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You can use our independent, comparative test results to make sure you get the very best home printer that's perfect for your needs - whether that's for photos or the lowest possible printer ink costs.
The first decision you need to make when buying a good home printer is whether to get an inkjet or laser printer. Inkjet printers are generally recommended for printing photos. If you do lots of printing, laser printers are faster, but are more expensive to buy upfront - particularly if you're after colour printing.
You'll also need to decide if you need a printer with a scanner (an all-in-one printer) or if you're happy with a standard printer.
Whatever type you need, our comprehensive lab tests reveal our expert pick of the very best home printers for all budgets.
Head to our full selection of printer reviews to find the perfect model for your budget from the hundreds we've tested
Below are our picks for the best home printers, plus the ones that aren't worth your money.
Every printer we review goes through rigorous lab testing - covering everything from print quality and speed, to ink/toner costs and premium features.
Only logged-in Which? members can view our best home printer recommendations, below.
If you’re not yet a member, join Which? to get instant access to our best home printers, as revealed by our expert lab test. You will also get access to all of our online reviews, including laptops, phones and electric cars.
Full Access first month £5, then £10.99 per month, cancel at any time
Full Access first month £5, then £10.99 per month, cancel at any time
Full Access first month £5, then £10.99 per month, cancel at any time
Full Access first month £5, then £10.99 per month, cancel at any time
Full Access first month £5, then £10.99 per month, cancel at any time
Pricing and recommendations correct as of April 2024.
Looking for a more affordable home printer? See our guide to the best cheap printers.
Without our expert reviews, there's no easy way to tell a good printer from a bad one – even if you don't get stung by disappointing prints from the off, you will over time with excessively thirsty (and expensive) demands on ink. That's why our comprehensive tests leave no stone unturned, so you can be sure you won't get caught out. The best home printers we recommend have great print results and lower running costs.
Below we've selected three printers you should definitely avoid.
Only logged-in Which? members can view the printers you should avoid. If you’re not yet a member, join Which? to get instant access so you don't get stuck with a printer you'll regret buying.
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Full Access first month £5, then £10.99 per month, cancel at any time
Full Access first month £5, then £10.99 per month, cancel at any time
You can buy a new inkjet for less than £50, but will likely pay more over time due to high running costs. Our Best Buy printers start from just over £100, but will usually pay for themselves over time in rock-bottom printing costs.
If you’re looking for an all-in-one printer to scan, print, and copy, you’ll need to pay more – but some great models cost less than £200.
Unless you're a very light user, the most important cost for a printer is actually its running costs. Some cheaper cartridge inkjets cost considerably more to run than ink tank printers and laser printers (see what type of home printer should I choose for more information on printer types).
A cheap, ink-thirsty model could easily cost you hundreds of pounds more over the printer's life, even if it looks attractively cheap upfront. If you own or are buying a cartridge inkjet printer, see our best cheap printer ink cartridges recommendations to ensure you're getting the best value for money with the ink cartridges you buy.
It's also worth considering the features you need. You can buy an all-in-one printer/scanner with wi-fi and Apple AirPrint from £40. For premium features, such as an automatic document feeder or automatic double-sided printing, expect to pay £100 or more.
We test printers for every budget - from affordable inkjet models to business-ready laser printers. We assess their quality, speed and running costs, features and how easy they are to use.
Just need a decent model that won't cost a fortune in ink? We reveal the best cheap printers to buy and run
Printers can generally be split into two types, based on the ink technology they use: inkjet or laser.
We'd recommend picking a printer with low running costs, whether you opt for a laser or inkjet model. Our Eco Buy-recommended printers combine rock-bottom printing costs with great energy efficiency and good-quality printing.
Want to print pictures from home? Check out our pick of the best photo printers.
Ink tank printers do away with cartridges. Instead, they have refillable tanks of ink, which you replenish with a special kit. You'll find colour tank printers as well as some mono ones, which just print in black and white.
They have little windows that let you see into the tank on the front of the printer so you can easily check whether the ink is running low.
Tank models tend to be more expensive to buy than a traditional inkjet model. However, they can be extremely economical, costing just a few pounds a year to run.
There aren't that many tank laser printers: HP's Neverstop Laser range were the first laser models to use cartridge-free technology.
Find out which printers have the lowest running costs - see our pick of the best cheap printers to buy and run.
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Inkjet printers are great all-rounders. They can handle text-heavy documents, such as a student’s coursework or minutes from a meeting, but can also print photos – and do a better job of it than a laser printer. They’re quiet and take up less desk space than a laser.
However, cartridge inkjets usually cost more to run than laser printers, costing more in ink per printed page than a laser toner. That’s not necessarily the case with ink tank printers (explained in what is an ink tank printer, above). But as a rule of thumb, inkjet cartridge printers cost you less upfront, but more in the long term due to their cartridges.
