The 7 Best Wireless Printers You Should Buy for Home Use Now!
Remember when closets were for storing old board games and hardback books? Now they’re a reserved space, a shelf kept free for a wireless home printer. If that’s out of the question, you can’t bring yourself to clear the space, then it sits on a dedicated little table, no cable tripping up the family as they sit down at the computer. The freedom over cords, taking advantage of Wi-Fi, is most satisfying.
Alternatively, what if your angsty teen rebel is upstairs, locked in their room? Well, they’re still accessing the printer, using a mobile printing app on their iPhone to create physical copies of sleepover invitations. Anyone in that residence can hop on a device, usually but not necessarily a computer, and get on the printer queue, wirelessly and without needing to sit anywhere near the device. It’s a problem-free set up for sure. Even so, there are a few pitfalls to keep track of when buying a wireless printer for the home. A good dual-band Wi-Fi connection is desirable, as surfaces and obstacles in a room can play havoc with signals.
Other features to shop for are less apparent. If the home router is an antiquated beast that has trouble streaming Netflix, then Wi-Fi Direct is a nice feature to have, bypassing the router and communicating directly with the computer. And just because it’s disconnected from a hardwired port, that’s no reason for slow output. Fast printing is a must. Look for a printer that can churn out pages quickly, especially if you’re working from home or juggling multiple tasks. A good paper tray will keep things running smooth as well. You send your document to print in that well-ventilated closet, or table, sipping a cup of hot coffee, knowing the paper tray is collecting that mounting pile of crisply rendered pages.
Here we are, then, in our own offices. We’ll be checking out a collection of the best wireless printers for the home, putting in all the work so that you can reap the rewards. Let’s get the show on the road with the HP Smart Tank 6001 wireless printer.
Top 7 Best Wireless Printers for Home Use Now!
HP Smart Tank 6001 Wireless Home Printer
- From America's most trusted printer brand
- Best for low-cost, high-volume printing—2 years of HP Ink included; get up to 8,000 color pages or 6,000 black pages right out of the box
- Print, copy and scan, plus automatic 2-sided printing, borderless prints, mobile and wireless printing
Print perks to love – Refillable via ink bottles. 12 ppm black and 7 ppm color print speed. Dual-band and Direct Wi-Fi. USB Connector. Scans, prints, and copies. Borderless and auto two-sided print. 1200 dpi scanner. Dimensions are 16.83 by 14.33 by 7.82-inches. Weighs 14 lbs. High-resolution printer.
If a family is environmentally conscious, then the HP Smart Tank 6001 wireless printer is a product that they’ll naturally gravitate towards. In box, four bottles of ink promise two years of output, so no rushing down to the store every time the notorious ‘Change cyan cartridge’ popup flashes onscreen. The web page for the printer even provides some hard data, quoting 8000 pages of color or 6000 pages of black. Another number, 15 second refill, was put to the test. The fill process really is just that simple, with vertically mounted gauges to the right of the paper tray providing visual confirmation of ink levels.
Everything was thoughtfully engineered to deliver simple operation for all the family. The 2.0 by 0.4-inch LCD display was small yet friendly, and buttons illuminated to guide a user through a print job, keeping frustrating glances at the manual to a minimum. Printer technology has always confounded owners, so any effort made to guide a perplexed user through a print operation has us whipping out the gold stars. As for wireless reliability, it’s another gold star; the dual-band connection never wavered, and the tech built into the Wi-Fi protocols boasted self-healing properties, solving most troubleshooting woes with automated ease. Hassle-free by design, we liked how this device was handling itself.
Print quality, coming from the HP stable of printers, was stellar. Blacks were crisp, colors didn’t bleed, and photos were grain-less. The output 100 sheet paper tray and input 150 feed tray implied heavy use performance, even among larger families. With all that covered, we moved on to the flatbed scanner, which had an 8.5 by 11.69-inch frame, more than enough size for most scanning jobs. Borderless printing, two-sided and mixed graphics/text as well, the HP Smart Tank 6001 handled everything we threw at it, and that included just about every kind of paper stock we could find, too. For mobile printing, Apple AirPrint and Mopria certified operation as well, we downloaded the HP Smart app.
Where it missed the mark – Slow print speeds. No ADF (Automatic Document Feeder) for multi-page scanning jobs. Basic small LCD display. Complaints of dropped wireless connections. Paper jams.
