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There's no one-size-fits-all option if you're searching for the perfect printer for your home or office. The best printer for your needs will depend on how many pages you print, how often you print, and what you print. For example, if you're shopping for your small office, something that offers a high page yield, low costs of ownership, and an automatic document feeder would fit the bill nicely. On the other hand, if you're looking for something better suited for home use, you might be looking for something with good photo printing quality and a scanner with a height-adjustable lid for scanning books and magazines. You could also just want a basic, no-frills monochrome printer for printing plain documents occasionally.
Given these wildly differing needs, it should come as no surprise that there's a fair variety of printers on the market. Thankfully, we've narrowed down the best that you can buy.
Check out the Epson EcoTank ET-4850 if you want a printer that can truly do it all. It's an all-in-one colour inkjet model with a refillable ink tank, making it a great choice for households that print a lot. Instead of replacing pricey cartridges, you can fill its ink tank with ink bottles as needed. It prints sharp, legible documents, and printed photos look good, too. It's also equipped with a scanner with an automatic document feeder, allowing it to quickly process longer documents, though it can't automatically scan double-sided pages. Scan quality is remarkably crisp, and the scanner lid is height-adjustable, making it easier to fit things like books or magazines onto the scanner bed.
It offers Wi-Fi, USB, and Ethernet connectivity, and it supports Apple AirPrint and Mopria Print Service, so you can easily print from your desktop computer, laptop, tablet, or smartphone. It's compatible with Epson's mobile app, so you can print, scan, copy, and execute maintenance tasks, like printed cleaning or alignment, right from your mobile device.
On the opposite end of the spectrum, if you only need a printer for occasionally printing documents or shipping labels, a basic black-and-white laser printer like the Pantum P2500W is worth a look. Unlike the higher-end Epson, this is a print-only unit without a scanner. That said, it produces crisp, high-quality black-and-white documents and doesn't cost much. A single PB-211EV toner cartridge is sufficient for over 2000 prints; better yet, replacements are cheap. This laser printer is well-suited to infrequent printing since there are no printheads to clog from extended disuse. It takes a while to warm up, but it prints very quickly once it does. It doesn't support automatic duplex printing, so you'll have to flip the pages manually when printing double-sided.
It also tends to push printed pages off the output tray, resulting in out-of-order sheets. It only happens sometimes but is inconvenient, especially during large print jobs. Lastly, while the mobile app is feature-rich, it has many software quirks that make it hard to use.
If you're okay with a larger, bulkier unit for either business or home office use, it's hard to go wrong with the Brother MFC-L8905CDW, a colour laser all-in-one. It has a sturdy build, a wide range of connectivity options that allow you to print from many devices, and an ADF-equipped, legal-size scanner with single-pass duplex scanning. It produces exceptionally sharp documents, warms up quickly, and can output 32 pages per minute. The regular toner cartridges are good for almost 3000 black and over 1400 colour prints, so you won't have to replace them often, even if you regularly engage in high-volume printing. Better yet, it's compatible with higher-yield toner cartridges sufficient for up to 9,000 black and 8,000 colour prints.
There are cheaper versions of this printer that you can buy if you don't mind compromising on some things, like the Brother MFC-L8610CDW, which has a smaller display and a smaller scanner bed and lacks duplex scanning capability.
If you're looking for a home office printer on a tighter budget, the HP LaserJet MFP M234sdwe is a solid choice. Unlike the Brother MFCL8900CDW, it can only print in black and white and has a slower max printing speed of 11 pages per minute. The standard-size HP 134A toner cartridges yield around 1,900 prints, which is plenty for regular, sustained printing. However, it also falls considerably short of the Brother. With all of that said, it delivers excellent print quality and costs very little to own, with replacement toner cartridges being quite cheap. On the downside, it's only compatible with genuine HP cartridges, so you can't install cheaper third-party alternatives. It does have a flatbed scanner with an automatic document feeder, though it can't automatically process double-sided sheets.
It's a much more compact machine than the Brother, making it easier to fit into a home office, where space is more premium. It also offers a wide range of connectivity options, including Ethernet, USB, and Wi-Fi, and it also supports Apple AirPrint and Mopria Print Service.
A cordless printer can be handy if you travel for your business or run a kiosk at fairs. We recommend the HP OfficeJet 250 for this kind of usage. It's super compact and has a rechargeable battery that provides enough juice to last for about 225 prints on a full charge. It produces fairly sharp documents; it's just slow, so it isn't the best for printing long reports. Also, it can only print around 100 to 150 pages before it runs out of ink, so you'll need to carry a few extra cartridges if you plan on printing regularly.
Despite its compact size, it has a scanner with an automatic document feeder, so you can still process multi-page documents while on the go. It scans at a maximum resolution of 600 DPI, which isn't as good as a desktop printer but more than enough for text documents and photos. You can connect to the printer via USB or Wi-Fi or print directly off a USB flash drive. It also supports Wi-Fi Direct, meaning it can generate its own Wi-Fi, which is handy when you don't have access to an existing wireless network.
There's no shortage of good printer options, with a broad selection of price points, feature sets, and overall design to suit a wide variety of buyers. Our recommendations are based on those factors, general feedback, and regional availability.
Written by Evan Jakab, RTINGS.com
Disclaimer: The prices displayed are accurate at the time of publication. We'll do our best to keep them as up-to-date as possible, but you may see slight changes. The products in this list are ranked by independent third parties. Rankings are based on both reviews and independent testing.