Printers often play an important role in the basic working atmosphere at home. Due to the pandemic, many of us are now either working from home or doing online schooling from home, there is a much higher demand or need for the office or school supplies at our home. Among the most in-demand office supplies at home is to find the best printer for home use.
Much like in the office or school, you’ll need a printer at home that can handle printing without a setback, especially since the ongoing pandemic situation has forced many of us into remote learning or remote working. Good for you, we found the best collection out there in 2020 and listed down here for you.
After details research and setting the benchmark, we considered the versatility as our key parameter in selecting the best printers for home use. A typical modern household has a wide range of printing requirements such as school project work for online schooling where colour printing is required, printing family photos, office documents for work from home, best printers for home needs to be much more versatile than a regular printer.
The top-notch home printers that can do just as good of a job printing your family photos as it does your work from home documents, and will save loads of money from commercial printing costs.
In the below list you’ll find the best home printer for your needs no matter what size of household and family demands you have. And we have made sure you get the best deals on the one you pick as well.
How to choose the best printers for home use?
Selecting a home printer is a bit of a hassle and can be tough for a newcomer given the sheer number of options available in the market due to competition, not to mention the convoluted terms that only seem to complicate the process for the consumers. Keeping that in mind, we’ve put together an easy buying guide to help you with your general needs for selecting a home printer, with simple explanations of some of the most common terms and recommendations in a sense that will be understood by a majority of the users.
Choosing the right printer that suits the exigency comes with two options that are INKJET or LASERJET.
INKJETS
They are further divided into two subcategories of REGULAR INJET and COLOURED INKJET.
Regular Inkjet is a mild printer limited to a certain due to it’s wet to dry usage.
Colour inkjet. The versatility of the colour inkjet makes printing easier in terms of quality and quantity as well. The colour inkjet printer is capable of printing multiple documents including charts, basic cover letter, resumes, other black and white documents, and more.
LASERJET PRINTERS
LASER PRINTERS is the best bet for an official environment if most of the printing that you need to do is in monochrome. The laser printers are affordable and low maintenance which makes usage easier for us. However, colour laser printers are expensive and can cost you a good fortune if bought from an expensive dealer.
Laser printers have over the years become an office favourite due to its durability and the easy to follow the procedure which makes printing easier for the staff in the office. Overall, laser printers are more suited for an office setting rather than a simple home setting.
There are 4 categories to be kept in consideration before purchasing any printer i.e.-
- PPM – PAGES PER MINUTE
- DPI – DOTS PER INCH
- DUTY CYCLE
- SUPPLY COST
PPM- PPM is a simple abbreviation of the phrase ‘pages per minute’ for printers that can print a certain number of pages in a single minute. That seems simple enough for an individual at first but ppm has a tendency to quickly grow complex. Let’s take an example for better comparison, some printers have very different ppm for black-and-white versus colour because of the extensive use, so it’s common for many printers to provide two different ppm if they are colour-focused. PPM isn’t of much use to people who are looking for home printers unless you find yourself under intense time pressure for a print job, or need to print a lot at once. The average black-and-white ppm is around 15-20 pages. Colour printed pages are printed at about 10-15 pages due to the high usage of the cartridge.
DPI- Dots per inch is a rather technical term which simply means that a printer can print a certain number of dots forming words or sentences per square inch. This spec is an extremely useful instrument in studying the various aspects of the printer like just how good a printer is at creating high-resolution, high-detail images. This is also a rather old method of printing as most of the printers now do not need to worry about the DPI system.
DUTY CYCLE- This number in general basically indicates how many pages per month a printer can be expected to reasonably print out depending on the needs of the user. You as a user may want your expected number of pages per month to be well below this number on your printer.
SUPPLY COST- You should know the cost of refills before buying the cartridge. The printer you purchase depends solely on the number of times you’re going to actually print from it which means that if you wish to buy a printer for regular use, you might as well buy an expensive one as they are sturdy and last longer. Another plus point is how cheap the cartridge gets after a certain number of refills. Ultimately you would be saving more money over the year that you would lose with a cheap printer.
Finally, after gauging all the possibilities and parameters that suit your best interest you can buy the best out of it.
