Whether you are looking for a printer to complete your home office setup or you need one for homework duty, CNET has got you covered. A good printer has become a staple of every home office or business, and even just for a household. From school projects to business notes, there are many uses for a printer and finding one that is a good quality and fits your needs without going overboard on the budget can be a challenge with the number of printers out there. I’ve been testing printers for a while now, with dozens running at the same time. It gets a little noisy, but with each printer I test the field narrows, leading to the best overall. Check out my top picks to find the best printer for your home office.
Every printer we’ve tested below can manage basic printing needs. For example, they can handle mobile printing and wireless printing from a phone or any PC, Mac or Chromebook, which is a must when it comes to office printers. They can also print over a cabled connection and via wireless printer connectivity. (Note that some, but not all, printers support Apple’s AirPrint and Google’s Cloud Print protocols, which are usually less onerous than the printer vendors’ proprietary systems.)Â
What is the best printer overall?
For a home office with just one or two people using it, the HP OfficeJet Pro 9125e is the best overall choice. The print speed was excellent, and all the printed words were crisp and clear. This isn’t a photo printer and it shows, but it works well enough for daily imagery tasks. If you’re using it to print brochures or Word documents, this is an almost perfect printer for you.
Best printers of 2024
If you work from home but need all the advantages of an office printer, the OfficeJet Pro is an excellent choice. In terms of sheer printing speed, the HP is ahead of most others in its price range. It printed the 10 pages in just 32 seconds and scanned and printed them in 58 seconds. Very impressive.
The last model had some issues with graphics and imagery, but this new upgrade is much better. The graphics in the brochure test were sharp and accurate, and the images, while being a little dotty, still looked great. The text was excellent, with clearly defined edges, even the Comic Sans parts. It’s a bit larger than some of the printers I tested, but the deep paper tray and auto-feed for the scanner make the size worthwhile.
Of the printers I’ve tested so far, the OfficeJet Pro is the most versatile. It also comes with three months of free ink, based on a standard usage if you sign up for HP Plus. While HP Plus does give you some extra helpful app choices for free and the ink, the downside is you can only use HP inks while subscribed to it.Â
After testing the Expression I was pleasantly surprised at how well this printer did. Being Epson’s budget option it could have been poor, but instead performed excellently at text reproduction and about average on the image quality.Â
The setup was quick and easy and the Wi-Fi connection seems to be solid wherever I put it in my house. Print time was average at 1 minute, 15 seconds, but the text quality more than made up for the speed. All of the text, even the photocopied text was legible and smooth.
The only downside is how small the ink cartridges are on this printer. I know ink is where companies make the most money, but replacing these tiny cartridges every few weeks or months will get old quickly.
I love a tool that is for one purpose, and it does that purpose almost perfectly. The Nelko thermal printer is specifically designed to print labels for packages — although it does also print other labels — and if you have an Etsy or Shopify store, it can be an invaluable tool.
Most of the tests I’ve designed for this article don’t apply to the Nelko, although the print speed per page is shockingly fast, so it isn’t comparable to the other printers here. It’s also at the top of the pack of the thermal printers I’ve tested. The app-controlled Bluetooth connection makes it even easier to print shipping labels. Simply purchase them through Etsy on your phone and print them using the app. You can even crop the image to remove the white space. It’s so simple I should have bought one years ago.
My only gripe with the Nelko is the lack of roller hooks. I like that the printer is small, but there is no room for a roll of thermal stickers, limiting you to single sheets or jury-rigging something to fit.