The best printers of 2024, tested by editors

We spent months with a bevy of inkjet, all-in-one printers from leading brands like Brother, Canon, Epson and HP. If you’re paying more than $100, your printer should be able to do a little more than just print out a single sheet, especially if you’ve been doing more work from home. A single-family printer will need to tackle essays and emails but also extend to visually heavy documents and photos of family memories.

Our latest update to this guide focused exclusively on inkjet, all-in-one printers and did not include laser or photo printers. Since inkjet printers tend to cost less upfront and are as good at printing text as they are at printing color graphics and photos, they have traditionally been appealing for families and general home use. In recent years, new ink tank technology has reduced the cost of ink replacement for inkjet printers — and the cost per page to print — making them more competitive with laser printers while still offering better photo printing capabilities.

In the context of inkjet printers, “all-in-one” typically means a multifunction color printer capable of printing, copying and scanning on multiple paper sizes and stocks (including photos). Some of the printers we tested even have fax capability, for those who still need it.

After countless hours of print, scan and copy testing, we picked the top printers in a handful of categories but wound up with a modest-sized, sub-$200 printer that delivered a formidable experience as our best overall pick. Even after testing another 10 models in our most recent update to this roundup, it remains our top choice due to its mix of features, performance, design and price.

Best printer: HP Envy 6455e

HP’s Envy 6455e features a compact build that can fit into the smallest workspace, even though it is a multifunction device with the ability to print, copy and scan. It’s also an absolute champ at printing and was one of the easiest to set up of all we tested.

Most importantly, though, it succeeds with printing text-heavy documents, large keynotes and even the occasional one or two photo prints. On average, it takes about 15 seconds after you hit “Print” for the first page to shoot out, and we could easily crank through 20 double-sided pages in just under three minutes. That falls behind duplex units like the Brother and Canon all-in-one, which can start a job in less than 10 seconds but is on par with other units at this price. The HP Envy 6455e makes its presence known but not to the noisy degree of a laser printer or some of the massive units we tested. You’ll hear the two cartridges inside move back and forth, and while there is an option for a quiet mode, using it extends the printing time by five to 10 seconds with only a very slight reduction in noise as the payoff.

As for print quality, printed text arrived clear and crisp with deep blacks and no smudging around the letters. As we did with all printers, we gave each model some time to warm up and ran the alignment tests to ensure proper calibration and setup. With black-and-white prints, the HP Envy 6455e could toss punches back and forth with much higher-priced units. There were no noticeable quality differences between this unit and ones from Brother, Canon or Epson. Heck, it was even on par with more expensive HP units. The ink was also dry, which is to be expected, once the print was complete.

When it comes to photo printing, HP wasn’t overly vibrant and delivered a more middle-of-the-road print. Its prints weren’t on the pro level that Canon and Epson printers can deliver, but they weren’t the worst prints we’ve seen either. For starters, HP didn’t cause huge issues in terms of the accuracy of the photo or by introducing artifacts (when the printer makes something appear that wasn’t intended) into the shot. The result with photo prints on the HP Envy 6455e is an accurate depiction of a photo that doesn’t raise the brightness or vibrancy. It’ll look nice on your fridge or even in a frame but doesn’t get close to the quality of a pro job.

Suffice it to say, the Envy 6455e is a well-versed printer that can handle an essay, planning doc or even a spreadsheet as well as a family memory. This printer utilizes one black cartridge and a tricolor cartridge, providing blue, red and yellow. HP estimates that the black cartridge provides about 120 sheets and the tricolor can handle 100, which was in line with our experience during testing.

We’re also huge fans of the HP Instant Ink program, which is a subscription service for ink cartridges. The Envy 6455e comes with three months free. It takes the hassle out of knowing when you’ll need ink, by monitoring levels and your printing usage to have new cartridges arrive before your current ones run dry. HP Instant Ink starts at $1.49 a month for 10 pages, but a more common plan is $7 a month for 100 pages. We’d also call out that the HP Instant Ink cartridges are physically larger and provide more ink than even a standard or XL. If you don’t want to use HP Instant Ink, you can purchase cartridges for the Envy 6455e yourself. A two-pack containing tricolor and black is $35, for comparison. You can sign up and give it a go directly from within the HP Smart app.

And the HP Smart app is the command central for the Envy 6455e. We mentioned that this printer also supports copying and scanning; that’s all controlled from the app, as there is no screen on the Envy 6455e. It’s a very modern approach with a focus on simplicity. There is a flatbed scanner and an auto document feeder for scans and copies, but you’ll control those from the HP Smart app on your Android, iOS, macOS or Windows device. There are also LED indicators and a button for power or canceling a job on the physical printer.

