If you're going to get a printer, why settle for one that can only print? A multifunction or all-in-one printer offers a lot of utility in a single device. While most will primarily do the heaviest lifting in printing, they often have a bit of muscle for copying and scanning. Some even excel as photo printers, and a few keep faxing functionality around.
There are many multifunction printers on the market, and they vary in quality dramatically. Some churn out black-and-white documents at a blazing pace, while others may run slower but deliver stunning color prints. Do you have light home printing and occasional copying needs? A budget-friendly option could work, though just be sure you aren’t changing out ink constantly, running up costs.
We’ve taken your varying needs into account, and put together a list of the best multifunction printers available, whether you’re running a hectic home office or printing a few photos a month. Check them out below.
TL;DR – These are the Multifunction Printers:
- HP OfficeJet Pro 9015e
- HP Envy Pro 6455e
- Epson WorkForce Pro WF-7820
- Brother DCP-L2550DW
- Canon Pixma TS9520
- Brother HL-L2340DW
HP OfficeJet Pro 9015e
Best Multifunction Printer
A multifunction printer needs to be able to do a lot, so the more work it can take off your hands, the better. The HP OfficeJet Pro 9015e gets the job done, as your bases are covered for copying, scanning, and faxing. And with Wi-Fi connectivity, you can easily send print jobs over to the printer or, using its small touchscreen display, have it send scanned files to your computer, phone, or even to the cloud.
Of course, you’re probably most concerned with how this thermal inkjet printer handles printing, and it can spit out 22 black-and-white pages per minute, while it's not much slower when it comes to color prints. A 35-page auto document feeder and 250 sheet paper tray also means you won’t need to step in often, and it even works with two-sided documents. Best of all might be the relatively low running costs, thanks to individual ink cartridges for each color.
HP Envy Pro 6455e
Best Budget Multifunction Printer
The HP Envy 6455e is your run-of-the-mill printer and comes at a fair under $200 price, perfect for homes or offices with light printing needs. This option doesn’t fall short in capabilities, offering sharp scanning and copying, and it’ll even turn out photo prints or larger prints up to 8.5 by 14 inches. Self-healing WiFi lets you connect to just about any device, while a 35-sheet automatic document feeder and two-sided printing relieve the tedium in certain jobs.
Now, you aren’t going to get insane printing speeds out of the HP Envy 6455e, as it offers a modest 10ppm for typical documents but dips to 7ppm when color gets added to the mix. Its most worrisome feature is the single black ink cartridge and single tri-color cartridge, meaning when one color runs low, you have to replace them all, quickly running up costs. HP attempts to remedy this problem with its Instant Ink program, which may be worth investing in if you plan to do lots of printing.
Epson WorkForce Pro WF-7820
Best Color Laser Alternative Inkjet Printer
For speed, laser printers are usually the way to go, but Epson is turning the tide with the Epson WorkForce Pro WF78 Series, namely the WF-7820. In addition to being an all-in-one device, it’s also an inkjet model capable of churning out black-and-white prints at 25ppm, getting close to laser printer speeds. You can even have it do duplex prints automatically from its 50-sheet ADF.
Your monochrome document print speeds aren’t the only thing that’ll benefit from using the Epson WorkForce Pro WF-7820, as color prints come out at 12 ppm. And to make this a more economical machine, each ink color has its own cartridge, so you won’t have to worry about replacing them all when one runs low. You won’t be limited to traditional size prints either, as it can handle up to a 13-by-19-inch page while still producing a beautiful output.
Brother DCP-L2550DW
Best Multifunction Monochrome Laser Printer
If you're inundated with tons of black-and-white printing and copying, then the Brother DCP-L2550DW will be your new best friend. This laser printer is built for speed, churning out prints at 36ppm, so even the lengthiest of documents will be done in minutes. To further aid the printing process is a 250-sheet paper tray, keeping it well-fed for those long print jobs, while a 50-sheet ADF lets you remain hands-off while copying or scanning multi-page documents.
The Brother DCP-L2550DWA is packing ample connectivity options, including Wi-Fi, WiFi Direct, or ethernet for the majority of your devices, while a USB port makes it simple to save scans or print directly on the printer itself. It’s important to note this is a printer for text documents, as graphics will be a bit grainy. However, that’s an okay trade-off, given its reasonable price and lower-than-average running costs.
Canon Pixma TS9520
Best Multifunction Printer for Photos
Though a good chunk of multifunction printers can spit out photos, they don’t always offer as impressive results as a more specialized printer, like the Canon Pixma TS9520. It sets itself apart using five separate ink cartridges, including a pigment-based black and dye-based black, delivering a wider tonal range for more realistic photos. And by separating each ink color into its own cartridge, the machine is more economical to operate and produces less waste.
Beyond its coloring prowess, the Canon Pixma TS9520 is relatively speedy at 15 ppm for monochrome prints and can handle some extra-large formats. You’ll also probably appreciate the SD card reader built-in, so you can go straight from camera to printing, while Wi-Fi and Bluetooth support makes it simple to print from just about any other device. It does more than printing too, as it’s capable of copying and scanning, making for a solid all-around machine.
Brother HL-L2340DW
Best Multifunction Printer for Documents
When your printing needs often revolve around term papers, receipts, and other non-glamourous tasks, a simple laser printer like the Brother HL-2340DW is hard to beat. It features a simple, but it's a dorm room or home office hot rod where it counts: printing speed and cost of ownership. We're talking 27 ppm, and the toner will last you between 1,200 - 2,600 pages, depending on whether you go for the standard or high yield, respectively.
It’s hard not to love the speedy printing on the cheap, but just be prepared for the output to be slightly less stunning than some other printers on our list. That’s a manageable tradeoff, as it still gets the job done, plus you can copy and scan on this machine. There are even some handy features like automatic duplex printing and a 250-sheet tray to make life a little less tedious.
What to look for in a Multifunction Printer
When it comes to multifunction printers there are really only two options: inkjet or laser.
Inkjet printers work just like they sound by spraying ink through a print head full of nozzles. They're fantastic for printing high-quality photos with rich colors and sharp details, but they aren't particularly fast at spitting out pages. Inkjet printers also often cost less than their laser-based counterparts, but you'll end up paying more for new ink cartridges in the long run as they don't last as long as toner cartridges.
Laser printers utilize a process of rolling toner onto pages and baking this powder onto them using lasers, which is why the copies that come out of laser printers are usually warm. The biggest advantage of laser printers is they can produce a lot of prints in a short amount of time.
The bad news is laser printers and toner cartridges are usually more expensive than inkjet tanks, especially if you're looking to buy one that also prints in color. That said, toner cartridges often last much longer than ink cartridges, so you likely be able to use the one that came with the printer for more than a year, even if you're making a lot of copies every day.
Picking the right type of multifunction printer comes down to considering how often and what you'll be printing.
If you won't be printing any photos or color documents, a monochrome laser all-in-one is much more suited to your needs than one geared towards high-quality photos. And if you stumbled down here looking for something to just print documents, quickly, always go for a laser printer.
Mark Knapp is a regular contributor to IGN and an irregular Tweeter on Twitter @Techn0Mark
