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If our budget option is out of stock, the other models in the Brother HL-L23XX series will have similar performance, but with very little difference in speed and functionality. HL-L2370DW is a very close relative.
The printer is annoying. They are all. However, if you want to minimize your troubles, we recommend that you use a laser printer: laser models can not only print clear text and clear graphics, but they also run more reliably than inkjet printers, and if they don’t work for several weeks It will not block work even when used. The best laser printer is the powerful and versatile HP Color LaserJet Pro M255dw. It is easy to set up and easy to use, and it can produce beautiful results in both color and black and white.
Global supply chain issues have made it more difficult for us to find some printer options and have caused the prices of other printers to increase. At the time of writing, our budget options are out of stock, but all Brother L2300 series models will provide you with similar printing performance, but with slightly different speeds or features. HL-L2370DW is a very close relative and seems to be easier to obtain at the moment. If you are considering using other printers in this series, please note that the letters after the numbers indicate the main functions: D for double-sided printing and W for wireless. Some models will discard one of them, so be sure to check before buying.
HP M255dw has an intuitive touch screen interface, excellent applications and low operating costs. It can also produce good results: clear black text and bright color graphics. The fall 2020 software update locks in non-HP toner, so when you need to replace the toner cartridge, be prepared to pay the full price.
Manufacturer's warranty (including purchase)
May be out of stock
If you are looking for a laser printer that can handle everything from book reports to company reports without driving you crazy in the process, then HP Color LaserJet Pro M255dw is your best choice. It stands out from the competition with its easy-to-use smartphone-style touch interface and 21st century mobile and PC software. Compared with other printers we have tried, daily use is far less frustrating. In our tests, it generated clear black text, vibrant full-color graphics, and even photos that were enough to serve as school reports. It is fast, can print about 17 pages per minute, and thanks to a convenient bypass slot, it can print on envelopes, labels and other odd-sized media.
HL-L2350DW has low operating cost, fast operation and useful features, it is the best laser printer you can get for only about $100.
May be out of stock
May be out of stock
*At the time of publication, the price was $110.
Some people only need a cheap laser printer for occasional black-and-white print jobs. For them, we recommend Brother HL-L2350DW. The setup is painless, and the machine is compatible with all mainstream platforms, including Windows, macOS, Chrome OS, Linux, iOS and Android. Its cost per page is reasonable 3.3 cents, it sticks to Wi-Fi like glue, and its price usually hovers around $100. Its print quality works out of the box, but you can improve this by making simple adjustments to the toner density settings. Please note that the HL-L2350DW cannot scan or copy; if you need this feature, please check our monochrome all-in-one selection.
This multifunctional printer adds a flatbed scanner and an automatic document feeder to the HL-L2350DW, which significantly improves the practicality of its home office.
*At the time of publication, the price was $200.
If you like the sound of our budget choice, but also want to be able to scan and copy documents and photos, then Brother MFC-L2750DW should meet the requirements. At its core is a very similar printer — and it’s easy to set up — but it also has a flatbed scanner and a fast, single-pass, double-sided automatic document feeder. Its out-of-the-box print quality is slightly better, and you can get the same operating costs, the same printing speed, and the same connection options as the HL-L2350DW. For home offices, as long as you don't need color, this model is a good all-round choice.
This business-grade machine can check all boxes in a home office or small business: it is faster, sharper, more durable and safer than our other options. Like our first choice, it requires you to use official HP toner.
Manufacturer's warranty (including purchase)
*At the time of publication, the price was $450.
For small businesses with higher productivity needs, HP Color LaserJet Pro MFP M479fdw is more worth upgrading than our other options. Compared to inkjet alternatives, it prints and scans faster and more reliably, produces clearer results, and includes powerful management and security settings designed for situations that may involve sensitive data. Compared with inkjet printers with similar functions, all-in-one color lasers like M479fdw are more expensive and more expensive to operate, but they provide high-quality color printing at a faster speed than cheaper models , Copy and scan. They are also stronger and more reliable than inkjet printers.
HP M255dw has an intuitive touch screen interface, excellent applications and low operating costs. It can also produce good results: clear black text and bright color graphics. The fall 2020 software update locks in non-HP toner, so when you need to replace the toner cartridge, be prepared to pay the full price.
Manufacturer's warranty (including purchase)
May be out of stock
HL-L2350DW has low operating cost, fast operation and useful features, it is the best laser printer you can get for only about $100.
May be out of stock
May be out of stock
*At the time of publication, the price was $110.
