Printing seems to be a part of the job for those who work in an office. Despite the fact that everyone’s needs are different, most office printers only support black and white printing for cost saving reasons. Not only that, but in order to get the best price, they have fewer features in general.
However, if you are looking for a printer to use at home, you may want to get one that is more powerful than the specifications of office printers. This is because you will most likely need the other features for personal use in the future. By buying the printer with more useful features, you can avoid buying another one if your printer lacks the features you need.
What should you look for from a printer?
Let’s find out.
Model
The first thing you should consider is whether the printer is a laser or an inkjet printer. They both have different strengths and weaknesses, which is why you should consider the intended use of the printer before you buy one. Even for the most basic model, laser printers continue to outperform inkjet printers in terms of printing speed. Laser printers are ideal for people who print a lot of pages of texts, such as students or office workers.
However, if you want to print colorful images or photos, inkjet printers should be at the top of your list. The fact that inkjet printers produce accurate colors, particularly images with color gradation, supports the choice. When comparing the results of laser and inkjet printers for this type of printing, the difference is significant. As a result, both sides offer advantages and disadvantages that you must accept whether you like them or not.
Features
After you have decided which model you prefer, the next step is to look for features that you expect from a printer. Do you need a printer that also scans documents? Then look for one with a built-in scanner to assist you with your work.
WiFi connectivity is another feature that most modern printers have. You don’t need to connect the printer cable to your laptop or computer to start printing because everything is done wirelessly. Fax may not be as popular as it once was, but it is still a useful feature to have if you ever need it. There are many more features available in most modern printers, so find out what you need and buy the one that fits the best for your expectations.
Size
Though this has no effect on the performance of the printer, size is still an important consideration, especially if you don’t have much space in your home. Normally, for home use, people prefer a small printer to save space, but this is a personal preference, and only you know which one you prefer to have at home, whether it has a small or large size.
Your Budget
Again, budget is always one of the factors when buying any item. We are sure that you are aware of this fact, but it is something to always keep in mind in order to stay within your budget. If the price of the item you wanted to buy is less than your budget, you can use the rest to get paper or cartridge replacement for the printer itself. We will not go into details because everyone has a different budget for the printer they want to buy, but keep in mind that if you have a limited budget, you should set realistic expectations.
Looking for the best printer options is always tricky, and the best printer for one person may be different for another, so all you need to do is find the one that meets most of your needs at the lowest price.
We have compiled a list of the top 10 best printers for home use to help you decide what to look for.
Best Printer Recommendations for Home Use by our Experts
Which ones are they? Here you go
Canon Pixma MG3620
The first option comes from one of the best value printers that also has a reasonable price, Canon Pixma MG3620
This printer is excellent for printing colorful images and photos, which makes it outstanding from other printers in the same class. It is also one of the simplest and most intuitive options in terms of operation, and you will be able to use it right away without any problems. The device has a compact size, which is ideal for those who have limited space in their room. With a wireless connection, you can print anything from your laptop or phone without having to connect them with cables, giving your workspace a cleaner look.
This printer can also work as a scanner or copy machine, which is why it is referred as all-in-one printer. However, since this is an inkjet printer, the printing speed is slow. This should be fine if you are only printing a few pages at a time, but if you are planning to print hundreds of pages at once, this printer might not be the ideal option. You can have a dependable printer to support your homework in this item
- Where to buy in In CA: https://www.canon.ca/en/product?name=PIXMA_MG3620&category=/en/products/Printers-and-All-in-Ones/Home-and-Photo-Printers/Document-and-Photo-Printers
Brother HL-2270DW
If you run a small home business and need to print pages of texts daily, Brother HL-2270DW should be on your list. This laser printer is a better option than traditional printers, which cost between $20 and $100 every time you need to replace the ink because it runs out so quickly after printing hundreds of pages.
In terms of printing speed, this printer is among the best in the class. Three tests are performed to see the performance of this laser printer. The first test is black text printing. The printer has a print speed of 18 pages per minute in this test. After that, image printing is performed, getting 19 pages in a single minute, but the quality is disappointing despite printing it quickly. The final test is the PowerPoint slides test, which gets similar results to the black text test, allowing it to print 18 pages per minute on average.
