All in One Printer Under 50 Reviews 2018

Our Experts Have Tested 54 Products in the Printers Category in the Past Twelvemonth

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Choosing a printer may audio easy, merely in one case y'all start diving into all the available features, making a selection can quickly become daunting. Do you lot need a basic printer just to print, or do you lot desire to scan and re-create likewise? And what most faxing, or scanning to and printing from the cloud, or even scanning and sending an email? How exercise you choose betwixt inkjet and light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation technology? What'south the real difference between a $200 model and a $500 model?

Hither are some pointers to help yous find both the right category of printer and the right model within that type.

How Practice You Intend to Use Your Printer?

Printers vary widely based on whether they're for home apply or business apply (or dual apply in a home and home office), what you intend to print with them, and whether you lot need color press or just monochrome. In detail, text, graphics, and photos each require different capabilities to print at high quality. Even if you print just one kind of output most of the time, you also may want a printer that can do other things well. So exist clear on the full scope of your printing needs earlier y'all buy.

Most printers are designed with either business (usually function) or dwelling house utilize in heed. Generally, business models are geared toward outputting text if they are mono printers, and both text and graphics if they are color models. Abode printers (typically inkjets) favor photos and often graphics, as well.

Special-purpose options include label printers, portable printers, and dedicated and near-dedicated photo printers. (Fifty-fifty among specialty printers, 3D printers are a special case, and across the telescopic of this word.)

Practice You Need Printing Only, or Multiple Functions?

Almost printers today add actress functions across press. The additions always include scanning, which tin can be convenient and economical if you have calorie-free- to moderate-duty scanning needs. If you lot don't demand scanning or related features like copying and faxing at all, yet, or your scanning needs are heavy-duty, you lot might be better off with a single-function printer and a dissever scanner.

Almost lasers, and some inkjets, with extra functions include "multifunction printer" or "MFP" in the name, while most inkjets, and some lasers, utilize "all-in-one" or "AIO." The two terms, and their acronyms, are interchangeable. Along with scanning, the additional functions well-nigh e'er include some combination of standalone copying, standalone faxing, faxing from your PC, standalone emailing, emailing through your PC, and standalone copying to and printing from online systems.

Office MFPs typically include an automatic document feeder (ADF) to handle multipage documents and legal-size pages. Many ADFs can handle two-sided documents—either by scanning one side and flipping the page over to browse the other side, or by employing ii sensors to scan both sides of the page in a single pass. Some single-sided ADFs allow you scan one side of a stack of pages, flip the stack manually to scan the other side, and and then automatically interfile the pages in the right lodge.

Some inkjet AIOs offer boosted printing options, including press on optical discs. Many let yous print documents and images from, and scan to, mobile devices. Some models let you email documents to the printer from anywhere in the earth, then print them out. Our roundup of the best all-in-one printers will assistance you sift through the many options out at that place.

The Virtually Common Types of Printer

Mostly, business models utilise laser or similar technology (more on that soon) and are geared toward text, or text and graphics, while dwelling house printers are generally inkjets and favor photos and graphics. Within each printer category, quality for each kind of output varies widely. Some business organization printers can handle all three types well enough for in-firm printing of brochures and other marketing materials, for example.

The ii almost mutual technologies, light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation and inkjet, increasingly overlap in capabilities, but in that location are notwithstanding differences. Nearly lasers and LED printers (which are identical to lasers other than using LEDs for a light source) print higher-quality text than virtually inkjets, and about whatever inkjet prints higher-quality photos than nigh lasers. However, some inkjets today print text that's nearly laser quality, except for a tendency to smudge if they become wet, while some lasers print photos at what'due south known equally business organisation quality, which translates to good plenty for a trifold brochure.

Beyond questions of technology and output type, in that location are several more finely grained categories of printer.

Home printers (approximate cost range: $50 to $250) are nigh exclusively inkjets (with the exception of some small-format defended photo printers). They are built for low-volume printing, tend to be slow, and also tend to take high ink costs. They typically print photos improve than text, and may or may not print graphics well. Nigh all of them are all-in-ones. If your upkeep is tight, and y'all want a single printer for text, graphics, and photos that handles photos reasonably well, this is where to start looking for an cheap printer.

