Top 5+ best printers of 2026, tested and reviewed

CR has evaluated thousands of models for text quality, graphics quality, and ink usage. These options from Brother, Canon, and Epson rise to the top.

Our testers report that laser printers, all-in-one lasers, and inkjet tank printers are economical in how they use toner or ink.

By Allen St. John, Courtney Lindwall

Two things to know about printers: First, most people buy inkjet models, and second, many people hate their printers.

See the correlation? Inkjet printers tend to be unreliable compared with most items you buy in an electronics store. And the cartridges can be expensive, with replacement ink costs for a $100 printer running as much as $100 annually.

If you frequently print in color, you probably will want an inkjet. If not, we recommend buying a black-and-white laser printer instead. These models spit out crisp text at impressive speeds, and they tend to be far more reliable. They use toner, which is cheaper over the long haul than printer ink.

What if you need to print in color? An office supply superstore can help you with one-off jobs. If that’s a burden, buying a tank model can save you money in the long run. These inkjets feature reservoirs that you refill with inexpensive bottles of ink. The up-front cost of a tank printer can be high, but the per-year cost of ink hovers around $5 per year, according to CR’s calculations. That’s a fraction of what people spend on ink cartridges.

Below, we’ve selected inkjet and laser models across various categories that fare well in our tests. CR members can also skip to the bottom for advice on how to choose between one option and the other.

Best Basic Home Printer if You Print a Lot

Brother HL-L6310DW

This black-and-white laser printer checks a lot of boxes. Our testers report that the Brother HL-L6310DW delivers crisp, beautiful text in a hurry. And it’s inexpensive to operate. Based on our survey results on typical printer use, we estimate that toner costs will be about $8 a year. According to our predicted reliability and owner satisfaction ratings, the Brother HL-L6310DW is likely to operate hassle-free for years.

No, this printer doesn’t have fax or scanning capabilities, and as with most black-and-white laser printers, the graphics performance isn’t great. But when it comes to what most people use their printers for—printing black-and-white text, such as return shipping labels, concert tickets, or homework assignments—the HL-L6310DW is a superb performer, spitting out sharp, high-quality pages in a snap.

Another option: The Canon imageClass LBP247dw is a less pricey black-and-white laser model that prints out high-quality text documents, and its ink costs are low at around $11 a year. However, Canon did get a substantially lower owner satisfaction score in this category from our members than Brother did.

Best Laser Printer That Faxes and Scans, Too

Brother HL-L2480DW

If you don’t need to print in color but want to print, scan, and copy, consider the Brother HL-L2480DW. This black-and-white all-in-one laser printer is relatively compact and reasonably priced. (It performs nearly as well as the larger Brother MFC-L5915DW at less than half the cost.) The estimated toner costs are only $15 a year.

The Brother HL-L2480DW prints black-and-white text with impressive speed (about 18 pages per minute), and just as important, the quality is superb. The model is less than great with graphics, but that’s what you’d expect from a laser printer. And our survey data suggests that Brother printers are very reliable over the long term. The model also delivers many of the convenient features you find in a full-blown office printer: a document feeder, a second paper tray, and auto-duplexing, which allows you to print on both sides of a sheet, saving money and the planet.

Another high-performing option: The Canon imageClass MF465dw performs similarly and has a nifty document feeder that allows you to make two-sided copies automatically. However, our survey data indicates that Canon printers are less reliable over time than Brother printers.

Best Inkjet Printer for Long-Term Savings

Epson Ecotank ET-3958

If you have the occasional print job that requires crisp and colorful images, you can always just email your file to the print center at a home office superstore. But if that’s impractical, consider a tank model. The Epson EcoTank ET-3958 uses only about $4 worth of ink a year, according to our estimates, compared with $100 or more for a regular inkjet that relies on cartridges. The ET-3958’s overall performance earns a recommendation from CR. Expect high-quality text and accurate scans, although printing may be slower.

Another option: If you’re looking to print professional-quality images, consider a more expensive color inkjet printer, such as the Epson EcoTank Photo ET-8500. It produces better-looking photos, graphics, and text, though it’s not that speedy when printing text.

Best Inkjet Printer for a Super-Tight Budget

Brother MFC-J1010DW

Some consumers just need a printer that’s flat-out inexpensive. If saving money right now is your top priority, the Brother MFC-J1010DW meets that need. The model performs fairly well in our tests, with middle-of-the-pack scores for text speed and text quality.

