The 4 Best Printers - Fall 2024

The best office printer we've tested is the Brother MFC-L8905CDW, an all-in-one laser model designed for small and home offices. It produces amazingly sharp and detailed documents, warms up in 15 seconds, and prints quickly at up to 32 pages per minute. Its numerous connectivity options—Wi-Fi, USB, Ethernet, and NFC—make it easy for everyone in the office to access. Scanning documents is a breeze; the flatbed is large enough to process Legal-size sheets (8.5x14), and there's also an automatic feeder with single-pass duplex scanning, letting you quickly scan multi-page and double-sided documents at 32 pages per minute.

Regarding page yield and running costs, this printer yields a high number of prints, so you most likely won't need to replace the cartridges unless you have a substantial print volume. Also, replacement toner isn't overly expensive. You'll have to spend extra to replace the drum, but again, it isn't something you'll have to do often, as it's typically good for 30,000 prints. If you don't need all the features on this model, there are cheaper variants, like the Brother MFC-L8900CDW, which performs identically but has a smaller display. The Brother MFC-L8610CDW is another cheaper option; it has an 8.5x11 flatbed scanner but doesn't support duplex scanning.

If your household has many different printing needs, we recommend the Brother MFC-J4335DW. This all-in-one inkjet is one of the best color printers we've tested. It's well-built and uses cartridges with a high page yield, so you won't have to replace them often. Printing-wise, it produces incredibly sharp documents, and it's quick, capable of pushing out 17 black or 15 color pages per minute. As for photo printing, this is a decent choice for photo printing at home, as you can perform borderless printing for photos in a wide variety of sizes. Photos look detailed overall but slightly flat and grainy, with an overly warm tone.

You can connect to the printer via USB or Wi-Fi, and it's compatible with Brother's mobile companion app, which you can use to print, scan, copy, and perform maintenance tasks. Its ADF-equipped scanner scans up to 20 pages per minute; however, it doesn't support duplex scanning, so you'll have to flip the pages manually when scanning double-sided sheets. The input tray holds 150 sheets of paper, which is likely enough that you won't have to refill it often. The slightly more costly Brother MFC-J4535DW variant is also a good choice if you have a larger print load or want more connectivity options; it has an additional 250-sheet input tray for a total of 400 sheets and has Ethernet and NFC support.

So far, this article has featured all-in-one devices capable of performing a wide range of tasks for office and home use. But what if you just need a simple device to print return labels for those online orders that didn't quite meet your expectations or to have around for printing your tax returns once a year? If this sounds like you, consider a variant of the Brother HL-L2460DW, our best budget printer pick. These monochrome laser printers are cheap to maintain as their cartridges yield a high number of pages before needing replacement, and they have low maintenance requirements. Indeed, unlike inkjet printers, you don't have to worry about printhead clogging if a laser printer sits a long time between uses, so your device is ready to go whenever you are.

While the exact specifications will depend on the variant you choose, connectivity options can include USB, Wi-Fi, and Ethernet, and more expensive variants have features like automatic duplex printing. One consistent feature across all models is fast print speeds, between 32 and 34 pages per minute. There are a few tradeoffs, however: it's more expensive upfront than cheap inkjet printers; it only prints in black and white, so you can't do any color or photo printing; it lacks a scanner, so you must be sure you won't need to digitize anything when choosing this printer; and finally, its print quality is mediocre out of the box. Don't worry. The print quality issues can be fixed by diving into the printer's settings (see our review).

If you only need to print once in a blue moon, a cheap printer like the Canon PIXMA MG3620 will do. Although it doesn't feel well-built and only has a basic flatbed scanner, it prints crisp, legible documents. In terms of photo quality, printed photos look detailed with decently accurate colors; this printer offers a wider color gamut and better color accuracy than our mid-range pick, the Brother MFC-J4335DW. Unfortunately, it takes a little longer than most inkjet printers to warm up, and it prints much slower than all other picks at only nine black or three color pages per minute, so patience is necessary when printing longer documents.

It still offers USB and Wi-Fi connectivity and support for Apple AirPrint and Mopria Print Service, making it easy to print documents from a multitude of devices. However, like most printers in its price range, the major drawback is its low page yield. It only has two ink cartridges—one black and one tri-color—and they're only good for roughly 200 black and color prints. Replacement ink is relatively cheap, so maintenance cost isn't the issue; it's just inconvenient because it requires a lot of maintenance, and you might end up with lots of faded or incomplete prints. Also, since it uses a tri-color cartridge, you'll have to replace the entire cartridge if a single color runs out, wasting usable ink.