Buyer's Guide: The Best Printers

A good printer should be user friendly and have plenty of functions, such as a scanner, photocopier and fax. Plus, Wi-Fi connectivity can be handy for sharing a printer with a network of users whether at home or in the office.

Note that our printer reviews have recently been updated in line with our new test criteria.

Here are a few things to look for when shopping for a printer:

- Hardware and design: check how many functions the printer has and whether it's compatible with your computer's OS. Then look for the connectivity options (Wi-Fi, Ethernet, networking etc.) and extras like memory card readers and built-in memory. Plus, don't forget to check the printer's dimensions.

- Print speeds: look at how many pages per minute each model can print in colour and in black and white. Check how fast the photocopier works and how long it takes the printer to wake up from standby.

- Print quality: use our reviews to check print quality for office documents, photos and the quality of photocopies. We'll soon be testing colour fidelity in our printer reviews too.

- Power use and noise: our test results show how much power the printer uses when working and on standby, as well as how noisy it is. We consider anything above 50 dB(A) to be noisy.

- Cost per page: this tells you how much the printer costs to run. Note that inkjet printers tend to be more expensive to run than laser models. Note, however, that the cost of printing per page isn't taken into account in a printer's overall score.

With these factors in mind, here's our pick of the best printers out there right now.

Editor's Choice

This Canon three-in-one inkjet printer is stylish, function-packed, quiet and energy efficient. Canon is great at making versatile all-in-one printers that churn out excellent-quality office documents and photos. Believe us, it's really quite rare for a printer to a good job of both! Note, however, that the cost of printing per page is quite high.

Two Alternatives

Best of the Rest

Here are a few more of our favourites.