5 Best Printers for Home Use
1-HP 419 All-in-One Wireless Ink Tank Colour Printer with Voice-Activated Printing
Product Features:
- Printer Type: Ink Tank
- Functionality: Print, Scan, and Copy, All in One
- Connection type: USB, Wi-Fi, HP Smart App
- Printing cost: 10p black and white and 18p for colour
- Printing speed: 7.5 ppm for black and white and 5 ppm for colour
- Auto duplex printing: No
If we have to give an example of technology advancement and with such an ease HP 419 stand completely out as compared to its counterparts. This technological marvel is created with keeping in mind to par with the advancement of artificial intelligence. It can easily be connected with the Bluetooth and can smoothly print a number of pages without error. One can even up to 1000 pages a month as the printer is equipped with the right tools of heavy usage.
All in all, it can either be used in homes or in office spaces as per your desire.
Pros:
- Low printing costs
- Compact and small design
- High capacity ink tanks printer
- Easy refilling options
Cons:
- The printer setup is difficult
2-HP Laserjet Pro M126nw Multi-Function Direct Wireless Network Laser Printer
Product Features:
- Printer Type: Laser
- Functionality: Print, Scan, and Copy, All in One
- Connection type: USB, Wi-Fi, HP Smart App
- Printing cost: 10p black and white
- Printing speed: 20 ppm for black and white
- Auto duplex printing: No
This is an incredibly lightweight Printer which takes up very little space on your desktop. It has a good exterior that looks classy and elegant. This multifunctional printer gives good-quality clear and sharp text images. Easily copy both sides or other small documents onto the front of a single-page. Save your energy by HP Auto-On/Auto-Off Technology; Instant-on Technology. This is ENERGY STAR certified which will save your money as well.
All in all, it can either be used in homes or in office spaces as per your desire.
Pros:
- Low print cost
- Compact and small design
- Good capacity ink tanks printer
- Easy refilling option
Cons:
- The printer setup is very difficult
3-Epson Eco Tank L3150 Printer
Features:
- Printer Type: Ink Tank
- Functionality: Print
- Connection Type: USB, Ethernet
- Printing Speed:15 ppm black and white and 33ppm for colour
- Auto Duplex Printing: No
- Light Weight
One of the most important things to remember is that the need to conserve your ink is critical to the success of your printer in almost all scenarios. Epson makes the Eco Tank L3150 as a model that lets you configure how much ink you are using at a time. The control of the printer is such that the resolution setting can be played with ease, so you don’t have to use more ink than necessary depending on the task.
The recent printer is a highly lightweight electrical consumption of this model and is a positive change to see. The unit consumes about 12W of power on an average depending on the level of usage. This additionally ensures that you don’t have to go around wasting more money on powering up the unit than necessary.
The compact body of Eco Tank printer is worth noting too. The ink tank is integrated inside the printer’s body such that it is not a hassle for the user. This structural change prevents problems when trying to secure a good printer for somewhere only in your home use.
The connectivity features of this printer, especially in the recent models, are worth discussing as well. With the Eco Tank printer, it can be linked to your Google Cloud account to print documents. This is indeed the best Printers for home use, it sends a request from Google Cloud to your printer to print anything you have on your account. This printer can even use a smartphone or tablet to send the request to the printer and command it as per your guidance.
Wi-Fi and Wi-Fi direct support are available for this printer at the lowest cost among other printers. The Epson Connect feature is used to link to your documents so that the printer can use a command to directly print the document. The connect system lets you print a document from anywhere with a wireless account only if you previously changed the settings of the printer accordingly.
Pros:
- Fast and quick as well as accurate printing
- Pigment ink is smudge-proof
- High yield per ink bottle
Cons:
- Installation is usually delayed
4- Canon Pixma G2012 Ink Tank Printer
Features:
- Printer Type: Ink Tank
- Functionality: Print, Scan, and Copy, All in One
- Connection type: USB, Wi-Fi, Canon Selphy App
- Printing cost: 9p black and white and 32p for colour
- Printing speed: 8.8 ppm for black and white and 5 ppm for colour
- Auto duplex printing: No
The Pixma series of printers from Canon stands out among the options for the best printers for home use in India thanks to its design and its structural integrity that sets it apart from other printers. It is the best printer available for black and white or colour shots.
The ink cartridges work based on the Hybrid Ink system perfected by Canon and hence are extremely durable. Canon identifies the intensity of each colour to figure out which of the three colour ink materials are needed. Only the appropriate amount of ink on each one is used based on the reviews and surveys conducted by Cannon.
The layout provides a simple body for convenience and the management of the body is done on the basis of the said layout.
Another aspect that we love about the printer is the panel design on the top of the printer as it uses a 1.2-inch body that lets you control many features of the printer depending on your needs. The turn-on a printer, adjust the settings and configure whether you will use a black or colour printing effort.
