Best Home Printers of 2022

Best Overall Home Printer

Canon Color imageCLASS MF741Cdw

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$549 List

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89

OVERALL
SCORE

• Text Quality 9.0
• Operating Cost 8.0
• Ease of Use 9.0
• Graphics and Photos 9.0
• Printing Speed 10.0

Printer Type: Laser | B/W or Color: Color

Super fast

Great text and image quality

Customizable interface

Multiple connectivity options

High capacity toner cartridges

Very large and heavy

No auto-duplexing ADF or scanning ADF

The Canon ImageClass MF741Cdw is the king of the hill. This machine can do it all, and do it all better than the rest. From text quality to speed, to image quality, the MF741Cdw beat out nearly every other model in our lineup for every metric. Not only is this printer faster than any other that we tested, but it's able to produce lightning-fast, stunning, high-resolution color images as well, a feat that none of the other products in our lineup came close to (in terms of speed). The interface is notably easy to use as well, boasting a large touch display with built-in adjusters that we were able to use to correct initial saturation issues during setup.

The size and price of the MF741Cdw are the only things we don't love about it. Its boxed weight is a hefty 76 pounds, and the unit itself is 64 pounds, so you may need to enlist some help when setting it up or moving it. This is something to consider if you're in a smaller office or home setting where space or the need for mobility is an issue. The MF741Cdw is also currently one of the most expensive models in our lineup. Put simply, this is the best printer we tested, with a price to match its performance. Whether you work from home and simply want the best of the best, or you're in an office setting that demands high quality and high output, this is a fantastic option to consider.

Read review: Canon ImageClass MF741Cdw

The Canon ImageClass MF741Cdw really impressed us with its ease of use functions.

Credit: Laura Casner

Great Value for Inkjet Performance

Epson Workforce Pro WF-4820

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$206.66

(6% off)
at Amazon

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83

OVERALL
SCORE

• Text Quality 8.0
• Operating Cost 8.0
• Ease of Use 8.0
• Graphics and Photos 9.0
• Printing Speed 9.0

Printer Type: Inkjet | B/W or Color: Color

Sturdy build

Intuitive design

Awesome interface

Strong performance all-around

Lacks duplex scanning

Proprietary (Epson) ink only

The Epson WorkForce Pro WF-4820 is the most well-rounded printer we tested. It does everything you could want a printer to do in this day and age, and it's reasonably priced. Our testing demonstrated that the WF-4820 balances fast reproduction of text and photos without sacrificing quality. With some of the fastest printing speeds in our lineup, we consistently saw crisp text, vivid colors, without any striping or artifacts. The setup is intuitive and quick and the interface is awesome, hosting a range of helpful troubleshooting capabilities that can quickly help you resolve any issues that might arise.

The biggest drawback to the Epson WorkForce Pro WF-4820 came in a recent update to the software that now prevents the use of anything other than proprietary Epson ink cartridges. That said, Epson's cartridges are averagely priced, coming in at around $20 per replacement. Another minor flaw to consider is that the WF-4820 cannot duplex scan (it will not automatically scan both sides of a document). To scan both sides, you have to manually flip it over. However, these are small gripes when considering the fantastic overall value-to-performance that the WF-4820 provides.

Read review: Epson WorkForce Pro WF-4820

An integrated, large touch display makes the Epson Workforce Pro WF-4820 easy to set up and troubleshoot.

Credit: Laura Casner

Best Bang for the Buck

Brother MFC-J4335DW

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$160 List

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76

OVERALL
SCORE

• Text Quality 6.0
• Operating Cost 9.0
• Ease of Use 8.0
• Graphics and Photos 7.0
• Printing Speed 8.0

Printer Type: Inkjet | B/W or Color: Color

Multiple connectivity options

Compact size

Low overall operating cost

Affordable price tag

Mediocre photo quality

Mediocre display and user interface

While the Brother MFCJ4335DW has some weak points, its overall performance stood out in the pack. It has among the lowest operating costs in our lineup and is fast and easy to use. What sets the MFCJ433DW apart from the rest is its cost-to-performance ratio. It doesn't do any one thing superbly, but can pump out documents at a decent speed for a very affordable price, making it a great choice for a home office where cost and efficiency are the deciding factors.

