This guide is one part of a series designed to help you get the most out of working from home. Check out our other articles:
1. Hardware essentials
2. Software essentials
3. Home office furniture
As we all face up to working from home on a more regular basis, it's prudent to equip a home office with devices that will help you perform your job to the best of your ability, and to furnish your surroundings in a way that will help make it not only a productive space, but also a pleasant one.
In this guide we'll help you find the equipment you need to make your home office a professional office.
Looking for something specific? Try these quick links:
Home printers
Digital copiers
Shredders
Laptop stands
Best home printers
Home printers have become vital to office workers this year. Now that so many people are working from home and can’t rely on expensive equipment because of the pandemic, having a solution at home that will properly fill that gap is vital. No matter what size of household and family demands you have, on this list you’ll find the best home printer for your needs.
Thanks to its six-color individual ink system, the Canon Pixma TS9120 delivers exceptional photo quality results, placing it firmly among the best home printers around. The Canon also is very flexible with its connection capabilities, allowing for both Bluetooth and Wi-Fi to print. And you’re not limited to any device. If you want to print from a tablet or smartphone or even from the cloud, the Canon can handle it.
The printer also comes with some photo-specific features such as Photo Blue ink as part of the six-color system and built-in creative filters to add something a little extra to your photos. Lastly, this printer comes in a choice of three different two-tone color options, giving you some cosmetic choices that you don’t really see with printers.
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The best home printers compared
| Printer | Category | Print speed | Paper capacity | Paper size | Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Canon Pixma TS9120 | All-in-one inkjet printer | 15ppm (B+W) / 10ppm (color) | 100 sheets | up to A4 | $549.99 |
| Epson WorkForce WF-7210DTW | Colour inkjet printer | 18ppm | 500 sheets | Up to A3 | $330 |
| HP LaserJet Pro M15w | Colour laser printer | 19ppm | 100 sheets | up to A4 | $108 |
Best digital copiers
Modern offices have plenty of reasons to use a fast and dependable photocopier, and in this section we'll list the best digital copiers for home and small office use. From usage tracking to improve security, auto duplex, mobile and wireless printing or digital touchscreen display, there’s now a flurry of options available on the market, for the occasional print out and mailing all the way to digital agencies. These are our best picks.
By Xerox standards, this is a modest machine, but it has an impressive specification that will meet the demands of any small to medium sized business. Xerox makes faster printers than this, but the consistent quality of colour and mono prints here is impressive and its photocopying skills are among the best of any four-in-one we’ve tested.
The intuitive touchscreen interface is another plus point that gives easy access to a wealth of features such as dual-sided scanning and a broad selection of security features. This feels like a premium product and it’s well supported by modular upgrades.
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The best digital copiers compared
| Digital copier | Category | Print speed | Paper sizes | Paper capacity | Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Xerox WorkCentre 6515 | 4-in-1 colour inkjet printer | 28ppm | Up to A4 | 300 sheers | $435 |
| Lexmark MB2236adw | Color laser multifunction device | 23ppm | Up to A4 | 250 sheets | $193.94 |
| HP LaserJet Pro MFP M227fdw | 4-in-1 mono laser printer | 28ppm | up to A4 | 300 sheets | $268.90 |
Best office shredders
These days it's more important than ever to make sure that our private and sensitive documents are disposed of securely, especially as cases of identity theft fraud rise exponentially. While shredders may not be the most glamorous of tech, they are still incredibly important, and there is now a huge range of shredder makes and models. While many people may think of shredders as big and bulky (not to mention noisy) devices that take up a huge amount of room, the best shredders can easily fit into any modern office or home. Here are our picks.
A great choice all-round for the office and home, the Fellowes Powershred 79Ci Paper shredder has a 23-liter capacity and uses a cross-cut mechanism that will slice and dice anything you feed into it in two ways for maximum security. One of the best things about this model is that it is 100% jam-proof, so you will never have to wrestle with it to pull out paper that has got stuck.
It also packs SafeSense Technology that immediately disables the unit if anybody’s fingers gets dangerously close to its internal components, making it a suitable option for home offices. It also has a max sheet input of 14 sheets, which is double what you will find on most budget variants.
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Best laptop stands
If you're finding that your neck and back are feeling the strain – or you simply want to keep your desk looking tidy – you might want to consider investing in one of the laptop stands from our list. These handy pieces of equipment not only bring your laptop screen up to eye-level (which is regarded by health & safety experts as an important part of keeping your office working environment safe), but they can also bring a stylish twist to your home office.
Raise your laptop to the same ergonomic height as an external display with the Rain Design mStand. This patented design is made from a single solid piece of aluminum, stylishly matching the MacBook Pro's sand-blasted and silver anodized finish to add an extra elegant touch to your workspace.
However, despite the fact that the Rain Design mStand is designed for the Apple MacBook and MacBook Pro, it's actually suitable for all laptops. There's an outlet at the back that you can feed all of your cables through, which will help keep your desk nice and tidy.
So far, the Rain Design mStand has over 3,000 5-star reviews on Amazon US, which is a great indication of how well this modern and stylish laptop stand works.
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More working from home guides and product deals
This guide is one part of a series designed to help you get the most out of working from home. Make working from home as comfortable and as productive as you can:
