When pick out the best color printer, you want to consider what type of jobs you’ll need done and how many pages you need to print on a regular basis. You may need a high-quality, heavy-duty color printer at the office to do some hefty print jobs. Or, maybe you just need a simple color printer in your home office for your occasional document printing needs. Either way, we’ve got you covered. We’ve rounded up the best color laser printers on the market below, based on printing capacity, color image quality, and built-in features.
Brother HL-L8360CDW
Best color laser printer
Why you should buy this: High-capacity toner, very fast print speeds, and a wealth of wireless connectivity options.
Who it’s for: Offices with large print volumes, or anyone who needs speedy, colorful prints.
Why we picked the Brother HL-L8360CDW:
Measuring 17.4 x 19.1 x 12.3 inches (width, depth, height) and weighing over 48 pounds, the Brother HL-L8360CDW is no lightweight. But with print speeds up to 33 pages per minute (ppm) and high-capacity toner cartridges that can last for 4,500 prints, it churns through massive print jobs with ease. The maximum monthly duty cycle is an impressive 60,000 pages, with the recommended amount being 4,000. The main paper tray holds up to 250 sheets of either letter or legal size paper, while a 50-sheet auxiliary tray can be used for alternative media types like letterhead. If you need more paper capacity, additional trays can be added, at a cost, for up to 1,300 pages in total. If you want to make that paper last as long as possible, double-sided printing is also supported thanks to automatic duplexing.
For larger organizations with security concerns, the HL-L8360CDW features a built-in NFC card reader that can scan employee badges to authorize access, among other security features. The printer is controlled from the 2.7-inch touchscreen and can be linked to your company’s Dropbox, Google Drive, or Microsoft OneDrive accounts. For home or small office use, you can print wirelessly with ease via both Apple AirPrint and Google Cloud Print 2.0. Additional wireless standards include Wi-Fi direct, Cortado Workspace, Mopria, and Brother’s own iPrint&Scan app.
Why we love it:
- Prints 33 pages per minute
- Large capacity ink cartridge
- Security features built-in
Canon Color imageClass MF743Cdw
Best color laser printer for photos
Why you should buy this: Great color print quality in a multifunction printer.
Who it’s for: Anyone who needs to print or copy photos and graphics quickly.
Why we picked the Canon Color imageClass MF743Cdw:
Laser printers are not photo printers, per se, but models like the Canon Color imageClass MF743Cdw go a long way to blurring the lines between them, which makes sense coming from a company like Canon, known for its cameras. While we wouldn’t recommend it for photographers, for the office that needs to make or reproduce documents that contain graphics and photos, the MF743Cdw is hard to beat. While its 28 ppm print speed doesn’t match the HP M281fdw, it does offer automated duplex printing, copying, and scanning.
Why we love it:
- Great for documents with graphics and photos
- Printing, copying, and scanning capabilities
HP Color Laserjet Pro M254dw
Best color laser printer for Mac
Why you should buy this: A printer as easy to set up as your Mac.
Who it’s for: Anyone who needs a basic, no-nonsense color laser printer.
Why we picked the HP Color Laserjet Pro M254dw:
Any printer on this list will work with your Mac, but the HP Color Laserjet Pro M254dw is perhaps the most Mac-like in its user experience. Praised for its ease of use, it will have you up and printing within minutes of taking it out of the box. With Apple AirPrint support built in, you can print wirelessly from your Mac, iPhone, or iPad without having to install drivers. The printer also supports HP ePrint, Mopria, and Wi-Fi direct — but, like the HP M281fdw, it does not support Google Cloud Print.
While ease of use may be the primary selling point, the M281fdw doesn’t disappoint when it comes to performance, with print speeds up to 22 ppm in both black and color. The printer’s recommended monthly duty cycle of up to 2,500 prints makes it suitable for medium-high volume environments, while its 10.2-second first print time (for monochrome, 11.8 seconds for color) also makes it effective in lower volume settings, where you may need to make a print once in a while and don’t want to have to wait around for the printer to warm up.
With a slim (for the class) profile and weight of just 32 pounds, this color laser printer will also do a decent job of blending into the background, making it a good choice for the home office or customer-facing locations where appearances matter.
Why we love it:
- Apple AirPrint built-in for wireless printing
- Easy to set up and use
- Lightweight and slim
Brother HL-L2350DW
Best budget color laser printer
Why you should buy this: Fast, full-color laser prints at an affordable price.
Who it’s for: Home and small office customers with moderate print volume needs.
Why we picked the Brother HL-L2350DW:
Any full-color laser printer that costs less than average already feels like a bargain, and this one offers some solid performance numbers that make it a steal. Print speeds are up to 32 ppm, the paper tray holds 250 sheets of either letter or legal size paper, and a manual feed slot allows for other paper sizes and media types, such as envelopes. For wireless printing, Apple AirPrint and Google Cloud Print support comes standard, as do Brother iPrint&Scan and Wi-Fi direct. The L2350DW offer double-sided printing.
Why we love it:
- Smaller and more compact
- Prints 32 pages per minute
- Affordable price
HP Color LaserJet Pro M281fdw
Best color laser printer for home offices
Why you should buy this: Print, copy, scan, and fax documents quickly.
Who it’s for: Busy entrepreneurs who need a capable, all-in-one printing and scanning solution.
Why we picked the HP Color LaserJet Pro M281fdw:
This color laser all-in-one doesn’t just print at up to 22 ppm, it can also copy and scan documents — in full color — at that same speed (monochrome documents can be scanned even faster, at 26 ppm). The main paper tray holds up to 250 sheets with support for various paper sizes ranging from 3 x 5-inch all the way up to 8.5 x 14-inch legal size, while the 50-page automatic document feeder helps you power through long copy or scan jobs. With a recommended monthly duty cycle of 150 to 2,500 pages, the HP Color LaserJet Pro M281fdw is perfect for the print needs of the busy home office.
Even with all that power and versatility, the M281fdw manages to maintain an average size and weight for high-end color laser printers. It measures 16.5 × 16.6 × 13.2 inches and weighs 41 pounds, just a bit heavier than the Brother HL-L3210CW above, which does not have all the multi-function capabilities. It includes a 2.7-inch color touchscreen for navigating the menu system and even has a dedicated USB port for printing straight from a USB device. Wireless printing is possible from mobile devices using Apple AirPrint, HP ePrint, Mopria, or Wi-Fi direct. Google Cloud Print, however, is not supported.
Why we love it:
- Prints 22 pages per minute
- Compact for space saving
- Wireless printing and USB port for printing from USB device
Color laser printers vs. inkjet printers: What’s best?
Laser printers are better for text documents as they produce crisp lines even at very small font sizes. Over time, they are also cheaper to run as you can get more prints per dollar spent on toner than you can with inkjet ink. Laser printers also offer faster printing speeds and can save some serious time on large print jobs.
However, laser printers and the toner they use carry higher upfront costs; if you don’t print very often, you can buy a cheap inkjet printer and it may take a long time before its higher operational costs catch up to the higher initial cost of a laser printer. For smaller print jobs, the faster pages-per-minute rate of a laser printer also won’t be much of an advantage.
While color laser printers have gotten much better at handling photographs, if you’re looking to make detailed, color-accurate photographic prints to hang on your wall, display in a gallery, or sell to customers, a high-end inkjet photo printer is still the way to go. Beyond print quality, inkjet photo printers can also handle a wider variety of paper types and sizes compared to laser printers. A color laser printer will handle inline photos and graphics in documents just fine.
How often will I have to buy toner?
This depends on how much you print. Toner cartridges often have yields of 2,000 pages or more (check the specifications of your printer for your model’s specific yield). For light home use, that means many people could easily go a year or more without replacing toner. For office use, the replacement interval will be shorter, but toner could still last a few months.
At the end of the day, your color printer should meet your specific needs. If you just need a home printer for the occasional print job, our budget pick is a perfectly acceptable option. If you’ll be printing a lot of graphics and documents with images, you may want to opt for our pick that caters more to these kind of jobs. When it comes to the biggest and heftiest print jobs, Brother HL-L8360CDW is our best pick. Whether you need a printer for your kids’ school projects, your small business, or a bustling office, we’ve got you covered.
About the Author
Robyn Camilla has been a homeowner for over 20 years and has spent the last 15 years of her professional career in software development. Through this experience, she’s used a lot of different applications, both corporate and personal, as well as had to purchase and try tons of household appliances and more. Recently, she’s began making her older home smarter with new thermostats, plugs, lights and more. This experience has taught her a lot about these products, and now she’s working hard to share that information with you to help you make a smarter purchase the first time.
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The Digital Trends team prides itself in offering expert product recommendations in ways that everyone can understand. Our team of experts is constantly using and reviewing the latest and greatest consumer tech, smart home gadgets, televisions, and so much more to offer insights to help guide your purchasing decision. We have vigorously tested thousands of different products across these categories, and we’ve distilled our lists to bring you the best of the best. If we feel a product does not live up to our expectations, it doesn’t make the list. We are humans though, and realize that not every recommended product will be perfect for everyone, so we do our best to call out important features that may impact your choices. Below our top picks we’ve included additional product information to ensure that you are making the right choice for your unique needs.
The products in this guide have been carefully curated by our team of experts and enthusiasts who understand the value and quality needed for the best options.