It's worth mentioning that the MFCJ433DW had some issues with photo and graphic reproduction. While it did a decent job across a variety of photo prints, nothing stood out as exceptional. Graphics had some noticeable blurriness in parts of the text, but the resolution was overall sharp. The text also appeared to lose clarity at smaller scales and lighter grayscale shades printed notably faint. Otherwise, the printer had exceptional affordability considering both buy-in and lifetime costs. This is where the MFCJ433DW shines–cartridge replacements are affordable relative to the number of pages you're able to print per, and overall quality metrics of this machine are above average across the board. A fantastic buy for the home office in need of decent, fast prints at a great price.

Read review: Brother MFC-J4335DW

The Brother MFC-J4335DW is a budget-friendly all-in-one.

Credit: Laura Casner

Most Capable Black & White Printer

HP LaserJet Pro M428fdw

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$549 List

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82

OVERALL
SCORE

• Text Quality 8.0
• Operating Cost 8.0
• Ease of Use 8.0
• Graphics and Photos 7.0
• Printing Speed 10.0

Printer Type: Laser | B/W or Color: B/W Only

Fast print speeds

Quality functionality

Good operating costs

Multiple Connectivity Options

Large size

Ok photo and graphics quality

Clocking in at one of the fastest printers in our lineup, the HP LaserJet Pro M428fdw makes quick work of even the biggest jobs. Fast printing and heavy workloads are this machine's forte, making it a great pick for those who work from home. In our 9-page print test of mixed color media, this printer shot out the entire document in a whopping 28 seconds. Only one other model in our lineup was marginally faster in the same test. The M428fdw does not sacrifice text quality for fast print times. Its prints are crisp and clear every time. It also scored highly across the board, with an easy-to-use interface and low operating costs.

The notable detractors for the HP LaserJet Pro M428fdw are its high price and average, black-and-white only image quality. While a fantastic choice for a small or home office that needs to print a lot of text documents, if your priority is high-quality images, there are better choices in our lineup. As with most high-speed laser printers, the time savings comes at a high buy-in price. However, if your office needs a high-quality, easy-to-use, fast printer, this is a great option.

Read review: HP Color LaserJet Pro MFP M283fdw

The HP LaserJet Pro MFP M428fdw is a lightning-fast, albeit hefty all-in-one.

Credit: Laura Casner

Best All-Around Workhorse Inkjet Printer

HP OfficeJet Pro 9015e

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$289.99

at Amazon

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If quality and affordability are your top two considerations for a new printer, look no further than the HP OfficeJet Pro 9015e. This model offers reasonable printing speed along with high-quality text, vibrant colors, and a solid, app-controlled UI. While not the absolute best at any single metric we tested, the 9015e performed nearly as well as productsthat cost twice the price. With such solid performance and a small form factor, this printer is a great option for home offices that aren't relying on super high-output day-in and day-out, but still want good quality prints when needed.

The drawbacks to the 9015e are notable, but not deal-breakers. While the proprietary HP app that controls setup and troubleshooting is easy to use, it's quite slow which results in a clunky feel. Though, the in-app live chat proved responsive and helpful. The printer's built-in touch display was a little haphazard, occasionally registering the wrong input. As far as picture quality, the 9015e also had some faint striping when printing graphics, but colors were exceptionally vibrant. Overall, the noted detractors here were slight in comparison to the overall solid package that the 9015e provides at an affordable price. We think that its ability to perform well across the board along with its small form factor and reasonable price point make this a winner for any home office.

Read review: HP OfficeJet Pro 9015e

The 9015e's touch display is tiltable, making it easy to angle to see and use.

