All-in-One Printers: Top Picks

The Epson Artisan 810 is at the high end of the line for all-in-one printers; but for the price, it delivers a great value. It prints very quickly and photos in particular come out with startling quality and richness. It's got all the handy bells and whistles you could hope for, from built-in wireless (very easily configured) to automatic duplexing. And the printer's enormous (7.8-inch) and tiltable touchscreen makes it a snap to use. For a little extra money, this wireless printer is truly a best buy.

The Kodak ESP 3250 is a good value--at just over $100 (or even less--I've seen it for $99 through PriceGrabber), it won't break the bank, and neither will Kodak's low-cost ink refills. The ESP 3250 puts out great looking photos and decent-enough prints from documents, and while it's not super fast, it's not pokey, either. If you need a lot of extras--an automatic document feeder, a big LCD, or multiple paper feeds--look somewhere else. But for a three-in-one that performs well, this is a very good, and inexpensive, choice.

The Canon Pixma MP610 does a fine job at scanning and printing photos as well as documents with graphics, though it was at times frustratingly difficult to use. It offers some real conveniences, like the very handy scroll wheel and the extra-large tilt LCD screen. While printing quality was fast and an overall positive experience, trying to edit photos on the machine itself was unnecessarily frustrating. Still, it's a Pixma, and for the price, you can still do your photo editing on the computer.

I really enjoyed playing with this versatile wireless printer. It was easy to set up (including the wireless networking), its large and tiltable LCD made photo editing a snap while the touchscreen keeps the machine button-free, and the print quality--particularly for photos--was outstanding. A duplexer (available as an option) would be welcome, and there were some glitches in getting all the bells and whistles to work across the network, but overall this all-in-one printer is a best buy.

Dell wisely understands that the people who purchase all-in-one printers (particularly small/home businesses) are likely to have networked computers, and thus wireless or Ethernet connectivity is a key requirement. This wireless printer does a fine job with all the basics and the wireless and other networking features help boost it above the competition. It warms up fast, is easy to set up, and has an automatic document feeder. A duplexer would be nice on this all-in-one printer--there's one available as an option--and the awkwardly placed paper-exit tray could be a bit tougher, but those are minor quibbles.

Brother's MFC-255CW is a very good color inkjet printer that is a great value at under $100. Like some other Brother all-in-ones I've tried, it has slow print speeds across a wireless network, but it scores high points for print quality--especially photos, which come out looking fantastic. I think Brother generally makes excellent wireless printers, and this all-in-one printer is no exception.

Slow set-up time aside, the HP Officejet Pro 8500 is an all-in-one with a host of features such as wireless, one-button scanning options, fax, and copier that will make any home or small office more efficient at a price that's pretty reasonable (especially if you take advantage of HP sales). Wireless printers really help office efficiency, and I think every all-in-one printer should be wireless too!

The Epson Stylus NX515 is a very fast all-in-one printer. It comes with WiFi networking built in and can do pretty much everything that much bigger and more expensive all-in-one printers can do--but it does them without taking much space, or too much cash. Photos have excellent color depth and print quickly, and that's particularly impressive from an all-in-one printer. For the price--just over $100--the NX515 is a best bet for a wireless printer.

You'll pay twice as much for this Canon Pixma all-in-one printer as for the Pixma MX330 all-in-one printer. So what do you get for the extra dough? A lot. Wireless / wired network printing. A built-in duplexer. Up to 9600 x 2400 dpi color printing. Truly outstanding colors. Is it worth it? While the cost of replacing five tanks can be huge, the quality is so good that I'd pay the extra money, since I tend to print a lot. Plus I like the wireless printer option. If your printing tasks are few, and particularly if you don't print in color often, I'd go with something cheaper, since replacing five ink tanks gets pricey.

The Epson Workforce 610 offers a lot of printer for not much over $100. It has fast print speeds, with text and graphics looking good and photos with sharp colors. Built-in wireless helps make it appropriate for home and small businesses. The tiltable touchscreen is a bit cluttered and there were some issues getting wireless to work. Bottom line: You can't go far wrong here.