It’s fair to say that printers aren’t the most exciting electronic gadget, but what does your smartphone or laptop do when you need a physical copy of something? Printers are still a necessity for many of us, and if you’re in the market for one, this shortlist of our favorite printers for 2024 should help narrow down your choices.
In this list of the best printers, we tried to cover as many bases as possible: inkjet, laser, photo printing, advanced, and budget. Whatever your needs are, it’s a good idea to figure these out before shopping so you know what you’re looking for and you should be able to find something that matches your requirements in the list below.
Brother MFC-L2750DW
best laser printer
- aspect: 16.1 x 15.7 x 12.5 inches
- Color printing speed: not applicable
- Monochrome printing speed: 34 pages per minute
- type: laser
- Can be used for: $300
In our experience, Brother laser printers generally complete the task at hand quickly and without any hassle. Furthermore, color isn’t what you might think is a must-have feature: Unless you’re printing photos or brochures, monochrome will serve you just fine.
Enter the Brother MFC-L2750DW: It’s an older model, but it’s still a powerful and reliable one (after all, your printer doesn’t need more RAM and a faster CPU every year). If you need a workhorse to handle large amounts of documents, this might be the model for you.
It prints quickly, has low running costs, you can load a lot of paper (up to 300 sheets at a time), and it doesn’t break the bank. Granted, it’s not the sleekest or most compact printer you’ve ever seen, but that’s not the most important thing.
Canon MegaTank Pixma G3270
best inkjet printer
- aspect: 16.4 x 13.3 x 7 inches
- Color printing speed: 6 images per minute
- Monochrome printing speed: 11 images per minute
- type: ink jet
- Can be used for: $230
The Canon MegaTank Pixma G3270 is a rugged and reliable inkjet printer for the busy home or home office. While it’s priced in the mid-range, it doesn’t compromise much in terms of print speed and output quality.
To make the printer cheaper, some features are missing (such as automatic duplex printing), but most people won’t mind making these trade-offs. It can print, scan, and copy, and the onboard controls and screen make every operation easy.
It’s a well put together unit and, best of all, the monochrome and color prints are always of a high standard – crisp, clear and punchy. Considering the price you pay upfront for this printer, you won’t be disappointed with its output levels.
HP Smart Tank 5105
best general purpose printer
- aspect: 17.1 x 14.2 x 6.2 inches
- Color printing speed: 5 pages per minute
- Monochrome printing speed: 12 pages per minute
- type: ink jet
- Can be used for: $200
HP has long been making office equipment and electronics, and printers like the Smart Tank 5105 usually deliver when you need them. It’s well built, relatively affordable, and capable of producing beautiful prints.
This device is great for scanning and copying as well as printing. It meets our criteria for being a great general-purpose printer that can handle anything with ease, whether you need to print photos or scan documents.
While it doesn’t reach the heights of some dedicated printers and more expensive models, it’s well suited to your requirements if you need something for a home office or home. Setup and operation are simple and straightforward.
HP Color LaserJet Pro M283fdw
The best all-in-one printer
- aspect: 16.6 x 16.5 x 13.2 inches
- Color printing speed: 22 pages per minute
- Monochrome printing speed: 22 pages per minute
- type: laser
- Can be used for: $430
The HP Color LaserJet Pro M283fdw meets all your printer requirements. It does a great job and costs less than you might think. We would recommend it if you’re on a budget and are serious about printing.
The advantage here, though, is not just printing, but also scanning and copying. With support for features like automatic duplex printing and cloud printing, it’s hard to find something the HP Color LaserJet Pro M283fdw doesn’t have, so it easily makes this list.
Obviously, it’s too big and bulky for some people, but it would fit perfectly into a home office. Perhaps most importantly, the laser printing technology here produces ultra-sharp, ultra-colorful prints at impressively fast speeds.
Brother MFC-J4335DW
best budget printer
- aspect: 17.1 x 14.2 x 7.1 inches
- Color printing speed: 19 pages per minute
- Monochrome printing speed: 20 pages per minute
- type: ink jet
- Can be used for: $180
There’s a lot to like about the Brother MFC-J4335DW, not least its price—you get it for a fraction of the cost, and it comes with a year’s worth of ink in the box. Despite its low price, it still delivers print quality that will satisfy you.
The plethora of onboard controls make operation very simple, especially when using the device to copy and scan, and it also spits out pages at fairly old speeds without slippage. You even get automatic duplex printing, which is unusual at this price.
Other printers will beat the Brother MFC-J4335DW in terms of detail and quality, but then again, they’ll also cost you more. Weigh what you get versus what you spend, this is definitely the most important thing.
Canon Pixma Pro-200
best photo printer
- aspect: 25.2 x 15 x 7.9 inches
- Color printing speed: Each A3 print takes 2 minutes and 55 seconds
- Monochrome printing speed: Each A3 print takes 1 minute and 30 seconds
- type: ink jet
- Can be used for: $499
If you’re serious about photo printing (and printing sizes up to A3), the Canon Pixma Pro-200 is well worth considering. It’s on the pricier side, but if you want truly impressive physical photo prints, this device has you covered.
Onboard controls (and accompanying desktop and mobile software) make operation intuitive and simple. At the same time, the printing speed is relatively fast considering the quality of the end result. It’s also a beautifully designed and sturdy device.
Obviously if all you need is fast daily printing and the high quality of borderless printing means above average running costs then you won’t buy this, but for someone whose main requirement is photo printing, The Canon Pixma Pro-200 performs very well.
Epson EcoTank ET-2800
The best mid-range printer
- aspect: 22.8 x 14.8 x 10 inches
- Color printing speed: 5 pages per minute
- Monochrome printing speed: 10 pages per minute
- type: ink jet
- Can be used for: $200
When it comes to the Epson EcoTank ET-2800, you will be hard-pressed to buy more printers at the same price. Yes, there are cheaper models, but we think this is the more affordable option in terms of how many compromises you have to make.
Sure, it’s not the most advanced printer you’ll find, but it does all the basics well and expands to scanning, copying, and printing. Using ink bottles instead of cartridges also reduces long-term running costs.
Colors are handled well, detail is crisp, and it’s an easy printer to set up and configure. The downside is that the printing speed will test your patience to a certain extent, but think of the money you’ll save while waiting.
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