Best Colour Photocopiers for Office UK 2026

Colour photocopiers have become essential office infrastructure for UK businesses that need professional-quality output without sending work to a commercial printer. But the market is crowded with options ranging from £491 desktop A4 units to enterprise A3 floor-standers leased at £150 or more per month – and choosing the wrong device can lock your business into a five-year contract that costs far more than it should.

This guide covers eight of the best colour photocopiers available to UK businesses in 2026, across every category from compact A4 MFPs to high-speed 70ppm A3 workhorses. Every model listed is current. All pricing is verified. We cover purchase prices, lease rates, and managed print service options so you can compare the true cost of ownership, not just the headline number.

Comparison Table: Best Colour Photocopiers for UK Businesses (2026)

The best colour photocopier for most UK offices in 2026 is the Canon imageFORCE C5140 for enterprise needs, or the Sharp BP-50C26 at £33/mo for budget-conscious buyers.

1. Canon imageFORCE C5140 – Best Overall

The Canon imageFORCE C5140 is Canon’s 2025 flagship A3 colour MFP – 40ppm, OLED print engine, FIPS 140-3 security – available via dealer quote or Canon MPS contract.

Canon launched the imageFORCE platform in May 2025 to replace both the imageRUNNER ADVANCE DX and imageCLASS X ranges under a single unified product family. The C5140 is the entry point to that flagship A3 colour series, printing at 40 pages per minute in full colour with Canon’s proprietary D² Exposure OLED-based engine that achieves up to 4,800 x 2,400 dpi resolution.

What makes the imageFORCE stand out in the enterprise market is the combination of its scanning speed and security architecture. The single-pass duplex scanner processes documents at up to 270 images per minute, which means a 100-page double-sided document clears the feeder in under a minute. The security stack includes FIPS 140-3 certified storage encryption, Trellix Embedded Control application whitelisting, SIEM integration for enterprise security monitoring, and AI-powered anomaly detection built into the firmware. For businesses in legal, financial services, or public sector environments where data security is audited, this matters.

Canon’s uniFLOW platform – available as an on-premise server or cloud SaaS – provides print authentication, cost tracking, rules-based printing, and cloud scanning workflows for Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace. Standard paper capacity starts at 1,200 sheets with maximum configurations reaching 6,350 sheets, making it suitable for busy print rooms without constant paper loading.

Pricing for the imageFORCE range is not published – all business sales go through Canon’s authorised dealer and service partner network, where devices are typically taken on 36–60 month leases with a cost-per-copy MPS overlay. If you currently lease a Canon imageRUNNER ADVANCE DX device, make sure your dealer is quoting current-generation imageFORCE stock and not end-of-life DX units that may still be in the channel.

See our full breakdown of photocopier leasing costs for context on what to expect when negotiating a Canon MPS contract.

2. Sharp BP-50C26 – Best Value A3 Colour Copier

The Sharp BP-50C26 is the most affordable A3 colour MFP with a full feature set for UK offices – available at £1,600 to buy outright or from £33/month on a lease agreement.

Sharp’s BP Series is the manufacturer’s current-generation A3 MFD lineup, replacing the older MX Series across the market. The BP-50C26 sits at the entry point of the BP-50C range – 26 pages per minute in colour, A3 format, multifunction print-copy-scan capability – and is the most price-competitive A3 colour device from a Tier 1 manufacturer you can get in the UK today.

At £1,600 to purchase outright (verified via UK resellers, March 2026) or £33 per month on a lease, the BP-50C26 undercuts most comparable Canon and Ricoh A3 entries by a meaningful margin. It ships with Bitdefender antivirus integrated at the device level – a security feature that used to be an enterprise-only add-on – and the BP Series carries Keypoint Intelligence security validation across the range. The 10.1-inch tiltable colour LCD touchscreen is standard only on the BP-70C tier, but all BP-50C models share the eco-focused design philosophy Sharp has built into the BP platform.

Sharp’s UK service infrastructure backs this up: 200+ nationwide engineers, a 95% first-time fix rate, and a 12-second helpdesk response target. The MPS overlay service uses OneStop fleet monitoring software and covers 44,000 managed devices across Sharp UK contracts. If you want A3 colour output without the enterprise price tag, the BP-50C26 is the most defensible choice in its segment.

If you need more speed, the BP-50C range steps up through 31, 36, 45, 55, and 65ppm variants – all in a similar price bracket. The BP-70C series adds the motion sensor wakeup and tiltable screen for teams that want premium ergonomics. Full pricing for the A3 range is available in our A3 laser printer hire guide.

