Best Home Printers of 2023
The top inkjet and laser printers for home and office from Brother, Canon, Epson, and HP
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With so many models on store shelves, shopping for aĀ home printerĀ can be a daunting task. Should you buy an inkjet or a laser printer? An all-in-one that can scan, copy, and fax? Whatās the difference between that $180 option and its $220 sibling?
Weāre here to help. We rigorously test every printer that passes through our labs. We buy our test samples at retail, and our trained technicians evaluate each of them on more than 250 data points, printing hundreds of pages and running the models out of ink again and again. We combine those test results with printer 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.
Inkjet vs. Laser Printers
If youāre like most shoppers, youāre probably looking for a cheap inkjet model. And while we understand that impulseācheap is goodāour consumer research and laboratory testing have found that for most consumers, there are better alternatives.
According to our expert evaluations, inkjet printers have three fundamental problems. For starters, they often donāt do a great job of printing text, the primary job people want them to do.
Second, while they can be cheap to buy, they tend to saddle you with high ink costs for expensive replacement cartridges andĀ wasteful ink maintenance cyclesĀ that are necessary just to keep the machine working. The typical consumer might spend $70 a year or more on ink cartridges, which can double the cost of ownership for a printer in as little as two years.
And finally, data from our surveys of CR members suggests that inkjet printers are not as reliable as laser printers.
Add all that up and itās no surprise that consumer satisfaction with inkjet printers, as measured in those same surveys, is quite low.
Thatās why we find it difficult to recommend conventional inkjets. For typical at-home print jobs, a black-and-white laser printer is generally a better option.
Our research shows that people print lots and lots of text in black and white, rarely print graphics, and almost never print photos. And thatās where monochrome laser printers excel. They print crisp text and they print it fast and economically. Our survey data says theyāre 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 print your document or thoseĀ family photosĀ on a professional-quality printer for relatively little money. Some people do need to print in color quite frequently, and if thatās you, thereās a way to do so thatās more cost-friendly. 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 and up for ink cartridges. Color laser printers are also an option, though their relatively high price and toner costs make them better suited to a small business or professional office.
Ready to choose the model thatās right for you? Here are a few of the top picks from our testing, available to CR members.
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