This multifunctional printer adds a flatbed scanner and an automatic document feeder to the HL-L2350DW, which significantly improves the practicality of its home office.
*At the time of publication, the price was $200.
This business-grade machine can check all boxes in a home office or small business: it is faster, sharper, more durable and safer than our other options. Like our first choice, it requires you to use official HP toner.
Manufacturer's warranty (including purchase)
*At the time of publication, the price was $450.
Wirecutter has reported on printers for seven years, and I started writing articles about them in 2016. My editor and I have been following feedback from comment threads, emails and Twitter to better understand the actual needs of our readers. We have considered comments from other editorial sources, including CNET, Computer Shopper, and PCMag. We have scanned thousands of customer reviews to find recurring issues with specific models. We have used many printers as long-term test units to understand how they will fail and disappoint in the long run.
For this laser printer guide, since 2011, we have considered 157 different printers and tested 19 of them. For this particular update, we invested about 25 hours of research and testing, reviewed 15 models and finally tested three.
We believe that laser printers are most suitable for people who need a lot of printing, such as small business owners. They are also very suitable for people who do not print often but want the machine to work without complaint in the rare cases where printing is required.
To help you determine whether a laser printer is right for you, take a look at a brief list of laser printers that tend to do better than inkjet printers:
But laser printers are not for everyone, because they are not omnipotent. Here are a few reasons why you might want to stick with inkjet printers:
If you think inkjet printers are more suitable for you than laser printers, please check our recommendations for the best inkjet printers.
There are several different varieties of laser printers. For this guide, we look for the best option in each category.
In the past, due to the high cost of color toner and the high upfront cost of the machine itself, we thought that color laser printers were too much for home use. However, the price has gradually dropped to a more acceptable range (between US$200 and US$300), and we believe that these printers now provide the best all-round value for those who want a trouble-free printing experience. Compared with inkjet printers and monochrome lasers, they are still expensive—especially when toner needs to be refilled—but the convenience and flexibility of color lasers cannot be overemphasized. This is what we are looking for:
For our latest update, our review of these qualifications has brought us two new competitors: Canon Color ImageClass LBP622Cdw and HP Color LaserJet Pro M255dw.
Because they are basically similar machines, for monochrome laser printers, we applied most of the same criteria that we used to find color laser options, but lowered the price ceiling to $200, because monochrome laser printers are often cheap many. After studying this category, we considered machines such as HP LaserJet Pro M118dw and HP LaserJet Pro M203dw. But based on owner reviews and professional reviews, plus careful inspection of specifications and prices, we think they are unlikely to challenge Brother HL-L2350DW-our long-term budget choice-as the best choice for people with occasional printing needs .
Although printing machines alone are sufficient for most people, many others—especially small and home business owners—also want a copier and scanner. For this category, we used the same standards as most of the standards we set for color-only presses, but lowered the price ceiling to $250, looked for excellent scanning and copying quality, and ruled out any documents that do not have two-sided automatic document entry. The model of the paper container.
We discovered six new mono MFPs that meet these standards in early 2020, but only one — Canon ImageClass MF269dw — seems to have a chance to beat our preferred product Brother MFC-L2750DW.
Finally, we looked for a high-end color laser all-in-one machine for people who have more serious small office or home office needs. Like the monochrome MFP, it needs to be fast and flexible, provide excellent print and scan quality, and is not expensive (these machines are not cheap, but we set the upper limit to $500).
Through the screening of color laser AIO from top manufacturers, we got four models that meet all our requirements: Brother MFC-9340CDW, Canon Color ImageClass MF644Cdw and Color ImageClass MF743Cdw, and HP Color LaserJet Pro MFP M479fdw. The upgrade options are in our In the all-in-one printer guide.
Your first experience with the printer sets the tone for the upcoming relationship: if it is easy to set up, you will have a more positive attitude towards the future of the machine. This is why we paid special attention to the installation process, from physically unboxing the printer to wirelessly connecting each machine to Windows PC, Mac, iPhone, and Android devices. When we were able to print double-sided documents from each platform via Wi-Fi, turn off and reopen the machine and execute it again, we considered the setup to be successful.
Because simply getting a print job can be frustrating, we also tested other ways of wirelessly interacting with these machines. Since Google Cloud Print is still important to Chromebook users, we make sure that every printer can use it. (However, Chromebook users should be aware that Google will phase out Google Cloud Print by the end of 2020 and recommend transitioning to native CUPS printing.) We also checked other mobile printing standards and proprietary systems such as Mopria and HP ePrint (if any).