Habitation-office printers ($100 to $400) are largely inkjets or cheap mono lasers, and are built for depression- to mid-volume printing. Almost inkjets in this category are all-in-ane printers, geared primarily toward text and graphics press, though some besides handle photos well, while almost lasers are printers only. Paper capacity starts at about 100 sheets, though higher-cease models can hold up to 500 sheets. Most of these printers are also suitable for micro offices (with up to v people), and many are perfectly fine choices for households, peculiarly for students printing a lot of documents for schoolhouse.

Habitation-role printers are a subset of business printers ($100 to $2,500 or more), which range from compact models for low-book apply to gigantic flooring-continuing units that can anchor a department. Most business organization printers are lasers (though inkjets have been making inroads into that market for years), and many are monochrome, intended primarily for text rather than graphics and photos. Most are multifunction devices. For many businesses, speed and paper capacity are paramount, and security is important as well, which is why many business organization printers offer security features such equally password-protected printing. Some fifty-fifty apply accessories such as an encrypted hard drive or an ID card reader to limit access to documents.

Regardless of which home or business category a printer is in, toll tin can exist a primal gene. In general, the more than expensive the printer, the lower its per-page printing costs, while the lower the ink cost, the more expensive the printer volition be. Whether you'll save more with a depression-cost printer or depression-cost ink depends on how much you impress (more on this later). Some printer makers also offer ink subscription programs that can lower running costs, particularly if you print close to the number of pages included in the plan.

Near-dedicated photograph printers ($400 to $ii,000) are designed for professional photographers and photo enthusiasts, just almost all of these photograph printers are only as useful for graphic artists, since they also print high-quality graphics. Some are wide-format printers designed to print on paper as large as supertabloid size (13 by nineteen inches), and many tin impress on newspaper rolls as well. For precision color, they apply up to a dozen ink cartridges. With these, ink cost per page is much higher than for role printers, due to the amount of ink they use. Total cost per page is higher still, because their inks are designed to print on a range of expensive, high-quality papers, each of which can give the image a somewhat different look.

Modest-format photo printers ($80 to $250) are dedicated devices built strictly to... you guessed it, print photos, especially from smartphones. Print sizes tin can range from wallet-size to five past 7 inches, and many models can print only a single size. Virtually are highly portable, and either come with a bombardment or adapt 1 that you can buy separately.

Tabloid- and supertabloid-size, printers ($150 desktop printers to multi-1000-dollar flooring-standing beasts) are another subset of business concern printers. These broad-format machines come in even so potential variations as other office printers, from mono-merely or color-capable, to printer-only or MFP, to inkjet or laser. The difference is they can handle press on upward to tabloid (11-by-17-inch) or supertabloid (13-by-19-inch) size newspaper. Notation that the least expensive in this group are express to accepting only i large sail at a time, making them useful for press at this size in small-scale quantities only, and simply occasionally.

Characterization printers are congenital to churn out newspaper or plastic labels. Some include characterization-design software and connect to your calculator, while others are standalone devices, letting you lot design and print labels using a small, congenital-in keyboard. Manufacturers of either kind of label printer typically offer a variety of label colors, types, and sizes.

Portable business organisation printers aren't mutual, but they can be useful for applications similar printing a proposal for a potential customer while sitting in their office or at their kitchen table, or press the latest version of a handout for a potential customer while sitting in your car, just before a meeting. Typical models in the portable printer category are compact and light, and utilize inkjet or thermal technologies to impress. And nigh come up with a rechargeable battery.

How Much Do You Plan to Print?

If you print only a few pages a twenty-four hour period, yous don't have to worry about how much a printer is designed to impress, as divers by its recommended (not maximum) monthly duty wheel. To define those terms? Maximum duty cycle is the absolute well-nigh a printer should be immune to print per month without affecting the maximum number of pages it can impress in its lifetime. The recommended duty cycle is usually how much it can handle on a regular basis and nonetheless last every bit many years as it was designed for. It may as well be based on the paper capacity and how frequently you tin conveniently refill the trays.

If you print plenty for the duty bicycle to matter, don't purchase a printer that doesn't include that information in its specifications. Effigy out how much yous print by how oft you buy paper and in what amounts. If you unremarkably impress on both sides of the paper, count each sheet as ii pages in your calculations. So pick a printer designed to print at to the lowest degree that much.

What Paper Types and Sizes Do You Print On?

