The Best Printer Buyer’s Guide – Fall 2024

By Ari Altman | Published September 15, 2024 | Updated September 15, 2024

Do You Still Need a Printer? Of Course You Do!

Despite everyone’s move to digital paper, digital photos, and the cloud, we still all need to print a few things once in a while, whether it’s a concert ticket, a mail-in form, a school assignment, or a work document. To help you find your way through the maze of printer options available, we’ve compiled this guide to the best inkjet and laser models.

As a rule of thumb, inkjets are great for small-volume printing that requires color, and are the only printers to consider for album-worthy photographs. Meanwhile, laser printers are vastly superior for large-volume printing, with color laser models suitable for business presentations.

Our Latest Recommendations

For Fall 2024, we’ve updated this guide with our top picks in a number of different categories, offering the best combinations of features for the price. While printer tech doesn’t change all that often, every brand regularly refreshes its lineups with new features and designs.

The Inkjet Option: Go Canon Megatank, but with a Caveat!

We really like what Canon has done with its Megatank line. Megatank printers hold enough ink to print at least 6,000 pages, as opposed to 500 pages per ink cartridge in traditional inkjets. And even better, replacement ink costs next to nothing. Yes, Megatank printers are more expensive than traditional inkjets, but we believe transparency in pricing is important for consumers, and the high introductory price of this printer is offset by running costs of about half a cent per page, rather than the 25 cents most inkjets cost (yes, we do mean 50x higher!).

Alas, even good ideas can have a hidden flaw, and after our expose of Canon’s first-gen MegaTanks in the most popular video we ever published on YouTube (see below), we now only recommend models released since 2020 with user-replaceable waste ink cartridges. The original models released between 2016 and 2019, and still sold widely, have a fatal flaw: in order to keep the long ink tubes flowing, ink must be consumed to flush them regularly, but this ink has to go somewhere. In those older models, it went into a non-replaceable sponge that literally would overflow within a year or two. With new models, you just replace that “diaper” for a few bucks, and away you go!

The Laser Option: Go Brother for High-Volume Printing on a Budget!

Anyone needing ultra-fast or high-volume printing should absolutely go with a laser printer, available in both black and white (monochrome) and color models, as well as printer-only or multi-function models. Across the board, Brother offers the best value here, both for the printer and the toner. Furthermore, some of its competitors make a business out of bilking customers with toner lock-downs are remote printer disabling (HP being the absolute worst). Brother has for decades been the honest dealer of laser printers, operating in a trustworthy and consistent way. We continue to buy their products year after year, and we think you will be happy doing the same.

Keep in mind that color lasers are not for photo printing, so think twice before you jump up to one of these models if all you care about are album-worthy photos. They are intended for business color printing, for example flyers, brochures, and presentations.

Parting Thoughts

We provide links to Amazon throughout this guide, and the links will auto-convert for readers in Canada, the UK, and parts of Europe, for which we main earn a commission. Please help support continued development of this guide by using our links if you decide to purchase one of the printers we recommend.

Inkjet Printers

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Home Office Multi-Function Inkjet –
Canon PIXMA G3270 MegaTank
$149

The G3270 is a true multifunction workhorse at a great price. It provide multi-function capability (print, copy, scan), along with wireless connectivity, including printing from mobile devices. And with four huge ink tanks, this machine can print up to 6,000 black and white pages or 7,700 color pages before running out of ink! Adding another 7,700 pages worth of ink will only cost around $15 per bottle, and a full set around $50. With printing costs around half a cent per page, this is absolutely the cheapest printer to operate on a per-page basis. We highly recommend purchasing the user-replaceable MC-G04 ink maintenance cartridge at the same time, as this will almost certainly come in handy to keep this printer up and running, and the G3270 is one of the few Megatank printers that can use it.

The Guru’s Tip
To keep this printer, or the one below, functioning, you need to print some sort of color content at least once a week. The huge tank reservoirs are connected to the print heads via long tubes, which can get jammed with dry ink if left unused. Unjamming them requires a lot of ink waste, so trust us - it's cheaper, easier, and more fun to use this printer regularly to print photos or other color documents than to let it sit unused!
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The Home Office Photo Inkjet –
Canon PIXMA G620 Photo Printer
$329

The G620 is among Canon’s top-selling printers, and often impossible to find in stock. The reason: unbeatable photo printing quality. If that’s your thing, this is your printer. It uses six dye-based inks that make photos pop, and being a Megatank-series printer, the inks last for thousands of pages (up to 3,800 4″x6″ photos), and are inexpensive to replace. We highly recommend purchasing the user-replaceable MC-G02 ink maintenance cartridge at the same time, as this will almost certainly come in handy to keep this printer up and running, and the G620 is one of the few Megatank printers that can use it.

The Guru’s Tip
To be clear, all MegaTank printers we recommend, including this one, have a user-replaceable maintenance waste ink cartridge, which is critical to keeping these printers running.

