These inexpensive inkjet and laser printers from Brother, Canon, and Epson won’t break the bank
By Allen St. John
Buying a new printer can be fraught with tough decisions, like whether you should get an inkjet or a laser printer and how much you should spend. The 200-plus models in our ratings, available to CR members, range from a $49 for a basic inkjet to well over $800 for a color laser option.
You’re probably thinking, give me the $49 printer. We get it. No one wants to spend their hard-earned money on one of the least-loved electronics items. But before you go with that Canon Pixma TS3722, consider that you could save money over the long run if you pay a bit more for a printer with low ink or toner costs, rather than basing your decision solely on the purchase price of the machine.
For example, that $49 inkjet printer would likely cost a whopping $157 per year in ink to operate, according to our estimates, while a $200 tank printer, which uses inexpensive ink bottles instead of cartridges, would cost just $5 a year.
A few years in, and the printer that looked so cheap at first glance could end up costing you way more. So weigh your options and consider how much you plan on printing every year.
We’ve handpicked the printers below—most of them all-in-ones that can scan and copy as well as print—based on their performance in our lab tests and prices of $250 or less. None score high enough to earn a CR recommendation, but if your printing tasks are simple (school work and recipes), they could serve you well.
Consumer Reports is a nonprofit member organization, and we buy everything we test at retail, from tiny printers to jumbo TVs. Without further ado, here are five of the best cheap printers, sorted by price.
Best Cheap Printer for Extreme Savings: Canon Pixma TS3722
If you absolutely must spend as little money as possible up front, may we present to you the $49 all-in-one Canon Pixma MG3722 inkjet. Given the low price, you should have low expectations, too. CR’s testers say the printer’s text quality is average and it’s scan quality is above average. It is, however, achingly slow, taking longer than 39 seconds to print a single sheet.
The biggest caveat? While the Canon is cheap to buy, it’s not cheap to own. The annual ink cost is a wallet-busting $157 based on the survey data we collect to calculate normal use. That puts the five-year cost of ownership at a mind-blowing $834.
So if price is your only consideration, the MG3722 is a decent option. But don’t say we didn’t warn you when you start shopping for ink.
Canon PIXMA TS3722
Best Cheap Printer for Photos: Canon Pixma TR8620
The Pixma TR8620 is one of the few printers we’ve tested that excels at printing photos. This all-in-one typically costs about $200.
Our testers report that it prints text very well but is kind of slow. This model does offer a few handy features, including auto-duplexing to print both sides of a page, a document feeder, and a built-in fax feature.
The big downside? Ink costs again. Our testers estimate that you’ll spend $267 a year on ink cartridges for this Canon.
Canon Pixma TR8620
Best Cheap Laser Printer: Brother MFC-2760DW
If you rarely need to print in color and can outsource those jobs to a Staples or FedEx Office, a black-and-white laser printer may be your best choice. Laser printers spit out the monochrome text that most of us print most of the time, with higher quality and at faster speeds than inkjets do. They tend to be more reliable, too, based on Consumer Reports’ survey data.
The MFC-L2760DW can often be found for under $200. It’s larger than the other models on this list, but it also has the features you’d expect from a hefty printer: a generous 250-sheet main paper tray capacity (compared with 100 sheets or less for the others), with an auto-feeder to scan or copy a stack of pages, and auto-duplexing for two-sided printing. Unlike many other printers, the MFC-2760DW can also send and receive faxes. The estimated toner cost is a very reasonable $19 per year.
Brother MFC-L2760DW
Best Cheap Tank Printer: Epson EcoTank ET-2400
A basic model in Epson’s EcoTank line, the all-in-one ET-2400 uses a reservoir that can be refilled with inexpensive ink from bottles rather than pricier ink cartridges. It can be bought for under $200. Even better, it’s super-cheap to own; the ET-2400 has an estimated ink cost of just $4 per year, making this a great value in the long run if you often print in color. The model lacks basics such as a display screen, but it does have WiFi connectivity, an app for printing from your phone or tablet, and the ability to print items you email directly to it.
As for performance, CR’s testers praise the ET-2400 for its great text and color graphics quality. The printing speed is below average. It also lacks auto-duplexing for printing on both sides of a page. You’ll need to upgrade to the more expensive EcoTank ET-2850 for that feature.
Epson EcoTank ET-2400
Epson EcoTank ET-2850
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