One major downside of Brother HL-2270DW, as well as other laser printers, is the poor image printing quality. It looks like the printer is incapable of transition, resulting in an unexpected disappointing result. Despite the downside of image printing, the printer, when used with a standard cartridge purchased online, can print up to 1500 pages. With a budget cartridge, the average cost per page is around 3-5 cents, which is really a good deal.
Size and connectivity are two other features that you should know about. With dimensions of 6.7 inches in height and 14.5 inches in width, you can put the printer anywhere in your room, whether on top of your desk or beside your TV. The weight, which is only 15 lbs, is not even heavy enough to move, giving you better flexibility.
While the compact size allows you to move the printer easily, the wired and wireless connectivity options give you flexibility to connect with other devices. You don’t need to connect your laptop or any other device to the printer to use it, giving your setup a clean look without cables exposed on your desk. Some users had problems in connecting their device to the printer, so having another connectivity option in case one fails is a good backup. If you want to buy this printer to help you with your work from home or home business, it costs a reasonable price for a device that has various features.
HP OfficeJet Pro 9025e
This printer is an all-in-one type, which means it has additional features to help you with your work, such as copying, scanning, and faxing
After mentioning a laser printer, it is now time to show that inkjet printers are still worth to buy. HP OfficeJet Pro 9025e is an excellent choice for home and office use.
When it comes to inkjet printers, you can expect a detail printing for images and photos, but of course at a much slower printing speed compared to laser model. However, this model turns the expectations around because it has a reasonable printing speed for this type of printer. It has been proven with the result of 39 pages printed in a minute for text printing, whether black or color. In terms of ISO print speed, the international standard for printing speed for both inkjet and laser models, the printer reaches up to 24 pages per minute for black and 20 pages per minute for color, making this device one of the fastest inkjet printers available.
Let’s now discuss about the features
With zoom settings ranging from 25% to 400%, you can make up to 99 copies in one go with zoomed in and out document from the source. The copy speed is quite fast which is going at 39 pages per minute, allowing you to get results quickly. In terms of fax, it can send up to 100 pages in color at once. This could be a good option for those who run a small design business from home and want to send their designs to other printers easily.
HP OfficeJet Pro 9025e has various connectivity options from which to connect. You can connect the printer with other devices using a USB cable or wirelessly. It is strongly advised that you connect your device wirelessly because it has a simple way to connect from anywhere and eliminates cables for a cleaner setup.
HP DeskJet 3755
- Print, scan with wireless option
- Specs: Print Speed - Black (ISO, laser comparable): Up to 8 ppm
Not every user requires a bunch of features from their printer. Some people simply just want to get the job done as quickly as possible. For that reason, HP DeskJet 3755 deserves to be included in this list. This printer has the potential to be one of the best basic printers on the market.
With an all-in-one package, this device has a lot to offer at a low price as you can see in the box above and as mentioned on their official website. Although it is a budget printer, the value it provides is worth considering.
You can print, copy, and scan to get the jobs done. Whether you use it at home for personal or small business use, the printer is reliable in both cases. Because this is an inkjet printer, print speeds for black and color text are only 19 and 15 pages per minute, which is not so impressive. However, because you are using it at home, it should not be a problem to wait a bit longer for your drafts to print. Unless you want to print hundreds or even thousands of pages, this model is still a good choice to save money.
HP DeskJet 3755 is excellent for printing images or photos. The printing quality is detailed, with decent color accuracy. This means that if you are planning to use this printer to sell photo printing services, you may have chosen the correct model. Because of the compact size of the body, it can be put anywhere you like, even on a place where it has limited space.
Canon TR8620a
Canon TR8620a comes with a compact, user-friendly design and a hybrid ink system.
This printer is a good choice for home use because you can easily move it wherever you need and it doesn’t take too much space due to the small size of the body. It also has an LCD touchscreen for a better and more intuitive control. The user interface of the display allows you to learn how to operate it pretty quickly without any problem whatsoever. Despite the fact that it is an inkjet printer, the text printing performance is superior if we compare to most inkjet printers on the market.
