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CR has evaluated thousands of models for text quality, graphics quality, and ink usage. These models from Brother, Canon, and Epson rise to the top.
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Two things to know about printers: First, most people buy inkjet models, and second, most people hate their printers.
See the correlation? So we generally advise folks to avoid buying printers that use ink cartridges. They’re not very reliable—unlike almost any other device you purchase in an electronics store, they have moving parts. And the cartridges can be wildly expensive, with replacement ink costs for a $100 printer running as much as $100 annually.
What should you buy instead? If you print mostly black-and-white text, we recommend a black-and-white laser printer for home use. These models spit out crisp text at impressive speeds and tend to be more reliable in the long term. And they use toner, which is much cheaper than ink.
What if you need to print in color? In that case, you want a tank printer. Yes, that’s technically an inkjet model and therefore somewhat finicky and less reliable than a laser printer, but because it uses easy-to-refill ink reservoirs, it reduces ink costs by a lot, setting you back less than $10 a year vs. as much as $100 for ink cartridges.
Below we’ve selected inkjet models and laser models that fared well in our tests to suit a range of needs. CR members can also skip to the bottom for advice on how to choose between one option and the other.
If you’re like most shoppers, you’re probably used to buying a very inexpensive inkjet model that uses ink cartridges. And while we understand that impulse—cheap is good—our consumer research and laboratory testing have found that for most consumers, laser printers are a better alternative.
According to our expert evaluations, inkjet printers have three fundamental problems.
Add all that up and it’s no surprise that consumer satisfaction with inkjet printers, as measured in those same surveys, is quite low.
That’s why we find that for typical home use, the best option is generally a black-and-white laser. Our research shows that people rarely print graphics and almost never print photos, but they print lots and lots of text in black and white.
And that’s where monochrome laser printers excel. They print crisp text, and they print it fast and economically. Our survey data says they’re generally more reliable than inkjets in the long term, which is why many of the survey respondents who bought laser printers really love them.
What about those times when you need to print in color? Most office supply stores can do a beautiful job of printing that one-off presentation, your kids’ school project, or those precious family photos on a professional-quality printer for relatively little money.
Some people, however, do need to print in color quite frequently, and if that’s you, there’s still a way to do so that’s economical. With tank printers, which use refillable ink reservoirs instead of disposable ink cartridges, you can spend less than $10 a year on bottled ink as opposed to $70 or more for ink cartridges. Color laser printers are also an option, though their relatively high purchase price and toner costs make them better suited to a small business or a graphics pro.
We buy all of our test samples through regular retail channels. No freebies for us. We then rigorously test every printer we evaluate on more than 250 data points, churning out hundreds of pages of text and images and running the models out of ink again and again. We combine those test results from our labs with brand reliability and owner satisfaction ratings derived from our member surveys to arrive at an Overall Score that lets you compare every model on the same scale.
The printers in this roundup of top models (available to CR members) print text with dependable quality and speed. Some models include document feeder and scan and copy features, and those models get extra credit for that. A few excel at graphics. And nearly all carry a low purchase price and low ongoing ink or toner costs.
Our tests reveal that laser or tank-style inkjet printers can be cheaper in the long run. See the cheapest printers for ink costs through the link in our bio. #homeoffice #printer #techtok #techtoktips
Allen St. John
Allen St. John has been a senior product editor at CR since 2016, focusing on digital privacy, audio devices, printers, and home products. He was a senior editor at Condé Nast and a contributing editor at publications including Road & Track and The Village Voice. A New York Times bestselling author, he’s also written for The New York Times Magazine, The Wall Street Journal, and Rolling Stone. He lives in Montclair, N.J., with his wife, their two children, and their dog, Rugby.
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