While inkjet printers are great for photos, I've come to really appreciate laser printers for their winning one-two combo of reliable printing performance at low costs. The best laser printers are always there for you when you need to print something, and they handle the work quickly and quietly at low cost.
I know because here at Tom's Guide my team reviews printers from the top manufacturers (including Brother, Epson and HP) every year. The folks over at Brother have really been killing it lately, and I regularly recommend the Brother MFC-L2750DW because it does everything you want an all-in-one laser printer to do well with no fuss.
Of course it's not the cheapest option on the market, so if affordability is key for you I recommend the Brother HL-L2390DW instead. This no-frills budget laser printer offers quick performance and quality prints at a good price per page.
If you're shopping for a laser printer for your office, you'll want something bigger. I recommend the Canon ImageClass MF743Cdw to most folks asking about a small business printer because it can print bigger jobs faster than the other printers we've reviewed, plus it delivers great print quality at a reasonable price.
Scroll down for more details and tips on finding the best laser printer for your needs, and check out our broader list of the best printers you can buy right now if you don't find something here that's right for you.
The quick list
The Brother MFC-L2750DW XL is packed with features, such as a fast automatic document feeder, fax capability and a second paper tray. It’s also fast at both duplex printing and copying, but doesn’t sacrifice speed for quality because in our testing documents look sharp and clear every time.
The Brother HL-L2390DW is outfitted with a basic set of features that keep its cost down, but this small office all-in-one printer is a great value thanks to its low cost per page and good print quality. If you just need a basic printer for documents, this is a great choice.
I recommend the Canon ImageClass MF743Cdw most to home office and small businesses seeking a laser printer because it can handle bigger workloads faster than other printers on this list, plus it delivers great prints.
Best laser printers right now
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Best laser printer overall
The Brother MFC-L2750DW is a monochrome laser printer that delivers pretty much everything you want in an all-in-one printer at a good price.
Made for small office use, this unit has a monthly duty cycle of 15,000 pages that handles pages quickly and affordably, with some of the best print speeds we've seen at printing costs as low as 2.7 cents per page.
The printer is also loaded with handy features like scanning and copying, fax capability, and a second paper tray. Two-sided copies are extra quick, thanks to two-sided scanning that captures the front and back of a page simultaneously and an automatic duplexer for two-sided printing.
In our testing this printer even produced two-sided documents faster than some competitors printed one-sided pages. The MFC-L2750DW is especially convenient for an office printer, with easy connectivity that includes mobile printing.
This printer may cost a bit more up front, but the Brother MFC-L2750DW is the best combination of print quality, speed and value we've seen in a laser printer, which is why it's my #1 recommendation for the best laser printer you can buy right now.
Read our full Brother MFC-L2750DW review.
Best value
The Brother HL-L2390DW is a monochrome laser all-in-one printer that's more affordable than it has any right to be given how useful and reliable it is in our testing. While it's still more expensive than the ultra-cheap subsidized inkjet printers you can find at discount stores, it's also not going to quit on you after 3 months or cost you an arm and a leg when it's time to refill the ink.
I know because we printed hundreds of pages to test how well this value-minded machine works, and the speed and quality of the prints is far higher than you'd expect given this printer's affordable price tag. But it's not just affordable at purchase; operating costs are low, too, with a cost per page of 3.7 cents using standard-capacity toner cartridges and just 2.7 cents with high-capacity toner.
As you'll see in our test results, printing performance is sharp and faster than average. Plus, this printer handles scans and copies quickly to boot. If you want the benefits of a laser printer without the usual expense, the Brother HL-L2390DW is my best budget pick for you.
Read our full Brother HL-L2390DW review.
Best for business
The Canon ImageClass MF743Cdw is a big, hefty laser printer built for business use, so don't buy this if you just need something for family or home use.
But if you are shopping for a small office or business, this is the printer I recommend most often because it reliably prints, scans and copies high volumes of work at high speed, without costing too much.
Plus, with a low cost per page thanks to high-capacity toner cartridges this beefy Canon won't weigh down your budget. And thanks to its ability to quickly print color and monochrome pages, as well as its multi-page copying capabilities, this laser printer won't let you down when business heats up.