This model comes with five ink systems. You don’t have to replace the entire tanks if one runs out. Simply remove the ink tank that has run out and replace it with the new one that you bought. Furthermore, because it supports the hybrid ink system, the printing quality improves quite significantly. While using this printer, you can print a document with sharp and detailed black text or photos with good color precision and vibrancy.
As for the speed, this could be one of the real weaknesses that you need to be aware of. Black text printing only produces 15 pages per minute, while color printing takes even longer, getting only 10 pages per minute. This is why it doesn’t fit well in a fast-paced environment where everything must be completed quickly. However, if you don’t mind the printing speed because you have a lot of free time and only print a few pages at a time, you shouldn’t be concerned about choosing this model. Even if it is slow, it still provides good quality that is a more important aspect.
Canon TR8620a is not the cheapest option available, but the price is also not so expensive that you should reconsider buying it. With all-in-one capabilities for copying, printing, scanning, and faxing, this printer still provides good value that should not be overlooked. Canon also provides a one-year warranty, giving you peace of mind if it fails within that time frame.
HP Envy Inspire 7955e
The quality of photo printing is a plus for this model. The image detail is good, though the color is not as natural as it is in real life. The lack of color vibrancy and saturation make the photos seem pale and less interesting to look at.
Another wireless printer from HP is on the list, and it may be one of the best for value compared the others. Most people don’t like having to buy printer ink that runs out quickly after a while of usage. It is both expensive and boring to replace. If this happens to you, HP Envy Inspire 7955e should be on your radar as the printer for your home. That is because the low operating cost per page printed is beneficial if you plan to print a huge number of pages. Furthermore, because it is so simple to open the printer and replace the ink, you won’t have to worry about replacing it once the ink runs out because it is not that hard to do so.
Unfortunately, to solve a paper jam will be extremely inconvenient when this thing happens. Even if opening the printer is not a difficult thing to do, it will still take some time to resolve the issue. Furthermore, the scanner, which already has an ADF, does not perform as expected. As you can see, the scanning performance is slow, which is not a good sign if you need to scan a large number of documents quickly.
Apart from those downsides, you can see that the printer performs reasonably well and has some positive aspects. You can order directly on the HP’s official website, but you might find a cheaper option in a marketplace or buy it used from someone else who doesn’t need it anymore so you can get a lower price.
Epson Expression Home XP-4100
Compact printers seem to be the most popular model among other printers. This is not without reason, compact printers are easy to move and take up less space, allowing you to put it wherever you want. That compact size can also be found on Epson Expression Home XP-4100.
The LCD display for navigation control gives this printer a modern touch. Not only that it looks nice, but it also allows you to easily print, scan, or copy documents by seeing the instruction on the display. Furthermore, with wireless connectivity, you are not required to keep the printer close to your laptop or computer. As a result, the position of the device can be adjusted to fit anywhere without a problem at all.
As a typical inkjet printer, it prints high-quality photos, but the speed cannot be directly compared to laser printers that is way faster than this model. According to ISO print speed, it can only print black at 10 pages per minute and color at 5 pages per minute. As a result, if you want to get this printer for your home, you need to remember that you should not expect the printer to perform quickly.
Despite having slow speed, this printer is still a good choice, This device is also rich in colors. Printing photos in vibrant colors allows the image to appear sharper, more detailed, and more interesting. With the ability to print directly from an Android, iOS, or other smartphone, this could be an excellent choice for student use.
Brother MFC-L2750DW
- This model is the MFCL2750DW Monochrome printer
- Brother MFC-L2750DW has a print speed of up to 34 pages per minute for A4 paper and 36 pages per minute for letter-size paper
After talking about few inkjet printers, we return to the laser model. You will never have to worry about printing multiple pages in a single attempt with this speed because it is significantly faster than the inkjet model. The device also allows you to print A4 paper two-sided, avoiding the need to do so manually, which takes time and effort, and it could still go wrong if you make a mistake by printing on the wrong page on the other side.