Get the right home printer for you - use the handy filters on our expert printer reviews
Laser printers are great at printing a lot of black text. Colour laser models are more expensive than colour inkjets, but produce professional-looking business graphics. They’re normally faster than inkjets at this kind of job and can handle a heavier workload if you’re planning to print a lot of pages every month.
While the toner cartridges are more expensive than inkjets, most print a lot more pages than an inkjet cartridge. So the cost per black and white or colour page is usually much less.
However, laser printers are usually noisier than the equivalent inkjet printer and will take up more space on your desk.
Colour laser printers can produce good graphs and charts but aren't much good at printing photos. Stick to an inkjet if you're likely to print your holiday snaps.
Choose a model from our round-up of the best laser printers.
You can buy straightforward inkjet or laser printers, but a device that scans and copies as well won’t cost you a lot more. Most have wi-fi connectivity so you can print from any PC or laptops in your home, not to mention tablets or smartphones.
Some all-in-one printers have an automatic document feeder on top, which is handy for scanning and copying multi-page reports.
See the best all-in-one printers and other models in our printer reviews.
To others, it’s a compact photo printer that only prints small photos. Or perhaps you want an A3 specialist model with photo cartridges and high-resolution print heads for lab-quality photo prints that you can display.
Photo printers often have memory card slots and a USB connection on the front, so you can plug in your camera’s memory card or connect the camera and print away, with or without a PC.
We test cameras as well as printers. See our expert digital camera reviews.
Ideal if you want to print large office documents, posters or photos to hang on your wall, but they cost more and take up more desk space than a standard A4 printer. Some have a strong photographic or design focus.
We've rounded up the best A3 printers to help you quickly find the right model for you.
Black and white inkjets are a dying breed, but you can still save a little money by opting for a mono (black and white) laser printer. These are cheaper to buy than colour models, and if you mostly print black text on white pages they'll be cheap to run. See all of our mono printer reviews.
Colour makes your printer much more versatile, so you'll need to weigh up the savings against how likely you are to print photos or colour documents. See all of our colour printer reviews.
Almost all the printers we've tested let you connect wirelessly to your computer using wi-fi, so you can place your printer wherever you like in your home.
Once connected, you can access online services including free mobile printing apps offered by the main printer brands – the apps are called Brother iPrint&Scan, Canon Print, Epson iPrint and HP Smart (HP also has other apps including its ePrint app for legacy devices). The apps usually also let you print files and items stored in cloud services, such as Google Drive and Dropbox. They also usually provide printer status information, such as how much ink you have left.
If you have an Android device or a Google Chromebook, we'd recommend downloading your printer's app in order to print wirelessly from the device.
If you're an Apple user, look out for AirPrint - this lets you wirelessly print from Mac, iPhone and iPad devices without any drivers. You won’t need to install any additional apps or software.
It's the easiest way to print on Apple devices, although you may find your printer manufacturer's app gives you more printing options.
It’s easy to set up – just ensure that your printer and Apple device are on the same wi-fi network. Then either click the Print option in your menu bar on a Mac, or the Share icon on an iPhone or iPad. The only disadvantage of AirPrint is that it only works with Apple devices.
Find out how to extend your wi-fi
Only buy from a reputable retailer. Check the returns policy and pay attention to customer feedback and reviews. For more information about on shopping online safely and arranging refunds for faulty products, see our consumer rights guide to online shopping.
Amazon, Argos, Currys and John Lewis are some of the most searched-for printer retailers. We’ve included links to these because of their stock availability, best-value price or warranty options.
If you have an old printer to get rid of, be sure to either pass it on to a new owner or recycle it. Electrical items that are past their sell-by-date are classed as electronic waste and must be disposed of responsibly - see our guide on how to recycle electrical items.
These are the home printers that have most recently gone through our demanding printing tests.
Only logged-in Which? members can view the full reviews of the Brother printers we've tested most recently. If you’re not yet a member, join Which? to get instant access.
HL-L2445DW
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i-Sensys LBP122dw
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i-Sensys MF275dw
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Software and security support dictates how long the brand aims to continue updating the device with new features and security patches to guard against emerging threats.
We estimate the 'lifetime' of a printer – the average time we’d expect one to last before it breaks down or deteriorates significantly – is 13 years*.
We asked the biggest brands about their support policies in September 2023. Only one gave us clear information, which fell far short of this estimated lifetime measure.
While you may not be at immediate risk if you're using a device that's unsupported, it's obviously desirable to buy and use a device you know will receive update support for a decent period. For more information, read our guide to smart devices and security.
New mandates for minimum product support in the PSTI Act, in force from 29 April 2024, require manufacturers to inform consumers about the length of a product’s security update support period prior to the consumer making a purchase via a manufacturer’s or seller’s website. The Act allows the regulator to issue fines up to £10 million or 4% of yearly revenue, whichever is greater.
*This is based on robust analysis of our survey of printer owners. To find out more about our survey and its results, go to the most reliable printer brands.
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