What Is The Most Economical Color Laser Printer

Best Printers Of 2021

Top picks among inkjets and laser printers from Brother, Canon, Epson, and HP

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Finding the best printer for your purposes can be confusing. Laser or inkjet? Regular or all-in-one? Should you invest in a printer that uses a reservoir tank?

These aren’t trivial decisions pick the wrong model and you could find yourself wasting hundreds of dollars on ink costs as the years roll by. With Consumer Reports on your side, though, the choice is a lot easier.

CR members can consult our ratings for a detailed breakdown of close to 175 printers. Each model was purchased at retail and evaluated on more than 250 data points. We combined those test results with brand reliability and owner satisfaction ratings derived from our member surveys to arrive at an Overall Score, which lets you compare one model with the next.

To make things even easier, we’ve combed through our ratings to bring you the best printers of the year, each selected to meet different needs. The models below print out text with dependable quality, and all connect over WiFi.

Before you pick up your next printer, you may also want to consult our and our report on the high cost of wasted printer ink.

The models featured here are the best printers based on CR’s latest tests. We update this article and our ratings throughout the year.

Best Overall: Brother Business Color Laser Printer

In a huge sea of printers of all types, one color laser printer stands out above the rest. The Brother Business Color Laser Printer hits a sweet spot in terms of quality and price.

Its perfect for use at home or at the office. Reviewers have fallen in love with the brilliant color quality and the ease of use with multiple types of paper and stock.

Best Buy Customers Often Prefer The Following Products When Searching For Economical Laser Printers

A laser printer is a great tool for printing documents at home or in the office. Browse the top-ranked list of economical laser printers below along with associated reviews and opinions.

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Why We Brought In A Color Laser Printer

Color laser printers exist, they are now surprisingly affordable, and I’ve been testing one for the past month. Well, technically, my wife has been testing it.

Back in March, HP sent me the $179 monochrome LaserJet MFP M234dwe to review as part of a piece I was doing on tax-time preparation. It’s a fine little laser printer, and quite inexpensive given its 30 page-per-minute performance.

I set it up in the Fab Lab, ran some tests, and as I was putting it back in its box, my wife asked, “Can it print in color?”

“No, hon. It’s a laser printer,” mansplained I.

“So.” Pause waiting for me to catch on. “There are color laser printers.”

“I know. But why would we need a color laser printer? Our inkjet is doing just fine.”

“Not for me. I need to print a lot. In color.”

As it turns out, a lot really is a lot. My wife is very active as a doll clothing sewist and a fiber artist. Some of her patterns come with 50 or 60 pages of instructions, and full page color photos. Those photos aren’t just for cover art. She carefully examines the photos, the stitches, and how the garments are constructed to guide her projects.

We’re also getting a new 12.9-inch iPad to store all of them, along with her knitting and sewing magazines that my wife has scanned in. But she needs a color printer to print out the patterns, mark them up, lay them out, cut them out, and use them. She interacts with the printouts to create her art. She doesn’t need to be constantly changing cartridges.

How Can I Save Money On Toner

The first step is to print efficiently that is, double-check your page layout settings and make sure everything is correct before you hit that print button.

When it is time to reorder, you can save money by buying third-party toner cartridges. A single genuine toner cartridge for the Brother HL-L8360CDW costs about $78, while an entire set of black and color toners from E-Z Ink costs about $66. Buying third-party toner likely isnt recommended by your printers manufacturer, but so long as you make sure its compatible with your printer, it should work just fine. However, some printers, like the HP model above, look for toner that uses a special chip identifying it as original equipment. HP warns that while some other cartridges may work today, they may not in the future.

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Do Color Laser Printers Come With Wi

Yes. As with inkjet printers, wireless connectivity has become very common on color laser printers. However, not every model will support every brand of wireless printing tech. The Brother HL-3170CDW above supports both Apple AirPrint and Google Cloud Print, for example, while the Dell C1760NW does not, though it still offers mobile printing through its own proprietary app.

What Will You Use The Printer For

If youre looking for a home printer for occasional printing, most people would advice you to get an inkjet printer. However, a common complaint with inkjet printers is that the ink dries up if you dont use it often. With that said, if you have the budget for it, I strongly suggest you get an affordably priced laser printer instead the toner used by laser printers doesnt dry up.