With scanning especially, we like how you can view the result in real-time and make adjustments to the crop via the application. The HP Smart app also lets you handle the printer’s setup, and it’s the most intuitive of any model we tested. You open the app, it then finds the printer and you connect it to Wi-Fi. The app even walks you through how to insert ink and prints a few test pages.

The whole setup process took about eight minutes. With similarly priced printers, the setup process stretched closer to 25 minutes and some of the touch screen-centric setups resulted in connection problems. And the Envy 6455e works with all the core printing standards, including Apple AirPrint. We tested a range of devices, and many newer ones automatically detected the Envy 6455e on the network.

As a whole, the HP Envy 6455e delivers a great core feature set and dependable functionality for an affordable price tag. We tested cheaper options, but bulky builds and long setup times ultimately weighed them down — along with shaky prints. The Envy 6455e starts with a strong modern build and pairs it with a super-simple setup process. It’s refreshing for a printer to be this easy to use, and the resulting prints were on par with units twice the cost and our expectations.

Best printer for home offices: Brother MFC-J6555DW INKvestment Tank

The MFC-J6555DW is a massive all-in-one printer. It’s something that belongs in an office, and the basic light- and dark-gray color scheme fits in with this trope. Despite being a multifunctional powerhouse and a behemoth of a machine — it weighs 44.5 pounds and is about the size of an in-window AC unit — the MFC-J6555DW boasts one of the easiest setups of all the printers we tested.

Though its high performance and speed are reminiscent of laser printers, this desktop or tabletop printer uses liquid ink. Rather than bottling the ink, Brother packages it in four large-capacity cartridges. This makes transferring the ink into the printer’s internal tanks more akin to that of user-friendly, cartridge-based inkjet printers. Even by these standards, loading the cartridges into their respective slots on this printer is seamless, with zero risk of ink spillage.

As befits an office-style printer, this unit is fast, capable of producing 30 pages, including legal-size pages, per minute from its 250-sheet paper tray. In our tests, it produced a full-color map with images in just under 30 seconds from pressing “Print” on an iPhone and a duplex three-page text document in just 18 seconds. Scanning is fast too; we manually scanned a couple of magazine pages and sent them to our phone in less than 15 seconds, but the automatic document feeder lets you set up a maximum of 50 pages to be copied, scanned or faxed (even legal-sized pages). Based on our unscientific impressions, it performed as quickly and efficiently as any office printer might, with the ability to automatically scan up to 25 pages per minute. Another bonus, the 100-sheet multipurpose rear tray can automatically feed envelopes, cardstock, photos and other types of non-letter paper to be printed, which comes in handy when doing mass mailings.

We’d make this our favorite printer of the whole lot if not for its size and weight. If that’s not a deterrent, then it’s hard to argue with the bang for the buck here: $330 and it includes up to a year of ink in the box (about 6,000 black-and-white pages and 5,000 color pages). The total over-the-counter cost of ink replacement is about $255 but you get four free months of Brother Refresh EZ Print Subscription service, which replaces your ink automatically for anywhere from $0.90 to $24.99 per month, depending on usage.

Best high-volume printer: Epson EcoTank ET-3850

Tank printers can go a long time without replenishment, but the all-in-one ET-3850 takes the cake, with approximately 7,500 black-and-white pages and 6,000 color pages before ink needs to be replaced. This can take up to two years for some people. That, plus the fact the suite of replacement ink bottles costs only $45, and you have a printer that delivers some of the lowest costs over the long term. And unlike other tank printers, this doesn’t take up a lot of real estate on a table or desk, though it’s a bit taller than some other printers.

Setup is easy, too. We just scanned a QR code on the front of the printer, which prompted us to download the Epson Smart Panel app. The chatbot-like interface is useful because you can easily scroll up and down to refer to previous steps in case you get lost. The ink-dumping via bottles was easier and less prone to spillage than on the HP, thanks to a tighter connection between the bottle mouth and the tank opening, and the directions were much more reassuring, telling us exactly when it was okay to take the bottle off.

The printer is surprisingly fast on color maps on paper, which took about 29 seconds from pressing “Print” on our iPhone, and the colors were differentiated with no lines in any images, but the three-page outline took a surprisingly long 52 seconds to complete a duplex (two-sided) print. The printer is capable of generating 15 pages per minute on single pages, which is slower than some of the tank competition but acceptable. Thanks to its high-res flatbed scanner, scan and copy quality is balanced and realistic and can be done in bulk with the automatic document feeder, while the paper tray holds 250 pages.

