Today, WiFi printers are the preferred option for both home and office, as they are really very comfortable as they do not need more wiring than power. However, they also have certain disadvantages – in addition to being usually more expensive – and in this article we are going to tell you the advantages and disadvantages of each one to determine if it is worth paying more for a WiFi printer or not.
We are going to focus on the advantages and disadvantages of having a WiFi printer compared to a simply wired one (either Ethernet or USB) in order to determine if it is worth paying that extra that WiFi printers cost, which although normally it is not an excessive difference of money, in multifunction printers many times we already talk about prices that are almost double .
Advantages of having a WiFi printer
We start with the advantages, which are mainly three:
Configuration and connection
WiFi printers do not have to be near the PC , and in fact we can place them anywhere in the house or office as long as there is wireless coverage and we have a wall socket to connect them to. For its part, a printer with a USB connection must necessarily be close to the PC and, in fact, physically connected to it, while printers with an Ethernet connection must be, at least, near the router, rosette or ultimately the connection to the wired network.
The vast majority of printers, whatever their connection, are usually very easy to configure, and the only difficulty is often a lack of familiarity with the process. Yes it is true that a USB printer usually requires a configuration that consists of following a wizard and sometimes not even that, but modern WiFi printers will generally connect to the network with a simple button and from there they will behave as if they were USB.
Utility and remote access
Once you have the WiFi printer configured you don’t have to touch anything anymore. And once configured, all the computers you have on the network can use it without the need for additional configuration, while with a USB printer you can only use it on the PC to which it is connected, unless you have a local network configured and share it on the herself.
In fact, advancement in technology allows many modern devices to use WiFi printers, such as smartphones, tablets, and even digital cameras. For this, for example HP offers HP ePrint or Epson has the Epson Connect application, but there are also generic systems such as PrintShare on Android terminals or AirPrint on Apple devices.
Energy and efficiency
It is not that having a single printer at home will mean a big difference in terms of electrical cost, but in an office where much more is printed than at home, and more if there are several printers as usual, it is a factor that can be noticed and therefore must be taken into account.
In any case, in the long term, WiFi printers consume less energy since they all have greater energy saving systems than any wired printer. Specifically, many USB printers do not even have power saving systems, and you will have to turn it on and off when you use it.
WiFi printers have some downsides too
We have already commented on one of them at the beginning, and it is that they are generally somewhat more expensive (even much more expensive in some cases), and this is obviously a disadvantage that must be taken into account and that is why we are evaluating what is more worthwhile.
The second disadvantage you will find only when the printer gives you problems. If the case comes that you disconnect from the WiFi network or you have a problem, you will find more problems to reconfigure it than if it were a wired printer, to the point that in some cases you will have to physically move the printer to the side of the PC to be able to connect it by cable and thus reconfigure it (we say this from experience).
In any case, as a general rule, a WiFi printer will almost always be worth more , but as always it will depend on the budget and the need of each one
