We tested some of the most popular home office printers and provided you with a list of the best printers to buy in 2021.
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Release time: Thursday, May 20, 2021, 5:17 PM
Printers come in various shapes and sizes, and sometimes provide buyers with a dizzying array of options. Whether you are looking for the best printer for your home, or a printer that is more suitable for a small office or home office, the sheer number of variables can be confusing.
Do you want an inkjet printer or a laser printer? Do you need to print in color, or do you only need to print documents, so you only need a black and white printer? Do you need something that can print photos on glossy paper? Do you want a scanner and copier with a printer, or just a standalone printer? Still none of the above? Still confused?
If so, then no problem-here, we have carefully selected a series of the best printers to satisfy all buyers, families and situations. If you don't mind high-end features, we have entry-level budget options and all-rounders. If you have to move your business operations to your home due to lockdown conditions and need something heavier, then we also provide you with the best choice.
Here, we explain in detail how we tested everything and why we chose the following model.
In general, HP has some of the best bottom-line prices for ink cartridges. The HP 305 black ink and tri-color (cyan, magenta, yellow) ink cartridges used by the HP Envy Pro 6420 and HP DeskJet Plus 4120 cost 10.99 pounds each. This is cheaper than the £16.49 you paid for an equivalent Canon cartridge. In other words, the prices of Epson 102 black ink and color ink bottles used by Epson EcoTank ET-2750 are 13.99 pounds and 8.49 pounds, respectively, but go further in terms of the number of ink pages you get. This is why it is best to look at the total cost per page of the printer and the upfront cost, and weigh the frequency of printing certain content to determine the actual cost-effectiveness of the printer.
Since most printers can be connected to the Internet now, many of them provide an optional service that automatically scans the ink level so that your printer can "tell" the supplier to automatically eject a few new ink cartridges in the post office before you run out. HP Instant Ink and Epson ReadyPrint Go subscription prices are based on the number of sheets you print in a month. They operate in the same way and are priced as follows:
The science behind printing is very complicated. When you send a document or photo to a printer for printing, the software breaks down your file into a series of instructions that tell the print head with extremely small nozzles to spray thousands of drops on a specific area of the page within a few milliseconds Ink, while the paper is pulled through as quickly as possible.
Laser printers work slightly differently. They electrostatically charge specific areas of the page and then attract toner (fine powder instead of liquid) to the page before heating the paper to seal everything, which is why the printout sometimes The reason for the warmth is that they can be touched when they come out of the laser jet. The most important thing is that what you really pay is the engineering cost, not the ink or toner. We found here where to buy printer ink and detailed the most cost-effective deals.
In our tests, we found that the Brother MFC-L3710CW is the fastest, printing 20 pages of plain text in more than a minute, which is significantly faster than any other printer. We mainly attribute it to MFC-L3710CW is a laser printer.
Generally speaking, laser printers are faster than inkjet printers because toner can be applied to paper faster than ink. So far, the fastest inkjet printer we have tested is Epson XP-7100, which can print 20 pages of text in 1 minute and 14 seconds. We have compared inkjet printers and laser printers here.
In our tests, we found that Epson EcoTank ET-2750 is the most economical to run because of the relatively low cost of ink bottles and the number of pages that can be printed per bottle. However, it is also one of the more expensive printers we have tested, so if your budget cannot meet the initial asking price, and you only print dozens of pages per month instead of a few hundred pages, then this may work for you It's not cost-effective. Something with a very low asking price like Canon Pixma TS205 may be a better choice.
For those with a limited budget, you can find the latest printer deals of our selection in our roundup, or read our guide to the best budget printers.
If you can buy the absolute cheapest printer on the market, you only need to print once in Blue Moon, and you don’t need equipment that can scan and copy, then Canon Pixma TS205 is your best choice.
The Canon Pixma TS205 is super simple and concise. It is a very cheap and lightweight color printer that can be used with Windows and Mac desktops and laptops at a price of less than £40.
Although there is no support for mobile apps or even Wi-Fi-which means you need to connect the printer with a USB cable-it is very easy to install and set up.
Canon Pixma TS205 is very suitable for processing boarding passes, letters and occasional articles. It is not a heavy machine, so it takes a long time to print large multi-page documents. Although the photos printed on ordinary A4 paper are not very good, the photos printed on glossy paper are actually very good, much better than your £40 printer credit.
The running cost here is about the same as most printers, not particularly cheap, but not expensive, if you are the target group of TS205-in other words, people who do not print hundreds or thousands of pages-it may not matter.
