We spent more than 150 hours on in-depth testing to identify the top inkjet and laser printers you can buy. The best all-in-one printer overall is the Canon Pixma TS9120, which offers top print speeds and high-quality output for both text and graphics. For a printer that won’t break the bank, Epson’s WorkForce WF-2760 inkjet packs in features like an automatic document feeder and duplexing, while also turning in fast print and copy times.
Top 12 Color Laser Printer
- FAST PRINTING TO KEEP YOU MOVING: The Brother HLL3210CW Digital Color Printer lets you get things done...
- ENJOY EASY AND AFFORDABLE COLOR PRINTING: Affordably print professional quality, rich, vivid color...
- USABILITY: Create Wi Fi Direct hotspot from the printer to establish direct connection to mobile...
- QUALITY AND RELIABILITY: Canon's signature reliability and engine technologies help keep productivity...
- BUILT TO KEEP YOUR BUSINESS MOVING FORWARD Print, scan, copy and fax consistently high quality documents...
- BEST-IN-CLASS SECURITY A suite of embedded security features, like instant threat notifications and...
- USABILITY: A unique, customized device experience with Application Library. Print, scan, copy and fax...
- QUALITY AND RELIABILITY: Canon's signature reliability and engine technologies help keep productivity...
- FAST PRINTING TO KEEP YOU MOVING: The Brother HLL3290CDW Digital Color Printer lets you get things done...
- ENJOY AFFORDABLE AND FLEXIBLE COLOR PRINTING: Affordably print professional quality, rich, vivid color...
- FAST PRINTING TO KEEP YOU MOVING: The Brother HLL3270CDW Digital Color printer lets you get things done...
- ENJOY EASY AND AFFORDABLE COLOR PRINTING: Affordably Print professional-quality, rich, vivid color...
- BIG PERFORMANCE IN A SMALL PACKAGE – This compact color laser printer features fastest in class first...
- FAST PRINT SPEEDS - Prints up to 22 pages per minute black/color, first page out as fast as 10.3 sec...
- Built to keep your business moving forward – Print consistently high-quality documents and vivid...
- Best-in-class security – a suite of embedded security features, like instant threat notifications and...
- Compact color laser printer that has dimensions that can easily fit in most places with a tray capacity...
- Wireless. Setup is fast and easy. Standard Wi-Fi makes it easy to print from mobile devices. Usb and...
- FAST PRINT AND SCAN: The Brother MFCL3710CW lets you get things done with up to 19ppm print speed and...
- ENJOY AFFORDABLE AND FLEXIBLE COLOR PRINTING: Affordably print professional quality, rich, vivid color...
How We Test Color Laser Printers
We put each all-in-one printer through a battery of home-grown tests to determine its performance and output quality. To test print speeds, we time each device when printing a text document, a five-page mixed text/graphics project, and a color photo. We examined the output quality of both landscape and portrait images printed on each printer, and we recorded scan and copy times. To measure the cost of ownership, we looked at the current street price of ink and the estimated number of pages that each cartridge can produce.
Printer Buying Tips: 8 Things You Need to Know
There are a few key details you want to pay attention to when shopping for a new printer. We obviously look at things like print quality and printing speed to determine which printers are best, but there are several other details to account for to find the one that best fits your needs.
- Inkjet or Laser? If you want the fullest range of color printing, with the ability to print photos at home, go inkjet. If you want to print mostly text documents, or at high volumes, laser printers are the way to go, with sharper text and a lower per-page cost. Check out our in-depth guide to inkjet and laser printing for more discussion.
- Home or Business? Some printers are built to offer great quality and value for the home user that prints a few pages a week, while others are built for busy offices where multiple users print dozens or hundreds of pages every day. Find the one that’s right for you to avoid paying for features you don’t need.
- Watch the Cost Per Page: Whether it’s using ink cartridges or toner, printers cost money over time. Check our reviews for a breakdown of the costs to print individual pages as a good measure of how expensive operating costs will be over the life of the printer.
- Consider the Brand: You should also pay attention to who makes the printer you’re considering. We recently compared the top printer makers to see which ones consistently stood out for print quality and speed.
- Mobile Friendly Features: You need a printer to play nicely with more than just a laptop. Look for printers with Wi-Fi Direct for easy connectivity and dedicated apps that bring more printing features to your smartphone.
- Automatic Duplexing: If you regularly need to print 2-sided documents, duplexing is a must, since it allows a printer to refeed a page through for printing on the other side. Skip this feature and you’ll need to manually flip every page to do the same.
- Photo-Specific Features: If you intend to do lots of photo printing, look for a printer that has a dedicated tray for photo paper, which makes it easier to get printing without fumbling with the paper tray and settings. Also, look for printers that use more than 4 colors of ink. Those extra colors make for better-blended colors and richer detail.
- Printing for School? For many college students a printer is still a must-have, so check out our guide to printing in college for all of our advice for students.
Do You Also Want to Scan and Make Copies?
Regular
A regular, or basic, printer’s only function is to print. So if you don’t need to scan, copy, or fax—or if you own other machines to do those tasks—one of these could be worth looking at. Models start at well below $100, as long as you’re getting an inkjet rather than a laser printer.
All-in-One
You can get a printer that also provides scanning, copying, and (sometimes) faxing capabilities. Many all-in-ones cost no more and take up little more space than a basic printer. And an all-in-one can be less expensive than several separate devices added together.
Note that most all-in-one printers have fewer features than stand-alone scanners, copiers, and fax machines. If you need to do very sophisticated scanning, for example, a separate scanner will have more options. And speaking of scanners, always look for a model with a flatbed design, as opposed to one that scans through the paper feed. This will allow you to copy not only documents but also book pages and photos. A few all-in-one printers also have built-in duplexers to automatically print on both sides of the page.
