The best color laser printers for 2022

Table of Content

• Best Color Laser: Lexmark MC3224
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• Average all across the board, except the price
• Canon imageCLASS MF743Cdw
• Color print-only printers
• Is One Of These Options the Best Home Office Laser Printer for You?
• Best all-in-one scalable laser printer for offices
• Brother HL-L6400DW

Some of this space is saved with a smaller paper tray, holding just 150 sheets in the input tray. This printer actually does come with a full capacity toner cartridge already included, so you can start working right after taking it out of the box. If you need a printer that can produce laser-quality color, than the HP Laser Jet Pro M277dwis the way to go. If you are someone who wants a great value and a quality product, the Brother MFC-L6700DW home laser printer is the best home printer for you. While still used by some industries, including health care, fax machines are outdated for most business needs.

This LaserJet strikes the right note with a very affordable price tag and important laser printer features. That includes speeds up to 35ppm, a monthly page volume rating of up to 2,500 pages, and ROAM support for mobile, queue printing. Doesn't match the HP M281fdw, it does offer automated duplex printing, copying, and scanning from its 50-sheet document feeder. With a maximum monthly duty cycle of 30,000 prints and a recommended cycle of 200 to 2,500, it can also hold up to the standard printing demands of small to medium-sized offices. The Canon imageClass MF452dw is a workhorse all-in-one mono laser printer that boasts top-tier output quality, plus suitable speed and paper capacity for heavy-duty printing, scanning, copying, and faxing. The M479fdw also produced sharp text at small font sizes, better than any inkjet we tried.

Best Color Laser: Lexmark MC3224

Precisely positioned by the electrostatic charge drawn by the laser beam on photosensitive material, they're then fused in place. The precise positioning ensures professional-looking documents, an advantage that may be subtle for 10- or 12-point text, but makes a big difference in readability at 4 and 6 points. Everything about this AIO, from its 80-page automatic document feeder to its 80,000-page monthly duty cycle, signals that it is high-volume, and fleet- and enterprise-ready. Its default paper capacity of 300 sheets is expandable to a whopping 2,380 pages, with several capacity options in between. Connectivity consists of USB 2.0, Gigabit Ethernet, 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi, and the peer-to-peer protocols Wi-Fi Direct and Near-Field Communication .

Users have many options when it comes to printing because the printer supports Wi-Fi Direct printing, HP ePrint, Google Cloud Print, and Apple AirPrint. Security is a priority when it comes to HP printers, and their HP Wold Pro Security capabilities ensure that you’re safe from any cyberattacks. The HP Color LaserJet Pro MFP M479fdw uses HP 414A/414X toner cartridges that can print more than 2,000 pages.

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The Brother HL-3170CDW above supports both Apple AirPrint and Google Cloud Print, for example, while the Dell C1760NW does not, though it still offers mobile printing through its own proprietary app. Just keep in mind that color laser printers will be more expensive because you’ll need new toner cartridges for each color as opposed to just a black toner cartridge for monochrome laser printers. The printer is also loaded with handy features like scanning and copying, fax capability, and a second paper tray.

With a numeric pad for scanning and copying, this printer is ready to take on your office's print jobs, but the space-saving design makes it versatile enough to place desk-side or in a dedicated copy and print room. You'll benefit from the automatic document feeder, high yield toner options, and the ability to print from and scan to popular cloud apps and services. Make sure you get one with the walk-up features you need.Support for Wi-Fi Direct is also common, though sometimes that feature comes under a different name. It lets you establish a direct peer-to-peer connection between the printer and a computer or mobile device. If the printer is attached to a network, using either a wired or wireless connection, and you can connect to the network by Wi-Fi from a computer, phone, or tablet, you can print over the network. Just check to be sure that the manufacturer offers a free downloadable app for printing that your phone or tablet can use.

Average all across the board, except the price

However, if you send faxes a few times a year, it may be less expensive to use a cloud-based fax service . A printer's speed, or how fast it can print and copy, is measured in pages per minute . Keep in mind that the speed may be reduced if you are printing complex photos as opposed to plain text. The printer market evolves constantly, with manufacturers either introducing better models with new features or basic upgrades.

The printer supports multiple connectivity options, including AirPrint, Google Cloud Print, and Mopria. Laser printers don't have the problems with output quality that ink causes for printing on plain paper. Toner particles, often chemically grown to uniform size and shape, are tiny bits of plastic. Unlike ink, they can't bleed into the paper to soften sharp edges for lines and graphics.

You can also load it with 250 sheets of paper to be economic in the amount of trips you take to refill it, too. It incorporates an Auto-On/Auto Off Technology that can save money when the printer is not needed. While you still require either a USB or Ethernet cord to connect the device, if you use the Ethernet cord, it will act as a wireless printer by allowing you to print using a phone or tablet. They are also less costly to ship, so the initial start-up cost of buying the printer will be made up for over time. It’s for those small businesses run from home that really need the production of a big business printer, which is what you’ll get with the Xerox ColorQube, despite the sticker shock. If you need more than one person set up on the same network, it’s no problem with this machine.

Smaller businesses concerned about security issues will be assured with this device’s security system, which only stores documents in short-term memory. Smaller and medium-sized businesses primarily concerned with security should look into the HP Color Laserjet Pro M479fdw. With several safeguards, this wireless four-in-one printer ensures data is protected from hackers who may try to use printers as an entry point into your network. It even stops attacks before they happen by sending notifications when someone attempts to intercept data or if a vulnerability is detected in the firmware. Toner cartridges often have yields of 2,000 pages or more (check the specifications of your printer for your model’s specific yield).

The MFC-L2750DW is even simpler to set up than its little sibling because it has a color touchscreen control panel. At just 15.9 pounds, it’s more than 10 pounds lighter than our next-smallest pick, and its footprint is significantly smaller as well. It’s especially short at 7.2 inches tall, which should help you fit it on a bookshelf. But it’ll just as easily find a space on your desk or anywhere else you might want to shove it. The L2350DW reliably maintained a connection throughout testing—even several rooms away and a floor below our router. Some owners have reported issues with this printer’s predecessor, the HL-L2340DW, refusing to wake up from Deep Sleep mode, so we were happy to find that the new model didn’t give us any problems of the sort during our testing.

All in one functions like scanning and copying are included in all of the models on the above list, but one less common function is fax capability. If you work with medical or legal documents, faxing is indispensable, and you'll need a printer that includes it. Printing performance is sharp and faster than average; this printer handles scans and copies quickly, as well. If you want the benefits of a laser printer without the usual expense, the Brother HL-L2390DW is our best budget pick for you. This printer may cost a bit more up front, but the Brother MFC-L2750DW is the best combination of print quality, speed and value we've seen in a laser printer, which is why it's our Editors' Choice. Laser printers have much to offer businesses of all sizes, from sole proprietorships to large corporations, and are worth considering, for some, for home use as well.