But if youll be printing a small volume of documents and require high resolution colored images regularly, inkjet printers will get the job done. Laser printers are known to be more durable and can print large quantities of monochrome and colored documents frequently.

What is a monochrome printer?

A monochrome printer is a printer that prints only in black and white. Monochrome printers only need a black printer cartridge to print.

Though laser printers were originally built for office use, they are now growing in popularity as a home printer for economical reasons.

If youll be printing large volumes of documents, a laser printer is the best machine for you. Laser printers can print high volumes of documents daily without even batting an eyelash .

What about for printing in color? Color laser printers are good for everyday color printing but if youre looking to print professional high resolution photos, go with a .

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The Conclusion Of The 10 Best Color Laser Printers

These are our picks for the top 10 solid and good-value color laser printers that work their magic flawlessly and produce excellent copies with immaculate text and graphic quality.

Compared with other traditional printers, when it comes to churning out documents quickly and reliably with ease, there are no ways they can be beaten.Therefore, if you need something to satisfy the needs of your business offices with dishing out prints, the abovementioned laser color printers are for sure well up to the task.

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Tip : Look At The Up Front Printer Price

If running costs are less of a consideration, then your job is made slightly easier by the fact that youll mainly, if not exclusively, looking at that initial price tag.

At the same time, consider what you need the printer for. If its just for documents, then get a mono printer, even if thats not as cheap as a colour version, purely for the fact that youll only ever have to buy blank ink to replace it.

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Small Business Laser Printer: Hp Laserjet Pro M402n

A monochrome laser printer, HP LaserJet Pro M402n uses 26A Black and 26X Black toner cartridges. An affordable high-yield cartridge for HP LaserJet Pro M402n can print up to 9,000 pages.From statements and envelopes to office documents in letter, legal or executive sizes, this monochrome laser printer supports a variety of paper sizes.With features such as built-in Ethernet connectivity, 2-line LCD, 350-sheet paper input tray, and print speed of 40 ppm, HP LaserJet Pro M402N is suitable for small businesses that print a few hundred pages each week.

When Is A Toner Really Cost

If you own a laser printer, a toner cartridge is one consumable that you will need to keep buying regularly to meet your ongoing printing needs.One of the best ways to reduce printing costs is to use a laser printer that uses a high-yield toner cartridge and ensures a low cost per print a toner with a low sticker price isnt necessarily cost-effective.Depending upon budget and expected usage, you may consider buying an affordable or heavy-duty laser printer.Here in this post, we have compiled a selection of budget laser printers and small business laser printers available in 2020 that use the cheapest toners.

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Epson Workforce Pro Wf

• Duty cycle: 20,000 pages max/800 pages recommended
• Capacity: 250 sheet input
• ADF capacity: 35 sheet

Epson describes the print technology in the WorkForce Pro WF-3720 as Performance Beyond Laser, because the PrecisionCore inkjet printer engine delivers unusually sharp and crisp printouts that you could mistake for color laser output. Thats great, and when you consider the relatively low price. This printer is clearly a great option for a home office . Its also a great option as a general purpose home printer. In fact, the 20,000 page duty cycle can keep you printing no matter your needs.

You can control the printer via the 2.7-inch LCD touchscreen, and its possible to send jobs to the printer via Wi-Fi or mobile app. Theres a modest ADF and full-duplex printing, as well as Alexa support for voice-controlled printing.

Best Compact Printer: Hp Color Laserjet Pro All

You know how they say good things come in small packages? Looks like it’s true. The HP Color LaserJet Pro All-in-One Compact Printer may be small, but you can still put it to the test with your most demanding color printing jobs.

Reviewers give the printer high marks for the high quality of both color and black and white printing. They also love the superior design that allows fast printing of up to 22 pages per minute with fewer paper jams than other printers.

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How Low Can You Go

What makes this AIO more attractive than competing laser models is that it costs much less to use than machines that deploy toner cartridges. The 2,500-page refill kit costs $16, and you can buy a pack of two for $28, compared to, say, the $49.99 1,200-print HP 94A toner cartridge for the HP LaserJet Pro M118dw. With the 1202ws refill kit, youll pay about 0.6 cent per page, while the same pages on the M118dw will run about 4.2 cents each, a huge difference of 3.6 cents per page.

