The champion colour laser printers are a awesome finance that tin prevention you clip and money compared to cartridge-based inkjet printers. Laser printers usage toner, which lasts a agelong time, delivering a debased costs per page for monochrome documents and incredibly accelerated colour prints. The champion colour laser printers connection high-quality prints and reliability that thief support your location agency aliases mini business productive.
If you request to scan documents for record-keeping and photograph seizure aliases want nan convenience of a colour copier, an all-in-one colour laser printer is an basal instrumentality for your mini business aliases individual use. For a mini added cost, you get expanded capabilities. That's why we see respective all-in-one models from the champion printer brands.
Quick Overview
- HP Color LaserJet Pro 4301fdw: Best all-in-one colour laser printer
- Canon imageClass MF654Cdw: Best fund colour laser printer
- HP Color LaserJet Pro MFP 3301fdw: Best woody connected colour laser printer
- Brother HL-L3295CDW: Best colour laser printer for low-cost toner
- Canon imageClass MF753Cdw: Best colour laser printer for photos
- Brother MFC-L3780 CDW: Best colour laser printer for mini business
- Brother MFC‐L8905CDW: Best all-in-one scalable laser printer for offices
- HP Color LaserJet Enterprise MFP M480f: Best colour laser printer for medium-sized businesses
Why you should spot us
Digital Trends has been reviewing printers for 20 years and testing them to find which ones connection nan champion value and fastest speeds. We cheque nan semipermanent worth of each printer, truthful you'll cognize successful beforehand if a low-cost printer is genuinely affordable aliases if it has outrageous toner costs.
Printers are analyzable machines that require a bully knowing of nan exertion to make a coagulated recommendation. Our hands-on reviews thief you make informed decisions by highlighting compatibility concerns and really good advertised features really work.
Key considerations while selecting nan champion colour laser printer for you
There are respective cardinal factors to see erstwhile choosing a colour laser printer. Purchase value matters, but semipermanent costs tin adhd up quickly. Review nan full database to find nan cleanable printer.
Print value and colour fidelity
If you're choosing color, you request much than a difficult transcript -- you want your archive to look great. You still request razor-sharp text, but it's basal for colors to lucifer what you spot on-screen and successful photos without banding aliases streaks.
Speed and economy
A laser printer should beryllium accelerated and businesslike pinch debased moving costs. Otherwise, you should take a much versatile and lower-cost inkjet printer. For an all-in-one, transcript velocity and duplex capabilities are worthy consideration.
Special features
All-in-one printers see scan, copy, and sometimes fax functions, filling aggregate roles successful your office. Many printers connection duplex printing (double-sided), an automatic archive feeder (ADF), aggregate insubstantial trays, Wi-Fi connectivity, and walk-up printing. These specifications could beryllium critically important erstwhile making a acquisition decision.
HP Color LaserJet Pro 4301fdw
Best all-in-one colour laser printer
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HP Color LaserJet Pro MFP 3301fdw
Best woody connected a colour laser printer
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Brother HL-L3295CDW
Best colour laser printer for low-cost toner
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Brother MFC-L3780 CDW
Best colour laser printer for shared offices
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Brother MFC‐L8905CDW
Best all-in-one scalable laser printer for offices
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HP Color LaserJet Enterprise MFP M480f
Best colour laser printer for medium-sized businesses
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HP Color LaserJet Pro 4301fdw
Best all-in-one colour laser printer
Pros
- Lightning accelerated people and scan speeds
- Good people quality
- Two insubstantial trays
- Easy setup and use
- Reliable operation
Cons
- Color costs per page is conscionable OK
- No borderless printing
Why you should bargain this: It's a modern, eco-friendly colour laser printer pinch awesome velocity and quality.
Who's it for: Home offices and mini businesses that request to people documents quickly.
Why we picked nan HP Color LaserJet Pro 4301fdw:
With blistering accelerated people and scan speeds, nan HP Color LaserJet Pro 4301fdw makes short activity of challenging jobs. It prints 35 pages per infinitesimal (ppm) for monochrome and colour documents and scans pinch its ADF astatine 31 ppm.