Importantly, this inkjet sells for around $100. But before you buy it, keep in mind that according to our estimates, it’s likely to cost you around $77 per year in ink. That’s a pretty average figure by the standards of conventional inkjet printers. But when you compare it with the $4-a-year estimated ink costs of the Epson EcoTank ET-3958 in this roundup or the $15-a-year toner cost of a typical monochrome laser, it’s easy to see how any money you save up front will ultimately be spent on pricey replacement ink cartridges over the life of the printer.

Another option: The Canon Pixma TS7722 is a similar save-now, pay-later cartridge printer for around $100. The purchase price seems reasonable, but annual ink costs are around $84. While the Pixma TS7722 performs reasonably well in our labs in terms of text, photo, and graphics quality, owner satisfaction with the brand is poor, according to our member surveys.

Best Color Printer for a Graphics Pro

Brother MFC-L3765CDW

Color laser printers are built with graphics professionals and small businesses in mind; they’re expensive to buy, and the toner isn’t cheap, exceeding $100 a year for some models. But there’s a reason some people who print a lot in color buy and love color lasers. When it comes to graphics, they often outshine both color inkjets and black-and-white lasers, with sharp, accurately saturated images. The text performance is stellar as well.

The Brother MFC-L3765CDW sits at the top of our ratings in this category. Price-wise, it’s in the middle of the typical range for a color laser model, and the estimated toner cost of $83 a year is average for the category. And owners tend to be satisfied with their Brother printers, according to the latest survey data of CR members. 

Another option: If you’re looking to spend a bit less up front, the Canon Color imageClass MF652Cw earns our top rating for text quality and near-top ratings for the quality of its graphics and scans. The annual toner cost estimate of $63 is also slightly lower. However, owners of Brother all-in-one laser printers tend to be more satisfied with their purchase than owners of Canon models, according to our survey data. 

Inkjets vs. Laser Printers

If you’re like most shoppers, you’re probably used to buying a very inexpensive inkjet model that uses ink cartridges. And while we understand that impulse—inexpensive is good—our consumer research and laboratory testing have found that for most consumers, laser printers are a better alternative.

According to our expert evaluations, inkjet printers have three fundamental problems.

• They often don’t do a great job printing text, the primary job people want them to do.
• While frequently cheap to buy, they saddle you with high ink costs for expensive replacement cartridges and wasteful ink maintenance cycles required just to keep the machine working. The typical person might spend $100 a year or more on ink cartridges, which can double the cost of ownership for a printer in as little as two years.
• And data from our surveys of CR members suggests that inkjet printers are not as reliable as laser printers.

Add all of that up and it’s no surprise that consumer satisfaction with inkjet printers, as measured in those same surveys, is quite low.

That’s why we find that, for typical home use, the best option is generally a black-and-white laser. Our research shows that people rarely print graphics and almost never print photos, but they print lots and lots of text in black and white.

And that’s where monochrome laser printers excel. They print crisp text, and they print it fast and economically. Our survey data says they’re generally more reliable than inkjets in the long term, which is why many of the survey respondents who bought laser printers really love them.

What about those times when you need to print in color? Most office supply stores can do a beautiful job of printing that one-off presentation, your kid’s school project, or those precious family photos on a professional-quality printer for relatively little money.

Some people, however, do need to print in color quite frequently, and if that’s you, there’s still a way to do so that’s economical. With tank printers, which use refillable ink reservoirs instead of disposable ink cartridges, you can spend less than $10 a year on bottled ink as opposed to $100 or more for ink cartridges. Color laser printers are also an option, though their relatively high purchase price and toner costs make them better suited to a small business or a graphics pro.

How CR Tests Printers

We buy all of our test samples through regular retail channels. No freebies for us. We then rigorously test every printer we evaluate on more than 250 data points, churning out hundreds of pages of text and images and running the models out of ink again and again. We combine those test results from our labs with brand reliability and owner satisfaction ratings from our member surveys to arrive at an Overall Score that lets you compare every model on the same scale.

The printers in this roundup of top models print text with dependable quality and speed. Some models include a document feeder and scan and copy features, and those models get extra credit for that. A few excel at graphics. And most won’t incur high ongoing ink or toner costs.

Consumer Reports is an independent, nonprofit organization that works side by side with consumers to create a fairer, safer, and healthier world. CR does not endorse products or services, and does not accept advertising. Copyright © 2026, Consumer Reports, Inc.