If you actually printed the 1202ws recommended volume of 2,500 pages each month, that 3.6 cents difference will save you $1,080 each year. For most small businesses, thats a significant savings. That said, the Canon MF269dw costs 2.2 cents more per page then the MFP 1202w, but the Epson ST-M3000 inkjets running costs are half that of the Neverstop . The 1202w isnt the least expensive to use among these machines, but it offers by far the best price on toner output for an entry-level laser.

Hp Neverstop Laser Mfp 1202w Specs

HPs Neverstop Laser MFP 1202w is an entry-level monochrome all-in-one laser printer designed for home offices, small offices, and workgroups. A direct competitor to Canons imageClass MF269dw monochrome AIO laser and Epsons WorkForce ST-M3000 Monochrome MFP Supertank Printer, an inkjet monochrome laser alternative , the 1202w falls a bit behind those PCMag favorites in features and print quality. But it compensates by being by far the least-expensive-to-use entry-level laser printer available, making it a great value for churning out hundreds of text pages each month in environments where laser output is required. In fact, as the first cartridge-less, bulk-toner laser AIO, its innovative technology and low running costs are enough to elevate the Neverstop 1202w to an Editors’ Choice of its own as our new favorite entry-level monochrome laser AIO.

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What Kind Of Printer Should I Buy

Inkjet Printer: These printers use small guns to apply droplets of ink to the paper they are printing. The benefits of purchasing an Inkjet printer include lower initial cost and color printing. However, over time, the cost of replacing the ink cartridges make these printers more expensive for users who print large quantities. Inkjet printers are also more likely to be able to accommodate unusual paper sizes.

Laser Printer: Laser printers heat up toner inside a cartridge, allowing it to be fused to the paper you are printing. These printers excel at black-and-white printing, but color laser printers have become much more common and cost-effective in recent years. Laser printers are often a bigger investment upfront, but because toner is much more efficient than ink, high-volume users will usually save money in the long run with a laser printer.

Best Cheap Printers At A Glance

• Easy to set up and use

Cons:

• Ink smudges easily
• No Wi-Fi or mobile app support

The Canon Pixma TS205 is a cheap and cheerful colour inkjet printer. Very cheap to buy at around £35, the TS205 is about as bare-bones as it gets its just a printer, theres no scanner and no photocopy function, and theres no Internet connectivity, so it cant even accept print jobs over Wi-Fi, and it cant be controlled via a phone working with Windows and Mac desktop and laptop PCs, the Pixma TS205 accepts print jobs over a USB connection, and thats it.

Aimed at buyers who want a cheap, sub-£50 printer to use every so often, the Canon Pixma TS205 is included here as its one of the very cheapest colour printers on the market.

Its very easy to set up and use and is suitable for running off homework, letters, boarding passes and the like. Despite its low price, the Canon Pixma TS205 can even print photos on glossy photo paper.

Print quality is generally very good, a lot better than you might expect from such a cheap printer.

Its not without its drawbacks, though, and the main drawback is the fact that text printouts are very prone to smudging. Images, too, take a long time to dry out, so you need to be extra careful when lifting pages up off of the Pixma TS205s tray, lest you smudge something and need to print it out again.

Its also quite slow, something youll only really notice if youre printing out multiple copies of the same document, or long essays.

Cons:

Cons:

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What Is The Best Laser Printer For Me

Modern laser printers come in two basic types: one that’s better for personal use, and one that’s built more for office use.

• Large Business: Heavy office users, such as law firms and other professional firms that print a lot of documents, will want a large paper capacity printer. They’re built to handle much bigger jobs and longer daily usage. These printers come with both a bigger footprint and a higher cost, generally speaking, but they’re the right machines for the job.
• Studentand Home Use: For personal laser printer usage, you’ll want to look for more economical smaller laser printers. They take up less space in smaller home offices and dorm rooms, and they generally come with a smaller price tag. They may also have a smaller paper capacity.
• Small Business: Small office laser printers can fall somewhere in the middle between the big, large-capacity laser printers for large businesses and the smaller, more budget-friendly personal use printers. Look for a speed range of around 30-35 pages per minute for your business.

You can also find an all-in-one printer among the many laser printers for sale at Sam’s Club’s and SamsClub.com. A multifunction or all-in-one printer can take the place of several devices in your home or business, including fax machine, scanner and copier.