Whether you’re looking for a printer to churn out documents in your home office, to save money printing your own holiday snaps or even to print instant photos on the go, this best list brings together all the top-rated printers we’ve tested over the past few years. That means you can ensure you get the best one based on what you need it to do, whether that be printing, scanning, faxing or a combination of the three. Our experts look at a range of factors, including how many sheets of paper will fit into the printer, print speeds for both mono and colour pages, running costs, features and connectivity to determine which printers are worth your money and which are best left in your basket. We test each printer extensively and conduct standardised tests in order to accurately compare different models on the market. We also update this page with new entries regularly, so make sure to check back later if you can’t see a printer that catches your eye right now, as we’re sure to add more in the future.
Best printers at a glance
Best value printer: Canon PIXMA TS7450 – check priceBest printer for low printing costs: Epson EcoTank ET-1810 – check priceBest office printer: Epson EcoTank ET-3850 – check priceBest photo printer and scanner: Canon PIXMA G650 – check priceBest budget printer for docs: Canon PIXMA TS305 – check priceBest student printer: HP Tango XBest portable printer for instant photography: Instax Square Link – check price
We found the quality of documents to be excellent, with no obvious distortion or bleeding on ten-point text documents, and coloured graphics on plain paper looked vibrant and solid. Photos printed on glossy paper look detailed and fantastic at the same time, although do watch out for some tones being a little blanched in photos on plain paper. The costs to run the PIXMA is standard for a cartridge-based printer, costing around 9p or so per page using standard cartridges. This isn’t bad going, but if your bottom line is the most important thing, then opting for the Epson ET-2720 will likely serve you better. Its print speeds are snappy. During testing, we measured single pages of text firing out in nine seconds, while a longer five-page document took just over thirty. For a full-colour photo on plain A4, expect it to take just under a minute. All in all, you shouldn’t be waiting too long for things to print out with this Canon offering. While this is also a good-looking printer, at 8.2kg or so, it is heavy and large, too. This means it’s only really a printer for those who’ve got the space for it, but if you do, then there aren’t many better printers for the money in our eyes than the Canon PIXMA TS7450. Reviewer: Thomas NewtonFull review: Canon PIXMA TS7450 review The main appeal of this Epson comes down to the fact it utilises the EcoTank system, which allows you to refill the ink wells yourself, as opposed to buying a large handful of cartridges. The printer comes with a full set of EcoTank bottles which are good to print 4500 black or 7500 colour pages, which multiplies what you can get out of a cartridge printer by between 20 and 30 times. This works out to a print cost of around half a penny per full-colour page, which is about as cheap as printing gets in 2022. We found the print quality of the ET-1810 to be good for the price, too. Plain paper printing provided dark text and perfectly serviceable colours. Using photo paper offered decent colour accuracy and shade control, complete with a superb glossy finish when using Epson’s own paper. The ET-18120 may not be a printer specifically designed for photography, but it should be great for those wanting to print out the odd postcard-sized snap. As for printing speeds, while the ET-1810 isn’t the most blazing fast printer out there, it’s fine for most jobs. During testing, we found a five-page text document to take around 46 seconds to complete, with a single page clocking in at 18 seconds. Colour documents did take a smidgen longer, with it taking just over 90 seconds to print five pages’ worth of graphics. This may not be the best printer for those in a rush, but the ET-1810 is in it for the long haul, given those low printing costs. For a £150 printer, its design and interface may seem old-fashioned, given the ET-1810 doesn’t have a screen or any form of visual interface. There isn’t an automatic duplex printing option either. For those who want an all-singing and all-dancing printer, we’d say to look elsewhere, but if you’re okay with something simple, functional and with low printing costs, the Epson EcoTank ET-1810 is an incredible option. Reviewer: Simon HandbyFull review: Epson EcoTank ET-1810 review We found it to be a useful multifunctional device, given it can not only print but also scan and copy. Handily, the ET-3850 features an automatic document feeder, which we found allowed documents to be scanned and copied with relative ease, giving you access to all of this printer’s facets at once. As an EcoTank printer, this Epson is able to take advantage of the incredibly low print costs brought around by its refillable tanks. That’s arguably a major reason why it seems like such an expensive printer. The ET-3850 claims to be able to print a volume of 14,000 black or 5,200 colour pages before needing to be fully refilled. Compared to a standard cartridge-based printer, the money saved for such a large print volume is ridiculous. For an inkjet printer, the ET-3850 is absurdly quick. We found it to deliver a five-page text document in 31 seconds, while a 20-page document registered a speed