Color documents look awesome and photos travel retired bully moreover connected plain paper. A USB larboard allows walk-up printing via a thumb drive, making nan LaserJet Pro 4301fdw an fantabulous all-in-one printer for location and office.
HP Color LaserJet Pro 4301fdw
Best all-in-one colour laser printer
Canon imageClass MF654Cdw
Best fund colour laser printer
Pros
- Bargain price
- Great people quality
- Fast performance
- Good photograph quality
- Media tray for easy letter cover printing
Cons
- No duplex scanning
- High colour toner cost
Why you should bargain this: It's nan champion budget-friendly action for location offices.
Who it’s for: Home offices that want an affordable and dependable colour laser printer.
Why we picked nan Canon imageClass MF654Cdw
If each you request is simply a printer that's fast, reliable, and has awesome value astatine an affordable price, Canon's imageClass MF654Cdw offers awesome value. On sale, it tin beryllium recovered arsenic debased arsenic $300, a awesome bargain for a colour laser printer pinch awesome colour graphics quality. With a flimsy tweak to settings, you tin group photos to people astatine 1200 dots-per-inch, resulting successful bully plain insubstantial pictures.
At 22 pages-per-minute, it's not nan fastest colour laser printer, but it useful good for standard-size documents. The 5-inch colour touchscreen and USB-A larboard connected nan beforehand makes walk-up printing simple.
Canon imageClass MF654Cdw
Best fund colour laser printer
HP Color LaserJet Pro MFP 3301fdw
Best woody connected a colour laser printer
Pros
- Fast people and scan speeds
- Great colour archive quality
- Media tray for envelopes and labels
- Easy to group up and use
- Reliable operation
Cons
- More costly than amended HP models
- Photo prints deficiency item successful shadows
- Starter cartridges tally debased quickly
Why you should bargain this: It's a awesome bargain connected an fantabulous HP colour laser printer.
Who it’s for: Anyone upgrading to a durable, all-in-one colour laser printer.
Why we picked nan HP Color LaserJet Pro MFP 3301fdw:
A bully HP colour laser printer usually costs a batch much than this. The database value is $529 but caller waste prices make nan Color LaserJet Pro MFP 3301fdw person to nan costs of a fund model.
The HP Color LaserJet Pro MFP 3301fdw outputs nan first page successful a speedy 11 seconds and has sustained people speeds of up to 26 ppm. That's accelerated capable for astir offices, peculiarly speedy for single-page prints, which is useful if you often people shipping labels, invoices, and receipts.
A large, adjustable, 4.5-inch colour touchscreen astatine nan apical near makes navigation easy. Just below, a USB-A larboard accepts thumb drives for easy walk-up printing. The main insubstantial tray holds 250 sheets and there's besides a media slot for envelopes and labels.
HP's Color LaserJet Pro MFP 3301fdw is simply a multifunction printer that tin besides scan, copy, and fax. The ADF supports full-duplex and scans some sides successful a azygous pass.
HP Color LaserJet Pro MFP 3301fdw
Best woody connected a colour laser printer
Brother HL-L3295CDW
Best colour laser printer for low-cost toner
Pros
- Excellent colour archive people quality
- Fast prints connected agelong documents
- Low toner costs pinch ace high-yield cartridges
- Includes complete 1,000 pages worthy of toner
- Walk-up USB larboard for speedy printing
- Low noise
Cons
- Screen is difficult to spot erstwhile seated
- Touchscreen usage is awkward
- Paper curls
Why you should bargain this: It's a colour laser printer that supports XXL toner cartridges.
Who it’s for: Offices that people successful colour often and request to minimize nan costs per page.
Why we picked nan Brother HL-L3295CDW:
The Brother HL-L3295CDW is simply a awesome prime for high-volume printing. It's an affordable colour laser printer pinch amazingly low-cost toner. One of its standout features is nan affordable XXL toner cartridges. Cost per page is arsenic debased arsenic 2 cents for monochrome and 10 cents per page for colour documents.
