Best Laser Printers

It wasn’t long ago that if you needed to print something, you were limited to two options: if you were a home user, a dot matrix printer was the only affordable option on the market, and you had to accept the fact that it would be slow, loud, and have lousy print quality. If you were lucky, you had access to an inkjet printer (or, in rarer cases, a laser printer) at work. Today, things have changed a lot—what had been a gadget that was expensive enough to be exclusively for office use has become smaller, more reliable, and so inexpensive that just about everyone can afford to have one at home. And if you do any amount of work at home, a good laser printer has become a virtual necessity. Here is how to find the best laser printer for your needs.

High-volume printers: Unlike the other options on this list, high-volume printers don’t do every single thing that you could possibly need. That isn’t a flaw, it’s by design—they are meant to give you a large number of printouts quickly and reliably.

Home office printers: On the other end of the spectrum you’ll find “home office” printers. These models (often called “3-in-1,” “4-in-1,” “all-in-1,” etc.) give users high-quality printouts, but also serve as copiers, PDF makers, and even fax machines.

Color/monochrome: These printers are just what they sound like. Monochrome printers work exclusively in black-and-white (and grays), while color printers offer users the ability to print in just about every color imaginable.

Here are some of the things reviewers talk about when giving feedback on their printer purchases:

• Ease of use: The main reason for buying a printer for your home office is that it allows you to get all of your work done at home; that can’t happen if the machine is so complicated that it takes an IT professional to operate it properly. The best models are easy to install and use regardless of the owner’s technical expertise.
• Durability: Most users aren’t looking to run a print shop out of their houses, but that doesn’t mean that they’re okay with buying a flimsy printer. Great printers can handle all jobs, both large and small.
• Paper volume: This one might be easy to overlook, but reviewers who use their printers for large jobs often talk about how much paper the printer can reliably hold. That makes sense—even if a printer can handle printing in large volumes, it’s inconvenient to have to constantly reload the machine’s trays or paper slot.
• Functionality: Just because a printer can make copies, send faxes, and scan documents doesn’t mean that it does those jobs well. Reading through the reviews for multifunction printers, it’s clear that some models’ add-ons simply don’t work as well as they should, while the best printers do everything that they’re advertised as doing well.

• Ink: Ink is the lifeblood of a printer. Look for a model that comes with high-volume ink cartridges, and just as importantly, cartridges that can be replaced or refilled easily when they run out—it’s bound to happen, and when it does, you don’t want to be stuck trying to track down a hard-to-find cartridge.
• Functionality: Be sure to think about what you need to get out of your printer, and don’t waste your money on features you don’t need. Do you need a fax machine? Then look for a model that has that function. If you don’t, then you’re better off looking for a model that will do what you need it to do.
• Wireless connectivity: A wireless printer allows you to work wherever you feel most comfortable—even if you do your printing in the office, it can be liberating to do your work elsewhere in the house. If that’s something that appeals to you, look for a model that allows for easy wireless networking.
• Print speed: If you mainly use your printer for small jobs, this might not be an absolutely essential quality for you. However, if you plan on doing a lot of printing, be sure to check out the specifications on the printer you’re thinking about purchasing—how many pages per minute will it print, and is that going to be enough to meet your needs?

HP: Hewlett-Packard shows up on most lists of top brands of computers and computer accessories, and for good reason—they’re one of the most reliable businesses in the market. The electronics manufacturer was founded in California in 1939, and has been at the forefront of computer products since computers started showing up in almost every business and home.

Canon: Like Hewlett-Packard, Canon has been around for decades. The company was founded in 1937 as a camera manufacturer, and it has since broadened its product lineup to include copiers, printers, and a host of other imaging solutions.

Brother: Brother is the oldest company on this list, having been founded in 1908 in Japan. Originally a producer of sewing machines (which the company still makes), Brother later added typewriters, copying machines, and printers to its impressively wide array of products.