of around 10 pages a minute, printing in just under two minutes. For colour printing, the speeds were just as impressive, with a five-page sample printing in the same 31 seconds as a mono document. There isn’t a touchscreen on offer here, but the colour screen with button controls that the ET-3850 has worked well and is functional. If you’re after a compact printer, then this Epson option should more than suffice. Reviewer: Simon HandbyFull review: Epson EcoTank ET-3850 review We also found this printer to be excellent at scanning, proving extremely quick and flaunting accurate colour reproduction. If you need a high-quality scanner for your home at a reasonable price, there aren’t many better. Standard document printing is decent too thanks to the low-printing costs, although we wouldn’t recommend this Canon if you only want a printer for such workloads. Our tests showed it to be one of slowest document printers we’ve reviewed in a long time, while the printer’s dye inks are more more suited to photo paper than plain paper. It’s also missing useful features such as duplex printing and faxing. Nevertheless, if you’re more interested in printing photos than documents, and also need a speedy scanner, then the Canon PIXMA G650 is a terrific option worth considering. Reviewer: Simon HandbyFull review: Canon PIXMA G650 review We found it to offer reasonable print speeds for its price, printing a single page of text in around nine seconds, while a longer five-page document can take around 40 seconds. It’s not lighting fast, but for the price, we had no complaints. The same was true for photo printing, as a single colour picture printed out in just under a minute, which compared well against printers that were double the price, such as the Epson ET-M112. At 2.9kg, the PIXMA TS305 is reasonably light, which means if you do want to move it around, then you should be able to without too much of a hitch. We also found its paper trays fold in and out which is rather handy if you need to save space at any point, and the general setup of this printer was easy, as long as you’re able to download the correct drivers. The general print quality on offer here isn’t bad for the price, with text being clean and easy to read, as long as you don’t use too much in the way of heavier fonts, as that’s where we found some bleeding to occur. For pictures, colours were generally good with natural tones looking realistic. Synthetic colours such as blues and greens can look a tad over-saturated, but that’s a minor complaint. All in all, the PIXMA TS305 is a great value printer for those who just need to print documents and the odd photo, and it’s cheap to run too, as long as you aren’t printing loads like in an office setting. Reviewer: Thomas Newton Full review: Canon PIXMA TS305 review It looks great with this modern white colouring, alongside a fabric cover that not only acts as the out tray, but also as a cover to protect the Tango X. You also get some nice underglow illumination for when the printer’s in use, which we found to look especially stylish. The printing can be done via a smartphone app, making it quick and easy to get your document of choice printed onto paper. As well as looking the part, we found the HP Tango X to also perform well during testing. Its print speeds were pretty good, with a five-page document taking just over 27 seconds to print, which adhered exactly to HP’s quoted figure of 11 pages per minute. A full colour page took around 30 seconds to print, and with it came some great colours that didn’t look at all overblown. General print costs are high for the Tango X, but if you shop around and use HP’s lauded Instant Ink subscription, they can be cut down to around between 2.5 and 4p per page, depending on whether it’s black or colour. This is especially useful for students since every penny counts, making the Tango X a much more attractive proposition than if you purchase the cartridges yourself. Reviewer: Thomas NewtonFull review: HP Tango X review The Square Link makes it easy to print bright and detailed 6.2 x 6.2cm images on the go with help from the smartphone app. Photos take just 15 seconds to print, though we found film development lasted a few minutes once the paper was ejected from the printer. The editing controls in the app are very basic, but offer a convenient way to crop and rotate your images and boost the brightness, saturation and contrast before you hit print. You also have the option to edit the images in a third-party app before uploading them. There’s a good range of features available through the Instax Square app, including stickers, filters, collage templates and themed frames. There’s also an AR Print option not found on other Instax printers. This feature allows you to attach secret augmented reality messages and animations that can be unlocked by scanning the QR code on the print. Instax Connect is another Square Link-exclusive feature that gives you the ability to decorate images before sending them to friends and family to print. There’s even a calendar to make sure you don’t miss any important birthdays or holidays. The printer itself is quite chunky, but still small enough to slip into most small bags, making it a great option for taking on the go. Of course, it being an instant printer and not an instant camera also means you also have the option snap photos when you’re out and wait until you get home to print them, making the Square Link a convenient gateway into instant photography. Reviewer: Hannah Davies Full review: Instax Square Link
