All of the printers featured here include copy and scan features, with many also offering fax functionality, all in one single machine, but there are some key differences to look out for. For instance, networking capabilities may be vital if you plan on sharing a single printer between multiple devices, plus you might want to consider the advantages and disadvantages between inkjet and laser printing. Whether you’re looking to use your all-in-one printer occasionally or you’re a heavy user, there’s a device to suit your needs. To help you pick out the right one, we’ve looked at the best for a variety of different needs and budgets, as well as evaluated the key things to look for. It also has plenty of other practical features such as a large, 5-inch LCD touchscreen display for easy navigation, extensive connectivity options including USB, Ethernet, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth, and plenty of ways to print. It’s possible to use the printer to print special CD/DVD/Blu-ray cover images as well as more conventional printouts. The Canon Pixma TS9120 looks good too, blending nicely into the background with a simple, box-shaped design and a metallic gold, gray, or red finish on top. A rear paper feed and front tray pop out when needed, alternatively tucking away at other times, with both trays capable of holding 100 sheets of paper. With print speeds of up to 15 pages per minute, that’s certainly useful. A solid all-rounder, this will suit the majority of home offices. Type: Inkjet | Color/Monochrome: Color | Connection Type: USB, Ethernet, Bluetooth| LCD Screen: Yes | Scanner/Copier/Fax: Scanner, Copier The scan and copy functions also feature single-pass duplex imaging which saves you time and paper. If you’re worried about energy costs, a 6-second power-on cycle helps here and you can program the unit to turn on and off at set times to suit your office hours. The printer manages speeds of up to 24 pages per minute, so it’s no slouch with heavy loads. Other features include the ability to create nine different user profiles to stop unauthorized access, plus you can access a record of the printer’s history to avoid misuse. Compatible with Windows and Mac computers, as well as iOS and Android, everything about the Canon MB5420 is practical, right down to a 3.5-inch touchscreen that makes it easy to access settings, functions, and other options. It’s perfect for a small or medium-sized office’s needs. Type: Inkjet | Color/Monochrome: Black | Connection Type: USB, Ethernet, Wi-Fi | LCD Screen: Yes | Scanner/Copier/Fax: Scanner, Copier, Fax First, there’s the ability to print up to 24 pages per minute in black and white or 20 pages per minute in color, with an output resolution of up to 1200dpi. Alongside that is a huge monthly duty cycle of up to 30,000 pages so it can deal with the most demanding of work scenarios. Its integrated scanner also offers the ability to scan documents to a variety of different formats including PNG, BMP, and PDF, while the copier can produce up to 99 copies at a resolution of up to 600dpi. The fax memory is comprehensive too with up to 100 pages and faxing a page can take as little as 4 seconds. Dual input trays with capacities of 250 sheets each and a 2.7-inch display with capacitive touch input prove useful too. To complete the package, the HP OfficeJet Pro 9025e also has extensive connectivity options including Wi-Fi 802.11abgn, USB 2.0, RJ-11, and Ethernet. It’s also possible to print directly from mobile devices with support for Mopria and Apple AirPrint. Type: OfficeJet | Color/Monochrome: Color | Connection Type: USB, Ethernet, Bluetooth| LCD Screen: Yes | Scanner/Copier/Fax: Scanner, Copier The Brother MFC-J985DW isn’t just cheap to run either, with some great features. These include two-sided printing as well as wireless printing from devices via AirPrint, Google Cloud Print, Mopria, Brother iPrint & Scan, and Wi-Fi Direct. Networking options are available via Wi-Fi, Ethernet, Wi-Fi Direct, or you can print directly from USB. A paper capacity of 100 pages is a little average compared to the competition, but being able to print up to 12 black and white pages or 10 color pages per minute means you can keep up. Type: Inkjet | Color/Monochrome: Color | Connection Type: USB, Ethernet, Wi-Fi | LCD Screen: Yes | Scanner/Copier/Fax: Scanner, Copier, Fax The Expression Premium XP-7100 is a bit slow, plus it has only a small capacity paper tray, but being able to feed 30 pages in automatically is useful stuff. It’s easy to set up and navigate too, with a 4.3-inch touchscreen allowing you to view photos from any USB or SD card you connect to it. Finally, a compact and stackable design means it’ll slot into your home office easily enough, and you can print directly from your phone or tablet. There’s even a dedicated creative print app available too. Type: Inkjet | Color/Monochrome: Black | Connection Type: USB, Ethernet, Wi-Fi | LCD Screen: Yes | Scanner/Copier/Fax: Scanner, Copier The printer uses