You have to work hard to find a laser printer, which at least cannot provide considerable print quality, but some still manage to stand out from the packaging. In order to distinguish between good and bad, we printed several text-based reference documents, which also include elements such as columns, tables, or charts: 1099 tax forms (PDF) instructions, star maps designed for lens sharpness testing, documents from ISO (International Organization for Standardization) aims to imitate a typical office report and a simple Word/PDF document, which contains the same sentences, repeated in decreasing font sizes from 72 points to 1 point. We also printed some high-resolution photos, because the more data the better, and it might be instructive to understand how each printer handles materials that exceed its capabilities.
We also checked the quality options of each printer, including the toner density slider and any available print resolution settings, to understand your expectations for toner saving options, and to see if we can produce better-looking text.
Trying the quality setting also helped us get acquainted with the print menu. We spent some time in the standard print cartridges and the more mysterious web-based control panels that most printers use to make more technical adjustments.
To test the printing speed, we printed four four-page ISO documents in duplex (duplex) and single-sided (single-sided) modes. We time the entire process, from when we press the print button until the last sheet of paper comes out of the feeder, so it includes any warm-up time required from the cold start. We also tried double-sided printing at the highest quality setting of each printer. These tests not only let us feel how fast the printer can spit out a 10-page book report, but also let us feel whether the differences between the models are enough to affect our daily life.
For multifunction printers, we have added a speed test for copying and scanning large documents, again considering double-sided and single-sided speed, and checking whether there is a difference between scanned color and black and white content. We also tested the flatbed scanning quality of each multifunction printer using glossy test photos printed on our inkjet all-in-one HP OfficeJet Pro 9015. We scan at all available resolutions and look for significant quality differences in the output of each machine, from sharpness to color reproduction to contrast.
Finally, we conducted a stress test on all the paper feeding parts of each printer, including not only the main tray, but also the bypass tray and document feeder (if the printer has one). We stuffed them (slightly) with paper to see if they would jam, and we fed them a single sheet of paper to see if they could pick up each one. We also provided a crumpled paper for multifunction printers to see if their ADF can handle unexpected situations.
HP M255dw has an intuitive touch screen interface, excellent applications and low operating costs. It can also produce good results: clear black text and bright color graphics. The fall 2020 software update locks in non-HP toner, so when you need to replace the toner cartridge, be prepared to pay the full price.
Manufacturer's warranty (including purchase)
May be out of stock
HP Color LaserJet Pro M255dw is fast, powerful, flexible and easy to use. We like the responsive control panel of this printer, the modern design of the HP PC and mobile software, and how easy it is to set up the machine and connect to Wi-Fi. Toner is affordable, only 3 cents per black and white page, 15 cents per color page, and equipped with oversized ink cartridges, most people can use it for a long time to replace. Print quality is comprehensive and outstanding, and all the features you might expect from a high-end printer are here, including automatic two-sided printing, a large number of network options, support for common mobile printing standards, and bypass slot media for odd-numbered sizes.
Although the installation guide is quite mysterious and relies mainly on pictures rather than text, setting up M255dw is not painful. Although HP includes a USB cable (which is rare now), we think that most people will use Wi-Fi, so we choose the way to set up our machine. Using a touch screen display, connecting M255dw to our Wi-Fi network is as easy as selecting our router's SSID from the list and entering the password. Unlike most other printers we have tested, M255dw also provides a full QWERTY keyboard, which makes entering complex Wi-Fi passwords less frustrating. Like the HP Color LaserJet Pro M254dw that we recommended in the past, the M255dw can be used with 5 GHz and 2.4 GHz networks-which is also rare in printers.
The bright, high-resolution color touch-screen display makes it easy to navigate through the printer’s many settings menus. All other printers we tested for this guide use old-fashioned resistive touch screens, which are far less accurate or easy to use than the capacitive touch screens on most smartphones. This screen is not as big as our upgrade options and other larger all-in-one printers, but it is still a major upgrade to non-touch, black and white displays or low-resolution, monochrome, resistive displays. The touch screen used in other machines we tested .
After the M255dw is connected to your network, you can visit 123.hp.com/laserjet and click download to obtain the driver and software for Mac or Windows PC. This provides you with the HP Easy Start installer, which will guide you to connect, register the printer, and work with your computer. This process takes only a few minutes, and connection via a smartphone or tablet is even faster: you can download the HP Smart app (Android or iOS) and add a printer with just a few taps.