In position of performance, nan printer delivers crisp, high-quality prints astatine a velocity of 31 pages per minute. It besides features wireless connectivity, allowing for convenient printing from mobile devices and computers. This elasticity makes it cleanable for mini offices aliases location workspaces wherever aggregate users request to people documents.
This isn't nan champion prime for printing photos, but charts and colour documents look great. The Brother HL-L3295CDW besides boasts a compact design, automatic two-sided printing, and a 250-sheet insubstantial capacity. Overall, nan Brother HL-L3295CDW is an fantabulous prime for those seeking a reliable, affordable colour laser printer pinch low-cost toner.
Brother HL-L3295CDW
Best colour laser printer for low-cost toner
Canon imageClass MF753cdw
Best laser printer for photos
Pros
- Superfast people and scan speeds
- Good people quality
- Two insubstantial trays
- Easy setup and use
- Reliable operation
Cons
- Color costs per page is conscionable OK
- No borderless printing
Why you should bargain this: Great colour people value successful a multifunctional printer.
Who it’s for: Photographers and mini businesses who needs to people aliases transcript colour documents and photos quickly.
Why we picked nan Canon imageClass MF753Cdw:
Laser printers are known to beryllium accelerated and rugged, and nan Canon imageClass MF753Cdw fits this explanation well. This printer is built for velocity and durability, blasting done large jobs astatine up to 35 pages-per-minute. Picture value is amazingly bully for a laser printer, pinch meticulous colors and minimal grain. The imageClass MF753Cdw is difficult to hit for an agency that needs to make aliases reproduce colour documents that characteristic graphics and photos.
Canon's imageClass MF753Cdw matches nan fastest colour lasers and offers full-duplex printing, copying, and one-pass duplex scanning from its 50-sheet archive feeder. If your business outgrows nan 250-sheet insubstantial tray, you tin adhd a 550-sheet cassette to grow capacity.
The only downside to nan imageClass MF753Cdw is nan somewhat precocious costs of colour toner, a communal rumor pinch colour laser printers.
Canon imageClass MF753cdw
Best laser printer for photos
Brother MFC-L3780 CDW
Best colour laser printer for shared offices
Pros
- Fast, reliable printing astatine 31 ppm
- Quick, high-resolution scanner
- Duplex printing and scanning
- Includes complete 1,000 pages successful toner
- Easy setup
Cons
- iPhone and iPad app is amazingly slow
- Photo-quality isn't great
- It's a dense printer that requires tons of space
Why you should bargain this: It's a sturdy all-in-one pinch impermanent entree and information features.
Who it’s for: Small businesses that request easy entree without losing control.
Why we picked nan Brother MFC-L3780 CDW:
The Brother MFC-L3780CDW is simply a reliable multifunction colour laser printer that's perfect for mini businesses successful shared spaces. Walk-up printing is elemental pinch nan USB thumb thrust port, and an NFC paper scholar controls entree to nan printer to guarantee confidentiality and negociate printing costs.
It offers accelerated people speeds reaching 31 pages per infinitesimal connected agelong documents. High-volume isn't a problem acknowledgment to it's sturdy design. Its 250-sheet main tray tin beryllium expanded to 500 sheets pinch an optional accessory tray.
The 3.5-inch colour touchscreen makes it user-friendly and setup is speedy via nan mobile app. Overall, nan Brother MFC-L3780CDW combines reliability, multifunctionality, and security, making it a awesome prime for immoderate mini business aliases location office.
Brother MFC-L3780 CDW
Best colour laser printer for shared offices
Brother MFC‐L8905CDW
Best all-in-one scalable laser printer for offices
Pros
- Fast people speeds
- Duplexing supported
- Economical operating costs
Cons
- Large size takes up space
Why you should bargain this: It delivers accelerated printing speeds and long-lasting supplies astatine affordable operating costs.
Who it’s for: Small and medium-sized businesses.