Canon MegaTank Pixma G3290 Wireless Home Printer
![Canon Megatank G3290 All-in-One Wireless Supertank [Megatank] Printer | Print, Copy Scan | Mobile Printing |2.7 LCD Color Touchscreen | Auto Duplex](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41S9vIfHBSL._SL500_.jpg)
- Wireless Print/Copy/Scan
- Up to 2 years of ink included
- Print up to 6,000 black & white / 7,700 color pages using a single set of inks!
Print perks to love – Easy read 2.7-inch color touchscreen. Refillable ink. Includes a two year supply of ink. Level gauges. 11 ppm black and 6 ppm color print speed. 4800 by 1200 dpi resolution. Uses 802.11b/g/n/a/ac wireless and USB. Has a 16.4 by 14.3 by 7.0-inch form factor. Weighs 14.2 lbs.
The boasted two-year ink usage, just like the HP printer before, had us ready to award all the big scoring points to the Canon MegaTank Pixma G3290 wireless printer. Again, it’s a green machine with a big attitude, scoring slightly higher than the previous device among Amazon shoppers. Its inks are in the box, ready to fill the little chambers and keep documents and graphics rolling out of the printer for two years, as quoted on the marketing literature. The cable cutting tech is similarly advanced, using Wi-Fi 802.11 and all of its many flavors to retain a stable connection, room to room or closet to office.
We’ve grown jaded with the little pop-ups that spring to life on Windows or Mac screens when inks run low, which is why we appreciate the fill gauges on printers like this model. Also, there’s a pleasing logic to the functions, laid out in common sense order. A retractable 100 sheet output tray comes first. Above that, the angled control panel showcases a sharp 2.7-inch LCD display, then there’s the flatbed scanner on top, providing an 8.5 by 11.7-inch frame of 1200 dpi scanning power. In back, behind the scanner, a 100 sheet rear paper feeder loads just about any type of stock imaginable. It’s a fine, solidly built machine, although not perfect by any means.
Advanced home printing features include auto two-sided printing, borderless printing, and loads of mobile printing options. We downloaded Canon Print to process documents directly from a device. For creatives, there was the option to install Easy PhotoPrint, which supported editing. Moving on, we tested Microsoft documents and Adobe edited photos on the printer, observing the pin-sharp 4800 x 1200 dpi print output with satisfaction. Our trained eyes found no banding or smearing, just sharp, legible text and bleed-free images. Of course, AirPrint and Mopria compatibility were both present, letting us print from our smartphones easily, no complicated printer configurations needed.
Where it missed the mark – Again, it’s slow and doesn’t have an ADF system fitted. Not enough advanced settings for the family print master. Reports of noisy operation. Unintuitive control panel.
Epson EcoTank ET-383 Wireless Home Printer
- No more tiny, expensive ink cartridges; each ink bottle set is equivalent to about 80 individual cartridges
- Save up to 90% with replacement ink bottles vs. ink cartridges
- Up to 2 years of ink in the box – and with every replacement ink set – for fewer out of ink frustrations
Print perks to love – Comes with a two-years of ink promise. Enhanced connectivity, Ethernet on top of wireless and USB. 5760 by 1440 dpi resolution. Offers a 15 ppm black and 8 ppm color print speed. Scans and copies documents. Form factor of 14.8 by 19.8 by 7.4-inches when printing. Weighs 16.5 lbs.
The review team went a little more upmarket with the Epson EcoTank ET-383 wireless printer. A jump of approximately one-hundred dollars takes us into semi-premium printing territory, with the compact little printer identifying equally well as a small office document handler. Just as well, the 15 ppm black and 8.0 ppm color print speeds might be on the average side, but the Ethernet function means network compatibility, sharing the print, copy, and scan workload among a group of wired and wireless users. If the lower print speed should feel like a dealbreaker, the crisp 5760 by 1440 dpi text rendering more than made us for this shortcoming.
The trained eye of one of our staffers interpreted the mixed specs with great intuitiveness. The Epson EcoTank, loaded with two-years of refillable ink, comes across as an outstanding bridge printer. Teens in their bedrooms can load up the Epson Smart Panel app for their remote printing needs, Mom can get physical copies of recipes from her laptop, and Dad can hang out in his office, making 1200 by 2400 dpi scans, copying, printing documents for end of financial year tax purposes. It suits the role of family everyman, auto duplex printing (two-sided), creating physical photos from smartphone camera rolls, basically performing every duty required to convert a virtual display graphic or document into a physical hard copy.
