With the pandemic forcing more and more of us to work from home, a decent printer is rapidly becoming an essential purchase. But with so many on the market, each targeting very different price points and types of users, knowing which to get can be tricky.
Here to help we’ve created this guide detailing the best home office printers for most types of users and budgets. On it you’ll find our general pick for the best all-rounder, our choice of the best for photos and images, the best designed printer and our recommended best value option.
Best for frequent use: Epson EcoTank ET-2750
Best for photos: Epson Expression Photo XP-8700
Best looking: HP Tango X
Budget pick: HP Envy 6020e
Epson EcoTank ET-2750
Best for frequent use
Buy now: Epson EcoTank ET-2750
The Epson EcoTank ET-2750 is a tank printer. That means it has refillable reservoirs for its three colour and black inks, rather than using cartridges. This could save you big time on ink if you print a lot of documents, and the printer includes “88 cartridges” worth of ink out of the box according to Epson. When you eventually need to refill you simply buy top-up bottles, which again cost far less than the equivalent ink cartridges would.
Epson Expression Photo XP-8700
Best for photos
Buy now: Epson Expression Photo XP-8700
For keen/amateur photographers, or even people who simply want to print out high quality sheets of their favourite photos, the Epson Expression Photo XP-8700 is one of the best buys out there. The large 10.9cm touchscreen makes it incredibly easy to see what you’re printing out ahead of time, and with Epson’s array of apps, you can wirelessly print out shots directly from your phone or from your social media accounts.
HP Tango X
Best looking
Buy now: HP Tango X
When you think about home office printers, it’s understandable to picture an unwieldy device that takes up half your desk space, but that image couldn’t be further from the truth when it comes to the HP Tango X. The Tango X isn’t the most ideal printer for scanning as it relies on smartphones to complete this task, but the Instant Ink feature does prevent the cost of running the printer from ever feeling like a burden on your wallet.
HP Envy 6020e
Budget picks
Buy now: HP Envy 6020e
The HP Envy 6020e might not have all the fancy bells and whistles found in the other priners on this list, but as a budget pick it is hard to beat on value. Not only does it carry a small footprint that prevents it from feeling cumbersome on a desk, but you get six months of Instant Ink free as part of HP+, just to stretch that value even further.