The operating cost of M255dw is very low. A black and white page is about 3 cents each, and a color page is slightly more than 15 cents each. Both estimates assume that you are using an oversized 206X replacement toner cartridge; if you use a smaller 206A replacement cartridge, the cost of pre-replenishment will be lower, but the cost per page will be higher. In addition, these estimates may not match the actual situation printed by you. 1 If you print a large number of full-page color photos, you can expect to print fewer pages from each toner cartridge, and text-based pages with few color graphics can extend the life expectancy of the cartridge and reduce each page cost. HP's toner cartridges have integrated drums, so you don't have to worry about buying a new toner cartridge in a few years. 2 M255dw defaults to double-sided printing, which will also save your paper cost.
The 250-sheet main paper tray (which can hold all legal size paper trays) is larger than many paper trays in similar products, so you don't have to load paper often. The dedicated bypass slot for odd-sized media means that if you want to print on envelopes, labels, or card paper, you don’t have to remove regular paper. The slot is electric, so when you slide the envelope or label paper into the slot, the rollers will grab it and draw it into the printer until you send the print job.
No matter how hard we try, we can't get M255dw stuck. When we filled up to 50 extra sheets of paper in the main paper tray, a warning popped up on the control panel saying that the paper tray was too full and the machine refused to print. (In this case, other printers will try, fail, and jam.) When we put in 250 pages, it prints normally; there is only one sheet in the tray. However, if you encounter a paper jam, there is a convenient access port on the back of the printer for you to take it out.
In our test, under the default settings, the text document from M255dw looks clear, and the readability of dark black text is as low as 2 points. When we printed business-style graphics and household miscellaneous items (such as comics, coloring book pages, and crossword puzzles), the results were also very good. We did not observe any jagged lines or bands in the solid color areas-these two problems often plague cheap models. Although M255dw cannot print on photo paper, we ran some high-resolution test photos on plain paper through HP and were generally satisfied with the results. The print was a bit faded, but we got accurate colors, a lot of detail, and relatively low noise. These photos are not the ones you want to hang on the wall, or even on the refrigerator, but they are good enough to be the cover of a business presentation or school paper.
HP claims that the black and white printing speed of the M255dw is up to 22 pages per minute. In our test, when printing a PDF composed of mixed text and graphics, its maximum printing speed is about 17 pages per minute. This is an impressive result-comparable to what we got from Canon Color ImageClass LBP622Cdw, and it is certainly fast enough for most home and home office applications. Double-sided printing further reduced the speed to 11 pages per minute. Again, this is roughly equal to the ratio we see from the closest competition.
Compared to other laser printers we tested for this update and most of the models we have tested in the past few years, the first print time of the HP Color LaserJet Pro M255dw is unusually long. When printing via Wi-Fi, it takes about 24 seconds from pressing the print button to removing the first sheet of paper from the paper feeder. From the context, Brother MFC-L2750DW spit out the first paper in 12 seconds, Canon Color ImageClass LBP622Cdw completed the first print in 11 seconds, and ImageClass MF269dw prints faster, at 7 seconds. We think 24 seconds will not be too long for most people, but this model is still slower than the competition.
The M255dw is equipped with a set of compact "starter" toner cartridges, suitable for 800 pages in black and white and 700 pages in color. The high-volume alternative (HP 206X) is rated for 3,150 monochrome and 2,450 color pages, but the price of a complete printer is about US$400, at least US$100 higher than the printer itself. This is not only a problem with the M255dw-almost all home laser printers (including the alternatives we considered and tested) come with a cut-off starter cartridge-but it is still annoying. Most buyers should be prepared to pay for the replacement toner in the first year or so, but for those who use the printer in the home office, the replacement point may be faster. The price of third-party toner is about half of the original HP toner, but we cannot guarantee that it will be useful to you; explore this option at your own risk. 3
Color laser printers are larger and heavier than black and white printers because they use four toner cartridges instead of one. The Color LaserJet Pro M255dw is no exception: it is more than twice as heavier than our budget option (Brother HL-L2350DW), but still smaller and lighter than our upgrade option (HP Color LaserJet Pro) and other color all-in-one machines (MFP M479fdw). It occupies a lot of space on the desk, but it does not occupy the desk like an all-in-one. Due to its 19-inch depth, it may not fit on a bookshelf.
