Welcome to our pick of the best HP printers you can buy in 2021. Ever since HP made the first desktop laser printer – the LaserJet – back in 1984, the company has been producing some brilliant devices.
In fact, HP continues to be a major player in the printer market, and the best HP printers are some of the best printers money can buy today.
One of the great things about HP’s printers is that the company has a huge range of them. That means home users, students, photographers and business owners (and many others) will be able to find a HP printer that is perfect for their needs.
However, while HP’s range of printers is impressively large, is can also mean it’s difficult to know where to start and just what features you need out of a HP printer – from copying and scanning to wireless compatibility and even voice control. But don’t fret – we’ve provided our recommendations of the best HP printers below.
This businesslike inkjet printer can print reasonably quickly at up to 18 pages per minute for black and white pages, or 10ppm in colour and it’ll print both sides of the page automatically. It can also scan and copy thanks to its 35-sheet automatic document feed and A4-sized scanner bed. There’s room for 225 sheets of plain paper in the main paper tray and it is operated by a basic touchscreen. Self-healing Wi-Fi is built in, so you can also control it reliably from your portable device and the HP companion app. The price is temptingly low, which of course means that the ink cost here is quite high and the bundled setup cartridges don’t contain much ink. However, an Instant Ink subscription could save you up to 70% on your ongoing ink costs.
An excellent all-rounder, this all-in-one is more expensive than the competition but you pay for what you get. It offers an exhaustive list of features such as a large automatic document feeder (ADF) tray, fast printing speeds and large paper handling capacity – plus it’s HP Instant Ink compatible. It sports a boxy two-tone design that’s professional-looking without being boring, but be aware that it will be slightly too big to fit on some desks comfortably. It’s compatible with a range of cloud-based mobile apps which thankfully means you won’t have to rely on its small LCD display for many functions.
Read the full review: HP OfficeJet Pro 9025 all-in-one inkjet printer
Portable printing is now an option thanks to the All-in-One 250, which crams printing, scanning and copying into a machine small enough to fit into a suitcase or backpack. It’s not so light that you won’t notice it, though, weighing around the same as 1.5 13-inch MacBook Pros. On the plus side, this HP model offers surprisingly sharp print quality for such a small package alongside features such as manual duplex printing, Wi-Fi, Wi-Fi Direct and USB connectivity. There’s also a 10-sheet ADF, 50-sheet input tray and a rechargeable battery for true portability.
HP’s latest cartridge-free inkjet printer smashes the per-page cost of colour printing and includes enough bottled ink in the box for 12,000 black pages or up to 8,000 colour. This is HP’s entry-level model in the Smart Tank line and it lacks an auto-duplex mode, sadly. However it does offer both dual-band Wi-Fi and Bluetooth LE, which makes it easy to use the helpful iOS/Android companion app to set up the printer and operate it wirelessly from your smartphone. It prints surprisingly quickly at 11ppm (pages per minute) in mono, or 22ppm in draft mode and can handle almost any kind of printable media up to A4 in size.
If you’re looking for a compact and competitively priced all-in-one, this color laser printer has you covered. The 19fnw has its drawbacks – namely an inability to print on envelopes, slow color print speed and no front-facing USB ports. But if you can look past those foibles, it produces sharp prints in both mono and colour (and is Instant Ink-compatible), can photocopy and scan, and works with Apple AirPrint and Google Cloud Print for easy wireless operation via smartphone. Its main paper tray holds an impressive number of sheets and its toner cartridges go the distance before needing to be replaced. We just wish its LCD screen was a smite bigger for easier operation.
Read the full review: HP Color Laser MFP 179fnw review
An update to the entry-level Designjet T120, the T125 is one of the best large format printers offers wide multi-format printing (or MFP) at an affordable price. Ideal for printing CAD or construction drawings (or A3 photos for framing), it excels in printing high quality graphics in color, and does a great job in mono too. Its print resolution of 1,200 x 1,200 dpi is high quality enough to meet most needs, and its other features include a card reader, Wi-Fi connectivity, ability to print from mobile devices and easily replaceable CMYK ink cartridges.
Printing, scanning, copying and even faxing – the M227fdw does it all (just as long as it’s in black and white). This mono printer is a great fit for offices thanks to its large paper draw and fast print speed, which churns out copy at a clip. It sports Wi-Fi connectivity (though not NFC), an ethernet port and compatibility with cloud apps for mobile printing, alongside a USB drive for printing from thumbsticks. HP reckons you’ll get 30,000 pages from a single high-yield toner cartridge, making it an economical option in the long run.
Read the full review: HP LaserJet Pro MFP M227fdw
Some clever design means this all-in-one inkjet device can print, scan and copy A4 paper even though its footprint is actually less than a sheet of A4 in depth. The rear-loading paper tray can hold media including envelopes, glossy photo paper, or up to sixty sheets of A4 and print at a rate of 8 pages per minute, or 19 in draft mode. The narrow bar scanner draws paper through, scanning each sheet at it scrolls through. There’s no duplex mode, but it does have inbuilt Wi-Fi with AirPrint compatibility. As is always the case with cheap printers, the cartridges are the killer, but this model is at least compatible with HP’s Instant Ink subscription service which mails you replacement carts at cheaper rate.
This ‘smart’ printer can be operated from a mobile device without requiring a Wi-Fi network thanks to HP’s Tango companion app which also lets you scan and straighten images for printing. The printer itself is smaller than other inkjets and is also cheaper, while remaining user-friendly. Its operation is made easier thanks to compatibility with Amazon’s Alexa assistant, which lets you to bark commands at it rather than using the small LCD screens that many rival models rely on. Replacement ink cartridges are somewhat expensive, but this can be alleviated by signing up to HP’s Instant Ink programme to reduce operating costs in the long run.
The HP LaserJet Pro M15w is the size of a shoebox and is capable of printing a thousand documents in a snap, all with consistent output. The M15w is more affordable than other printers in its class and is especially effective for those who work from home or cramped offices due to its smaller size. Moreover, once you’ve sped through its straightforward initial setup using HP’s Smart app, this model prints quickly and reliably – albeit with a noticeable lack of definition. There’s no automatic duplex printing either, which could increase your paper cost in the long run.
Read the full review: HP LaserJet Pro M15w