It’s fair to say that printers are hardly the most exciting electronic gadgets, but when you need a physical copy of something, what will your
smartphone or laptop do about it? Printers remain a necessity for a lot of us, and if you’re in the market for one, this shortlist of our favorite printers available in 2024 should help narrow down your choice. In this list of the best printers, we’ve tried to cover as many bases as possible: Inkjet, laser, photo printing, premium, and budget. Whatever your needs are—and it’s probably best to figure these out before you go shopping so you know what you’re looking for—you should be able to find something that matches your requirements in the list below. In our experience, Brother laser printers usually get on with the task in hand speedily and with the minimum of fuss. What’s more, color isn’t the must-have feature that you might think: Unless you’re printing photos or brochures, monochrome will do you very nicely. Enter the Brother MFC-L2750DW: it’s an older model, but still a strong and reliable one (you don’t need more RAM and a faster CPU in your printer every year, after all). If you need a workhorse to handle a serious amount of documents, this may be the model for you. It prints quickly, the running costs are low, you can load it up with a lot of paper (up to 300 sheets at a time), and it’s not going to break the bank either. Admittedly it’s not the most stylish or compact printer you’ll ever see, but that’s not what’s most important here. The Canon MegaTank Pixma G3270 is a solid and reliable inkjet that would suit a busy family or home office. While it sits somewhere in the mid-range in terms of price point, it doesn’t compromise too much when it comes to printing speeds and output quality. There are some features missing—like automatic duplex—to make the printer more affordable, but they’re trade-offs most people won’t mind making. It’ll print, scan, and copy, and the on-board controls and screen make every operation very straightforward. It’s a well-put-together unit, and most importantly of all, the monochrome and color printing is of a consistently high standard—crisp, clear, and punchy. Considering the price you’re paying upfront for this printer, you won’t be disappointed with its level of output. HP has been making office equipment and electronics for a long time now, and printers like the Smart Tank 5105 can generally be relied upon to come up with the goods when needed. It’s well-built, relatively affordable, and capable of producing great prints. This unit covers scanning and copying very capably, as well as printing. It meets our criteria here of being a great general-purpose printer that’ll turn its hand to just about anything—whether you need photo prints or document scans. While it doesn’t hit the heights of some of the dedicated-purpose printers and more expensive models out there, it fits the bill nicely if you need something for the home office or the family. The setup and operation are both simple and straightforward. The HP Color LaserJet Pro M283fdw does everything you could ask for from a printer. It does it well and comes in at a price point lower than you might expect. If you’ve got the budget for this and are serious about your printing, we’d recommend it. It’s not just the printing that’s great here though—it’s the scanning and the copying too. With features like auto duplex and cloud printing supported, it’s difficult to find a feature that the HP Color LaserJet Pro M283fdw doesn’t have, making it an easy pick for this list. Clearly, it’s going to be too much and too big for some, but it’ll slide perfectly into a home office. Perhaps most importantly, the laser printing tech on board here produces super-sharp, super-colorful prints, and the printing speeds are impressively fast, too. There’s an awful lot to like about the Brother MFC-J4335DW, not least its price—you can pick this up for not much money at all, and it comes with a year’s worth of ink in the box. Despite the low price, it’ll still put out print quality that you’re going to be happy with. The extensive set of on-board controls makes operations very simple, especially when it comes to copying and scanning with the unit, and it also spits out pages at a fair old rate without a slip. You even get automatic duplex printing, which is not all that common at this price. Other printers will beat the Brother MFC-J4335DW in terms of detail and quality, but then again, they will cost you significantly more money as well. Weigh up what you get against what you spend, and this is definitely towards the top of the pile. If you’re serious about your photo prints—and photo prints up to A3 in size—then the Canon Pixma Pro-200 is well worth considering. It’s on the more expensive side, but if you want physical photo prints that really impress, this unit will deliver. The on-board controls (and the accompanying desktop and mobile software) make operations intuitive and simple. At the same time, the print speeds are relatively speedy, bearing in mind the quality of the end results. It’s also a nicely designed and sturdy device. Obviously, you’re not going to buy this if all you need is quick day-to-day printing, and the high quality of the borderless prints means above average running costs, but for the people whose primary need is photo printing, the Canon Pixma Pro-200 does an excellent
Job. When it comes to the Epson EcoTank ET-2800, you’re going to struggle to get more printers for your money. Yes, there are cheaper models out there—but we think this is the pick of the more affordable options in terms of how many compromises you have to make. Sure, it’s not the most advanced printer you’re going to find, but it does all the basics rather well, and that extends to scanning and copying as well as printing. The use of ink bottles rather than ink cartridges lowers running costs over the long term as well. Colors are well handled, details are crisp, and it’s a printer that’s simple to set up and configure, too. On the downside, the printing speeds are going to test your patience somewhat, but think of the money you’ve saved on this while you’re waiting.