Credit: Laura Casner

Compare Products

Compare select up to 5 products to compare

	Score	Product	Price	Our Take
	89	Canon Color imageCLASS MF741Cdw	$549	A great do-it-all printer for busy home or small offices, but may be overkill for the the average consumer
	83	Epson Workforce Pro WF-4820	$220	A great budget-friendly printer that performs well in every metric and excels at affordable, high quality photo printing
	82	HP LaserJet Pro M428fdw	$549	One of the fastest printers we tested--if speed is your need, this is the printer for you
	81	HP OfficeJet Pro 9015e	$270	A great home office printer that's affordable and reliably good at what it does
	76	Brother MFC-J4335DW	$160	A fast, affordable printer that produces decent images and text
	76	Epson EcoTank ET-4760	$500	A very cost-efficient printer, with okay overall performance
	73	Brother HL-L2300D	$110	A fast, monochrome laser printer with a small footprint, but limited in connectivity options
	63	HP DeskJet 4155e	$125	A compact pick for casual home printing needs
	62	HP Envy 6055e	$170	An initially affordable printer that can do it all, but the lifetime operating costs add up
	55	Canon Pixma MG3620	$100	An inexpensive printer that does the job, but is costly to operate

The mid-size, budget-friendly 9015e won't hog too much desk space and still manages to compete with the more massive printers in our lineup.

Credit: Laura Casner

Why You Should Trust Us

Even when authors Alex Hocevar-Smith and Genaveve Bradshaw aren't on the job, they're researching and comparing their own potential purchases, whether it's tech, outdoor gear, or the groceries at their local co-op. With so many companies and products vying for our attention and capital, we either need to invest our own valuable time and energy into vetting every purchase for ourselves or looking for a third party to help us out. That's where we come in. We see you, we see the clutter, and we're here to help sort through it all to make sure you never feel like you're wasting your hard-earned dollar. We hate that feeling too, and our goal is to be the best resource for you to come to when you're looking to make a purchase, but don't know where to start.

When it comes to printers, we've researched hundreds and tested dozens over the years, spending excessive hours comparing and contrasting every worthy metric we discover. We print thousands of pages and A/B text, photo, and graphics quality against competitors. We compare form factors and ease of setup, use, connect-ability. Anything you could want to know about one of these devices, we've tested it against every other printer we found that was worthy of comparison. We're proud of our efforts and this resulting comparisons article of the best home printers on the market. We hope you can use the information here to select the perfect product to fit your current needs.

Analysis and Test Results

Printers may not be the most glamorous or exciting piece of tech in our homes or offices, but they're an essential tool in our society. How much longer we'll need to rely on them seems dubious, but for now, they remain a staple in our homes and offices. It's important to own one that you can rely on to perform the tasks that you need it to, without hindrance or failings. While they can be frustrating when they don't perform how we expect them to, they've come a long way over the years in terms of convenience, reliability, and ease of use. We think our analysis and test results demonstrate that there are some very strong performers in today's market.

The front-runners we uncovered perform exceptionally well at the metrics we've outlined for you here. Even outside of our awards there were strong performers amongst the 10 models that we tested side-by-side. We're confident that our weeks of testing, analysis of results, and explication in these reviews can lead you to a purchase you feel good about and can save you both time in having to research yourself and money wasted in purchasing something that doesn't do what you need it to.

Value

The value of any particular piece of office equipment will vary depending on your needs. If you're running a small office that has a high output of printed documents and graphics or images, a printer that performs fast with exceptional quality may be very valuable to you, and worth a larger investment. If your child prints the occasional essay at home, an award-winning machine with perfect, crisp text is probably not worth much to you. Beyond these meta considerations of value, we've also provided an analysis of the estimated lifetime and operating costs of each model in our lineup. So, once you've decided in general what type of printer you need for your situation, you can look at our cost analysis of each model that you've honed in on. For example, maybe the quality of graphics is more valuable to you than the cost of cartridge replacements. Regardless of your needs, we hope to provide you with all the information here that will help you find the product most valuable to you.