The mock home setup we had built for our tests easily slotted in the EcoTank ET-383. The bottles of ink were huge. After filling up the printer tanks, they were stored away in a dedicated desk drawer, along with ten reams of Hammermill Color Copy paper and another five reams of Epson Premium Glossy Photo paper. Although the printer was quoted as handling all types of paper stock, we wanted to see what output looked like when we were using the best. The 2.4-inch color display was configured, 250 sheet paper feed loaded, and the output came out clean and sharp, no banding on the graphics, no jagged edges or blocky text. Colors were vibrant, prints were borderless. Scans and copies were just as solid.
Where it missed the mark – Higher initial costs. No ADF mechanism. Slow color printing. A low percentage of quality control complaints. Paper jams on different stock thicknesses.
Brother MFC-J4535DW Wireless Home Printer
- A 400-sheet input tray makes it easy for the office to accomplish their tasks 1 after the other. Print from your phone or a tablet while you’re away from your desk thanks to Wi-Fi Direct technology built into this wireless all-in-one printer.
- NO INK REPLACEMENT FOR UP TO 1-YEAR
- PUT THE POWER OF PRINTING AT YOUR FINGERTIPS
Print perks to love – High-capacity INKvestment cartridges, one-year of printing. Two paper trays for a 400 sheet capacity. Fast 20 ppm black and 19 ppm color print speed. A 2.7-inch touchscreen LCD. Multiple wireless connection standards. Uses a 17.1 by 14.6 by 9.8-inch footprint. Weighs 21.1 lbs.
Testers are a curious bunch. Left to their own devices, they’d strip down a printer to see how it works. We only allowed them to open the INKvestment panel on the Brother MFC-J4535DW. The four ink tanks installed behind there—black, cyan, yellow and magenta—were as big as we’d been led to believe, included in the box for one full year of printing. Granted, that’s not as long as some of the devices in our review, but those use refillable technology, while this long-lasting printer relies on cartridges and a built-in internal reservoir, keeping things simple. Looking deeper, it’s all a clever illusion anyway, simplicity giving way to a feature-rich, auto duplex printing system with solid connectivity options.
Wireless technology was equipped to the max with options that would take the load off of a bogged down router. The first choice was standard 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi, assuming the router was up to the job. A big family print could slow down an aging router, causing tears from a teen daughter as she’s deprived of smooth playback of her favorite Netflix show. If that’s a possibility, Wi-Fi Direct creates a dedicated wireless connection, printer connected straight to computer. Near Field Communication (NFC) is the third wireless option, working via a tap of a smartphone to the printer, again eliminating the need for a conventional network connection. For those who prefer messy cables, Ethernet and USB 2.0 ports are also available.
All the expected print, scan, and copy goodness was tested. The 20 ppm print speed for black documents was blazing fast. For once, color print speeds kept pace, delivering 19 ppm of vibrant images. Print quality was maintained, the 1200 x 600 dpi resolution high and clean, but we have to admit that we’ve seen better. What we did award the Brother MFC-J4535DW extra points for was the conservative button placements and the big 2.7-inch color LCD panel. The large touchscreen control made it a breeze to set print configurations and scans. At this point, one of the two paper trays, containing a total of 400 sheets, would take over to roll out sharply rendered text and graphics. To sidestep that display, and computer interactions, mobile printing called up AirPrint and Mopria, this time using the Mobile Connect app.
Where it missed the mark – It’s definitely a little on the heavy side. Other printers have higher print resolutions. Color and photo quality was grainy on some images. Flatbed scans could have been better.
HP LaserJet Pro MFP 3301fdw Wireless Home Printer
- FROM AMERICA'S MOST TRUSTED PRINTER BRAND
- PROFESSIONAL PRODUCTIVITY – Proficiency with every print—next-generation TerraJet toner brings your business to life with more vivid colors
- UPGRADED FEATURES – Fast color printing, scan, copy, fax, auto 2-sided printing, 2-sided single-pass scanning, auto document feeder, and a 250-sheet input tray.
Print perks to love – Fast laser printing. Boasts a 26 ppm black and color print speed. Huge 4.3-inch color TFT display. A 250 sheet input feed tray. Auto duplex printing. Prints, scans, and copies. Dual-band Wi-Fi 802.11ac. Dimensions are 16.46 by 16.5 by 13.44-inches. Weighs a heavy 45.41 lbs.
