These workhorses are ideal for bulk printing black-and-white documents quickly, at a low per-page cost. With laser printers, little maintenance is required beyond replacing cartridges. Moreover, since the toner comes as a powder, there’s no waiting for documents to dry. HP’s LaserJet MFP M234dw and LaserJet MFP M234dwe are the same model with the same specs. We didn’t test either because they have flatbed scanners rather than automatic document feeders.
Tax forms and other documents with tiny fonts were perfectly readable, and larger headers came out with crisp edges and dark centers. All in all, this printer should be more than adequate for printing text-heavy documents. Test graphics and photos, on the other hand, were merely mediocre at default settings, as some light banding was visible in solid-color areas, and graphics appeared a little grainy. The output is good enough for personal use or internal business documents, and you can improve it with adjustments to toner density and resolution settings if you need to hand out documents to clients. This Brother multifunction printer has a 250-sheet capacity, duplex printing and a 50-sheet ADF and is currently on sale for $100.
It also has just 25 percent as much onboard memory and runs a little slower. The Canon imageCLASS MF113w is limited by its flatbed scanner; we prefer models with automatic document feeders. The affordable HP LaserJet Pro M118dw can print really fast and has positive owner reviews. Unfortunately, its cost per page is relatively high, and we saw multiple reports of iffy graphics and photo quality.
Some people just need a cheap laser printer for occasional black-and-white print jobs. For them, we recommend the Brother HL-L2350DW. Setup is painless, and the machine is compatible with all major brother hl l2395dw platforms, including Windows, macOS, Chrome OS, Linux, iOS, and Android. Its cost per page is a reasonable 3.3¢, it sticks to Wi-Fi like glue, and its price generally hovers around $100.
Like our top pick, the M479fdw requires official HP toner cartridges. HP’s one-year warranty for the M479fdw is shorter than what some rivals offer—Canon in particular provides three years of coverage on its machines—but it may actually be better than competing policies. That’s because it provides on-site service within one business day, while other warranties require you to ship your printer to a service center, sometimes at brother hl l2395dw your own cost. For professional-looking brochures or presentations, you’d probably want to use a printer like our upgrade pick, the HP Color LaserJet Pro MFP M479fdw, or punt the job to a pro print shop instead. The HL-L2350DW works with Windows PCs, Macs, and even Linux systems. It’s also compatible with all major mobile printing standards, including Google Cloud Print, which means it’s a solid pick for Chromebook owners.
Many laser printers employ PIN- and password-protected printing to keep sensitive and confidential data safe and secure. Laser printers use non-liquid-based toner instead of the ink tanks used by inkjet printers. As a result, laser printers have faster print speeds, print sharper text, and prints don’t smear when wet. Laser printers cost more to refill than inkjets, though, and can’t print on glossy paper. The HP Color LaserJet Pro M255dw is fast, powerful, flexible, and refreshingly easy to use.
Also in this category are print-volume tracking and access controls that might, for example, let you to limit who is allowed to print in color . For more of these business-focused features, see our guide to the best business printers, which covers both laser- and inkjet-based models. Finally, note that some models of both single- and multi-function printers support office-centric security and convenience features that may or may not be useful for any given office. “Maximum duty cycle” is the most you can print in a given month without shortening the printer’s life, as defined by the maximum number of pages it can print in its lifetime.