Some of the best value printers in our current lineup include the Epson EcoTank ET-4760, the Brother MFCJ4335DW, and the Canon ImageClass MF741Cdw. While each ranges in their initial purchase price and overall function, they each provide a great value to their target audience. The Epson EcoTank has incredibly low operating costs and is super unique in how Epson has gone about manufacturing a printer that prioritizes economics. The Brother fits into a different bracket of initially affordable and inexpensive to maintain. While not the best at its printing functions, it's a very cost-effective solution for the small home office. Finally, the ImageClass provides incredible value to the high output small or home office that needs quality prints every time. While not inexpensive, its overall package is stellar for those that are in need of a printer with great all-around performance and affordable lifetime costs.

Text Quality

Above all, the most important feature of your everyday printer is its ability to print clear text. If the text is blurry or illegible, it's not performing its most basic function. A model that scored 10 out of 10 in this metric has flawless text quality; a score of 1 means the text is ineligible. We printed thousands of pages of text at various sizes and densities to sort from best to worst. After printing, we then studied the text in both dim, natural, and artificial lighting before arriving at our final score. Our two points of analysis on printed text were Black and White Text Quality–how consistently black was the ink within each character under various lighting conditions–and Text Resolution–the sharpness of each character, looking carefully for bleeding or blemishes.

Our top three contenders were the Epson WorkForce Pro WF-4820, the Canon ImageClass MF741Cdw, and the HP OfficeJet Pro 9015e, with the latter two tying for first place. Essentially, all produced exceptional black and white quality and text resolution with minor blemishes, if any. The HP and the Canon stood out as extra sharp with unwaveringly great pigmentation. An advancement in technology that we've noticed since the last time we reviewed printers is that inkjets are performing very close to the top laser printers in both text quality and even speed. We now have a mix of both inkjets and lasers in this best-of arena, whereas this space was previously dominated by laser printers.

For our monochrome text quality metric, we used this well-rounded test template.

Credit: Laura Casner

Closely following our top three models was the HP LaserJet Pro MFP M428fdw. It marginally lagged behind the Epson WF-4820 in the text resolution metric, showing some occasional faintness, but otherwise performed just as well. The Brother HLL2300D also had identical scores with the LaserJet Pro, demonstrating consistently good quality black and white saturation, with some occasional fuzz on individual characters.

This text quality template allows us to gauge the resolution, saturation, sharpness, depth, etc. of each printer's monochrome prints.

Credit: Laura Casner

The weakest performer in the text quality metric was the Brother MFCJ4335DW. Smaller text sizes lost clarity and lighter grayscale shades printed notably faint, and there was also some blurring for thinner fonts.

Operating Cost

Generally, most people want to print documents and forget about their printers. Constantly needing to buy expensive ink cartridges just isn't worth it for most consumers, unless you're running an office that requires the highest quality prints all of the time. Likewise, it's not in everyone's best interest to buy the cheapest printer with the cheapest cartridges that they can find and constantly have to deal with subpar prints or errors.

That's why we spent the time and calculated the exact cost per page of every printer on our list: so you can decide where your price point sweet spot is. We also calculated the estimated 3-year lifetime cost of each printer by adding the MSRP to our cost per page analysis. This way, you won't have any surprise costs when considering one of the printers in our lineup and you can make the best decision for your specific needs.

With a perfect score in this metric, the Epson EcoTank ET-4760 allows a whopping 7,500 printed pages per replacement cartridge(s). Its cost per printed page is so low, a fraction of a fraction of a cent, that it was effectively $0 for our per page yield calculations. That fraction eventually adds up to about $1.33 per 500 pages (the next closest printer was $5.50 per 500 pages for reference). Compared to every other printer we tested, the ET-4760 is far and away the least expensive to operate and makes it a fantastic choice for buyers looking for the best bang for their buck.

Coming next was the Brother MFCJ4335DW which missed a perfect score by $0.50 per 500 pages. Still not on the same level of day-to-day affordability as the Epson EcoTank, the Brother has very low operating costs, and when you factor in MSRP has the lowest lifetime cost of any of our tested printers at $250 per 3 years of ownership. While both are great options for affordable printers, our top two contenders here performed disparately in other metrics that are worth considering and should help you decide which would best suit your needs.