In October 2020, HP released a firmware update (version 20201021) that prevents the printer from using non-HP toner cartridges. If your printer is set to update automatically, this change occurs in the background and may break compatibility with third-party toners. HP vaguely acknowledged the problem in a statement next month and issued a guide on how to turn off automatic updates. You may be able to revert to an older firmware, but you do so at your own risk. We make calculations and recommendations based on purchasing replacement toner from the printer company, so although this will not change our findings, it is still annoying and disturbing for those who prefer to use cheaper toner to save money . We will consider this factor in further updates of this guide.
HL-L2350DW has low operating cost, fast operation and useful features, it is the best laser printer you can get for only about $100.
May be out of stock
May be out of stock
*At the time of publication, the price was $110.
Brother HL-L2350DW is a simple, economical and reliable monochrome laser printer. For those with basic needs-printing taxes, recipes, boarding passes, etc.-its automatic double-sided printing function, large 250-page paper tray, reliable paper handling, fast printing and low cost per page make it Become an excellent choice, despite some quirks.
Using a machine, this simple physical setup is fast. All you need to do is remove the packing tape, insert the toner cartridge, adjust the tray guides, and load some paper. Using this model of printer on Wi-Fi is more complicated than using some other printers, because the HL-L2350DW uses an obvious old-fashioned user interface that consists of a single-line monochrome LED display and a series of rubber buttons. The Wi-Fi password cannot be entered on the machine itself, so you must complete the process with the help of a PC. Even so, we were able to connect it to our network within a few minutes, and the printer remained reliably connected throughout the test-even a few rooms away, one floor below our router. Some users have reported that the printer's predecessor, HL-L2340DW, refuses to wake up from deep sleep mode, so we are happy to find that the new model did not cause us any such problems during our testing. If you wish, you can operate the HL-L2350DW via USB, but in this case, you must provide your own cable. If you want an Ethernet port for wired internet, you can upgrade to other almost identical HL-L2370DW.
HL-L2350DW is suitable for Windows PC, Mac and even Linux systems. It is also compatible with all major mobile printing standards, including Google Cloud Print, which means it is the best choice for Chromebook users. However, you may not be able to get the printer to complete the cloud print registration; of course we did. For us, the solution was to access the printer's web control panel, navigate to the network tab, and disable IPv6. After completion, the printer was able to immediately enter the cloud printing, and it worked perfectly in our remaining tests. Considering the well-known fact that Cloud Print is not applicable to IPv6, why Brother shipped the HL-L2350DW with this setting enabled is a mystery. At least this is a simple fix.
You really don't need to install any additional software for HL-L2350DW, because it has native Windows and Mac drivers. It can also be used automatically with AirPrint on iOS, and you can add it using Brother print service on Android. Brother's iPrint&Scan application is available for all four platforms. It functions perfectly, even if it is not as well designed as HP's software. Unfortunately, in our tests, no matter what quality setting we chose, the quality of printing from iPrint&Scan was very bad. We contacted Brother for comments, but the company was unable to provide any explanation for the difference in print quality. Generally, we recommend that you avoid using this application and print through the native print dialog of the operating system, which is very useful.
The HL-L2350DW works out of the box and generated beautiful text in our tests. Tax forms and other documents with small fonts (down to 2 points) are extremely readable, with larger headings with sharp edges and dark centers. All in all, this printer should be enough to print large amounts of text documents. On the other hand, the test graphics and photos are just average under the default settings, because some light bands can be seen in the solid color area, and the graphics look a bit grainy. The output is good enough for personal use or internal business documents, if you need to distribute documents to customers, you can improve it by adjusting the toner density and resolution settings (at the cost of toner life).
Brother claims that the HL-L2350DW can print at up to 32 pages per minute, which is 5 pages per minute faster than the machine it replaces. It's not that fast for us, but it still seems fast enough for almost any home or home office use we can imagine. We clocked at 25 pages per minute when printing single-sided PDFs, and 12 pages per minute when using duplex printing-faster than our preferred color HP M255dw in both cases. The test print job can also be started reliably within a few seconds, so it will not make you wait for a long time under any circumstances.
Like its discontinued predecessor (our first choice for the past two years), one of the greatest advantages of the HL-L2350DW is its low cost of ownership. The cost of the printer itself should not exceed $100, and we see that its price is much lower than this. Operating costs are also very low: even taking into account the toner cartridge wear, each print will run about 3.3 cents, which is consistent with the cost per page of other models we recommend. The optional 3,000-page high-yield ink cartridge means you don't need to change toner frequently. (However, like most other laser printers, the HL-L2350DW is equipped with a trivial starter cartridge that can only print 700 pages.)
