What is a Home Printer
A home printer increasingly becomes a necessity for most families. If you have a printer at home, no need to search for companies that will provide printing services for your images or documents. All you need to do is turn the printer on and send anything you want to print. Home printers can transfer user's ideas on paper whether it is a project or a book, a great picture or a list of recipes for homemakers, a presentation or some educational materials for students or children. In this article, we don't only review the best home printers, but also help you deal with the selection and types of such devices.
Today, there are also options for a wireless printing and a possibility to carry a small printer around.
What Features to Compare
Choosing a printer for home, first of all, you should pay your attention to the major feature - Printing Capabilities. The first parameter to consider it is a printing technology used in the device. There are 2 most widely-used ones: laser and ink-jet.
- Ink-jet printers use a multicolor ink for printing. The advantages of this kind of printing are a reasonable price of the printer itself as well as the consumables, a high printing speed, a good quality of images and a capability of printing color documents. The cons are: a relatively low page yield of default cartridges, which is enough for around 150 copies (on average), and also a limited time of a standby - the printer should print at least once in 2-3 weeks to not let the ink get dry.
- Laser printers can be of 2 types: monochrome (black-and-white) and color. The most widespread and popular are the monochrome ones. Among the benefits of a laser printer, we can mention a high printing speed and a huge page yield - from 1,000 pages at a single toner. Laser printers are perfect for printing B&W documents but are often inferior to inkjet printers when it comes to printing of images.
The second factor affecting the quality of a document printing is the Printing Resolution - the higher it is, the better the quality. If you are searching the printer for a home photo printing, we'd say that the best choice here is the ink-jet printer with extended color packs providing correct shades and color transition. A significant aspect is also a speed of documents printing, measured in pages per minute (ppm).
Another important feature is the Cartridge and Tray Capacity. Depending on the printing technology, each type of printers is capable of printing its individual number of copies at a single cartridge. Some manufacturers offer cartridges with extended capacity that help you save your money by increasing the number of pages they can print. It is also worth checking the paper tray capacity because this feature seriously impacts the device's usability.
Having decided on the technical side of printing, you should assess the possibilities of a printer itself, for example, Functions . There are 2 categories of printers: MFP (multifunctional printers) and regular printers. MFP combine several devices in one: a copier, a scanner, and a printer, sometimes even a fax. Also, in addition to the standard set for the MFP, the device may have additional features such as printing from a memory card, photo editing directly on the printer owing to the built-in display and software.
Finally, you should decide what devices you could sync with the new printer. For this pay your attention to Connectivity. The hi-tech devices support not only a cable connection but also a wireless Wi-Fi network, which significantly extends the list of gadgets you can sync with the printer.
Canon MG7720
Printing Capabilities
The Canon MG7720 all-in-one photo printer has a printing resolution of 9600 x 2400 dpi for color printing and 600 x 600 dpi for black-and-white. For such numbers, the printing speed of 15 pages per minute for black-and-white and 10 pages per minute for color is one of the best. We'd also like to point out the separate cartridges for each color, which makes replacing the empty one a piece of cake. Just change that one color and the device is ready to print high-quality photos again!
Cartridge and Tray Capacity
This all-in-one inkjet printer isn't inferior to other models when it comes to the choice of cartridges. You can select either a Standard one or the one from the XL series depending on your personal printing needs. The tray capacity of this Canon MG7720 inkjet printer for home is 125 sheets. That's a bit more than the standard 100 sheets capacity, and we think it is more than enough for a home printer. Don't you agree?
Functions
Connectivity
HP Envy 4520
Printing Capabilities
Cartridge and Tray Capacity
Most users are quite OK with the standard HP 63 cartridges this all-in-one printer comes with; they are designed to print 190 (Black) and 165 (Tri-color) pages before you need to replace them. And if you often print and would like to avoid a frequent cartridge replacement, there is an option to purchase HP 63XL cartridges. Such ones can print up to 300 pages in black-and-white and up to 270 pages in color. You are able to place the paper for printing into the tray designed to contain a standard number of 100 sheets.