It’s not easy to find and review a sub $500 color laser printer, but we humbly submit the HP LaserJet Pro MFP 3301fdw as proof that both color and laser print speeds can be found at home at a relatively cheap price. For the numbers, we were looking at a 26 ppm black and color print speed. That’s low for a laser device, but it’s higher than most inkjets. Cable cutting versatility is similarly fully loaded, Wi-Fi 802.11ac delivering a reliable wireless connection that didn’t buffer high throughput print queues. Two ports were also on hand for hardwired support. The first was a USB 2.0, the second was a network-capable Gigabit Ethernet. By the way, an extra USB port is installed on the panel for connecting a memory stick.
It’s a big, hefty box of fast duplex auto printing and scanning power, so we asked one of our staffers to set up a strong desktop. A laptop was turned on at the other end of the room, and tests commenced. Black quality was satisfactory, but the 600 by 600 dpi resolution wasn’t nearly as high as we’d expected, not from an HP LaserJet. Still, the fine detail on text was excellent, and we did have plenty of reasons to take advantage of the fast output, with review deadlines coming up that needed immediate attention, if the editor was to be kept in a good mood. A switch to color photographs yielded superior results, skin pigments on our photo models looking natural thanks to the TerraJet toner.
Finally, we struck gold with a machine that was fitted with an ADF (Automatic Document Feeder) installed. That’s the curiously shaped slot business class machines tend to have on top of their flatbed scanners. It takes multiple sheets—up to 50 sheets—and scans or copies, so there’s no need for a slacker intern to stand nearby, manually feeding in the multi-page document sheets. This mechanism was accompanied by a 250 sheet input feeder tray and a big 4.3-inch TFT touchscreen panel, angled for easy command inputs. All in all, the trays and controls make the MFP 3301fdw over a foot tall, but it’s a solidly constructed frame, not one of those plasticky builds that feel like they could snap if filled to capacity. For mobile printing, we installed HP Smart app, taking advantage of remote features like AirPrint and camera roll printing.
Where it misses the mark – Laser toner, higher operational costs. The output tray is 100 sheet, small when considering the 250 sheet input. It’s heavy and tall. Washed out details when using the scanner.
Canon Wireless Home Printer
- ALL-IN-ONE: Print, Copy, Scan features for full control at your fingertips.
- FAST PRINT SPEEDS: Print approximately 15 (black) / 10 (color) images per minute.
- EASY SETUP: Get running in just a few minutes thanks to a streamlined and easy setup process out of the box.
Print perks to love – Six cartridge true color photo printing. Large 4.3-inch touchscreen. Good 15 ppm black and 10 ppm color print speed. Superb 4800 by 1200 dpi resolution. Supports USB and dual-band wireless 802.11ac. Scans and copies. Has a 14.7 by 13.6 by 5.6 form factor. Weighs a light 14.5 lbs.
Let’s take the guardrails off and stop broadcasting far and wide about those amazing eco inks. Instead, a review of a six cartridge, super-vibrant print system that has a distinct lean towards home photography is warranted. We loaded up our desktop Adobe programs, both Lightroom and Photoshop, and tested out the true-to-life color accuracy of the Canon Pixma TS8820 wireless printer. We knew it was capable of producing sharp-edged, almost business quality text and graphics, but we wanted to see if all of the talk on photography blogs had any merit. The TS8820’s six-color individual ink system—combining cyan, magenta, yellow, black, photo blue, and gray—promised more than just basic prints.
The result? After printing, let’s just say that our digital files looked good enough to pin above our desks. We can only imagine family members snapping photos as a hobby, reacting favorably to the 4800 by 1200 dpi quality, earth tones vibrant and skin shading as natural as the camera system intended. Better yet, the 100 sheet rear feeder and duplex printing mode helped us flex our creative muscles, printing images and text on cards, envelopes and any other kind of physical paper stock we could get our hands on. Christmas wasn’t coming up anytime soon, but we could easily imagine a family, white-trimmed Santa hats on, creating greeting cards with photos of them smiling inside. Bonus-wise, for those with a camera, there’s a built-in memory card reader, no computer required when pulling up that Santa pic.