The only thing that really needs to be noted is that the ink takes a while to dry, and once the page is deposited on the paper output tray, it is easy to stain.
Read our complete Canon Pixma TS205 review.
Canon Pixma TS205 is available from the following locations:
HP DeskJet Plus 4120 is one of the cheapest all-in-one color printers, scanners, and copiers. Can print on glossy photo paper and ordinary A4 paper, and can accept print jobs from iOS and Android phones via Wi-Fi, and accept print jobs from Windows and Mac desktops and laptops via Wi-Fi and USB, It is very cheap with it.
The photos look good on both plain paper and glossy paper, and the graphics are beautiful and eye-catching. Although the text does not look rich and clear under the Normal print setting, it is enough-if you really need to speed it up, use Best, which of course uses more ink. Sometimes you need to realign the print head to prevent text and images from skewing, but this can be done easily with any HP Smart mobile or desktop application.
HP's Instant Ink subscription plan covers DeskJet Plus 4120, which means you can sign up for a price plan so that you can get new ink cartridges at a lower price than when you bought them, thereby reducing the average operating cost in the market.
Although the HP DeskJet Plus 4120 is not the fastest home printer on the market, so it is not as suitable for large print jobs as the other printers here, the HP DeskJet Plus 4120 can complete the work quietly without taking up a lot of desktop space.
Read our complete HP DeskJet Plus 4120 review.
The HP DeskJet Plus 4120 is available from the following locations:
The Canon Pixma TS7450 is the best all-in-one color printer we have tested, providing buyers with many features and functions at a low price of less than £100, while producing high-quality results at an acceptable speed. It is also easy to install, although it is larger and heavier than many all-in-ones in this price range.
Thanks to Wi-Fi and USB connections, it is very easy to set up and connect to devices on the home Wi-Fi network, and because of the support of Apple AirPrint, Mac devices can send print jobs to Canon Pixma TS7450 seconds wirelessly.
Canon Pixma TS7450 can print on photo paper and plain paper, with enough capacity to print 200 sheets of plain A4 paper and 20 sheets of photo paper, so it is very suitable for mass printing. The quality is also high, the text and graphics look very clear, and the photos look deep and rich-provided they are printed on photo paper and not ordinary.
If you invest in larger XL cartridges, it will be really economical to run. This applies to almost all inkjet printers, but this is especially true in this case, because the output of larger cartridges here is slightly higher than most competitors. The only real disadvantage here is that automatic duplex printing—duplex printing on A4—is significantly slower than other printers.
Read our complete Canon Pixma TS7450 review.
Canon Pixma TS7450 is available from the following locations:
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Because Epson XP-7100 excels in printing text, graphics and photos, it can print on glossy paper and ordinary A4 paper, and has a large and attractive touch screen built into its control panel that is very suitable for home use. monitor.
The five ink cartridges it uses also provide higher yields than the ink cartridges used by many printers in this price range, although there are five ink cartridges, so replacing them at once can be difficult for your wallet. Fortunately, the Epson XP-7100 can be covered by one of Epson's ReadyPrint Go subscriptions, which may be cost-effective for busy families. Thanks to the easy-to-use control panel and mobile application support, you can easily grasp the ink levels.
It is also a fast printer, capable of quickly generating text and images, and is not inferior in double-sided printing. The print quality under the default settings is also very good, but in order to get the best results and print the final version of a family vacation photo or document, you need to raise it to a higher level. Like the Canon Pixma TS7540, if you want your photos to really shine, you need to buy some glossy photo paper for the best results.
One disadvantage of Epson XP-7100 is that it is very noisy-when it prints, you will know it, and your neighbors may also know it.
Read our complete Epson XP-7100 review.
Epson XP-7100 is available from the following locations:
The best all-in-one printer that uses the least amount of ink
Like the Epson XP-7100, the Epson EcoTank ET-2750 is a powerful all-in-one color printer, but the real big selling point is that the ET-2750 has no ink cartridges, but is equipped with a large internal ink cartridge that is refilled with a bottle. This is a more economical solution, because ink cartridges will usually give you hundreds of pages of ink, while a complete set of bottles will give you thousands of pages.
This makes the ET-2750 very cheap to run, which will appeal to those who need multiple scripts, newsletters, posters, as well as families and busy families, anyone who wants to print frequently.
The print quality is also very high, the text, graphics and photos all look colorful, and the ET-2750 can be printed on glossy paper and plain paper. Its printing speed is not as fast as other printers, so if speed is important, you can consider Canon Pixma TS7450, Epson XP-7100 or Brother MFC-L3710CW.
