Printers may not be glamorous, but they are still an essential item for most homes.
Whether you always need one on standby in your home office or only need to occasionally print off tickets and postage labels, nothing else will do when the need to print arises.
So, then, what are the best printers you can buy? And how do you actually pick the right printer?
Well, we answer both of these key queries in this guide. Below, we’ve rounded up some of the very best wireless printers to consider, with options to fit every budget.
To help ensure you make the right pick for your printing needs, we’ve also included a section with some advice on how to choose one.
Brother MFC-J5330DW
HP OfficeJet Pro 9012e
HP LaserJet Pro M15w
Canon Pixma TS5151
Epson Expression Home XP-5105
Our Top Pick: Best Printer
Best overall
Fast, easy printing and scanning of documents up to A3 in size. Perfect for a medium-sized office or crafty creatives.
Brother MFC-J5330DW All-in-One Color Inkjet Printer, Wireless Connectivity, Automatic Duplex Printing, Amazon Dash Replenishment Ready
The Brother MFC-J5330DW can print and scan A3 documents whilst retaining a relatively small footprint. This makes it incredibly versatile for a range of needs from crafting to being the centre point of a small to medium-sized office.
It’s the fastest of our picks and can print from just about any device thanks to USB, wireless, ethernet and WiFi direct connectivity.
Versatile and powerful
The HP OfficeJet Pro 9012e is a speedy printer with a wide range of features including double-sided document scanning. The companion app makes it nice and simple to print from a range of different mobile devices.
Affordable laser option
A pint-sized laser printer that’s low on features but high on reliability and value for money.
HP Laserjet Pro M15w Wireless Laser Printer, Compatible with Alexa, LED Control Panel, auto-on/auto-Off Technology, Ahaghug Printer Cable
The HP LaserJet Pro M15w is one of the smallest laser printers around and it comes at an attractive price point too. There’s not much in the way of features and it only prints in black, but if you just need to print shipping labels and text documents this is a great choice.
We’ve used this one extensively and it has never let us down. It’s very easy to set up and very unobtrusive thanks to its tiny chassis.
Compact pick
A diddy 3-in-1 wireless printer that’s easy to integrate into any home office setup.
This Canon printer has loads of handy features like allowing you to print directly from cloud-based sources such as Facebook. It’s nice and compact, so it won’t clutter up your home office and the built-in screen makes it very easy to operate.
The optional XL ink cartridges can save you money by having to buy fewer cartridges in the long run.
Smart design
A well-priced printer with great quality of life features, including the ability to order its own refills.
This clever printer can order its own refills from Amazon when it runs low, saving you the hassle. It’s one of the nicer looking options too, in our opinion.
It can print on both sides of A4 paper and has a wealth of connectivity options including Wi-Fi Direct for printing without a network connection and an SD card slot if you want to print straight from a camera.
HP OfficeJet Pro 8035e
The HP OfficeJet Pro 8035e is a speedy printer with a wide range of features including automatic double-sided printing. The companion app makes it nice and simple to print from a range of different mobile devices.
How to choose a printer
In these modern times, many of the things we used to rely on printers for have moved online. However, there are still a number of tasks that require physical print-outs. Documents often require physical copies to be signed or kept stored, and, if you tend toward the more creative side of things, a printer can be an invaluable tool for craft projects or making nice glossy prints of your photographs.
While a greyscale laser printer is a great option for office tasks and shipping documents, it won’t be any good for someone making greetings cards. Conversely, a high-quality ink-jet will be great for printing photos and can print documents just fine too, albeit at a slower pace.
If you figure out what you’re likely to be printing the most, it should be easy to pick out the features that are the most important.
What do you need to connect to?
Most of the options on our list support Wi-Fi connectivity, but not all are created equal. Some options have a companion app for wireless printing from mobiles or even Apple AirPrint built-in, while others are only really suited for desktop connectivity.
You’ll find that some printers have an SD card slot, which can be especially handy if you are a photographer, allowing you to print photos straight from the camera without the need for a computer.
If you’ll be likely to take the printer away from your home network, to an event, for example, you’d benefit from a feature like Wi-Fi Direct that doesn’t rely on your router to function.
Think about the devices you need to connect and the features you need to look out for will quickly become apparent.
Where is it going to live?
If you’re buying a printer for shared office space, you can probably get away with a hulking great machine, and would probably benefit from the large capacity paper trays. However, if the printer is for a small home office, you’ll want something that can tuck out of the way neatly.
With wireless printers, you can stick them just about anywhere as they no longer need to be tethered to a PC. The added flexibility can remove a lot of the hassle, especially in small homes that may be limited on desk space.