This printer is very small and light. It weighs only 15.9 pounds, which is more than 10 pounds lighter than our next smallest option, and it has a significantly smaller footprint. It's very short, 7.2 inches high, which should help you put it on your bookshelf. But it can also easily find a space on your desk or any other place you might want to push.
However, don't expect cheap printers like HL-L2350DW to have excellent build quality. Our test unit was packed in a very broken box (thanks to FedEx), and when we opened it, a bunch of broken polystyrene foam was released in the box. After starting and running the printer, we immediately noticed that double-sided printing was not working properly; every time we printed a double-sided document, it would get stuck in exactly the same place. We connected to the phone, and the Brother customer support agent quickly diagnosed the problem: the plastic guide in the paper path was damaged during transportation. It's easy to put it back where it should go, but it illustrates the fragility (and poor quality packaging) of the HL-L2350DW where the problem occurred in the first place.
This multifunctional printer adds a flatbed scanner and an automatic document feeder to the HL-L2350DW, which significantly improves the practicality of its home office.
*At the time of publication, the price was $200.
If you work from home, run a home business, or just want the flexibility of a laser printer that can scan and copy, we recommend the Brother MFC-L2750DW. This powerful machine combines the basic practicality and reliability of our Brother HL-L2350DW budget machine with the versatility of a flatbed scanner and a single-pass duplex automatic document feeder. It is reliable, fast, cost-effective and quite compact, and can handle everything except color print jobs. (Yes, including fax.)
The setup of the MFC-L2750DW is even simpler than its little brother, because you can connect it to Wi-Fi using the color touch screen control panel. The interface is easy to navigate, even if it is not as user-friendly as our preferred HP M255dw. It comes with many convenient built-in applications, including Dropbox and Google Drive, so you can print directly from your cloud account. It also has an application that scans to email, which is very simple to configure; when we tried to scan a very large job, the application timed out several times for us, but otherwise it ran very fast.
In our tests, we found that the default print quality of MFC-L2750DW is sufficient for home and internal business use-a small step ahead of our budget choice of Brother HL-L2350DW, the small font text is clearer in size and slightly better Graphics performance. For professional-looking brochures or presentations, you may want to use our upgrade to choose a printer such as HP Color LaserJet Pro MFP M479fdw, or transfer your work to a professional print shop.
In our tests, the scans from the automatic document feeder looked good, but if you don't micromanage the paper guides on the ADF tray, they may be a bit crooked (a malfunction of many all-in-ones). Thanks to the maximum resolution of 1,200 dpi (twice the resolution provided by some competing machines), flatbed scanning avoids this problem and has excellent sharpness in our tests. You can scan to emails, network computers or drives, FTP servers, or cloud applications such as Dropbox and Google Drive. Unfortunately, this printer does not have a USB port, so you cannot save the scan results directly to the thumb drive.
Thanks to its single-pass double-sided automatic document feeder, even double-sided documents can be scanned quickly—24 pages per minute in black and white and 8 pages per minute in color. The Canon ImageClass MF249dw, which we tested in 2018, was equally fast when processing single-sided documents, but was 66% slower when printing on both sides, because scanning double-sided paper requires two scans. (The newer Canon ImageClass MF269dw we tested in 2020 also performed duplexing twice. The scanning performance on Wi-Fi was surprisingly slow, with only 2 pages per minute on one or two sides.)
MFC-L2750DW shares some annoying but easy-to-repair malfunctions with its print-only stabilizer. Like the HL-L2350DW, when you start a job from Brother's iPrint&Scan application, the printer's print quality will decrease, so you should use the native print dialog of the operating system instead. Google Cloud Print didn't work from the beginning—or not for us—but you can solve this problem by disabling IPv6 in the network options of the network control panel.
This machine feels very fragile, but the advantage is that it is light and compact among similar products, and it is easier to integrate into your space. When setting up for the first time, be sure to check if there are any plastic parts that may jump out of position, and run some print and scan jobs to make sure everything is in order. If it is not, please call Brother Customer Support before returning the machine; the repair may be very simple.
This business-grade machine can check all boxes in a home office or small business: it is faster, sharper, more durable and safer than our other options. Like our first choice, it requires you to use official HP toner.
Manufacturer's warranty (including purchase)
*At the time of publication, the price was $450.