If high printing volume at a reasonable replacement cost is important to you and you have limited space in which to put your printer, then take a serious look at the ET-3850, which delivers on both those fronts, and is a cinch to set up and maintain to boot.

How we tested

After we decided on a pool of printers from a variety of manufacturers, ranging from the affordable to the luxurious, we got to testing. Just as we cast a wide net with models, we also did so when considering which features to test.

Setup and interface

Performance

Connectivity

Warranty

Others printers we tested

Fast, versatile and compact, the Canon Pixma TS7720 is a budget all-in-one printer that punches above its weight. We previously distinguished it as our budget pick, but now that our top pick is so discounted, we’ve removed that label.

Setup is super easy, with intuitive animations for inserting the two cartridges (one black, one tricolor) on the flip-up 2.7-inch LCD touch screen and a minimal-feedback-required print alignment processes. The smartphone app automatically finds your Wi-Fi, which makes connecting it to the printer as simple as entering your password.

While it doesn’t have a fax, the Pixma TS7720 can copy and scan. In addition to the built-in, 100-sheet-capacity paper tray, the printer has an automatic document feeder, making multiple-page copies a cinch, as well as auto-duplex (two-sided) printing. For text pages, the TS7720 was surprisingly fast, significantly beating some of the pricier and more full-featured printers we tested: 39 seconds from pressing “Print” on our iPhone to the completion of a three-page document. The text was clear, precise and smudge-free. Detailed color prints were much slower, however, with a map and photo PDF pamphlet taking about 48 seconds from pressing “Print” on our iPhones to finish single lines running through images, but the full-page borderless photo prints didn’t look noticeably grainer, darker or washed-out than those produced by pricier printers.

You’ll need to replace the cartridges every 180 pages each of color and black, so this model isn’t necessarily for heavy-duty business users. Even so, the PIXMA Print Plan, which automatically ships you more ink as soon as you start running low for $4 to $10 per month (or $0.20 pay as you go), can save you money, depending on your usage.

Lastly, its small, low footprint — ‎13.8 inches by 14.8 inches by 6.7 inches — and minimalist white design make it easy to fit almost anywhere, making it a good choice for dorm rooms or small apartments.

Inkjet printers may be versatile, but the price of replacement cartridges can make them less practical than laser printers for people who print a lot and often. Tank printers, which use higher volumes of bottled ink instead of cartridges, have brought cost-per-page prices way down for inkjet printers, but they tend to be big and pricey. At $250, the HP Smart Tank 5101 can be considered a budget all-in-one tank printer, but the deal is even sweeter since it includes an estimated two years (or 6,000 pages) of black and color ink in the box. Even if you do run out of ink earlier, the cost of a bottle of black ink is $18 and the color bottles are $17 each, so if that’s all you’re spending every two years, it’s a significant savings.

With a low and wide profile that’s downright sleek and a minimalist 1.2-inch iCON LCD display, the 5101 doesn’t look like its big and bulky high-capacity brethren, but it still includes a copier and scanner. What it doesn’t have are duplex-printing capabilities (so it only prints single-sided pages), an automatic document feeder (so manual per-page scanning and copying), an enclosed paper cassette (the 100-page paper feeder is visible in the back) or a detailed color LCD screen (so you don’t have to depend on an app), but the trade-off in price and aesthetics are worth it.

Setup is easy, thanks to the HP Smart mobile app, with animated, self-swiping, step-by-step directions for filling each tank with ink. The process is straightforward, and the bottles have special connectors on their mouths designed to minimize ink spilling on hands or anywhere else. However, a half drop of ink seeped out a few times, so it’s best to proceed carefully.

Print quality was excellent, with detailed, differentiated and color-accurate printouts of maps and rich tones on images, though it still took about 44 seconds from pressing “Print” on the iPhone to finish a PDF. A three-page, text-based Google Doc outline took about 26 seconds from pressing “Print” to completion. While it doesn’t have a fax, the Smart Tank 5100 can connect to your computer via USB in addition to Wi-Fi and is optimized for the full coterie of HP remote printing options, Apple AirPrint, Mopria Print Service and Wi-Fi Direct Printing.

Compact but packed with features, the Brother MFC-J1800DW brings some unique offerings to the table, not least of which is a built-in capability to cut letter-size paper in half as you duplex print, so you can essentially print out four pages on just one 8.5-inch-by-11-inch sheet of paper. This is perfect for, say, invites and flyers, but it also saves paper. Setup is super easy, including the four ink cartridges and the printer can be controlled via the Brother Mobile Connect app for remote printing or the responsive 2.7-inch touch screen.