Even if greeting cards were out, posters would print from an upstairs bedroom, teen son taking charge of the print queue. The 2.4 or 5GHz wireless bands were covered, preventing bottlenecks from nearby apartments from interrupting the fast 802.11ac data wirelessly passing through reinforced walls in a larger property. Mobile printing needs were similarly catered for, a staffer putting this feature to the test by installing the Canon Print app on her Android smartphone. We even found an opportunity, after a long Friday pizza lunch, to experiment with the big 4.3-inch LCD touchscreen, configuring documents for duplex or borderless prints, then dipping into the app to put an AirPrint document in the device queue or run through a few editing passes on Canon EasyPhotoPrint, scanning and copying at our leisure.
Where it misses the mark – Scanner top is flimsy. No ADF fitting. Slow print speeds. For a printer with such outstanding photo printing credentials, faster color speeds would have been nice. Ink costs.
Epson Expression Premium XP-7100 Wireless Home Printer
- Epson printing system is designed to be used exclusively with Epson Genuine Cartridges. Superior photo quality print stunning photos Plus Sharp text for eye catching documents
- Designed for productivity at home 30 page auto document feeder; Auto 2 sided Print/copy/scan; Multiple media feeds
Print perks to love – Five ink cartridge system. Print speeds of up to 15.8 ppm black and 11ppm color. Prints on CDs and DVDs. Wireless 802.11 b/g/n and Wi-Fi Direct. Memory card reader built in, alongside an Ethernet port and USB connector. Chassis is 17.2 by 23.5 by 8.1-inches. Weighs 21.5 lbs.
It’s long, that’s the first impression our always-stating-the-obvious intern noticed. At almost two feet from end to end, there’s no denying that fact. As a result of this, it’s also heavier than other models in its class. Yet we couldn’t imagine it being any more compact, not with that huge 4.3-inch touchscreen sitting pride of place right in the middle. The resolution on that panel is sharp enough to host print previews, pull up print or scan information, or just list current output settings. We used it in place of our laptop several times, before turning to our tests.
Wireless connections held strong, the 802.11 b/g/n standards nearly using the latest Wi-Fi protocols. If a router wasn’t available, Wi-Fi Direct created a digital signal straight to the device. These factoids were all very interesting at first, informing us of size and build quality, wireless and touchscreen capabilities, but it was the print quality offered by the Epson Expression Premium XP-100 that had us purring with deep satisfaction. Just like the model before it, the five cartridge print system really did favor photo workloads. We spent ages, just loading up past lightroom projects, rating the output with a professional eye. Every color rendered brightly and without washing out or bleeding. Document quality was also on a par with the color output, adding textual context to the photos and color graphics.
Seamless mobile printing, built-in ADF scanning and copying, auto two-sided printing and borderless photos as well, we soon saw why this device had earned rave reviews from gadget website reviewers and photography blogs alike. Our own tests were just as exhaustive, pushing the printer’s premium 5760 by 1440 dpi photo reproducing and document printing capabilities to the limit. With its 30 sheet ADF and 100 sheet input feeder churning silently, this was a model against which other could be judged. Did we mention that it can print photos and text on CDs and DVDs as well? It can, effortlessly and with clean, crisp results.
Where it misses the mark – Slow print speeds. Although a labor-saving ADF is built-in, tray sheet quantities aren’t that great. Not one of Epson’s eco models, meaning five expensive ink cartridges.
Bottom Lining the Wireless Home Printer Winners!
There were no limits placed on spending, but we tried to anchor our budget around the $200 to $500 price point. The HP LaserJet Pro MFP 3301fdw nearly broke through this price ceiling, but that’s what you get when you buy a color laser printer for the home. Its fast and sharp color output was solid, though, keeping the device high when productivity was a purchase factor. We also included two very good photo capable models, the Epson Expression Premium XP-7100 and the Canon Pixma TS8820 printer. Just about every device on this list is aimed at media hobbyists every bit as much as at home office types, but those two models have exceptionally targeted photo creating features. The Epson even prints on CDs, letting you create your own home media, filled with music or home videos.
As for the best of the rest, the Brother MFC-J4535DW printer has eco-friendly INKvestment tanks, which stops you stopping you from running out to buy ink every few weeks. The Canon MegaTank and HP Smart Tank alternatives have something similar. Only, they provide two years of ink, compared to the one year ink supply quoted by the INKvestment system. Then again, that’s comparing refillable bottles, potentially messy, to high-capacity tanks, so keep that fact in mind. Also, look for solid Wi-Fi and ADF mechanisms as well. Convenience is never an underrated feature, especially when you’re concentrating on being creative, not being an office manager.