The work can be done with respect to the function in a few moments and makes for a simple design that is absolutely efficient.
The ink cartridges operate at 6,000 pages in black or 7,000 pages in colour.
The best part is that you can definitely use this if you’ve got heavy-duty printing needs in your home as a freelancer or as a Work From Home executive.
One thing to remember when searching for the best printers for home use in India 2020 entails knowing how well a model can handle large amounts of content at a time and the number of pages it can print without error.
The last thing we’d like to specially mention is that a duplex printing feature is also included, although the feature has to be manually triggered for the setup to work.
Pros:
- Ink tank printer offers ease of refilling
- Good for heavy usage
- Offers budget printing options
- Works with most operating systems
- 1.2 inch LCD display
- Cleaning and maintaining is easy
Cons:
- Sometimes it makes Noise
- Bulky in size than other segment Canon inkjet printers
5-Epson Eco Tank L3101 All-in-One Ink Tank Printer
Features:
- Printer Type: Ink Tank
- Functionality: Print, Scan, and Copy, All in One
- Connection type: USB
- Printing cost: 7p black and white and 18p for colour
- Printing speed: 33 ppm for black and white and 15 ppm for colour
- Auto duplex printing: No
The Epson Eco Tank L1301 is another good option when finding a multi-function printer. This is the finest choice for the best printers for home use in India, as of now as it can easily link to a computer through a USB connection. The simple interface and the build of the printer help you get started in the printing business to print your documents in as little time as possible.
The printer can support a large number of pages and thus, makes it a good choice for the best printers for home use in India. With the help of this printer, you can work with a variety of A4, A5, A6, and C6 paper, not to mention DL envelopes ass well.
The 5760×1440 print resolution for colour images is one of the best standards to find in today’s market. It is a printer capable for printing about 300 or more pages per month on an average if used correctly. The unit produces high-quality images without a printer’s head acting up and ruining the photo.
The print 33 ppm in black and white or 15 ppm in colour. You can get a yield of about 4,500 pages for every black ink container and 7,500 pages when the three colour bottles are put in play.
Pros:
- Ink tank printer offers ease of refilling
- Good for heavy usage
- Offers budget printing options
- Works with most operating systems
- Multiple printing options ie. You can even print even visiting cards using this printer
- Cleaning and maintaining is easy
Cons:
- Higher GSM card getting jammed.
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We have tried both inkjet and laser printer. That’s very helpful tips to choose. #Myfriendalexa
We have had an inkjet printer at home for the longest time. But I always find the “ink khatam ho gayi” problem very tedious! Is the ink-tank a better idea?
Thanks for this detailed article. We have had a canon inkjet at home for the longest time, and usage is mostly for printing some documents/ photocopying of IDs etc and my kid’s activity sheets. But I hate how quickly I have to face the “ink khatam ho gayi” problem!! Is the ink-tank a better option?
Yes. It is more economical if your usage is higher. Worksheets generally have pictures and illustrations, so they consume more ink.
Such an informative post, I wish I knew all these details before I brought my printer.
Working from home means that now a printer is also something we need to purchase! this is a helpful post as it is clear what options will work for us and the pros and cons of the different kinds out there.
I bumped into this post right in time. Our current printer isn’t working anymore and we were on a lookout for a new one. Thanks for sharing such a detailed review about these printers.
That’s a very useful post and I like they way you have written it in details. Will surely help people choose the best one for themselves.
Thanks for such details post! Now that all of us are at home, having a printer has become a necessity and first time buyers need such guidance.
I wish I had this post to read before I bought mine. I love my printer but this post explains so clearly, its a boon for freelancers specially
Such a detailed and informative post. Work from home and the need to stay at home has made it compulsory to have such computer peripherals at home. I have loved Epson variants.
These are very important pointers for choosing the right printer. We are looking one for home as kids needs to take lot of printouts if school materials.
We were thinking of investing in a printer for home. HP seems to be a popular choice from what I’ve heard. Will check out the other ones too. Should get some good discounts as well right now.
Lovely informative post. Appreciate the effort gone into it.
Thanks for this list, we recently bought HP one for our home use
Glad you liked it Jhilmil.
I totally agree with you. I bought the HP printer at the start of lockdown and it has been a life saver 🙂
Absolutely.
Inkjet was my first printer of choice. We have replaced it with hps Laserjet and it has amazing PPM.
As you rightly said, always check for the price of refill cartridge before buying the printer.
Canon had been at my home for a long period and all my school assignments were a smooth flow with this printer. After so many years, it stopped working and we are shifted to HP printers.