Other productivity-friendly features include a 150-page paper tray, a 20-page automatic document feeder and a 17-page-per-minute printing capability. The print quality, including photos, is excellent, with realistic coloring on images and precise text. The only downside is that ink runs out quickly — we already started to get warnings on replacing the black cartridge during our testing — but the Brother EZ Print Subscription Service can make replacement easy, seamless and discounted depending on your usage.

This INKvestment all-in-one printer from Brother was nearly our best overall pick, as it brings a new ink that takes a long time to run out. It also doesn’t carry a heavy price tag for liquid ink. But the HP Envy 6455e beat it out not only on price but for ease of use. Brother throws a lot at you directly on the front of the printer, as you get a screen and tons of buttons. It’s also a fax machine, so if you need that feature, it’s an excellent option.

But as far as a standard all-in-one, we still think traditional ink cartridges provide a strong amount of value, and coupled with HP’s simple Envy 6455e, that makes it the best pick.

Not only does this all-in-one from Canon undercut larger printing powerhouses in price, but it matches many in terms of features. Compared with the Brother printer above, print and copy speeds were on par, meaning it can print a lot of pages quickly, including duplex jobs.

It has two key differences, though. First, the setup was harder. It wasn’t so much that the screen was hard to use, but the Wi-Fi connection did take a few attempts to connect. The companion Print app (which is not required) wasn’t the most intuitive either. The Canon shined with photo prints, though, offering rich colors and high accuracy. We didn’t encounter any artifact issues with this printer either. If you have a heavy workload that falls into the realm of creative tasks with heavy visuals, this MB5420 deserves a look. Just make sure you have the budget and space.

The Pixma G7020 is a new “MegaTank” option from Canon. These printers trade classic ink cartridges for a liquid ink solution. Visible through the front of the G720, you’ll see a few clear vertical tubes that hold the various colors. And you’ll load the ink via a tube with a triangle top. Be warned, though: Don’t get the ink on clothing or skin, as it is hard to get out. The advantage here is a lower cost to print using this ink type.

In terms of quality of the print, the Pixma G7020 succeeded easily with text and traditional prints, while also scaling to create vibrant photo prints right from our home. It was a bit faster to get connected than the Maxify above, but we prefer the controls on that model. The Pixma G7020 has a basic series of buttons and a small non-backlit display. We think you’ll be better served with the HP Envy 6455e for the typical home office.

The Epson XP-4200 was one of the cheaper printers we tested and represents a budget option. It’s a fairly average printer that aims to make a splash with a sizable touchscreen and a pretty easy setup. For the price, though, you do lose a bit in terms of quality for printing and scanning. We found that with black or color, there could be waves or uneven areas in terms of the print quality. The color quality was not up to the standards we saw from our testing pool. And at around $50 more, the HP Envy 6455e is a more well-rounded option.

The XP-7100 sits in the same realm as the HP Envy 6455e as an all-in-one solution designed for homes that are also used for a little work — or rather, in our work-from-home world, a heavier print load that spans the gamut. It uses traditional ink cartridges, and you’ll need four of them, which ups the cost of replacements. It shines with photography, delivering prints on par with the quality of the Canon printers, both of which surpass the photo quality of the HP Envy 6455e.

However, if you’re not looking for a printer that will primarily be used for photography purposes, we think you’ll be better served by the Envy 6455e.

The OfficeJet Pro 9125e is kind of like the Envy 6455e on steroids. It has many of the same features but enriches them. It all starts with a larger build that adds a sizable touch screen for easy use, but the HP Smart app is still in full force here. This printer holds more paper, which is helpful for larger jobs. It is also more business-oriented, with a faster duplex function.

Speed is a common theme with the OfficeJet Pro 9125e, both with prints and data getting to the printer. The 9125e was always a second or two faster to start printing than the Envy 6455e. So if you value a zippy, fast experience above all else, the OfficeJet Pro 9125e is an excellent pick.

If Apple made a printer, it would probably be the Tango X. It’s billed as a smartphone-first printer, with no screen and one of the most unique compact designs of any printer we tested. The Tango X features a fabric cover that wraps around the printer to disguise it and give it a more homey feel. It can print pretty well, but it’s not the fastest.

To use the copy or scan function, you’ll need to pull out the smartphone app to crop the image and see if the quality makes it usable. Most of the time we had to retry to get a nice quality scan. The Tango X can fit almost anywhere, and it feels like this might be where printers are going next. We’d like to see some improvements in the all-in-one feature set and with the hardware inside that makes the prints happen, though.

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