Functions
Main options this inkjet printer for home offers include scanning, copying, and wireless printing. Speaking about printing, let's mention that apart from a really high quality the HP Envy 4520 also offers you economy of both time and paper by simultaneously printing on both sides and borderless printing. The latter is especially useful when you print photos as you won't need to cut the frame after printing. Additionally, the 2.2" display is there to simplify your control over the printing process.
Connectivity
Canon MX492
Printing Capabilities
Canon MX492 is an all-in-one inkjet printer, meaning you won't need to spend loads of money on consumables. It is also a color printer. The printing speed of this best printer is fairly good for home use, 4.4 ppm for color printing and twice that number, 8.8 ppm, for black-and-white. The printing resolution is 4800x1200 dpi for color and 600x600 dpi for black-and-white. The former number hints at a good quality of the photos you can print.
Cartridge and Tray Capacity
Functions
This is an all-in-one home printer, and besides the standard document and images printing it can also scan, copy, and fax. In addition to this great variety of features, there is an automatic document feeder for 20 sheets. And to top it all, the Canon MX492 home printer is really quiet - you will not hear it working at all, and your family members or neighbors will be undisturbed while sleeping or working.
Connectivity
Brother HL-L2340
Printing Capabilities
Brother HL-L2340DW is a laser printer, and that's why it features an impressive printing speed. This device prints 27 pages per minute in black-and-white. This is one of the highest rates in its class. As a rule, laser printers are used in offices where the performance is what matters most. But fear not! In this particular laser printer for home, the high printing speed does not come at the expense of quality but accompanies it. The printing resolution it provides is 2400 x 600 dpi. HL-L2340DW is a great home and office printer.
Cartridge and Tray Capacity
The high performance of laser printers asks for cartridges designed for large numbers of pages to print. And this Brother HL-L2340DW personal printer provides you with quite a good choice: Starter cartridges for 700 pages, Standard for 1,200 pages, High Yield for 2,600 pages, and Drum Unit for 12,000 pages. The latter option will free you from worries about changing cartridges too often even if your printer undergoes some great workload. In addition, the tray for paper in this model can contain up to 250 sheets, which is 2 times as many as most inkjet printers for home use.
Functions
Connectivity
Epson XP-420
Printing Capabilities
As for the printing technology, this Epson XP-420 is an all-in-one inkjet printer. Someone might say that the printing speed here leaves quite some to be desired as it is only 9 ppm for black-and-white and 4.5 ppm for color images. But the scales are overbalanced by the printed image quality obtained: both black-and-white and color photos printed with this device will boast a great resolution of 5760x1440 dpi. Super!
Cartridge and Tray Capacity
Before you go and buy cartridges for this all-in-one home printer, think about how often you will print. That's necessary for selecting the right cartridge capacity as the manufacturer provided a wide choice. The 220 Standard Ink cartridge will allow you to print up to 175 pages in black-and-white and 165 pages in color. And 220XL High-capacity Ink one is able to give you 500 black-and-white and 450 color pages. The tray is capable of holding up to a 100 of A4 sheets.
Functions
Epson XP-420 features a standard scope of options for an all-in-one photo printer. This means you can print your documents and photos, copy them, and scan. As an additional function, there's a possibility to scan documents directly into Facebook or into a Cloud storage. This will allow you to easily share your photos with friends or followers. You can also control the scanning process using a 2.5" color LCD display. That's extremely convenient!
Connectivity
Sources:
1. Ted Needleman Home Printer Buying Guide: How to choose the best printer, Digital Trends. May 19, 2014.
2. Melissa Riofrio Printer buying guide: How to find the best model for your home or office, PCWorld. November 25, 2013.
3. Hafeez Sim How to Decide Which Home Printer to Buy, HardwareZone. May 9, 2014.
4. Justin Yu Printer buying guide, CNET. October 4, 2012.
5. Christian Cawley 4 Questions to Ask Yourself When Choosing a New Printer, MakeUseOf. December 14, 2015.
