, it can print at speeds of up to 18 ppm in black and white and 4 ppm in colour. It is slow compared to other printers here but sufficient for a small classroom. The HP printer truly shines when it comes to quality prints. It offers good quality and sharp mono outputs.

Elsewhere, mobile connectivity is its other strong point. Use the companion app on smartphone or tablet to setup, print and scan. Other than that, the printer supports AirPrint and WiFi Direct. Alternatively, use its wired Ethernet for local area network printing or direct connection to a computer via USB.

Advantages

• Compact Design with small footprint
• Good mobile printing support
• Affordable and cheap to buy
• Small and Light

Disadvantages

• Slow print speed in black and white and even slower print speed in colour
• No automatic duplex printing support, only manual
• Low toner yield
• No front access USB port
• No colour touchscreen control panel, very small display

Features

7. SAMSUNG Xpress C480FW All-in-One Wireless Laser Printer – COLOUR

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Advantages

• Fast printing in black and white with good quality
• Comes with both Wireless and Wired Ethernet plus NFC connectivity
• Compact and takes up little space on the desk
• Dedicated input paper tray
• Front access USB socket
• Good quality text printing

Disadvantages

• No automatic double sided printing – no auto duplex
• Slow printing in colour
• Low toner yield
• Just average colour image and photo printing

Features

8. HP Colour Laser 179fnw All-in-One Wireless Colour Laser Printer – COLOUR

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With an automatic document feeder capable of taking up to 40 sheets at a time, dedicated 150 sheet input tray, modern connectivity such as Wireless, WiFi Direct, Ethernet and HP Smart app, this HP Colour Laser 179fnw has it all but is it good enough. It has a basic 2-line LCD display with tactile keypad based control panel and spots a very conventional copier like profile.

It is also very compact for its class taking up less space on the desk and is not as tall as some of the printers featured here. As for its performance, the printer can chuck out 19 pages of black and white per minute but fare miserably with colour at only 4 pages per minute.

Perfect for low volume printing, small offices or home, the compact printer is cheap to buy and own. There are however some features that you are going to have to live without. These include no double sided printing or scanning, slow colour printing and low toner yield especially black with no high yield cartridge options available to buy. Still, you get an automatic document feeder and a dedicated in tray.

Advantages

• Automatic Document Feeder taking up to 40 sheets
• Compact and light for its class
• Fast black and white printing
• Comes with both Wireless WiFi and Wired Ethernet connectivity
• Competitively priced and economical to run
• Quick scanning in colour

Disadvantages

• Small 2 line dot matrix display
• Does not do auto duplex – no automatic double sided printing
• Also no double sided scanning and therefore no double sided copying
• No front USB port
• Slow colour printing and equally slow colour scanning
• No high yield toner cartridge option

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