The 5 Best Home Printers - Spring 2023 Reviews

The best home printer we've tested is the Epson EcoTank Photo ET-8500, a cheaper variant of the Epson EcoTank Photo ET-8550 we tested. The difference between the two, aside from the ET-8550's higher price, is that the ET-8550 supports wide format paper up to 13" x 19", which is only relevant to a limited subset of people; simply put, the cheaper ET-8500 is a better option for most users. It produces sharp, high-quality documents and incredibly detailed and colorful photos. As a supertank printer, it uses a large reservoir of ink that you can refill with ink bottles instead of cartridges. A full tank yields thousands of prints, and replacement ink is cheap, so you don't need to worry about high maintenance costs.

You can connect to the printer via Wi-Fi, USB, or Ethernet and print directly off an SD card. Its flatbed scanner performs incredibly well, as it can pick up even the tiniest details, so it's excellent for digitizing your old photos. However, there's no automatic document feeder, so you must scan each page manually. Regardless of which variant you choose, remember that this is a photo printer first, so if you only plan on printing documents, you can easily find cheaper models suitable for that task, like the printers we recommend below.

If you only need a printer for document printing and general office tasks, get the Epson EcoTank ET-3850 instead. Like the Epson EcoTank Photo ET-8550, it's also an all-in-one color inkjet model with a refillable ink tank, making it a great choice for households that print a lot. It prints black and color documents well at a decent speed, churning out 15 black or seven color pages per minute. Printed photos look good but aren't as detailed or color-accurate as the pictures the ET-8550 produces since it's more of a general-purpose printer.

It offers Wi-Fi, USB, and Ethernet connectivity and supports Apple AirPrint and Mopria Print Service. The scanner produces exceptionally high-quality scans and is equipped with an automatic feeder to process multi-page documents. It's slow, though, as it can only scan up to three pages per minute and doesn't support duplex scanning. It's compatible with Epson's mobile app, which you can use to print, scan, copy, and perform maintenance tasks.

If you want to save money with a more modest mid-range model, check out the Brother MFC-J4335DW. This all-in-one inkjet model yields around 2200 black and 800 color pages with a set of full cartridges, and you can get XL cartridges that'll last even longer. Of course, it'll never match the page yield or cost-per-print of a supertank printer like the models we recommend above, but its page yield is highly impressive for a printer that uses ink cartridges. It produces high-quality black and color documents, and although it doesn't have the best color accuracy or color range, printed photos still look very detailed.

As for printing speed, it churns out 17 black or 15 color pages per minute, and it doesn't take long to wake from sleep and get a page out. The scanner processes up to 20 pages per minute through its automatic feeder, but it doesn't support duplex scanning, so you'll have to scan double-sided sheets manually. If you need Ethernet connectivity or NFC support, you can get the Brother MFC-J4535DW variant; just expect to pay more. On the plus side, you'll get an additional 250-sheet input tray and a larger touch-sensitive display.

Our best budget home printer pick is the Brother MFC-J1205W, also known as the Brother MFC-J1215W at Walmart. It's a good option for households with a light to moderate print load. It has the usual Wi-Fi and USB connectivity and supports Apple AirPrint and Mopria Print Service. Although the scanner produces high-quality scans, it has trouble capturing finer details, so it might not be the best for digitizing photos. There's no automatic feeder or duplex scanning, which is typical for a budget model.

As for its printing performance, it produces very sharp documents; it just isn't very fast, as it can only push out nine black or six color pages per minute. Also, it doesn't support automatic duplex printing, so you'll have to flip the pages manually when double-sided printing. For photo printing, it's excellent at reproducing very fine details but struggles with bright, saturated tones, so pictures tend to look a little flat. The ink cartridges yield around 1100 black and 700 color pages, so you won't have to replace them often unless you print a lot, and they're relatively cheap, which helps keep running costs low.

If you only print occasionally, we recommend the Canon PIXMA MG3620. It prints sharp documents and colorful photos, but unlike the models above, it yields significantly fewer prints, meaning you'll often have to replace the ink cartridges. The cost per print is still low because the ink cartridges are relatively cheap; it just requires more maintenance. Also, since it uses a tri-color cartridge, you replace the entire cartridge if one color runs out, which is wasteful. You can get XL cartridges that'll last longer; however, they'll still yield fewer prints than the budget Brother MFC-J1205W or the mid-range Brother MFC-J4335DW.

Unfortunately, this is a pretty slow printer. It takes longer than most inkjet printers to initialize and only prints up to nine black or three color pages per minute. It supports automatic duplex printing, so you don't need to flip the pages manually when printing double-sided. The Canon also has USB and Wi-Fi connectivity, supports Apple AirPrint and Mopria Print Service, and is compatible with Canon's mobile app. The scanner produces excellent scans where the colors look a little washed out, but there are a lot of fine details.