Be sure to consider the minimum and maximum newspaper size you print on, paper thickness, and whether you need a duplexer to print on both sides of the page. If you frequently print on more than one type of newspaper—switching to envelopes, checks, or letterhead for case—await for a printer with multiple drawers, or at least a single-canvass bypass tray, and so you don't need to constantly unload regular paper and load your specialty media so reload the regular newspaper. You'll as well desire a newspaper capacity that won't crave calculation paper more than often than feels comfortable. A good rule of thumb is that you shouldn't have to refill paper more than than once a week, on boilerplate.

How Much Will a Printer'southward Full Cost of Ownership Be?

The high price of printer ink is a traditional sore spot for both home and business organisation customers, which has led to the major manufacturers introducing ways that users can lower their per-folio ink costs. But the companies are also preserving their own revenues, which means you need to remember in terms of the full cost of ownership —the initial price plus the total toll of ink over the printer'south lifetime—to know which printer will exist less expensive in the long run.

Depending on how many pages y'all print, paying a high cost per page for a low-toll printer can actually be the less expensive choice. (Our primer How to Save Coin on Your Adjacent Printer shows how to summate the total cost of ownership for inkjets. The same logic works for any printer.)

If you print enough to make a high-cost printer with depression-cost ink the more economical choice, note that Epson's EcoTank and SuperTank printers, Canon'due south MegaTank printers, and HP'south Smart Tank Plus printers apply inexpensive bottled ink that you cascade into internal tanks, while Blood brother's INKvestment models send with loftier-capacity ink cartridges—in some cases, several sets of them—that offload ink into reservoirs within the printer. HP'southward Neverstop laser printers offering a like arroyo, but with bulk laser toner. With any of these models, you lot'll pay extra up forepart for the printer, but the included ink will last a long time, and additional bottles or cartridges are notable for their low price. (See more virtually how to save on printer ink.)

Ink subscription programs are another way to lower ink costs. HP Instant Ink is the big i hither, along with Brother Refresh EZ Print and Canon Pixma Print Plan. All offer owners of select printers the option to pay a monthly fee for printing upwardly to a certain number of pages. The aforementioned fee applies for either black or color printing, and each company automatically sends you more than ink when you run depression. These programs tin can save yous a considerable amount of coin, specially if you print mostly in colour and print close to the number of pages included in the program.

How Fast Do Yous Need to Print?

If you impress only ane or two pages at a time, yous don't need a speed demon. In fact, most dwelling printers are not built for speed, and most lasers with high folio per minute (ppm) claims go out out the first page when calculating the rating, giving the much slower commencement-page-out (FPO) fourth dimension separately. If you print a lot of longer documents, however, the fast speed starting with folio ii is more important, which ways you lot probably want a laser printer.

As a dominion, laser printers will be shut to their claimed speeds for text documents, which don't need much processing time. Inkjets oft claim faster speeds than more expensive lasers, but they usually don't live upwardly to these claims. However, inkjet printers accept been getting faster, and a few recent high-end models (sometimes dubbed "laser culling" inkjets) can agree their own confronting comparably priced lasers for speed. (Run across how we test printers.)

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How Are You lot Going to Connect Your Printer?

USB ports remain ubiquitous on printers. Most part printers, and an increasing number of dwelling house printers, besides include an Ethernet jack, Wi-Fi wireless connectivity support, or both, which let you to share the printer with your domicile or office network. (If you're having problem with this characteristic on your current printer, hither's how to troubleshoot your printer'south Wi-Fi connectedness.) Printers that offer Wi-Fi Straight (a peer-to-peer protocol that sometimes masquerades nether a different proper noun) can connect direct to most Wi-Fi-enabled devices.

Almost major printer companies now provide mobile apps so you can snap a photo with your phone and impress information technology out straight, without needing to transfer it to a computer first. Small-format photo printers often support Bluetooth for connecting mobile devices and more. A few printers can connect to a mobile device for printing via Near-Field Communication (NFC) merely past tapping the phone or tablet to a item spot on the printer, but the NFC fad seems to be fading.

Practice You Need Printer Security Features?

Printer security is oft disregarded, but at your peril. Hackers can gain access to a network through the printer, and in whatsoever office printer that you're non right next to, sensitive documents in the paper tray can be seen by prying optics before yous get to them. Many business-centric models include a individual printing feature, and so that later on you send the print job to the printer, yous have to enter a PIN at the printer'due south control console to actually print it.