a hybrid pigment and dye-based ink to produce great results, especially when it comes to photo printing. A capacity of 350 sheets of plain or glossy paper means you won’t have to refill the tray too often, either. Type: Inkjet | Color/Monochrome: Black | Connection Type: USB, Ethernet, Wi-Fi | LCD Screen: Yes | Scanner/Copier/Fax: Scanner, Copier With the ability to fit 570 sheets of paper in its main and multi-purpose trays, refilling isn’t needed too often either. You can always fit a larger tray, upping the capacity to 1,610 sheets when needed. It’s ideally suited for business customers looking to print in high volumes each day. Other features include auto-duplex printing and faxing support, the ability to scan directly to the cloud or mobile devices, as well as Wi-Fi support. Geared toward the business market, there are also relevant features such as Secure Print, plus a settings lock to stop users from interfering with your settings. Type: Laser | Color/Monochrome: Black | Connection Type: USB, Gigabit Ethernet, Wi-Fi, NFC | LCD Screen: No | Scanner/Copier/Fax: Scanner, Copier, Fax The downside? Speeds aren’t fantastic, but they are functional with a maximum of 12 pages per minute in black and white or 10 pages per minute in color. The paper tray can hold up to 150 sheets while the auto document feeder holds 20. Type: Inkjet | Color/Monochrome: Black | Connection Type: USB, Ethernet, Wi-Fi | LCD Screen: Yes | Scanner/Copier/Fax: Scanner, Copier, Fax However, the Pixma TR4520 is pretty slow. It prints only about 8.8 pages per minute but for a printer that measures just 17.2 x 11.7 x 7.5 inches when closed, concessions needed to be made. Type: Inkjet | Color/Monochrome: Black | Connection Type: USB, Wi-Fi | LCD Screen: Yes | Scanner/Copier/Fax: Scanner, Copier, Fax Jeffery Chadwick has reviewed products related to video editing, computer security, and media players, as well as home improvement gadgets like power tools and robot lawnmowers. He is an expert in consumer tech, as well as photography equipment. Jeremy Laukkonen is a tech writer who interviewed several of the printers on our list. His areas of expertise include consumer technology. Will Fulton is an enormous nerd about more things than you might suspect, but he’s had a lifelong passion for games and technology of all sorts. He is an expert in computers and their peripherals, including printers.
What to Look For in an All-in-One Printer
Why buy an all-in-one (AIO) or multifunction (MFP) printer? Even if you just want to cover your basic printing needs, it’s worth considering an AIO printer that comes with additional capability. All-in-one printers generally share the same multi-use capabilities of printing, copying, scanning, and faxing. But some options can also handle photo and various media printing (and include a number of other handy bells and whistles). While you may not need all of these functions, things could change. And if you’re considering a printer at all—for home or your business—it’s likely you have at least a few use cases in mind. Plus, upgrading to an AIO printer can be a space-saver (one machine versus several) and is also often friendlier on the wallet. But you don’t need to level up to the largest or the flashiest multifunction printer for the sake of versatility. Use this guide to help you weigh the considerations that mean the most to you when shopping for an all-in-one printer for home or business use.
Size and Use Case
The first question to ask yourself is how you’ll be using an all-in-one printer, before considering where it’ll be located. If your needs lie squarely at home with only occasional scanning jobs required or sometimes printing documents, you almost certainly don’t need a machine that has multiple trays for holding stacks of paper. You also probably don’t have to worry too much about the speed at which it prints. All-in-one printers come in various sizes so it’s possible to find a smaller model that will do everything you need and while taking up less room. Many all-in-one printers are small enough to take up little desk space and tuck away when you don’t need them. However, if you’re looking for an all-in-one printer for your small business, you likely have more space available for it, and you’ll need more features. Larger and more diverse printing requirements could mean a bigger and more rugged machine is essential. In some cases, more functionality from an all-in-one printer means a higher price tag. But if you have a more lenient budget to work with or even a limited one, there’s enough variation in the market to find a device that serves your main functions. Finally, if photo printing is your priory, you need to consider a dedicated photo printer instead of an all-in-one machine. Photo printers use special inks that help photos last longer and look better, and their resolution is often higher. They’re also more likely to come with options for printing from external devices such as SD cards or USB drives, making things easier to do.
