Which Business Office Photocopier/Printer Brands Is Best?
Customers have a wide range of options to choose from when it comes to purchasing office photocopiers and office printers for their business.
Each brand has an extensive range of models with a variety of features such as high-speed scanning, cloud connectivity, and cutting-edge security features.
The best photocopier brand will depend on the needs of the customer. No photocopier manufacturer has a model to best suit every application. Our experienced account executives will spend time to analyse a customer’s requirements, to ensure the brand and model selected meets those requirements.
Axia has been servicing businesses in the Sydney metropolitan area for 25 years, during which time we have tried and tested many brands. Providing the very best service is our core business; it is not in our, or our clients’ best interests to recommend brands that are likely to have reliability issues. We consider the 3 best brands you should consider when making your decision are Canon, Sharp and Epson.
Each of these brands have their own unique qualities, which we will be going over in this article but most importantly they are all highly reliable brands!
On top of what type of equipment is best, Axia provides a wide range of managed print services and purchasing options, including our industry-first ‘Unlimited Print Plan’ which gives client an unlimited amount of black & white and colour prints for one low, flat monthly rate.
The top Sydney copier brands in 2026
Our top 3, successfully field-tested and award-winning brands that you should factor into your decision-making process when looking for a new photocopier are Canon, Sharp and Epson.
1 Canon Copiers
Canon is the world’s leading imaging company, whether that be for cameras, printers, photocopiers or wide format machines, their mantra is to provide the highest quality images on the market.
Canon recently claimed the BLI 2020 Copier MFP Line of the Year Award from Keypoint Intelligence which they have won in 2016, 2017, and 2018. This highly sort after award in the industry is an independent look at all brands and models which go under vigorous testing to review their reliability, quality, speed, serviceability and more. Canon have consistently won this award year on year making them the brand to beat in the industry.
Top Features:
Performance – Canon’s range of office copier print engines goes from 20 – 80 pages per minute. They combine this with an incredibly fast single pass document feeder across the entire line which scans pages up to 270 impressions per minute.
Advanced Scanning – Aside from the very high duplex scan speeds of 270ipm, Canon are advancing scanning with integration into business document management systems, cloud storage and their own UniFlow software. Scanning to cloud storage like Google Drive, OneDrive, SharePoint and Dropbox allows files to be accessed anywhere. Whilst Uniflow and Canon’s OCR engine allows for templates to be made of common documents, effectively ‘reading’ the page being scanned renaming it and filing it where it needs to be without any further intervention from the user.
Security – Canon’s Advance DX range is McAfee protected. It also incorporates several other safeguards to protect entry to your businesses network through the photocopiers. Device boot process, firmware and applications are verified upon start up with McAfee’s Embedded Control which utilizes a whitelist to protect against malware. Machines also have an encrypted solid state hard drive.
Solid state hard drive – The new solid state hard drive on Canon Advance DX copiers has several benefits. Start up times are greatly reduced as well as the processing of scans and prints meaning big jobs get done more efficiently.
2 Sharp Copiers
Axia Office has been a Sharp dealer for over 25 years and recommends them over other brands because of their reliability, ease of use, quality and continued innovation.
In 2016, Sharp Corporation was acquired by Foxconn, the 4th largest tech company in the world. With this backing, there is no doubt they will continue to exceed the technology of their competitors in the years to come.
Sharp have also won a lot of BLI awards for the MX range of A3 photocopiers including the copier line of the year award in 2020.
Top Features:
Converts documents via OCR - With standard OCR capabilities, users can easily scan and convert documents to popular file formats including Microsoft Word, PowerPoint and Excel, as well as Searchable PDF & Encrypted PDF. Using Qualcomm DirectOffice technology, you can directly print these same file types from USB drives, cloud applications and mobile devices.
Link to Cloud Services - Access popular cloud services such as Microsoft® OneDrive™ for Business, SharePoint® Online, Google Drive™, Box and Dropbox with Sharp’s Cloud Connectors. And with Sharp’s new Application Portal, administrators can add or update apps directly via the MFD operation panel.