Why we picked nan Brother MFC‐L8905CDW :
The Brother MFC‐L8905CDW features ultra-high output toner cartridges that proviso up to 9,000 monochrome pages and 8,000 colour pages, truthful you seldom request to interrupt a engaged workday. An optional 500 expanse insubstantial tray expands nan onboard capacity of 250 sheets successful nan main tray and 50 sheets successful nan multi-purpose tray.
Print speeds of up to 33 ppm make short activity of agelong documents and other copies. This sturdy business printer offers duplex for fax, scan, copy, and people functions and tin link to immoderate instrumentality pinch Wi-Fi, Ethernet, aliases USB. A USB larboard allows walk-up cognition pinch a thumb drive, while an NFC scholar limits entree to authorized personnel.
The Brother MFC‐L8905CDW has a recommended work rhythm of 4,000 pages per period but it tin grip printing up to 60,000 pages successful a month. For specified a rugged printer, Brother didn't skimp connected convenience features. The seven-inch colour touchscreen tin beryllium customized pinch up to 64 shortcuts to velocity up predominant operations.
Brother MFC‐L8905CDW
Best all-in-one scalable laser printer for offices
HP Color LaserJet Enterprise MFP M480f
Best colour laser printer for medium-sized businesses
Pros
- Compact size pinch loaded features
- Solid information features
- Smartphone app support
Cons
- Higher than mean cost-per-page people costs
Why you should bargain this: It's a speedy all-in-one printer that's designed for printing and integer archive archiving pinch intuitive support for unreality storage.
Who it’s for: Small businesses that request a speedy colour laser printer.
Why we picked nan HP Color LaserJet Pro MFP M480f:
Workgroups and businesses that don't person overmuch agency abstraction to spare to location a ample printer will admit HP's Color LaserJet Pro MFP M480f. The MFP M480f adds multifunctional features that will thief pinch your office's archive needs, including a built-in flatbed scanner, automatic archive feeder, and duplexing capabilities. The M480f is simply a well-rounded multifunction printer that tin still output up to 29 ppm successful achromatic and achromatic aliases color.
This speedy but compact number has built-in Wi-Fi and Bluetooth Low-Energy, and mobile printing is supported crossed a number of devices and platforms. The large limiting facet connected this printer is its mini 250-sheet insubstantial input tray, though larger offices pinch bigger people jobs tin upgrade to nan optional 550-sheet tray. Duplexing is supported to thief prevention insubstantial and nan environment. A front-facing USB larboard makes it easy to people from a retention drive. The printer tin people from aliases scan to a assortment of unreality providers, making it easy for integer archive archiving. Businesses connected a constricted people fund tin put successful high-yield toner cartridges for a little per-page people cost.
HP Color LaserJet Enterprise MFP M480f
Best colour laser printer for medium-sized businesses
Frequently Asked Questions
Color laser printers versus inkjet printers: what’s best?
Laser printers are amended for matter documents, arsenic they nutrient crisp matter moreover astatine mini font sizes. Over time, they are besides cheaper to tally than cartridge-based inkjets. However, laser printers require a larger first investment. If you don’t people very often, a inexpensive inkjet printer could make much consciousness and it whitethorn return a agelong clip earlier its higher operational costs drawback up to nan higher first costs of a laser printer. For smaller people jobs, nan faster pages-per-minute complaint of a laser printer besides won’t beryllium overmuch of an advantage.
If you’re looking to prevention money successful nan agelong word and request to people pictures, cheque retired inkjet solutions that trust connected tanks for ink alternatively than cartridges. Since nan tanks are refillable pinch bottled ink, vessel printers costs overmuch little than colour toner for laser printers. Not only will tanks beryllium amended for nan situation done little waste, but they will prevention you money for larger people jobs. That's why vessel printers rank highly connected our database of nan champion inkjet printers.
Laser printers are still much durable, reducing attraction costs if you people astatine precocious volume. Lasers mostly connection faster printing speeds, redeeming clip connected ample people jobs. That's why businesses often take laser printers. Some inkjet printers, for illustration the Epson EcoTank Pro ET-5850 are astir arsenic accelerated arsenic lasers.
