Best Laser Printers

If you’re looking for the Best Laser Printers you can buy in (Summer) 2022, which is affordable, high quality and better performance, then you’re in the right place. In this guide, I have listed down the Best Laser Printers in 2022.

We made this list based on our own opinion, research, and customer reviews. We’ve considered their quality, features, and values when narrowing down the best choices possible.

The Best Laser Printers you can buy today.

So, here are the Best Laser Printers of 2022. If you want more information and updated pricing on the products mentioned, be sure to check the links in each product we mentioned.

1. Canon imageCLASS MF743Cdw

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The best laser printer we’ve tested is the Canon imageCLASS MF743Cdw. It’s a sturdily-built laser all-in-one designed for office use. It has tons of connectivity options, including Wi-Fi, USB, and Ethernet, so everyone at the office can easily access the printer. It has an ADF-equipped scanner that produces high-quality scans and can process double-sided sheets in a single pass. It also has an optical character recognition feature, allowing you to scan documents into text files for quick keyword searches.

As for its printing speed, it takes longer than most laser printers to warm up, but once it starts printing, it can churn out 29 black or color pages per minute. The toner cartridges yield a large number of prints, around 3000 black and 2000 color, which means you won’t have to replace them often. The cartridges are expensive, though that’s because they contain the drum, saving you the trouble of having to replace the drum separately.

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2. Brother MFC-L2750DW

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If you don’t need color printing, a monochrome model might be a better choice. We recommend the Brother MFC-L2750DW. This well-built all-in-one has a feature-rich scanner with extendable hinges to accommodate thick items like textbooks, an automatic feeder to process multi-page documents, and scans double-sided sheets in a single pass, so you don’t need to reinsert the pages manually.

It has Wi-Fi, USB, and Ethernet connectivity, and it even supports NFC, which means you can simply tap your NFC-enabled device on the printer to connect. It doesn’t take long to warm up, prints quickly at 36 pages per minute, and yields around 2000 prints from a single black toner cartridge. You have to replace the drum separately, but Brother specifies that it’s good for 12,000 prints, so you likely won’t need to do it too often.

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3. Brother MFC-L2710DW

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Our mid-range pick is the Brother MFC-L2710DW. It’s very similar to our upper mid-range pick, the Brother MFC-L2750DW, but with slightly reduced features and a lower price tag. It doesn’t support duplex scanning and has more physical buttons instead of a touch-sensitive display. It yields nearly 2000 pages per cartridge and prints up to 32 pages per minute.

Replacement toner is relatively cheap, and the printer accepts third-party toner, but keep in mind that you’ll have to replace the drum separately. You get the same Wi-Fi, USB, and Ethernet connectivity, along with support for Apple AirPrint and Mopria Print Service.

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4. Brother HL-L2390DW

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The Brother HL-L2390DW is our best budget recommendation. Yes, it’s another Brother printer, and so is our cheap pick. What can we say? Brother makes great monochrome laser printers. The HL-L2390DW is also an all-in-one monochrome model, but unlike the picks above, it doesn’t have an ADF and lacks Ethernet connectivity. That said, you’re still getting a very well-built machine that prints high-quality documents, and it does so quickly at 32 pages per minute.

Its toner cartridge yields roughly 1400 pages and is fairly cheap, so the cost per print is exceptionally low. You can get XL cartridges that’ll last longer, and it works with third-party toner, which might help save some money. The drum is a separate unit, but again, it isn’t something you have to replace very often.

5. Brother HL-L2370DW

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If you find our budget pick too expensive and don’t mind compromising on the scanner, you can get a print-only model for cheaper, like the Brother HL-L2370DW. It’s a very compact printer, so it’s great for tight spaces, like a small office or dorm room. It feels well built despite its budget-friendly price, and it has your usual connectivity options, like USB, Wi-Fi, and Ethernet.

