The quick list ↩
1. Best overall: Canon TS6320
2. Best laser: Canon MF655Cdw
3. For students: Canon TR7020
4. Economical: Canon GX6550
5. Best for photos: Canon TS8320
7. For offices: HP MFP479fdw
8. Best A3: Epson EcoTank ET-8550
How to choose
How we test
FAQs
The best all-in-one printers are jacks of all trades. They don't just print documents and photos, they also let you scan and copy stuff (and some even send faxes too). We've reviewed and tested lots of them to choose the best multifunctional printers, also known as multifunction printers or MFPs, on the market today to include in our guide below.
Remember that when buying a printer the initial price is not the only cost consideration. Most inkjet printers are sold with small 'installation' cartridges, which can run dry quite quickly. That's why we've also included Canon Maxify and Epson 'EcoTank' printers, which are more expensive initially but use a bottle-based ink system that's cheaper in the long run.
Most of our choices are inkjet printers, as these are the best option for printing images and the most cost-effective for home use, but we have also included a couple of multifunction laser printers. While more expensive, these can churn out documents much more quickly and can work out cheaper in the long-run if you print a lot. If you only want to scan, though, see our guide on the best scanners instead.
The quick list
For printing, copying or scanning lots of documents, this color laser printer covers all the bases. We found it to be a fast performer, and it's very competitively priced.
This isn't going to make the best prints of photos, but we think it's a solid affordable option for anyone looking for an everyday printer for homework and office documents.
Designed for the small or home office, this Canon printer runs on four bottle-fed pigment-based inks, reducing costs. We found the control panel intuitive to use and the machine takes printing, scanning and copying in its stride.
We think this is the best A4/Letter sized photo printer on the market. It has an additional sixth ink called ‘photo blue’ for more vivid images with smoother graduations.
For most home-office needs, an A4-sized printer will suffice. However, if you need to create larger output, or want to fold a larger sheet in half to make a letter-sized pamphlet, this 13-inch printer is the best solution we've tested.
Best all-in-one printers in 2024
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Best all-in-one printer overall
Specifications
Reasons to buy
Reasons to avoid
We find that Canon’s five-ink printers typically give us the best of both worlds. The combination of a pigment black ink plus dye-based cyan, magenta, yellow and black inks delivers immaculate quality for crisp mono and color documents, as well as superb photo output. And the Canon PIXMA (TS6320 in America and TS6350 in Europe) follows that tradition.
It has smart paper handling options, including a space-saving motorized output tray that extends from the front, an internal paper input cassette, plus a rear-loading feeder that’s ideal for photo paper and alternative media sizes. Automatic duplex printing is also available, with the potential of saving paper and postage costs.
When we tested this printer, we found that it excelled at pretty much everything, from the humdrum printing of office documents to producing beautiful photographs. While it lacks a touchscreen, it boasts an intuitive onboard control system based on a high-quality OLED display.
Read our full Canon PIXMA TS6320/TS6350 review for more details.
Best all-in-one laser printer
Specifications
Reasons to buy
Reasons to avoid
We've mainly recommended inkjet printers in our guide, since we think they produce better images. However, a laser printer might be better for you if you want to print hight volumes of text documents, because they're faster and and produce sharp type.
If you're going to use all the functions on your printer (printing, scanning, and copying) on a regular basis, we think this color multifunctional laser printer is ideal. We were pleased with the speed of printing, including in automatic duplex (double-sided) printing, and we liked the intuitive color touchscreen interface. In our review, we also highlighted the excellent connectivity options. There are the usual USB 2.0, Ethernet, Wi-Fi and Wi-Fi direct, but an additional USB 2.0 port allows scanning/printing and directly to/from a memory stick and there's support for cloud platforms like Google Drive, OneDrive and DropBox.
Scanning double sides takes longer than with some more expensive printers as the paper is fed twice, but the scan quality is good. Competitively priced and with reasonable running costs, we think this is the best all-in-one laser printer for non-specialist home and office use.
Read our full Canon i-SENSYS MF655Cdw / imageCLASS MF653Cdw review.