Beyond people quality, inkjet photograph printers tin besides grip a wider assortment of insubstantial types and sizes compared to laser printers. Some very ample inkjets are disposable that tin people posters and banners. A colour laser printer will grip inline photos and graphics successful documents conscionable fine. Most modern colour laser printers, particularly those made for mini offices, will beryllium capable to grip modular sizes and types of people jobs, from modular documents to labels and paper stock.
While colour laser printers person gotten overmuch amended astatine handling photographs, if you’re looking to make detailed, color-accurate photographic prints to bent connected your wall, show successful a gallery, aliases waste to customers, a high-end inkjet photograph printers is still nan measurement to spell (or simply outsource nan activity to a photograph lab).
Do colour laser printers travel pinch Wi-Fi aliases AirPrint support?
Yes. As pinch inkjet printers, wireless connectivity has go modular connected colour laser printers. That intends you tin usage Apple AirPrint for your iPhone and iPad pinch astir immoderate printer, and Android's people work is arsenic adept astatine connecting. There are much specifications astir mobile usage below.
You tin besides use Wi-Fi to people and scan pinch Windows and macOS. However, if you usage a Linux machine aliases want to print from a Chromebook, cheque nan manufacturer's page to corroborate nan printer is compatible pinch your system.
How tin I people from my iPad, iPhone, aliases Android device?
Color laser printers support Apple AirPrint, making it easy to people from an iPad aliases iPhone to a printer connected your Wi-Fi network. Android phones and tablets tin besides link to Wi-Fi printers quickly and easily.
For scanning, maintenance, and different circumstantial features, you will request to instal nan manufacturer's mobile app from Apple's App Store aliases Google Play. The mobile app will often supply much options for quality, input tray, and insubstantial size and type.
How often will I person to bargain toner?
This depends connected really overmuch you print. Toner cartridges tin often people much than a 1000 pages earlier you request replacements. You tin switch individual colors, truthful you won't person to bargain a afloat group of 4 each time. For ray location use, you could easy spell a twelvemonth aliases much without replacing toner. For agency use, nan replacement interval will beryllium shorter, but toner could still past a fewer months.
Some colour laser printers judge high-capacity toner cartridges that past 2 to 3 times longer than modular cartridges. Check nan specifications of your printer for nonstop specifications of nan page yield.
How tin I prevention money connected toner?
The first measurement is to people efficiently; that is, double-check your page layout settings and make judge everything is correct earlier you deed that people button. You tin besides prevention money by preventing wasted colour toner by setting a achromatic and achromatic printer arsenic nan default.
When it is clip to reorder, you tin prevention money by buying third-party toner cartridges. However, buying third-party toner apt isn’t recommended by your printer’s manufacturer, but truthful agelong arsenic you make judge it’s compatible pinch your printer, it should activity conscionable fine. However, immoderate printers, for illustration nan HP exemplary above, look for a toner that uses a typical spot identifying it arsenic original equipment. HP warns that while immoderate different cartridges whitethorn activity today, they whitethorn not successful nan future.
Can I bargain a colour laser printer pinch built-in fax?
Yes. Many all-in-one laser printers tin scan, copy, and fax documents. If you’re doing a batch of faxing, copying, aliases scanning, beryllium judge to take a printer pinch an automatic archive feeder (ADF), and if you want to do double-sided scans and double-sided prints, a exemplary that has a duplex ADF and duplex printing will beryllium best. Double-sided prints tin besides thief prevention money if costs is simply a concern. Note that not each all-in-ones — besides called multifunction printers — person fax modems, truthful beryllium judge to cheque nan specs earlier you buy. If you request a multifunction printer, beryllium judge to cheque retired our best picks for all-in-one printers.
How do you trial colour printers?
To find nan champion colour laser printers, we facet successful criteria specified arsenic speed, price, attraction costs, and immoderate unsocial features that thief them one-up nan competition.