The one exception is duplex printing, where we saw less-than-speedy performance compared to other printers we've tested. However, the quality of duplex prints is quite good, and while you will have to have a friend help you move this 60+ pound printer into place, once it's in your office you shouldn't have to replace it anytime soon.
Read our full Canon ImageClass MF743Cdw review.
How to choose the right laser printer for you
When it comes to picking any type of printer the basics are the same. You are probably already aware that laser printing produces professional looking text documents at a lower cost per page than similar inkjet models. But there are other features to consider.
All in one functions like scanning and copying are included in all of the models on the above list, but one less common function is fax capability. If you work with medical or legal documents, faxing is indispensable, and you'll need a printer that includes it.
Print speed refers to how quickly a printer will complete a page in a document. In our reviews we test this capability, measured in pages per minute. If you need to print frequently, or in high volumes, faster print speeds are worth paying for.
Print quality is another concern, though the majority of laser printers offer some of the best print quality you can get, with sharp and detailed letter forms that leave documents looking professional.
What you won't get on most laser printers is color and photo printing capability. While there are color laser printers on the market, they do cost more. And among those, not every color printer is well-suited to printing photos, and those that do require special photo paper specifically for laser printers.
Printing costs are an ongoing concern for any printer, since even affordable toner refills have some associated expenses over time. Look for a lower cost per page in our product descriptions and reviews, and check out the individual reviews for a detailed discussion of how print costs might make one printer better than another.
How to save money when buying a laser printer
Laser printers are typically more affordable than their more colorful inkjet cousins, but you can still easily spend hundreds of dollars on one.
That's great if you need a high-quality long-lasting printer to print dozens or hundreds of pages a year, but if you just need to print 10-50 pages in a year at odd intervals (permission slips, legal documents and the like) you can save money by avoiding frills you don't need.
With that in mind, here are some quick tips to saving money on your new laser printer from someone who's been covering them for over a decade.
Avoid features you don't need: Check the printers you're looking at to make sure they offer every feature you need, and avoid those with features you don't. For example, there's no need to pay for a model with a second paper tray or a fancy touchscreen if you're only going to print things occasionally because you'll barely use those features.
Consider cost per page: Laser printer toner is typically cheaper than ink cartridges for inkjet printers, but the price can still add up. So once you pick the best laser printer for your needs, read our full review and price out the cost-per-page to see if you can save money by investing in a high-capacity toner cartridge.
For example, my top recommendation the Brother MFC-L2750DW XL prints for 3.75 cents per page, and the standard toner cartridge rated to last through 1,200 pages. But if you pay a bit more for a a high-capacity cartridge that cost drops to 2.7 cents per page, which can save you money over time.
For more tips and recommendations covering both laser and inkjet printer deals, check out our longer guide to how to find the best cheap printer for your needs.
How we test laser printers
Every laser printer we review is tested along several measures of performance, including print speed, quality and the cost of printing. We time and measure every test print in our benchmarking process, and compare every print to samples from other models. Along with evaluations of ease-of-use and individual features, we strive to accurately represent how well the printer will meet your day-to-day printing needs.
In addition to basic printing of black-and-white text and mixed media documents, we also test the scanning and copying capabilities. We compare the scan with the original image to see how accurately the scan captures details and color, but we also measure the scanning speed and copying output.
To measure the cost of owning and operating a laser printer, we look at the current street price of toner and the estimated number of pages that a given toner cartridge will produce, and calculate the cost of printing a single page. The higher the cost, the more expensive a given printer will be over time.
While these tests are relatively standard across all of the printers we review, we will adapt them as needed to handle different types of printer and unique capabilities of a given device. Wherever possible, we make sure that the tests are done in a way that is comparable from one unit to the next, and repeatable, so that we can confirm our conclusions.
For more information on our testing process, check out our guide to how we test printers for every review.
Alex Wawro is a lifelong journalist who's spent over a decade covering tech, games and entertainment. He oversees the computing department at Tom's Guide, which includes managing printer coverage.