Best for children and students
Specifications
Reasons to buy
Reasons to avoid
The Canon PIXMA TR7020 / TS7450 (depending on whether you're in the UK or US) only has four colors in its two cartridges, and the quality of photos it prints is pretty mediocre. So why are we recommending it? Because we think it's perfect for homework and any other occasional mainly text-based print job required at home.
It can print double-sided and at a decent speed, and it provides USB, Wi-FI, and Bluetooth connectivity, so we had plenty of options for sending documents to print. It's also compatible with Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant if you prefer to issue voice commands.
When we reviewed it, we were impressed by the printer's mono document printing, which is fast, crisp, and detailed. And while the fairly minimal cartridge setup means photo printing is lackluster, it does keep the running costs low, which we think makes it a great choice as a home-working printer for schoolchildren, students, and adults alike.
Read our full Canon PIXMA TR7020 / TS7450 review for more details.
Best pigment ink all-in-one printer
Specifications
Reasons to buy
Reasons to avoid
Working out which is the most economical multifunction printer can be a challenge. A device might seem cheap until you see the cost of the replacement cartridges, while printers that are cheaper to refill often cost more upfront. The latter is the case with this Canon printer for small and home offices. It's relatively expensive, but it doesn't take cartridges. Instead, you refill its ink tanks with bottled pigment inks, which are much cheaper than most cartridges. If you print a lot, you're likely to recoup the higher initial expense quite quickly.
We found the refill bottles easy to use and with none of the mess we feared thanks to built-in valves which only open when the bottle is correctly inserted in the tank. Each bottle is enough ink for 6,000 pages in mono, and 14,000 in color (or 9,000 and 21,000 in economy mode.
We found the device to be fast and versatile, taking printing, scanning and copying in its stride. Photography looks lacklustre since pigment ink isn't fully absorbed, but our test document showed a good resistance to smudging and highlighter use. We liked the intuitive touchscreen control panel, and the size of the printer is nice too: it's relatively compact, and feeder for copying is front- rather than side-loading, saving additional space.
Read our full Canon MAXIFY GX6550 review for more details.
Note that the GX6550 that we reviewed is not sold in the US. A close equivalent is the GX6021 (see prices below)
Best for photos
Specifications
Reasons to buy
Reasons to avoid
Building on Canon’s rich heritage of five-ink printers, this model goes one better with a six-ink system. That includes the usual mix of pigment-based black and dye-based CMYK inks and adds an extra ‘photo blue’ ink, which we found produced more vivid photos with smoother graduations in blue skies. It’s simply the best A4/Letter sized photo printer that we've tested, but it’s equally adept at office duties.
When we reviewed the PIXMA TS8320, we found that mono and color print speeds were fast and the quality was spot on, although the output for black-and-white photos isn't as impressive as for colour and is notably less deep than what you can get from professional large-format printers.
We liked the motorized tilting front panel and extending output tray. Along with auto paper width detection, these helped us save setup time when using different sizes of media. There are also dual input paths, including an internal cassette and rear feeder. All in all, we think this is the best standard-sized all-in-one printer for photography. This printer is called the Canon PIXMA TS8320 in North America, and the TS8350 in most other places around the world.
Read our full Canon PIXMA TS8320/ TS8350 review for more details
Best A3 all-in-one printer
Specifications
Reasons to buy
Reasons to avoid
For most home-office needs, an A4/letter-sized printer will suffice. However, if you need to create larger output, or maybe fold a larger sheet of paper in half to effectively make a four-page A4/letter-sized pamphlet, there are some all-in-one printers capable of that, and we think this 13-inch Epson printer is the ideal solution.
A major frustration of most large-format printers is that you can find yourself perpetually running on empty, for at least one or more of the ink cartridges. However, typical of Epson’s EcoTank range, this printer has high-volume ink tanks instead of cartridges. This is similar to the Canon Maxxify system that we mentioned earlier, and it reduces long-term costs considerably.
The printer comes supplied with sufficient ink to create thousands of mono and color documents, or up to 3,400 6x4-inch photos, with correspondingly smaller amounts of larger sizes. Speaking of photos, although this printer has a relatively limited color space for photo printing, we found it capable of producing rich and vibrant A3+/13x19-inch photo prints.