In terms of connectivity, this printer not only has USB and wireless options, but it also has NFC for easy WLAN setup. With the numbers of connectivity options, you have more freedom to print documents and photos as you see fit. Maintenance is one of the most inconvenient aspects of having printers, but you won’t have to worry about it with this model. It is not a high-maintenance printer, which means you will only need to replace the toner cartridge a few times for a while. It has a decent number of prints to run the cartridge out of color powder, which is convenient for most people who just don’t like dealing with replacing it for any reason.
In terms of the negatives, photo printing seems to be the anticipated issue for any laser printer, including Brother MFC-L2750DW. The photos printed with this device will be grainy and noisy, making it less suitable for this purpose, especially if done on glossy paper, which is what most photos are printed on. Another problem you might need to know from this printer is scanning speed. Although it has an ADF feature that allows the device to scan pages automatically, the speed is just not impressive enough for business purposes. However, if you only use it to scan schoolwork or anything with a few pages only, this will not be a problem since it will only take minutes to complete.
Canon Color imageCLASS MF656Cdw
- It has a 3-year limited warranty
- This mid-range laser printer produces excellent document print quality in both black and color
If you have a maximum budget under $400, Canon Color imageCLASS MF656Cdw is a good option to consider. According to their official website, this model can print documents at a rate of up to 22 pages per minute, which means you can print a single page in under 3 seconds. Maintenance is also expected to be low for this printer, which means that common issues such as paper jams will be less likely to appear, and you don’t have to replace the toner cartridge too often.
Since the printer has a good number of pages to print before you need to replace the toner cartridge, you will definitely spend less money on each page printed. Furthermore, unlike inkjet printers, this laser printer is less likely to jam during printing. As a result, it looks like owning this printer is more valuable than buying an inkjet model based on this point of view, even with the best possible specifications.
However, as you might have expected from a laser printer, photo printing is not the best aspect from the device. Color gamut is limited, and there is less detail in photo printing, which is why you should always check your printer usage priorities before buying one in case you chose the wrong model. Another thing to keep in mind is that the printing speed is entirely dependent on the internet connection. When the internet is slow, the printing speed should be significantly slower than when the internet is stable. Therefore, always make sure that the network connection is at its best, or at least stable enough to transfer the data flawlessly.
Pantum P2502W
You might not be familiar with the brand name. Pantum is not as big as HP, Canon, or Epson in terms of popularity. However, you should never underestimate their products, especially Pantum P2502W, which is a budget- friendly option with good value to offer
Before we get into the pros and cons of the printer, you should know that it’s a budget option our testers love. This is one of the cheapest printers on the list that still does the job as expected.
It looks like the main strength from this model is the printing speed. It prints documents at a rate of 22 pages per minute in black and 23 pages per minute in color. Furthermore, Pantum claims that the model has a maximum monthly volume for printing of 15000 pages, showing how dependable this printer is for printing a huge number of documents. The connectivity options give a good value by having a USB cable as well as wireless connectivity. Everything about this printer is affordable, from the printer itself to the maintenance cost. This is because the price per print is significantly lower than the others on the list, making it suitable for home usage.
Unfortunately, when you compare this model to the competitors in the same class, this one has a few more flaws. This printer has no scanner, no ethernet port, and it takes time to warm up before it can print documents effectively. For your information, this printer is not designed for photo printing as well. The result will be so grainy that you don’t even want to keep the printout photo, let alone the terrible monochrome gradient. However, given the price of the device and the fact that you will only be using it at home, it may be a good fit for you to get this one, allowing you to spend less while still getting the job done.
Do you really need more options?
In the end, selecting a printer for home use needs some considerations to think about, such as specifications, features, price, and any other aspects you need from it. If all you need from a printer is to print quickly and you don’t want to spend more money on something you won’t use frequently, Pantum P2502W is the best option because you will get a cheap printer and a low cost per page. However, if you care more about printing quality over speed and want to keep the price as low as possible, HP DeskJet 3755 is a good alternative. This model is worth buying for home use purposes because of the excellent photo printing results and other features available such as scan and copy. You just simply need to know which features you want from a printer and see if one has the expected features or not