AIO Printer Types
Once you know your main uses for an AIO printer, it will be easier to decide which type of AIO printer can deliver what you’re looking for.
Inkjet
Inkjet printers tend to be the cheapest option for home printers and are usually more compact than their laser counterparts. But they’re still capable of printing crisp images, photos, and text, even if they’re smaller and more affordable. Some higher-end machines have higher DPI (dots per inch) ratings. This number is connected to how many dots of ink the printer distributes both horizontally and vertically per every square inch of a page; the more dots, the higher the resolution and clarity of the resulting image. That means crisper and sharper images and documents. One downside, however, is that inkjet printers are known to smudge unpredictably and render blurry results. Inkjet printers generally come with high long-term supply costs as well. Though there are ways to make ink cartridges last longer, they’re small and expensive to replace since you’re not just replacing one cartridge. Inkjet printers usually require several different color cartridges—cyan, yellow, magenta, and black are most common. Some AIO printers use multi-color cartridges that combine all of these hues in one vessel or separate black from the other tones. But if you know you use one particular color more than most, it could be more cost-efficient to stick with an inkjet AIO with separate cartridges.
Laser
If you’ve ever worked in an office, you’ve probably used a laser printer. They tend to be bigger and require more floor or counter space to store. Laser printers are generally more expensive initially, as well. But unlike inkjet printers, laser AIOs benefit from longer-lasting (but pricier) toner cartridges that can stretch your dollar a bit further. In addition to more long-term affordability, laser printers are known to be faster than inkjet machines. Rather than relying on squeezing droplets of ink onto printer paper, laser printers use a toner as the ink source by melting it onto paper via heated rollers. While you save on ink and time with a laser printer, laser AIO printers fall behind inkjet machines when printing graphics and photographic details. But laser MFP printers are much more adept at producing high-quality, black-and-white text documents and much larger volumes.
Monochrome vs. Color
Typically, one buys an inkjet printer to be able to print in color while laser printers are aimed solely at the black and white market. if your small shop or home projects involve full-color printouts, you need an inkjet all-in-one printer. If the bulk of your printing is text-heavy documents though, a monochrome laser printer is the better option. They’re faster and more efficient in every way. If your budget can stretch even further, there are color laser all-in-one printers out there too but they’re very pricey.
Display/Interface
Smaller all-in-one printers come with predictably smaller displays of 3-5 inches or less. Many feature LCDs with button prompts, but you can also find touchscreen interfaces that are customizable and as easy to navigate as any smart device you own. Even if you won’t be generating larger or more complex printing jobs, a touchscreen provides faster access and more precision when making selections.
Connectivity
Multifunction printers have joined the ranks of other everyday devices that provide instant and cord-free access without the need for wireless printer adapters. Even if you’re not purchasing an all-in-one printer for a business setting, simple connectivity via Wi-Fi is an asset and more of the standard than the exception. If you work in an office with a few employees who each have their own devices, move on from machines that require USB- or Ethernet-only connections. Instead, consider the type of wireless connectivity options that work best for the team. Even at home, the ability to print from a different room could be a great convenience. Most AIO printers come with easy Wi-Fi setup or Wi-Fi direct access that can create a direct connection with another device without a go-between like a router. Mobile printing is another plus. If you’re an Apple device user, look for machines that come with AirPrint capability for seamless printing from your iPhone or MacBook. Likewise, many modern all-in-one printers are also ready to operate with cloud-based services—like Google Cloud Print—for printing directly from your tablet or smartphone without requiring any complicated setup. NFC (Near Field Communication) technology is another compatibility option you’ll see in many all-in-one printers. With the tap of a button, this functionality makes it possible for your smartphone to “talk” to the printer without connecting to the same network or even establishing an internet connection.