Its toner cartridge yields around 1200 prints, and you can increase it further with XL cartridges. Like other Brother printers above, the drum isn’t built into the cartridge, meaning you’ll have to replace it separately. It prints quickly at 35 pages per minute and supports automatic duplex printing. If you have trouble finding this model, you can check out the Brother HL-L2350DW. It’s the same printer, but it prints a little slower and doesn’t have an Ethernet port.

6. HP Neverstop Laser MFP 1202w

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If you only care about having the best page yield for high-volume printing, get the HP Neverstop Laser MFP 1202w. It’s a monochrome laser printer with a toner tank, similar to supertank inkjet models, meaning you can refill the tank as needed with toner bottles. A full tank yields about 9500 black pages, the best page yield we’ve tested. Plus, the toner bottles are cheap, which helps keep costs low over time.

You have to replace the drum separately, adding to your overall maintenance cost. It prints reasonably fast at 20 pages per minute over a USB connection and doesn’t take long to warm up; however, it can’t perform double-sided printing automatically, meaning you have to flip the pages manually. Unfortunately, the scanner lacks an automatic feeder, which is inconvenient if you often scan long, multi-page documents.

If this model isn’t in stock, you may want to check out its variants, the HP Neverstop Laser MFP 1200w, 1200nw, and 1202nw. They’re the same printer, just without Wi-Fi Direct or Ethernet connectivity, depending on the model. There are other variants, though they lack wireless connectivity altogether, which might be a dealbreaker.

How to choose a laser printer

When it comes to picking any type of printer the basics are the same. You are probably already aware that laser printing produces professional looking text documents at a lower cost per page than similar inkjet models. But there are other features to consider.

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.

Print speed refers to how quickly a printer will complete a page in a document. In our reviews we test this capability, measured in pages per minute. If you need to print frequently, or in high volumes, faster print speeds are worth paying for.

Print quality is another concern, though the majority of laser printers offer some of the best print quality you can get, with sharp and detailed letter forms that leave documents looking professional.

What you won’t get on most laser printers is color and photo printing capability. While there are color laser printers on the market, they do cost more. And among those, not every color printer is well-suited to printing photos, and those that do require special photo paper specifically for laser printers.

Printing costs are an ongoing concern for any printer, since even affordable toner refills have some associated expenses over time. Look for a lower cost per page in our product descriptions and reviews, and check out the individual reviews for a detailed discussion of how print costs might make one printer better than another. 

How to Buy a Laser Printer

So, who would find a laser printer preferable to an inkjet? Definitely not a home user looking to print photos, much less a photo enthusiast or professional photographer, and not someone looking for a portable printer. But lasers are a good fit for text and graphic output, particularly in bulk: long research papers, book drafts, contracts in law offices, monthly invoices, and the like. And for printing boardroom-quality reports on plain paper, they do much better than inkjets at producing crisp, professional looking text and eye-catching color business graphics. If you print a lot of large jobs, stick mostly to text and graphics, and don’t need high quality for photos, a laser printer is likely the best match.

Lasers are also a good choice if high-quality, stable text printing matters most. Indeed, certain types of businesses, such as medical and law offices, may mandate laser printing for archival tasks and record keeping. And although inkjet text output is often close to laser quality at point sizes of 10 or 12 points, most lasers produce much more readable text at small sizes than almost any inkjet. If you need to print at 4 or 6 points, lasers are still the way to go. It can also be cheaper to print marketing materials with photos, including tri-fold brochures or one-page handouts, using a color laser that offers business-quality photo output than to pay for small print jobs at a print shop.

Also consider how often you print. Conventional wisdom says that inkjets are the best choice for home use. But if you don’t print photos, there’s a strong argument for considering a laser for light-duty home use, as well, particularly if you leave your printer off for long stretches. Unlike ink in inkjets, laser-printer toner doesn’t dry out or clog nozzles. Indeed laser printers have no nozzles to clog. Even if you leave a laser printer idle for months, it will print without problems when you turn it on again. Aside from the added convenience, eliminating the cost of wasted ink on nozzle-cleaning routines might save you more than a laser printer’s extra cost compared with a less expensive inkjet.

What Kind of Laser Do You Need: Print Only, or AIO?