For business printers in item, firmware should exist kept updated, as it often repairs vulnerabilities, and any printer difficult drives should exist encrypted. Many manufacturers offer administrative tools to help IT departments ensure printer security.

How Practice Y'all Guess Size and Weight?

To a big extent, a printer's size and weight are dependent on the paper handling features you lot need, just fifty-fifty and so, at that place are considerable variations. Make sure the printer will fit in its allotted space (in all three dimensions, including paper feeders and output trays that may need to extend), and isn't too heavy to motion effectually if you decide to renovate. Very meaty printers are bachelor for people who live and piece of work in dorm rooms or other tight spaces.

Printers: Frequently Asked Questions

Should you purchase third-party ink or refill kits?

For inkjet tank printers and majority toner laser printers, ink or toner from the printer manufacturer doesn't cost enough to exist an issue. For cartridge-based printers, 3rd-political party ink oft costs significantly less. But be enlightened that it can as well come up with a whole tank full of issues.

First, in that location's no guarantee that you're going to get the same quality ink from a 3rd party that you would when buying the manufacturer-branded product. Too, using ink that isn't approved by the manufacturer tin can violate your warranty. And don't recall you can get abroad with secretly using that renegade ink: If your printer has an internet connectedness, it may well report your violation to the manufacturer. Sometimes, with firmware updates, we've seen the use of third-political party ink "deauthorize" the use of the aftermarket cartridge.

Many printer manufacturers at present offer ink subscriptions, so new ink shows up at your door when you lot need information technology. If that's available for your model, it can often exist the best way to go.

Should yous buy cheap paper? What nearly recycled newspaper?

For everyday press, shop-brand twenty-pound weight newspaper will normally serve nicely. However, yous'll often go better looking output if y'all step up to a higher-quality paper. For lasers, as well equally for inkjet text and graphic printing, that means a heavier weight, and maybe a brighter white level. For photos on inkjets, information technology ways getting matte presentation paper or photo paper. Getting photo or matte paper that's the same make equally your printer will ordinarily exist the best selection; printer manufacturers pattern ink and paper to work together and frequently offer a variety of presentation and photo papers.

Recycled newspaper also offers adequate quality, and you tin can find 100% post-consumer-content recycled paper for many uses, including cover stock and vivid white paper suitable for business organisation utilize. There are other kinds of eco-friendly paper likewise, such as all-purpose newspaper made from sugar cane and photo paper made from cotton. Do your pocket-size part to salvage a tree and research eco-friendly media options. Any modern printer will handle them well.

What is the best printer for home employ?

What kind of printer you get for your home depends on what yous plan on printing. As a full general rule, if y'all print text simply, or text and graphics that don't need colour, a mono laser printer volition do the play a joke on. If photos are on your agenda, yous need an inkjet or defended small format photograph printer. If the but colour output you impress is graphics, you lot probably want an inkjet as well, but if you lot print infrequently, an inexpensive color laser may be the meliorate choice. Laser printers take the advantage of being able to sit down for months without being used, and so only turn on and work, without the clogged nozzles or wasted ink for cleaning them that inkjets sometimes need. If you program on doing any scanning or copying, but non so much that yous demand a standalone scanner, you should look to an all-in-one or multifunction printer. Decent AIOs aren't that much more expensive than their printer-only counterparts.

Should y'all buy a refurbished printer?

Printers accept reached the point where improvements are exceptional and incremental, so ownership a printer that's a few years old isn't going to hateful sacrificing any groundbreaking technology. That said, if you lot buy a refurbished or used printer, go it from a trustworthy source, make certain it's been recertified by the manufacturer, and look for a reasonable warranty and return period. Hither'south what to know before buying refurbished electronics.

And then, Which Printer Should I Become?

Based on our advice above, and our key picks for various usage cases below, you lot should be set up to shop. Keep in mind what you need to impress, how many pages you need to impress, and how much you lot're willing to pay up front and per folio, and you'll exist certain to find the right printer for you. If you lot're replacing an old printer, recycle or donate it so information technology can become someone else's refurbished bargain.

If money'south tight, start with our picks for the best cheap printers, and cheque out how to save coin on ink. If you're shopping for a business concern, we've got the best business printers rounded upwardly for y'all as well.

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