Most of the rest of our lineup falls in a range of $11 to $30 per 500 printed pages (a ream) of black and white text. The HP OfficeJet Pro 9015e comes in at about $11.25 per ream, the Brother HLL2300D comes in at $16.66 per ream, the HP LaserJet Pro MFP M428fdw and the Canon ImageClass MF741Cdw both follow at around $18 per ream, and finally the Epson WorkForce Pro WF-4820 settles at $28.56 per black and white ream.

The color cost per ream ranges vastly, starting as low as $0.87 with the category winner, the Epson EcoTank ET-4760, and goes all the way up to $84.95 per color ream with the HP Deskjet 4155e. What needs to be considered when factoring in any of these operating costs is each printer's performance in black and white and photo/graphics print quality. So while the Deskjet 4155e might have the highest cost per color ream, it also scored third highest in photo and graphic print quality. Again, ultimately, you have to pinpoint what your top priorities are for your personal printer needs and use our analysis to settle on the best performer for your situation. Something more to consider here is that there are local printing services available to you in your area. So, ideally, if you plan on printing lots of quality photos at home, you want to make sure it costs less than going to, say, your local CVS and paying to have them printed for you.

Another consideration is how all of these costs accrue over lifetime ownership of each printer. While each model varies in operating and purchase costs, each performs different functions better or worse than the other. If you're in a situation where having the absolute lowest-priced product available is the most important factor to you, then something like the Brother MFCJ4335DW is a great choice. However, if having the best photo print quality available on the market is your key factor, then paying a lifetime cost of $789 for the Canon ImageClass MF741Cdw might be worth it for you. Hopefully, our cost analysis can provide enough compiled data to help you quickly sort through the overall costs of owning and operating each of these printers and make the best choice for your needs.

Ease of Use

There's been a great deal of progress in the realm of user interfaces and software design over the past decade. From WiFi connectivity improvements to the advent of touchscreens and using supplementary mobile apps to speak to and navigate printer settings, most printers have come a long way from the days of esoteric, slow, and clumsy onboard menus. We found that many of the printers in our lineup were quite easy to set up and pleasant to use and troubleshoot. However, as with any field of tech gadget these days, we still ran into our fair share of various setbacks and head-scratchers.

If not for its mammoth size and weight (64 pounds), the Canon ImageClass MF741Cdw would've scored near perfect in this metric. The setup was painless, the WiFi connection uncomplicated, the touch display was large and the sub-menus contained accessible adjusters to help dial in prints. Our only real complaint, beyond its cumbersome size, was a few random WiFi dropouts that we couldn't seem to pinpoint on any obvious issue. Otherwise, the ImageClass MF741Cdw was an absolute pleasure to use and set the bar for our lineup.

The Canon ImageClass MF741Cdw is a giant, but excellent machine.

Credit: Laura Casner

All of the next five printers experienced a few various hiccups, from wireless setup complications with the Epson WorkForce Pro WF-4820 to some basic cartridge alignment issues with the HP OfficeJet Pro 9015e. However, each performed well enough to garner strong scores with the HP LaserJet Pro MFP M428fdw shining more brightly than the rest on every tested metric–initial setup, wireless setup, customer service, and interface ease of use.

The HP LaserJet Pro MFP M428fdw's great, simple-to-use touch display makes it easy to navigate settings and understand/resolve errors.

Credit: Laura Casner

It is worth noting, the Epson EcoTank ET-4760 and the Brother HLL2300D were significantly more challenging to use than the rest of our lineup. The EcoTank has a bizarre initial setup in which you empty bottles of ink in tanks that are housed in the printer. There is some opportunity for a mess here, but if you're careful it is fairly straightforward, just a bit of a time sink. It then took the printer ten minutes to decide that its tanks were full enough to allow printing. The first print we attempted jammed, and then it took another significant chunk of time to follow alignment procedures to get it to print properly. Beyond this initial setback, the EcoTank also struggled with jamming easily. While jams don't take terribly long to clear, they are a nuisance to deal with and definitely detract from its overall package.