As with any printer technology, lasers can be either single-function or multifunction printers (MFPs), aka all-in-ones (AIOs), which is to say they can be limited to printing only, or they can add scanning at a minimum, usually copying, and often faxing as well. Either type can be a mono-only printer, or can print in color also.

In a lot of scenarios, it makes good sense to pick a single-function laser printer rather than spend more money to get what is sometimes the same printer with a scanner added. Consider whether you need heavier-duty scanning (including scans for copying and faxing) than an AIO can handle. If so, you’ll need a separate scanner, anyway, which will likely make the extra functions of an AIO superfluous. Similarly, if you already have another AIO (or a copier and a fax machine), consider whether getting a second AIO will add any convenience or capability.

At the other extreme, you may scan so little that you can take care of the occasional capture with a scan app on your phone or just take photos. Unless you need to scan files to PDF format or use optical character recognition (OCR) to turn the scans into text files, you’ll probably be scanning to the same JPG format that photos use, anyway.

Printer-only models are available in the entire range from inexpensive monochrome units meant for home-office, micro-office, or student use to floor-standing printers (mono and color) that hold thousands of sheets of paper in multiple paper drawers at once. (The latter are suitable for large workgroups or entire departments.) In between are mono and color models designed for home and micro offices, as well as models for small offices and workgroups.

The added functions in laser AIOs are the same as in inkjet AIOs, with the same potential variations. Almost all print, copy, and scan. Many fax, as well, and scan-to-email features are common. The copying, faxing, and emailing can be limited to standalone capability, through the computer only, or both. And so on.

One common misunderstanding about mono laser AIOs is to think that the scanning they can do is also monochrome only. In truth, with a theoretical exception of some oddball model we haven’t seen, the scanners on any AIO today can scan in color.

Compared with inkjet AIOs, the advantages of laser AIOs include higher quality text, most noticeable at small font sizes, and smudge-proof output. Color laser AIOs also offer more vibrant color when printing on plain paper. However, know that although mono laser AIOs can handle schematics and other simple line drawings well, their output quality for graphics otherwise is generally no better than serviceable.

Will a Laser Cost More Than a Comparable Inkjet, or Less?

As surprising as it may seem, a laser printer can be less expensive in the long run than a comparable inkjet. You really have to look at the total cost of ownership to figure that out, though.

A common complaint about lasers is that laser toner cartridges are expensive compared with inkjet cartridges. For inexpensive models, the cost can even exceed the cost of the printer, particularly for color lasers if you need to replace a full set of cartridges (black, cyan, magenta, and yellow toners). But if you compare the cost per page, rather than the price per cartridge, you’ll find the running cost for cartridge-based lasers is actually less than for comparable cartridge-based inkjets. In addition, most lasers are designed to last longer than most inkjets, so you can amortize the initial cost of the printer over more pages as well.

Be aware that tank-based inkjets can beat lasers on running cost, which complicates any broad-brushstroke comparison of costs between the two technologies. The tank-based models cost more than equivalent inkjets that use cartridges, but they let you use far cheaper ink, which you typically pour from bottles into large tanks in the printer. There are also a few lasers, notably the HP Neverstop Laser 1001nw and the HP Neverstop Laser MFP 1202w, that take a similar approach, selling toner in bulk “injectors” rather than in cartridges.

Ultimately, focusing on initial price only or on running costs only when comparing printers is likely to lead to the wrong conclusion about which will be cheaper. You need to take both into account by estimating the total cost of ownership over the printers’ lifetimes. How to Save Money on Your Next Printer: Weighing the Cost of Tank vs. Cartridge Ink gives a step-by-step example of how to compare tank and cartridge inkjets. The same approach will work with any two printers. And don’t forget to factor in the possible savings from ink subscription plans if any are available for a printer you’re considering.

Text and Color Quality Considerations

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. 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. And because the fused toner sits on the surface of the page, rather than being absorbed into it, colors in graphics remain vibrant and saturated, instead of having the faded look that’s typical for inkjet color printing on plain paper.