If you need (or just want) a more professional printer than our other options, HP Color LaserJet Pro MFP M479fdw is expensive, but it is one of the most affordable color laser printers, available with our favorite inkjet model All the same productivity functions. M479fdw is fast and reliable. Whether you are printing in color or black and white, M479fdw can generate beautiful documents. In our test, it generates a single-sided Word document at a rate of approximately 24.1 pages per minute, and only 21.8 ppm when using a double-sided document. The speed of a single-sided scan job is 19.5 ppm, which is more than 6 ppm faster than any other printer we tested, while the speed of a double-sided job is 16.7 ppm per sheet (32.5 ppm per page).
M479fdw can also generate clear text in small fonts, which is better than any inkjet printer we have tried. This is important if you are printing a large number of legal documents. The graphics are clearer than what we get from printers like the HP OfficeJet Pro 9015-if the touch is less saturated. The reel speed of the M479fdw is also faster than most inkjet printers, and its recommended duty cycle is 4,000 pages per month—almost three times the 1,500 pages of the OfficeJet Pro 9015—even in the busiest home office. It should be sufficient and can meet the needs of many small businesses with multiple employees.
It also has other features that businesses will like, such as double-sided printing and a foldable bypass tray for one-time print jobs on different paper sizes. Although the slide-down scanner glass is only large enough to hold letter paper, the automatic document feeder can handle Legal-size documents. Thanks to its USB port, this machine can print JPEG, PDF and Word files, and it can also save scans as PDF, JPEG or TIFF files.
M479fdw is safer than other printers (inkjet printers and laser printers) we have tested. It has safe boot, firmware integrity, and runtime code integrity, which can ensure that the possibility of the printer being hijacked by malicious attackers is greatly reduced. (This sounds ridiculous, but such hacking attacks happen from time to time.) It also allows the use of a PIN to encrypt print jobs, so you can ensure that no one else intercepts your documents. Role-based access control for multi-user environments allows you to choose who can access which printer functions. If your work involves sensitive materials, then these are legally useful additional features, as well as features that you cannot get from other manufacturers.
HP's one-year warranty for the M479fdw is shorter than that offered by some competitors — Canon in particular offers a three-year warranty for its machines — but it may actually be better than the competition policy. This is because it provides on-site service within one working day, while other warranties require you to ship the printer to a service center, sometimes at your own expense.
Like our first choice, M479fdw requires official HP toner cartridges.
We tested the Brother HL-L3270CDW and found that it does not match our preferred product because it does not have single-pass duplex printing, a bypass print slot for odd-sized media, and a USB port for printing from a thumb drive. The overall print quality is average, and the color is obviously greenish.
We also tested the Canon Color ImageClass LBP622Cdw, but were disappointed with its user interface, applications and occasional slow printing. This is a good machine-it actually prints better than the HP M255dw straight out of the box-but HP is much more enjoyable to use.
The HP Color LaserJet Pro M454dw is the big brother of the M255dw that we mainly chose. The printing speed is slightly faster, the paper handling options are more, and the cost per page is slightly lower. But it usually also requires more upfront costs. If you can find the M454dw on sale, go and buy it, but at the normal price, we think that M255dw strikes a better balance between price and performance for most people.
Xerox Phaser 6510/DNI is a powerful color laser machine, and both the owner and editor reviews report that the print quality is very good. However, they also mentioned network problems and component failures of certain routers.
Brother HL-L2315DW is not much cheaper than our budget choice Brother HL-L2350DW, but it is much slower and has only 25% memory, so it may be difficult to handle larger print jobs.
Canon ImageClass LBP6230dw is cheap and compact, it provides automatic duplex and Wi-Fi connection. But the cost per page is too high, and it does not support AirPrint or Google Cloud Print. This is a problem if you have a Chromebook or want to print from a mobile device.
The affordable HP LaserJet Pro M118dw prints very fast and has positive user reviews. Unfortunately, its cost per page is relatively high, and we have seen multiple reports of unstable graphics and photo quality.
The HP LaserJet Pro M203dw has a low cost per page and a reasonable asking price, but users have poor reviews, complaining about difficulties in setup, unreliable Internet connections, and malfunctions.
Brother HL-L2390DW and HL-L2395DW are essentially the same machines as our budget choice Brother HL-L2350DW, but with a flatbed scanner on top, plus or minus some additional software features. We like these models, but over time, reader feedback made us prefer multifunction printers with automatic document feeders. If you don't need to scan multi-page documents frequently, they are still worth a look.
HP's LaserJet MFP M234dw and LaserJet MFP M234dwe are the same model and have the same specifications. The "e" version is priced at $50 lower because it is part of HP. It requires you to create an account to connect your printer to the Internet and use only first-party toner cartridges. It also provides an extended warranty and a six-month warranty Try HP’s print subscription plan for a period of time. We also did not test because they have flatbed scanners instead of automatic document feeders.