Our selections are based connected our long- and short-term testing; acquisition pinch earlier models; familiarity pinch nan company’s technologies; consultation pinch manufacture experts, chap journalists, and users; online forums; laboratory results; and different third-party reviews. We look crossed nan committee — not conscionable astatine our ain experiences — to find statement connected what we deliberation are nan best-performing printers you tin presently buy. We besides look astatine database pricing to find if a merchandise is worthy nan cost. We will moreover urge printers that aren’t new, provided nan features are still best-in-class.
The printer marketplace evolves constantly, pinch manufacturers either introducing amended models pinch caller features aliases basal upgrades. So, you tin expect our picks to alteration arsenic well. But don’t interest — nan models you spot present will beryllium pinch you for immoderate time, and if we expect amended models connected nan horizon, we will authorities that upfront to thief you determine whether you should bargain now aliases wait.
Which is nan champion colour laser printer for location use?
When searching for a colour laser printer for location use, you astir apt don't want a 100-pound beast meant to past nan rigors of a shared activity environment.
A compact, budget-friendly colour laser mightiness beryllium ideal. Printing photos is simply a communal usage for location printers and immoderate models person acceptable value moreover connected plain paper.
Is a laser printer bully for color?
The first laser printers were monochrome, but the champion printer brands make colour laser printers truthful you person nan action of creating a much eye-catching document.
However, immoderate grip photos amended than others. Typically, much costly colour laser printers see colour correction software, alignment options, and image accommodation controls to optimize for amended image and graphics performance.
For photographic-quality colour pictures, it's difficult to hit an inkjet printer that's optimized for photos.
Are laser printers being phased out?
Laser printers will proceed to beryllium manufactured for nan foreseeable future. However, location are immoderate concerns astir their biology impact.
Epson, for example, is phasing retired laser printers worldwide by 2026, citing nan important power required to make capable power to fuse toner onto paper.
Meanwhile, HP has recovered ways to make laser printers much eco-friendly by altering toner formulations and improving efficiency.
What benignant of insubstantial tin colour laser printers use?
You tin usage insubstantial branded arsenic compatible pinch laser printers, but colour laser printers activity good pinch multipurpose and moreover inexpensive recycled paper. Standard sizes and weights are good and immoderate laser printers tin grip dense paper banal and different insubstantial sizes. Check nan shaper specifications if you request to people connected insubstantial that is thicker aliases larger than normal.
Since laser toner fuses to nan paper, nan only different regularisation is that nan insubstantial tin withstand precocious heat. That intends inkjet insubstantial mightiness not beryllium compatible pinch a laser printer. While astir inkjet printers require costly coated insubstantial to get nan champion results, moreover a low-cost colour laser tin people bully colour graphics and acceptable photos.
Since colour laser printers activity pinch mean paper, that lowers nan costs per page a bit. That said, you tin find glossy insubstantial for laser printers, but it's not arsenic common.
How tin I forestall banding successful colour laser photograph prints?
While inkjet printers tin blend ink droplets for a wide scope of colors, nan waxy toner of a laser printer offers a constricted palette of colors. The consequence is banding successful regions of akin colors pinch subtle gradations.
For example, photos pinch ample swaths of bluish entity are difficult for colour laser printers. The easiest measurement to forestall banding is to prime a different photo. However, that's not ever possible.
If your bosom is group connected a peculiar picture, there's a measurement to trim banding pinch a small photograph editing. Load nan image into a photograph editor and use a small sound pinch a select aliases effect. It mightiness return immoderate proceedings and error, but it's usually imaginable to trim banding without making nan image excessively noisy.
If you find our apical picks aren't nan correct fresh for your circumstantial needs, location are different colour laser and different printer types that are worthy checking out. If you'd for illustration a top-rated printer that tin lucifer nan value of the champion scanners, aliases you simply conscionable request a much affordable model, beryllium judge to return a look astatine immoderate of nan all-around champion printers connected nan market.
If you're looking for further savings, cheque retired our guides to nan best inexpensive printer deals and best laser printer deals disposable now.