The best printers in 2024: Home or office, here’s your pick

Types of printers and ink

HP Smart Tank 580-best printer for your small business or home office

There are different types of printers catering to different use cases. Modern printers can be broadly classified into three types – inkjet, laser, and ink tank printers. Other popular printer types like the thermal dot matrix printers and the A3 printers are best-suited for commercial purposes.

Printers can be classified into coloured printers and black-and-white printers as well. Some printers also double up as scanners.

A basic black and white printer, even one from reputed brands, can be bought for less than Rs 3,000. Depending on the functionality and features, the price goes up drastically. If you mostly require monochrome prints, a black-and-white printer should do the job. The cost of running a colour printer is higher, even if you use it to print monochrome pages. This is because these printers use all the colours to print the black colour.

A laser printer uses laser beams to print, resulting in high-quality printouts. The text and images from laser printers look sharper and more detailed.

Compared to an inkjet printer, an ink tank printer can print more pages. However, the colour replacement comes at a higher cost. These would make sense for heavy users. If unused, the ink solidifies and becomes unusable.

With this context, here are the top five printers worth considering in 2024 for home and small business usage:

Canon Pixma TS207

Canon Pixma TS207 (Express Photo)

An affordable single-function inkjet printer which is simple and gets the job done. Priced at Rs 2,195, this is a colour printer meant for home usage. However, since this is an affordable offering, the printing cost per page is slightly on the higher side (Rs 7 for black and white and Rs 9 for colour prints) and is meant for those who might want to print less than 50 pages a month. It also comes with ink cartridges, which are easy to replace when you run out of ink. A single pack of cartridges can print up to 320 pages.

Epson EcoTank L130

Epson EcoTank L130 (Express Photo)

If you are looking at an ink tank printer that can print pages at a much lower price, the Epson EcoTank L130, priced at Rs 8,899, is a great choice. This is also a colour printer, and can print up to 4,500 black and white pages and up to 7,500 colour pages per tank. The print cost is as low as 9 paise per black and white print and 24 paise per colour print.

It also has wireless connectivity (print from phone), and this printer is compatible with both Windows and macOS.

HP Deskjet 2331 Colour Printer

HP Deskjet 2331 Colour Printer (Express Photo)

This is a colour inkjet printer with an integrated scanner. It costs Rs 3,599. This is also a small-sized printer and can be controlled using the HP Smart App. It has a slightly higher running cost, similar to the Canon Pixma TS207, and is for those who need a printer cum scanner that can take care of both colour and black and white printouts.

Epson PictureMate PM-520 Photo Printer

Epson PictureMate PM-520 Photo Printer (Express Photo)

If you are looking for a printer that can bring your digital photos to life, the Epson PictureMate PM-520 is a good choice. Do note that while regular colour printers can also print photos, it won’t be as detailed as one from this one. It costs Rs 15,499.

It has a digital display for photo previews, and also an SD card slot. Users can directly print photos from a camera using the SD card slot, without directing it via a laptop or smartphone.

Brother DCP-B7500D Automatic Duplex Laser Printer

Brother DCP-B7500D Automatic Duplex Laser Printer (Express Photo)

This is for users who have a very high print volume per month. Available for Rs 16,899, this compact printer can offer commercial printer-like performance. It can print up to 34 pages per minute with a lower printing cost. It also comes with an integrated paper tray and also has a built-in scanner. It also has double-sided printing capability, and it is compatible with both Windows and macOS.