The images we produced using the default ‘Photo Enhance’ feature looked way oversaturated and unnatural for our taste, but when we switched to the ‘Custom’ setting and turned Photo Enhance off, results were much better. The definition and tonal range in the black-and-white photos we tested were also impressive for a printer of this kind. Printing speed is somewhat slow compared with most dye-based, cartridge-fuelled printers, but for if you're looking for an all-in-one that can print at big sizes, we don't think there's a better option for long-term value.
Read our full Epson EcoTank ET-8550 review for more details
For more specialist printers for large sizes, see our dedicated guide to the best large format printers.
Best all-in-one printer for small offices
7. Brother MFC-L3770CDW
Our expert review:
Specifications
Reasons to buy
Reasons to avoid
Typical of relatively low-cost ‘laser’ printers, this is actually based on an LED array rather than actual laser technology, but we found it to be fast and highly effective, however, churning out mono or color prints at up to 25 pages per minute. You can photocopy or scan to your computer, as well as send direct faxes (yes, quite a lot of people do actually still use fax!), all of which take advantage of a built-in auto document feeder.
We found that the 3.7-inch touchscreen makes for easy menu navigation. The printer is well-connected too, adding NFC to the usual range of USB, Wi-Fi, and Ethernet options. We estimated running costs to be fairly competitive for mono printing, but it may be a bit pricey for color.
How to choose the best all-in-one printer?
The best multifunction printer for you will depend on what you want to print and scan, how often, in what quantity and at what size. For general office use, to print text documents, you may want to go for an economical inkjet printer option: either one that's economical to buy, or one that costs more upfront but is cheaper to supply with ink, such as the Canon Maxify range.
Be aware the initial price of buying a printer is not the only cost consideration. Most inkjet printers are sold with standard-capacity or 'installation' cartridges, which can run dry surprisingly quickly. Canon Maxify and Epson's EcoTank printers are quite expensive initially but use a more efficient bottle-based ink system that's cheaper in the long run.
Photographers looking to make prints will have much higher demands in terms of print quality, and will benefit from an option with more inks, such as the Canon PIXMA TS8320 / TS8350, since this allows for much smoother gradations.
We generally recommend inkjet printers for general use, especially if you want to print images. However, if you need to print large volumes of text documents, you might want to consider an all-in-one laser printer. These are more expensive initially, but they print large quantities faster. Finally, most all-in-one printers print at up to A4 size. If you're looking to print at larger sizes, the number of multifunction options is much smaller, but we have included a large-format A3 all-in-one printer in our list.
How we tested the best all-in-one printers
We test as many all-in-one printers as we can get our hands on, and we look at the speed and quality at which they can print documents and photos. We test using a range of printing jobs, from monochrome A4 documents to full-color photographs, and assess the level of detail and color rendition the printer achieves.
We also look at the running cost of the printer – how quickly it burns through ink, and how much its cartridges cost to replace – to get an idea of how it will perform in the long term. Plus we assess how easy the printer is to use – how easy its menus are to navigate, and the options it provides for connectivity (USB, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, etc).
FAQs
What is an all-in-one printer?
An all-in-one printer, or a multi-function printer, is a machine that does more than prints. Functions can vary, but typically they serve as scanners and photocopiers as well as printers, and some can also fax.
What are the advantages of an all-in-one printer
The main benefits of an all-in-one printer are economy and space. While many multi-function printers are larger than simple compact printers, they have a much smaller footprint than what a separate printer, scanner and copier would have. That means less desk space taken up, and few cables trailing around. And while they're often more expensive than buying a printer alone, they are much cheaper than buying all of those devices separately.
Do all-in-one printers have any disadvantages?
As you'll see in our guide above, there are a lot of different multifunctional printers around, each with its own pros and cons. Like with any device designed to serve various functions, it can sometimes be the case that it doesn't do any of the jobs as well as a dedicated device.
Some all-in-one printers do not offer the best quality printing for photos, for example, especially for black-and-white photos since they tend to have only one black ink. However, some do a good job for images, at least for colour, and we have included an option above that we think is particularly good for printing images.
Another potential image is if one function of the device fails, the other features could also fail. In some multifunctional printers, an issue with the ink will prevent you from being able to scan or copy. Some all-in-one printers will allow you to scan documents when there is no ink cartridge or no ink in the cartridge but some do not.