Canon imageCLASS MF113w is limited by its flatbed scanner; we prefer the model with automatic document feeder.
If you don't need some of the features provided by our monochrome multi-function selector, Brother DCP-L2550DW is a good choice. Specifically, this model lacks double-sided copying and scanning, fax functions, and a touch screen interface.
Although Brother MFC-L2710DW is similar to our favorite MFC-L2750DW model, it lacks the machine’s touch screen interface and automatic duplex scanning and copying functions. It also has only 25% of onboard memory (which means it may not be able to handle large print jobs) and runs slightly slower.
Similarly, Brother MFC-L2690DW and MFC-L2730DW (both sold exclusively at Wal-Mart) are similar to MFC-L2750DW, but with reduced specifications. The former has a button-driven non-touch interface and a slower printing speed, while the latter’s performance is usually very similar to our choice, but the memory is only half, and single-pass double-sided printing is not possible. If the additional features provided by the L2750DW are not important to you, then these primary products are a cheaper way to obtain similar print and scan quality.
We tested the Canon ImageClass MF269dw and found that although it prints fast and has good results, its use experience is far inferior to our monochrome multifunction machine Brother MFC-L2750DW. It has a frustrating touch screen interface and is annoying. The software and ridiculously slower scanning via Wi-Fi.
Canon ImageClass MF264dw and MF267dw are very similar to the MF269dw we tested, but both have a smaller ADF capacity and neither provide double-sided scanning and copying. MF264dw also lacks fax function.
The cost per page of HP LaserJet Pro MFP M227fdw is very attractive, and has a beautiful touch screen interface, but user reviews are very mediocre.
We tested the Brother MFC-L3770CDW, but found that it could not keep up with our laser AIO selection in terms of usability or raw performance. Its resistive touch screen is not as responsive as the capacitive panel of the HP M479fdw, and the Brother iPrint&Scan software freezes repeatedly during multi-page scanning operations on our MacBook. In addition, because its two-sided printing is not a single-pass printing, it takes almost twice as long as HP to print two-sided documents.
The old brother MFC-9340CDW seems to be a bargain, its full-mode duplex, affordable toner and relatively low upfront cost, but it is slower than our color AIO choice, and there are a series of one-star owner reviews complaining about heat There is a problem with the fuse toner roller and Wi-Fi connection.
On paper, Canon Color ImageClass MF644Cdw and MF743Cdw complement our color laser all-in-one machines. Unfortunately, although they produced excellent speed and output in our tests, we found them more difficult to use than HP M479fdw because of their clumsy user interface, resistive touch screen, and outdated PC and Mac software. We also encountered the problem of getting the printer to accept a properly formatted USB thumb drive, which seems to be easy to solve.
When the manufacturer says that the cartridge will print 3,000 pages, it means that the printer will print 3,000 pages-basically double-spaced documents without headers or footers. Yes, this is low compared to what you usually print in the real world. But this is an industry standard—all manufacturers use it as a point of reference. We are willing to guess that the coverage of most plain text pages is about 7%, and the graphics increase this number to at least 10%. For simplicity, we stick to the estimated capacity advertised by the manufacturer.
Everyone knows that ink and toner cartridges will eventually run out. However, the service life of the imaging drum of a laser printer is also limited, and the replacement cost is often ignored when calculating the cost per page. Roughly speaking, the wear on the drum can increase the cost of toner per page by half a cent to a full cent. Sometimes toner and toner cartridges are sold as a unit, so you don’t need to do any additional mathematical calculations to get the actual cost per page. Unless otherwise stated, we consciously try to consider the cost of toner and drums in all cost forecasts here.
Some people swear by third-party toners and even third-party imaging drums. Using a third party is certainly tempting, because it can reduce the cost per page by 75%. We have never tested any of these products, but based on what we have read, using third-party toner seems to be more reliable than using third-party ink in inkjet printers. Toner is a simple substance, and the laser printer does not seem to intentionally disable itself when it detects non-OEM ink cartridges. We hope to study this topic more one day. Use at your own risk, and share your experience at any time.
Ben Keough is an editor at Wirecutter, covering power supply, home office and hobbies. He previously spent more than a decade writing articles about cameras, printers and other office equipment for Wirecutter, Reviewed, USA Today, and Digital Camera HQ. After four years of printer testing, he confirmed that they are all bad, but some are less than others.
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