Cost of Ink and Supplies
Determining the overall investment of an all-in-one printer is a bit complicated since you must factor in the long-term cost of printing supplies. While the initial cost of the device could be low, toner and inkjet cartridge costs are definitely worth diving into before a purchase. Calculate the cost per printed page and decide what works best based on your budget. If you won’t be printing on a daily basis, consider how spending more than a couple of cents per page on an inkjet AIO printer benefits you. Maybe a more expensive laser printer is the better option since toner has a longer lifespan than an ink cartridge—up to a year versus a few months at a time. If you know full-color printing is the main purpose for the machine, you’ll have to accept that the cost per page will be higher than monochrome printing. But many AIOs come with toner- and ink-level monitoring technology that launches an order automatically when supplies are low. These programs could help you save money or at least offer the convenience of never running out of ink when you need it. Beyond ink and toner, paper costs are also important to suss out. Certain types of premium paper or specialized paper (card stock, photo paper, large format) are more expensive and present other buying criteria including thickness, stiffness, and finishings.
Other Factors and Features
Whether you’re looking to print high volumes of documents, craft projects, or high-quality print photographs, there are some specific features that can make the process much smoother.
ADF
You don’t want to need to constantly feed paper into your printer so a good all-in-one printer should be able to handle an absolute minimum of 15 pages fed at once automatically via an auto document feeder (ADF). This saves you the time and effort of doing it manually which can be particularly useful when copying, scanning, or faxing a multi-page document.
Duplexing
Since convenience and versatility are the main reasons to choose an all-in-one printer, look for machines that offer duplex printing (printing on both sides) so that you don’t have to intervene by flipping pages over yourself. Many machines that have ADFs also come with duplexing as well. You may want to look for a printer with this feature if you frequently do double-sided printing, scanning, or copying.
Paper Trays
How big a paper tray you need depends on your plans. If your printing needs are fairly casual and include occasional documents alongside photo printing, you almost certainly need a large tray capacity or one with multiple inputs. Some all-in-one printers can handle over 500 sheets of paper but that could be overkill for a small home environment with 100 pages or less sufficient. If you regularly produce multi-page documents for meetings and presentations, however, it’s worth investing in a large paper tray. If you’re interested in projects outside of straightforward documents, like photographs and stationery, you’ll want to consider a machine’s ability to handle certain sizes, weights, and types of paper (glossy, matte, card stock). You’ll also want to know how they can be fed into the machine and whether there are special feeds for the type of media or paper (CD, DVD, transparency, envelope, etc). One multi-use tray could be a hassle if you’ll be performing a lot of transitions between text documents and other projects.
Speed, Noise, and Looks
Most manufacturers supply print-speed estimates on their product pages, which can help you compare models you’re interested in. But speed could be less of an issue than you think if you’re considering a laser printer for the office. These higher-capacity machines tend to be fast anyway and the difference between products could be mere seconds. And if you’re looking for an AIO for home, speed is probably even less of an issue—unless a machine performs at a snail’s pace. As for looks and noise levels, these are minor factors, sure. But if you’ll be printing often and care about the way this machine works and looks in your space, they’re worth noting too. Some AIO printers are compact and stylish enough that you may not mind or even enjoy displaying them.
Brands/Manufacturers
There are a few main players you’ll encounter as you browse printer options. Here’s a glance at what each manufacturer offers with their multifunction printers.
HP
The HP brand is no stranger to the world of all things related to PCs, laptops, and desktops. Printers have long been in this tech giant’s wheelhouse, too. HP manufactures several models that are capable of taking on high volumes of printing, including photos and transparencies, along with numerous connectivity options and signature AIO printer hallmarks like duplex printing and scanning and automatic document feeding.
Brother
Brother is another very recognizable name in the printer game. Like HP, Brother all-in-one machines combine many high-end features that won’t break the bank and could be suitable for home use or as the go-to machine in your small office. Unlike HP, which offers ink cartridge replacement with a monthly fee, Brother offers a fee- and subscription-free auto-replenishment program on ink and toner to keep down operating costs and free you from worrying about running out of supplies.
Epson
Canon
Canon is an established name in the photography world, but it also produces numerous printers for personal and professional use. You can find both laser and inkjet multifunction machines that are competitively priced against competitors—and often more affordable. And given the brand’s foothold in the photo industry, many Canon AIO models have an edge by offering quality photo printing capability in addition to basic printing, scanning, and copying. Automatic ink replenishment is free, as long as you own an eligible printer.
Find Your Best AIO Printer
It’s important to identify your biggest needs when shopping for the best all-in-one printer. Narrow things down to the features you really can’t live without, whether that’s fast speeds, cheap printing prices, a high capacity paper tray, or simply being able to use voice assistant support to get things done. Once you know the basics, you know what works best for you, you can find the right device for your home or office.
