Best Printers of 2025, Tested and Reviewed - Consumer Reports
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.
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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.
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.
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.
Allen St. John has been a senior product editor at CR since 2016, focusing on digital privacy, audio devices, printers, and home products. He was a senior editor at Condé Nast and a contributing editor at publications including Road & Track and The Village Voice. A New York Times bestselling author, he's also written for The New York Times Magazine, The Wall Street Journal, and Rolling Stone. He lives in Montclair, N.J., with his wife, their two children, and their dog, Rugby.
Courtney Lindwall is a writer at Consumer Reports. Since joining CR in 2023, she’s covered the latest on cell phones, smartwatches, and fitness trackers as part of the tech team. Previously, Courtney reported on environmental and climate issues for the Natural Resources Defense Council. She lives in Brooklyn, N.Y.