Mobility - The MX series also makes it easy to scan and print files from tablets and smart phones using Sharpdesk Mobile, a free downloadable app available for most mobile devices. The MX line also supports follow me print as a native function. This uses one MFD in the business as the ‘mother’ device where jobs are sent to which can then be released form any device.
What to Consider When Buying A Photocopier?
What device is suitable for your business’s usage?
Aside from brand, the first features that most people look to when choosing a new multifunction copier for their business is print speed. This is especially important as print speed usually dictates price, e.g., a 50ppm will be more expensive than a 20pm device.
Usage guide to require print speed:
2 to 5 reams of paper per month (1,000 - 2,500 pages/month) = 20 to 25ppm copier
5 to 15 reams of paper per month (2,500 - 7,500 pages/month) = 30 to 35ppm copier
15 to 30 reams of paper per month (7,500 - 15,000 pages/month) = 40 to 45ppm copier
30 to 60 reams of paper per month (15,000 - 30,000 pages/month) = 50 to 60ppm copier
50+ reams of paper a month (more than 30,000/month) = 70ppm to 120ppm copier
One thing to note is that the faster the print speed of a device the longer the warmup and first copy times. High speed print engines are designed to constantly run with large print jobs, not one of two pages every now and then. If your volume is low, you are much better off with a slower print engine and faster warm up times than you are with a faster print engine and higher warmup times.
Purchasing and operating costs:
Faster print speed machines are more expensive. It is therefore important to follow the usage- guide so you are not paying for extra speed that is of no benefit to your business.
Operating costs (cost per b&w and colour pages - inks, toners, maintenance) are another thing to consider.
A4 multifunction device – lower purchasing cost, much higher operating cost – therefore good for low volume if you don’t require A3
A3 multifunction device – higher purchasing cost, much lower operating cost – therefore good for higher volumes even if you don’t require A3
Quality of print
Quality of print is very subjective, and a decision should not be based on a spec sheet, it should be based on comparing print samples. Two brands can have the exact same resolution, e.g., 1,200 x 1,200 dpi and look completely different or one model might have a higher resolution to another, but the customer can’t even tell the difference. Inkjet devices can produce richer colours but have more of a matte finish whilst LaserJet devices have a slight gloss to them (when comparing prints on standard paper). Ask your provider, or who is quoting, to provide samples from the machines under consideration.
How much and what type of scanning is your business doing?
There is a large spectrum of scanning options, some of which require tailor made software to integrate with your business.
If all you are wanting is basic scan to folder or email, then some other options you should look out for which may not be standard on all models are: JEFF I’M NOT SURE I UNDERSTAND, DO THEY NEED THESE OPTIONS IF
THEY ARE ONLY DOING BASIC SCANNING?
Standard OCR functions – turning scanned pages into searchable PDFs or editable MS Word docs
Single pass scanning – both sides of the page get scanned at the same time when going through the document feeder. Faster duplex scan times. Not needed if you aren’t scanning double sided frequently.
Blank page skip
Auto skew adjustment
Perhaps your business needs more than this, including assistance with document management. If your business consistently scans large amounts of similar documents to email, it is very inefficient for your staff if they manually rename and file them. Additional scanning software combined with OCR can read scanned pages, rename them and file them where appropriate.
Service and Maintenance
A new photocopier is a large expense, particularly if you have a fleet of them, as well as desktop printers. It is therefore imperative to have a service and maintenance agreement to maintain print quality throughout the life of the copier, avoid downtime and headaches.
Your service provider should:
Remotely track toner/ink levels and send you more before you run out so that you always have some ready
Preventatively maintain equipment – photocopiers need to be maintained on a service schedule based on how much volume they have done. This minimizes breakdowns and keeps quality high. This is something Axia excels at whilst other providers leave out to reduce operating costs.
Fast breakdown service – any breakdowns in metro areas should be fixed in under 4 hours. At Axia our average completion time is 2.7 hours
Installation, delivery and training – all of this should be provided when getting a new device for your business
5-year warranty