3. Konica Minolta bizhub C3321i – Best for SME All-In Subscription

The Konica Minolta bizhub C3321i is the most accessible entry point to Konica Minolta’s OneRate subscription – a fixed £50/month A4 colour MFP package covering hardware, toner, parts, and 24/7 remote diagnostics.

Konica Minolta’s OneRate model works differently from a traditional photocopier lease. Rather than separating hardware, maintenance, and toner into separate cost lines, OneRate bundles everything into a single fixed quarterly bill: the device, all consumables, all parts, maintenance, and 24/7 remote diagnostics. There is no cost-per-page charge added on top. You pay £50 per month (verified from Konica Minolta UK’s official shop, March 2026) and your print costs are capped regardless of volume.

The bizhub C3321i itself is a 33ppm A4 colour MFD with a 10.1-inch touchscreen, SSO integration with Microsoft Azure Entra ID and Google Workspace, and Konica Minolta’s Authentication Attack Detection to block brute-force password attempts. The bizhub i-Series won the BLI 2025 A3 Line of the Year Award from Keypoint Intelligence, and the C3321i contributed to four individual BLI Pick Awards the range received this year.

For businesses that want predictable costs without tracking cost-per-page invoices, the OneRate subscription removes that complexity entirely. Paper is the only ongoing expense you manage yourself. The service network includes loaner equipment if on-site repair is not possible, which is an unusually strong guarantee at the SME price tier.

If you need A3 capability, Konica Minolta’s OneRate also extends to A3 models: the bizhub C257i (25ppm A3 colour) starts at £102/month. See our photocopier costs guide for a full breakdown of what to expect across the A3 and A4 categories.

4. Brother MFC-L8390CDW – Best A4 Colour MFP for Small Offices

The Brother MFC-L8390CDW is a 30ppm A4 colour LED multifunction printer that costs £490.80 inc VAT to buy outright – the strongest buy-and-own proposition for small businesses needing reliable colour printing without a lease commitment.

Brother’s MFC-L8390CDW is a 30ppm A4 colour LED all-in-one that covers print, copy, scan, and fax. It uses LED rather than traditional laser technology, which reduces heat generation and extends the lifespan of key components. The device ships with a 250-sheet paper tray expandable to 500 sheets, a 50-sheet automatic document feeder, gigabit Ethernet, 5GHz WiFi, and an 8.8cm colour touchscreen for intuitive operation.

At £490.80 inc VAT (verified from Brother UK’s official store, March 2026), this is one of the most competitively priced A4 colour multifunction printers from a major manufacturer. It is 25% faster than its predecessor and is eligible for Brother’s MPS Essential programme – so if your volume grows and you want to move to a managed service, you can do so without replacing the hardware.

Brother’s Triple Layer Security (device, network, and document level) is standard, and the device supports Apple AirPrint and Mopria for mobile printing. Brother does not manufacture traditional A3 laser MFDs for the standard office market – their A3 offering is inkjet-based – so if you need A3 laser output, the Brother range is not the right fit. But for A4-only small offices that want a reliable colour device without the complexity and cost of a full managed print contract, the MFC-L8390CDW is one of the strongest buy-and-own propositions available today.

5. Kyocera ECOSYS MA4000cifx – Best for Low Running Costs

Kyocera’s ECOSYS range uses a patented long-life ceramic drum that only requires toner replacement – not drum replacement – which cuts consumable costs significantly over a standard 3–5 year lease period.

Kyocera’s ECOSYS range is built on a single engineering principle that sets it apart from every other photocopier brand in this guide: the drum does not need replacing. Most laser MFPs use organic photoconductor drums that wear out and must be replaced every 50,000–100,000 pages. Kyocera’s patented amorphous silicon ceramic drum technology produces drums with a rated lifespan that exceeds the lifetime of the device – meaning only toner is a consumable cost.

The ECOSYS MA4000cifx is a 40ppm A4 colour MFD with fax capability. Power in sleep mode draws just 0.5W. The device is EPEAT Gold rated and Kyocera delivers all new devices carbon-neutral as standard – covering manufacturing, shipping, consumables, and engineer mileage through offset programmes. For businesses with sustainability commitments, this is a meaningful and independently tracked claim rather than marketing language.

Kyocera’s HyPAS platform allows custom workflow applications to run on the device – useful for businesses with bespoke document processing requirements. Fleet monitoring runs through Kyocera Fleet Services, hosted on Microsoft Azure, with remote diagnostics, automated toner alerts, and panel access to reduce engineer visit frequency. The MDS (Managed Document Services) offering claims up to 30% TCO reduction over an unmanaged print environment.

Pricing is not published on Kyocera’s UK site and all purchases go through the reseller network. The TASKalfa 2554ci (25ppm A3 colour) is confirmed at approximately £2,408 from UK resellers – the ECOSYS A4 range will generally price below this. If lowest lifetime consumable cost is the priority for your business, Kyocera is the strongest choice.