Laser Printers

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Monochrome Laser –
Brother HL-L2460DW
$140

The 2460DW is a perfect printer for the price. Why? Simple – it has the right combination of features at the right price. Fast 36 page per minute printing, built-in duplexing, 802.11n wireless networking (2.4GHz and 5GHz), and a 250-sheet paper tray plus manual feed slot. When it comes time to refill, we suggest skipping the standard TN830 cartridge and getting the TN830X high-yield toner cartridge. It provides 3,000 printed pages and costs about $85. That works out to just over 2.5 cents a page, a true bargain in the printer world, where vendors often get you on ink/toner costs!

The Guru’s Tip
As you skim through this guide, notice the codes used to indicate features in printer models: "D" is for duplex, "N" is for wired networking, "W" is for wireless plus wired networking, and "C" is for color.
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Multi-Function Monochrome Laser –
Brother DCP-L2640DW
$200

If you have the space for it, there’s almost no reason not to step up to a multi-function printer, and the Brother L2640DW is a great choice. It offers a fast print speed of 36ppm, double-sided (duplex) printing, 802.11n wireless networking (2.4GHz and 5GHz), and an automatic document feeder for scanning and copying (one of our favorite features!). In terms of paper handling, it has both a 250-page paper tray and a manual feed slot. For refills, use the Brother TN830X High-Yield Cartridge, which sells for about $85 and is good for 3,000 pages. That’s just over 2.5 cents per page.

The Guru’s Tip
While you do pay extra for scan/copy, we think it's a very valuable add-on for most people, versus the simpler print-only model above.
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Home Office Color Laser –
Brother HL-L3220CDW
$220

If you’ll be doing a lot of non-photo color printing, you really want a laser printer for the job, rather than an inkjet. This model is a dedicated color printer with no multi-function features, but it is fast and robust, and comes in at a fantastic price. It prints at up to 19ppm in color or black/white, and features automatic duplexing, wireless networking, and wireless printing options. High-yield black cartridges for this model are rated at 3,000 pages and cost about $85, while each of the three color cartridges rated at 2,300 pages and cost about $105 each. Running costs will therefore be around 2.8 cents per color page and 4.6 cents per B&W page.

The Guru’s Tip
What's particularly impressive about this color model is that it's barely bigger than a comparable monochrome printer, despite fitting in four cartridges!
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Home Office Multi-Function Color Laser –
Brother MFC-L3720CDW
$400

Rated at a fast 19ppm, this printer is a great option if you need to print color documents at home, along with copying and scanning, all with one device. Here are some of its standout features: built-in duplex printing, a 250-page paper tray, wireless networking, an automatic document feeder (essentially for scanning more than one page at a time), and a color touchscreen for easy control. This model uses the Brother TN229XL high-yield black cartridge at around $85, good for 3,000 pages, and Brother TN229XL high-yield color cartridges at around $105 (in three colors: magenta, yellow, and cyan), good for 2,300 pages. That works out to 2.8 cents per b/w page and 4.6 cents per color page.

The Guru’s Tip
While Brother does offer a slightly cheaper model without the automatic document feeder, we don't think anyone buying a multi-function printer, especially in this price range, should make do with just a flatbed for scanning. It's just not that convenient.
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Small Office Color Laser –
Brother HL-L8360CDW
$450

If you need color printouts, and you need them fast, this is the purpose-built model you’re looking for. Rated at 33ppm for either color or black & white, this printer is the perfect model for any small office that doesn’t need scan/copy/fax capabilities. It features duplex printing, built-in wireless networking, and a color touchscreen for ease of control. Super-high-yield black TN437 cartridges cost around $125 and are rated at 9,000 pages, while each of the three TN436 color cartridges also print 6,500 pages and cost about $170 each. Running costs will therefore be around 1.4 cents per B&W page and 2.6 cents per color page.

The Guru’s Tip
Stepping up from one of the models above to this model gets you a much more robust design, able to go far longer between cartridges swaps and drum replacements.
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Small Office Multi-Function Color Laser –
Brother MFC-L8905CDW
$700

If you need a full-featured color laser all-in-one for your small office setup, go for this model from Brother. Rated at 33ppm for either color or black & white, this printer features built-in wireless networking, automatic duplexing printing as well as duplex copying and scanning, fax capabilities, and a massive 7″ color touchscreen control panel. Super-high-yield black TN437 cartridges cost around $125 and are rated at 9,000 pages, while each of the three TN436 color cartridges also print 6,500 pages and cost about $170 each. Running costs will therefore be around 1.4 cents per B&W page and 2.6 cents per color page.

The Guru’s Tip
This model adds the full suite of multi-function capabilities, while using the same print engine as the model above. Note that it often sells out - it's popular, and our guess is Brother can only ship a certain number every month due to its size and complexity.