Best Colour Laser Printer UK 2026 — Office & Home Office Picks
Colour lasers used to be expensive boxes for marketing departments. In 2026 the entry-level units start at £200 and the running costs are competitive with inkjet — without the dry-cartridge problem.
These are the eight models worth recommending in the UK now, from £200 home-office units up to professional workgroup machines under £600.
At a glance — the shortlist
| # | Model | Best for | Speed | Price band | Buy |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Brother HL-L3220CDW (with duplex) | Best overall — the right answer for most homes/offices | 18 ppm | £230-£290 | Amazon |
| 2 | Brother HL-L3240CDW | Step-up Brother — 26 ppm | 26 ppm | £215.99 | Amazon |
| 3 | Canon i-SENSYS LBP633Cdw | Best Canon colour | 21 ppm | £249.99 | Amazon |
| 4 | HP Color LaserJet Pro M255dw | Best HP — and refurb is excellent value | 21 ppm | £280-£360 | Amazon |
| 5 | Xerox C230 (colour) | Best value name-brand | 22 ppm | £285.67 | Amazon |
| 6 | Canon i-SENSYS LBP646Cdw | Step-up Canon — 25 ppm | 25 ppm | £308.74 | Amazon |
| 7 | HP Color LaserJet Pro 4202dw | Best for professional workgroups | 33 ppm | £296.90 | Amazon |
| 8 | Brother HL-L8240CDW (professional) | Best Brother professional | 30 ppm | £329.93 | Amazon |
Brother · 18 ppm
Best overall — the right answer for most homes/offices
£230-290 for a wireless colour laser with automatic duplex. 18 ppm. The colour quality is solid (Brother's LED engine has caught up to laser in 2026 prints) and toner costs are reasonable. Comes with a 4-month Refresh Subscription trial — cancel if you don't want lock-in.
Don't bother with the cheaper L3220CW unless you're sure you never want auto duplex.
Brother · 26 ppm
Step-up Brother — 26 ppm
£330-400. Same engine family as the L3220CDW but with a real speed bump (26 ppm vs 18). Adds Ethernet. Pay the extra if you print colour every day rather than weekly.
Canon · 21 ppm
Best Canon colour
21 ppm, 1200 × 1200 dpi, Wi-Fi + Gigabit LAN + USB. Secure PIN print is genuinely useful if you ever print sensitive documents to a shared device. £220-290.
HP · 21 ppm
Best HP — and refurb is excellent value
The M255dw is HP's standard SMB colour laser. £280-360 new, but the refurbished units start at £148 with a 3-year HP commercial warranty — that's where the real value is. Works with Alexa for whatever that's worth.
Xerox · 22 ppm
Best value name-brand
Xerox at Brother prices. 22 ppm, auto duplex, Wi-Fi + Wi-Fi Direct + Ethernet. £260-330. The driver experience is more enterprise-y than home-friendly but the print quality is excellent.
Canon · 25 ppm
Step-up Canon — 25 ppm
Faster sibling to the LBP633. £260-330. Same security features. Worth it if you're a Canon-shop office that prints colour daily.
HP · 33 ppm
Best for professional workgroups
£430-550. 33 ppm. Dual-band Wi-Fi and self-healing connectivity. This is real workgroup kit — designed for offices that print colour all day. Genuine quality step up from M255 territory.
Brother · 30 ppm
Best Brother professional
£430-520. 30 ppm. Brother's compact pro chassis — higher duty cycle than the L3240 line. Pick this over the L3240CDW if you have 4+ users sharing one printer.
Colour laser vs inkjet for low-volume colour
If you print colour fewer than 20 pages a month, an EcoTank inkjet may make more sense — laser toner doesn't dry but you're still paying the up-front cost. Above 30-50 colour pages/month, laser wins on cost-per-page.
Duplex matters. Auto duplex (the "D" in CDW models) saves so much paper it pays for itself in 3-4 months for most offices. Don't skip it.
Still running an older workgroup colour laser? Our archive has reference specs for legacy models like the Canon i-SENSYS LBP7750Cdn — useful if you're sourcing toner or comparing against a replacement.