6. HP Color LaserJet Enterprise MFP 5800 – Best for IT Security Teams

The HP Color LaserJet Enterprise MFP 5800 starts from £2,250 ex VAT and runs at 45ppm, backed by HP Wolf Security’s self-healing BIOS – one of the most advanced built-in security stacks in the A4 enterprise MFP category.

HP’s Wolf Security architecture is what distinguishes the LaserJet Enterprise 5800 series from similarly-priced competitors. HP Wolf Security uses real-time threat monitoring at the firmware level, with a self-healing BIOS that detects and recovers from attacks automatically without IT intervention. In a managed print environment where printers are networked endpoints and frequently overlooked in security policies, this matters for organisations subject to Cyber Essentials, ISO 27001, or GDPR audit requirements.

The 5800 series runs at 41–45 pages per minute in colour, with a monthly duty cycle of up to 10,000 pages – making it suited to workgroups of 10–30 users in a shared department environment. The MFP 5800dn is confirmed at £2,249.74 ex VAT (£2,699.69 inc VAT) via UK reseller Printerland (verified 2024/2025 pricing).

HP’s print security offering extends beyond the device itself: HP Print Security Advisory Services applies Zero Trust principles to the entire network print environment, and HP Managed Print Flex provides a short-term 1-year MPS contract for businesses not ready to commit to the standard 3–5 year lease. Cloud integrations cover SharePoint, OneDrive, and Google Workspace directly.

One important note: HP’s current LaserJet Enterprise range is A4-only for colour MFPs. There is no A3 colour laser MFP in the current HP enterprise lineup. If A3 colour output is required, HP is not the right choice, and a Canon, Ricoh, Sharp, or Konica Minolta A3 device should be shortlisted instead.

7. Epson WorkForce Pro WF-C5890DWF – Best Inkjet Alternative

The Epson WorkForce Pro WF-C5890DWF costs £665.99 inc VAT, prints at 25ppm in colour using Heat-Free inkjet technology, and draws just 25W during printing – significantly lower energy consumption than equivalent colour laser MFPs.

Epson’s WorkForce Pro series challenges the assumption that a colour office printer must use laser or LED technology. The WF-C5890DWF uses Epson’s Heat-Free PrecisionCore piezoelectric print heads, which apply mechanical pressure to fire ink droplets rather than using a thermal fuser to bond toner to paper. The result is a device that requires no warm-up time from cold start, draws just 25W during printing (versus 300–600W for a comparable laser), and produces a first page in 5.3 seconds.

At £665.99 inc VAT (confirmed from Epson UK’s product page, March 2026), this is competitively priced against the Brother MFC-L8390CDW and significantly cheaper than the HP LaserJet Enterprise. The XL ink packs deliver 10,000 pages in mono and 5,000 pages in colour – reducing the frequency of consumable changes and the associated cost-per-page for lower-volume environments. Maximum paper capacity is 1,830 sheets with optional additional trays.

Epson claims 1.5x faster first-page-out than an equivalent colour laser and 2.5x faster on typical short-run jobs – these are Epson’s own figures and have not been independently verified for the UK market, so treat them as directional rather than guaranteed. What is independently verifiable is the power consumption: 25W printing, 9.8W ready, 1.1W sleep. If your business has energy efficiency targets or is paying attention to electricity costs, the power draw differential versus laser is real and measurable.

Epson’s WorkForce Enterprise range (AM-C4000, AM-C5000, AM-C6000) extends the inkjet-vs-laser argument into higher-speed A3 territory if your volume justifies it – though those models are channel and MPS-only, not available for direct purchase.

8. Ricoh IM C7010 – Best High-Speed A3 Colour Copier

The Ricoh IM C7010 is the flagship of the IM C Series, printing 70ppm in colour on A3 paper with 4,800 x 1,200 dpi resolution and a maximum paper capacity of 4,850 sheets – suited to high-volume shared departmental environments.

If print volume is the primary requirement, the Ricoh IM C7010 is the benchmark in its class. At 70 pages per minute in full colour, SRA3-capable (oversized A3 for bleed work), with a first-page-out time of 4.2 seconds in colour and 2.9 seconds in mono, this is a device designed for environments where the printer needs to keep pace with a busy department, not the other way around. Maximum paper capacity at 4,850 sheets means it can run through a full working day without paper interruptions under normal office conditions.

Ricoh’s Always Current Technology (ACT) is the IM C Series differentiator that has driven strong UK market reception. Rather than receiving a device that ages over a 5-year lease, ACT delivers automatic firmware and feature updates throughout the device’s lifetime – similar to how a smartphone receives operating system updates. Two devices on ACT, leased years apart, can have identical feature sets. This removes one of the biggest objections to long-term photocopier leases: the device becoming technically outdated mid-contract.

