Best Home Printer UK: Inkjet, Photo & All-in-One Home Printing 2021

There are hundreds of printers to choose from and it can be mind-bending trying to pick the best home printer. Fortunately, Verum has researched what’s out there for the home, saving you time & money. We have shortlisted & detailed the best printers available, ranked by price.

Verum research started with a list of just over 100 printers and then it got longer, as different skews were included and new models released. In order to get the shortlist, we removed kit aimed at an office environment, portable devices and anything that costs more than most home computers! Next step, was to separate inkjets and lasers. Generally speaking, laser printers are better for a high volume of black prints.

Best Inkjet Printers for the Home

Here we focus on inkjet all-in-one printers that deliver quality colour prints and don’t cost a fortune. Beyond this, we looked at quality, functionality, wireless specifications, compatibility, technology and running costs.

Ink is ridiculously expensive and historically with its high margins has allowed manufacturers to sell printers at a loss in order to secure a customers dependence on ink. Fortunately, this is changing – Epson, HP & Canon have all introduced new ways to buy ink and print for a much lower cost. So if you want a new printer or ‘printer, scanner and copier’ that boasts wireless connectivity, then read on!

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Best Cheap Home Printer:
HP DeskJet 2720 All-in-One Colour Printer

If you’re after a cheap printer, the HP DeskJet 2720 is for you. It’s small, wireless and prints good A4 pages and photos. Plus, should you need a photocopier or scanner, it will do that too. Perhaps as you’d expect, by spending less you do get slow print speeds and it’s expensive on ink, should you buy your inkjets in the normal way. That said, sign up for the HP Instant Ink offer and you can slash your print costs. Plus, you will avoid those infuriating ‘no ink’ moments, as HP will deliver new ink, to your door, before you run out. You pay as a subscription to match your needs, which is based on a per print cost. Verum, calculate that most people will pay 4p a copy rather than 10p, on standard ink. 

This all-in-one home printer is easy to set up. That said, if wireless printing isn’t for you, buy a separate USB cable for a couple of quid. For this little money, you don’t get the highest quality prints or top speeds, but if you’re after a cheap wireless printer that copies & scans too, then the HP DeskJet 2720 is the Verum best budget buy.

HP DeskJet 2720
Check the latest price on Amazon

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Best Home Printer under £100:
HP ENVY Photo 6230 All-in-One Printer

The HP ENVY 6230 is a great wireless printer that also copies and scans. Print quality, for the price, is good and it’s reasonably quick. In terms of physical size, it’s compact although weighing over 5kg, you don’t want to be moving this printer around. Happily, you shouldn’t need to, as it will connect and print wirelessly. The setup is straightforward, although a few users have experienced problems with wireless functionality. The printer doesn’t come with a USB cable, although it does have a socket should you decide that a wired connection is better. Duplex or double-sided printing is a feature usually associated with more expensive models but works well on the HP ENVY 6230. 

As with almost every inkjet, it’s expensive to run on standard cartridges. However, the HP Instant Ink subscription will slash your printing costs – if you’re happy to sign up. Essentially, you pay per copy and get new HP ink delivered to your door before the old cartridges run dry. Verum, calculate that most people will pay 4p a copy rather than 10p, on standard ink. The HP ENVY 6230 is a great wireless photo, all-in-one home printer and with HP instant ink and it’s cheap to run.

HP ENVY 6230
Check the latest price on Amazon

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Best Photo Printer:
Canon PIXMA TS5350

The Canon PIXMA TS5350 not only prints, but it also scans and copies. Print quality, as you’d expect from Canon, is great. Plus, it’s reasonably quick for a home all-in-one printer costing less than £100.

The wireless specification is excellent, meaning that you’ll be able to print from almost any device, with ease. Borderless printing (including A4) makes this the perfect home photo printer. And with a view to saving paper, it has an automatic double-sided (duplex) capability. It’s compact in design, heavy and should you desire, available in a variety of colours.

In terms of running costs, it’s on a par with most other home printers (that means expensive!). Although, you can certainly save a few quid buying the XL rather than standard cartridges. If you want the best photo printer for around £100, then the Canon PIXMA TS5350 is for you.

Canon PIXMA TS5350
Check best price on Amazon

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Best Home Printer:
Epson EcoTank ET-2710

The Epson EcoTank ET-2710 and ET-2711 are great, all-in-one, home printers. Print quality is good, they’re reasonably quick and have credible wireless capabilities. Borderless photos are possible up to 10×15, but not A4. There’s no duplex, so if you want double-sided printing then you need to do it manually. However, the standout feature of this printer is how it uses ink. Rather than have expensive plug-in cartridges, it comes with ink in bottles. If this doesn’t sound that impressive to you, read on!

What’s the cheapest printer to run?

Out of the box, you can print up to a claimed 4500 mono pages and 7500 colour pages. That’s around 100 times more than numerous other printers that are supplied with limited cartridges. Plus, no new cartridges, no throwing away the old ones, makes Epson EcoTank system an environmental winner too. To put it into pounds, or rather pennies, on an average inkjet printer, a page will cost you about 10p. On the EcoTank ET-2710, you’ll pay 0.4p. That’s 25 pages for the same 10p! Clearly, the printer costs more to start, but if you print around 100 pages a month, then you’ll pay for the hardware in just over a year. 

In summary, if you want the best home printer that’s incredibly cheap to run, then the Verum Best Buy, Epson EcoTank ET2710 is the printer for you.

Epson EcoTank ET-2710
Check the latest price on Amazon

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Best Premium Photo Printer:
Canon PIXMA G5050

The Canon PIXMA G5050 is a great home photo printer. It doesn’t copy or scan, just prints great photos. Most of us need to scan or copy at some point, but there are some great phone apps that do this pretty well so for some a printer that’s dedicated to printing makes sense. Plus, there’s less to go wrong.

While you can definitely buy faster printers, they’ll also cost you a chunk more for the same quality. As you’d expect for this price, borderless printing (including A4) is included, as is duplex or automatic double-sided printing. Wireless printing works with pretty most interfaces and the printer is fully Windows and Mac compatible. A welcome addition for many is the inclusion of an ethernet port which gives you ultra-reliable network printing, assuming you can site the Canon PIXMA G5050 near your router or switch. Clearly, this printer is much more expensive than many to buy, but it’s super cheap to run.

Cheap to run & eco-friendly printer

The integrated ink tanks are refillable from supplied bottles. A bottle of black ink will give you 6000 mono-prints and a set of colour ink bottles over 7000. Based on Canon numbers, a colour page will cost you around 0.3p compared to 10p as an average for most inkjets. That’s 33 pages with the Canon PIXMA G5050 compared to 1 page from your standard printer. Plus, you’re not binning old cartridges, so there’s an environmental saving too. If you want great quality photos and want to print them without breaking the bank, then the Canon PIXMA G5050 is the Verum best buy photo printer for home or office.

Canon PIXMA G5050
Check the latest price on Amazon

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Recommended inkjet printers

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Budget or Premium?

Spending more on the right printer means significantly cheaper ink. The Canon PIXMA G5050 works using ink from bottles rather than cartridges. This means you can print over 300 pages for a £1 – compared to 10 pages for a £1 with standard cartridges. Plus, it’s kinder to the environment, as you won’t be binning inkjet cartridges. Epson has a similar offer with the EcoTank ET-2710 and ET-2711. 

If you only print a couple of sheets a month, spending less and staying with cartridges makes sense, but if you can stretch the budget, spending more upfront on a new printer will save you money in the long run.

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