The Brother HLL2300D had a hard time. Initial setup was easy albeit a little slow, but this printer seems to be stuck in the previous decade in regards to driver installation. We found that the only way to install wireless drivers was to use a supplied CD-ROM; however, if you're like us, none of our computers on hand have CD drives anymore. For whatever reason, Brother does not supply this printer's drivers on their website, so setting up its WiFi connection became impossible, thus its very low wireless ease of use score. Its customer service also, while timely in responses, was never helpful in resolving any of the issues we had. Overall, this printer's strong suit was not its ease of use.

Graphics/Photos

Graphics and photos are not everybody's top priorities, but if it's important to you to be able to produce high-quality printed images at home or in your office, we put our lineup through its paces to help you make the most informed decision. We printed hundreds of graphics, charts, and photos and compared them side by side ordering them from best to worst quality. There were several very strong contenders and the rest performed above average.

There were a few printers for this category that impressed us. The Canon ImageClass MF741Cdw, the Epson WorkForce Pro WF-4820, and the HP Deskjet 4155e all excelled at printing high-quality color photos. Each had sharp resolution, and a beautiful, wide color display. The ImageClass led the pack with every metric being measured slightly better than its direct competitors. The only drawback to any of these machines was that each struggled slightly when printing graphics that had hard edges and sharp contrast. Here, we noticed a little bit of fuzz or very faint color striping, but none so bad as to detract from the overall score too much. If photos are a priority for you, you couldn't go wrong with any of these top contenders.

This high-texture, richly-shaded color photo from the HP Ency 6055e is one of the test prints that we used to compare our lineup's photo printing abilities.

Credit: Laura Casner

The HP Envy 6055e came in closely behind the front runners and displayed sharp graphics a bit better than them. It notably struggled with striping and color banding in black parts of images, and a general lack of consistency in color across our printing tests, thus it's slightly lower score. However, overall, the 6055e performed fantastically and excelled at textural displays and subtle color variation in richly saturated images.

One of the more compact printers that we tested is the HP ENVY 6055e.

Credit: Laura Casner

The Brother HLL2300D scored lowest in this metric, unsurprisingly. As the lowest-priced monochrome, laser printer in our lineup, its priority is speed above all else and is not a machine you should be looking to for photo printing needs.

Printing Speed

Not everyone will find it important for their printer to shoot out documents at lightning speed, but for those consumers who print a high volume of documents and are time-crunched, high-speed printers might be a very valuable resource. We put our lineup through the wringer, printing mixed text and photos, high res photos, 10-page documents duplex, and simplex (double and single-sided). We then tallied up the speed of each test to arrive at our overall scores. The lasers, as expected, excelled in this category; however, some of the inkjets performed strongly as well.

Our King of the Hill, the Canon ImageClass MF741Cdw again knocked it out of the park with this test. Not only was it able to spit out mixed and standard text documents at an incredible 23 to 26 seconds, but it also produced gorgeous, rich, full-page color photos in just 6 seconds. No, that's not a typo. Though the images were a bit fainter than how they appeared on our computer screen, the speed at which they printed was truly impressive. The HP LaserJet Pro MFP M428fdw performed marginally better in this category too, boasting slightly faster duplex and simplex print times than the Canon. Its print quality was noticeably inferior, but its speed in every metric was best in class.

Next in line was the other laser, the Brother HLL2300D, and one of the inkjets, the Epson WorkForce Pro WF-4820. Both had strong performances; though, the Brother was faster across the board, as we'd expect from a laser vs inkjet speed comparison. Still, the Workforce Pro did surprisingly well with a nice balance of speed and quality images and text. The Brother on the other hand, while very fast, had striping and generally subpar quality. Again, the deciding factor here is really what your top priorities are for your specific printer needs.

The HP LaserJet Pro M428fdw absolutely dominated our single-sided black and white print speed test, pumping out almost twice as many pages per minute as the next best, the Canon ImageClass MF741Cdw. So, if your situation is such that you have a high output of single-sided text copy day in and day out, there's a very clear winner in this category.

Conclusion