The IM C Series won Best Print Productivity (A3 MFPs) at the DataMaster Digital Imaging Awards 2025. Ricoh’s 2025 SD Series refresh (IM C3010SD through C6010SD) introduced PFU straight-path scanner technology – the first Ricoh MFPs to use a straight-through paper path ADF that handles delicate and mixed-media originals without risk of jamming. The IM C7010 predates the SD generation but shares the same core ACT, Smart Integration cloud platform, and 900-strong UK field engineer service network.

Pricing is quote-only via Ricoh’s dealer network. All IM C Series devices are available on 36–60 month leases with cost-per-copy MPS contracts. Ricoh Financial Services provides operating and finance lease structures. See our photocopier leasing costs guide for what to benchmark in your contract negotiation.

How to Choose a Colour Photocopier for Your Business

The right colour photocopier depends on three variables: your monthly volume (under 5,000 pages favours A4 desktop; over 10,000 needs an A3 floor-stander), your format requirement (A3 or A4), and whether you want to buy, lease, or subscribe.

Before you contact a supplier or request a quote, it helps to understand where the money goes – and where supplier pricing models can obscure the true cost of a device.

Volume thresholds: matching device class to monthly output

The UK market broadly segments colour photocopiers by monthly page volume, and choosing the wrong class is one of the most common mistakes businesses make. A desktop A4 device rated for 5,000 pages per month that is used at 15,000 pages will fail early and need replacing mid-lease. An enterprise A3 floor-stander taken by a business printing 2,000 pages per month is paying for capacity it does not need.

Use these thresholds as a starting point:

Colour cost per page: what to watch in your MPS contract

Most UK businesses that take a floor-standing colour photocopier on lease also sign a Managed Print Service (MPS) contract that covers toner, parts, and engineer callouts on a cost-per-page basis. Understanding how your cost-per-page is calculated is important – because not all pricing models are equally transparent.

The UK market uses three main billing models. Cost-per-copy is the most transparent: a fixed rate per page in mono or colour, regardless of ink coverage. The Midshire benchmark for colour pages starts at 3.5p ex-VAT; Xerox’s PagePack ranges up to 9.93p. The cost-per-development model charges per colour layer applied to a page – so a page with four colours can cost four times the mono rate. This model can significantly inflate costs on colour-heavy documents and is the one most commonly complained about by businesses post-contract. Always ask your supplier which pricing model applies and request a sample invoice before signing.

Mono pages are substantially cheaper – from 0.35p at volume down to around 0.5p–1.0p for typical SME volumes. If your office splits print jobs between colour and mono, make sure your device can switch between the two and that your MPS contract quotes separate rates for each.

For a full breakdown of what to expect when comparing quotes, read our photocopier costs guide, which covers lease vs buy vs rent across all device categories.

Colour vs mono: is colour worth the premium?

Colour laser MFPs typically cost 2–3x more per page than mono devices under MPS contracts. At 5% ink coverage (standard for typical office documents), colour costs 3.5p–10p versus 0.35p–1.5p for mono. For a business printing 10,000 pages per month with 30% in colour, that difference amounts to £1,050–£3,000 per year in consumable costs alone – before hardware and service.

Whether that premium is justified depends on the business case. If your organisation produces client-facing materials, marketing collateral, presentations, or proposals in-house, the professional quality of laser colour output versus an external print shop reduces both cost and turnaround time. If your print volume is overwhelmingly internal documents and correspondence, a mono device with a separate small colour desktop unit for occasional use may be more cost-effective than a full A3 colour MFP lease.

Lease terms: what to check before you sign

Photocopier leases in the UK typically run 36, 48, or 60 months. The most common term for floor-standing A3 devices is 60 months; desktop A4 devices are more frequently leased on 36-month terms. Longer terms produce lower monthly payments but lock your business in for longer – and early termination typically requires paying all remaining lease payments in full.

Before signing, confirm: (1) whether parts coverage is comprehensive, including drums and fusers as well as toner; (2) the engineer response time SLA – 4 hours is the standard for premium MPS contracts; (3) whether device return or collection at lease end incurs a charge; and (4) whether the MPS contract includes any print volume allowance, or whether every page is charged on top of the lease payment.

Clara Wenslow

Finance & Business Services Editor

Clara analyses SME finance and procurement markets, covering business loans, invoice finance, payroll, and related B2B services. She ensures each comparison and guide is transparent and data-driven.

Reviewed by

Sarah Mitchell

B2B Commerce & Finance Reviewer