The 6 Best Home Printers - Spring 2021 Reviews

The Canon imageCLASS MF743Cdw is the best home office printer that we've tested. This all-in-one laser model is made of solid, sturdy plastic, with easy access to the toner and paper jams. It has a flatbed scanner for scanning items like fragile photos and books and an automatic document feeder with duplex scanning. Also, it has a large touchscreen display with good sensitivity and responds fast to touch commands.

The cost-per-print is impressive, and the cartridges have an incredibly high yield, regardless of what you print. Each cartridge has an integrated drum, which means you won't have to buy a separate one when it's time to replace the toner. It prints colored documents much faster than black-only ones and can print photos quite quickly as well. It has exceptional connectivity options, including Wi-Fi, Ethernet, and USB, and it has external storage support for USB flash drives.

Unfortunately, the display screen sticks out on the right-hand side, which prevents you from pressing the printer flush against a wall from this side. Also, while color accuracy is great, photo printing quality isn't as good, but this is to be expected of a laser model. Also, the cost of replacing the three color cartridges is expensive, which increases costs over time. That said, this is one of the best all-in-one printers we've tested.

The best family printer we've tested is the Brother MFC-J995DW. This very well-built inkjet model is equipped with a high-resolution flatbed scanner for fragile or thick items and a sheetfed scanner to automatically process multi-page documents. It offers a range of wired and wireless connection options, and it's also compatible with the Brother iPrint&Scan app.

Thanks to its fantastic INKvestment Tank ink system, page yields are very high, which helps keep the cost-per-print remarkably low. Photos print out very fast, and they look great, with only some fine banding in certain colors. While color accuracy is only okay, it should be fine for casual photos or adding color to a document.

Unfortunately, black documents take a disappointing amount of time to print. Also, it can't automatically scan double-sided sheets, so you need to manually flip over each page. It doesn't support Bluetooth printing, and although it should be compatible with Mopria Print Service, we couldn't get it to work with our unit. Nevertheless, this is an excellent home printer, and it should be versatile enough to satisfy most of your printing needs.

The best home printer for black and white printing we've tested is the Brother MFC-L2750DW. It's an all-in-one model that's well-suited for high-volume printing. It's sturdily-built and is well-designed to give quick access to the toner cartridge and paper jams. The scanner has an automatic document feeder and can perform duplex scanning, making it much easier to process long, double-sided documents.

The cartridge system is exceptional. It yields an incredible number of pages, which leads to fewer replacements of the toner cartridge, making the cost-per-print exceptionally low. However, note that the drum unit isn't built into the cartridge, which means you have to replace it separately. It takes a while to get the first page out after initiating the print job, but it picks up speed significantly, churning out roughly 36 pages per minute. The input tray can hold up to 250 pages and supports most common paper sizes.

It supports wired and wireless connections, as well as direct printing from a smartphone through AirPrint or Mopria. On top of that, you can connect your phone to it with just a tap if it supports NFC. Epson's iPrint&Scan mobile app lets you print, make copies, and even scan documents using your smartphone's camera. You can also use it to perform maintenance tasks and buy replacement toner. Overall, it's an outstanding monochrome printer that should meet the needs of most small home offices.

The best home printer in the budget category that we've tested is the Brother MFC-J805DW INKvestment Tank. This all-in-one inkjet model feels very well-built, and it provides easy access to ink cartridges from the front left compartment. It features a high-resolution flatbed scanner with lid hinges that can raise to fit larger items, as well as an automatic document feeder to quickly process multi-page documents.

Thanks to its INKvestment Tank ink system, it yields a remarkably high number of both black-only and color pages. Since you shouldn't need to replace the cartridges very often, the cost-per-print remains outstandingly low. It also offers a decent range of wireless connections, including support for Apple AirPrint and Mopria Print service. If you prefer a wired connection, you can connect it directly to your computer via USB cable.

Unfortunately, it doesn't support Bluetooth or printing directly off a USB thumb drive or SD card. Also, it's very slow at printing all types of documents, whether it be photos, color prints, or black-only documents. While produced photos look decent, there's quite a bit of graininess and banding, and the color accuracy is disappointing. That said, it's still a very good family printer, especially if you're on a budget.