Although Epson ET-2750 is very cheap to run and is generally good value for money, the upfront cost is high, so if you print hundreds of pages every month-manuscripts, papers, reports, newsletters, etc. Buyers with tight budgets and low printing requirements are better off looking elsewhere.
Read our complete Epson EcoTank ET-2750 review.
Epson EcoTank ET-2750 is available from the following locations:
The HP Envy Pro 6420 is one of the fastest inkjet all-in-one machines we have tested. It has a very streamlined and smallest form factor. This makes it ideal for people working in small home offices where desktop space is limited.
If you just buy HP305 color ink cartridges and black ink cartridges on time, it is not cheap to run-this can produce 100 to 120 pages of ink respectively, so you may run out soon-Envy Pro 6420 is covered by HP Instant Ink , So with the right plan, you can save a lot of costs without worrying about running out or ordering new ink cartridges.
In addition to the fast printing speed, the text and graphics quality is also very high, and the results produced by the HP DeskJet Plus 4120 are clearer and more eye-catching. It can also print on both sides of A4, and its printing speed is much faster than most other inkjet printers we have tested.
The downside is that although the spec sheet tells you that the HP Envy Pro 6420 can print on glossy photo paper, we tried a variety of different weights of photo paper, but we were unable to do so. There may be a problem with the specific unit we picked up, but in any case, we cannot comment on the photo printing capabilities of the HP Envy Pro 6420. If you only want a fast color printer, scanner, and a copier for home office settings, this is not a spoiler anyway, so if low space requirements and high printing speed are yours The top priority, HP Envy Pro 6240 may just be the ticket.
Read our complete HP Envy Pro 6240 review.
HP Envy Pro 6420 is available from the following locations:
The best printer for small offices
Brother MFC-L3710CW is an all-in-one printer, if you need to set up heavy equipment for your home office, you should consider buying it. With your money, you will get a very fast, reliable and powerful printer.
It seems that Brother MFC-L3710CW is very similar to a reduced version of a typical office printer, scanner, and copier. There is more paper storage space here-the input tray has enough space for 250 sheets of A4, so if you need to copy a large number of multi-page documents, Brother MFC-L3710CW will continue to work quietly and confidently, not every five seconds Just rant at you for more paper.
The fact that the ink cartridge is suitable for a print volume of approximately 1000 pages means that you do not have to replace the toner as frequently as with equivalent ink. Please note that TN-243 and TN-247 cartridges are not cheap, so if you can, you will want to shop around and buy in bulk.
Because it is very suitable for small office or home office printers, it is very suitable for business first printers, so Brother MFC-L3710CW is not suitable for printing family photos. Although the color printing of graphics and photos is indeed very good-smooth, detailed and vibrant-the Brother MFC-L3710CW could not print on any glossy paper used in our tests.
Read our complete Brother MFC-L3710CW review.
HP Envy Pro 6420 is available from the following locations:
We rank printers based on initial cost and ongoing operating cost, ease of use, printing speed, and print quality.
We compare the upfront cost of each printer and check the cost of each printer by taking the price of each ink cartridge or ink bottle (using the price listed on each manufacturer’s website) and dividing it by the number of pages you can expect The cost per page is derived from a single ink cartridge. If there are larger, more value-for-money ink cartridges, we will also list the prices so that you can easily compare running costs.
When setting up each printer, we will briefly detail the process you went through and the approximate time required to set up and run each device. Any issues we encountered are detailed here. If the printer is used with any mobile application or desktop software, we will mention and briefly explain how to best use them, and if there are any problems with the application itself.
The printing speed is calculated by printing a series of test files. We print text documents of different sizes, from one page to five pages, to 20 pages, to simulate the experience of printing letters, boarding passes, papers, and manuscripts. We print documents that mix text and graphics, such as pie charts and bar charts, to simulate printing reports and contracts. We also printed graphic images to test how long it would take the printer to print a copy of the PowerPoint presentation. If the printer can print photos, we will print the same royalty-free image copies on regular A4, glossy A4, and glossy 6 x 4 inch paper to test how long it takes to print holiday snapshots. We print the same file every time to ensure consistency of results. The printing speed time is calculated by dividing the number of pages by the total time (in seconds) and multiplying the result by 60.
When comparing print quality, we look for any smudges or bleeding—for example, ink on text leaks to other areas of the page, causing some letters to also look jagged and messy—as well as text and images Whether the alignment is correct, and the accuracy of the usual re-production of the color and the overall impact of the result.
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