All-in-One Printers: Top Picks

The Epson Artisan 810 is at the high end of all-in-one line; 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 printer is truly a best buy.

This excellent laser all-in-one from Brother can be networked via a wired or wireless (802.11 b/g) network. Setting that up was easier than I thought it would be, and the printer, scan, copy, and fax functions can all be accessed remotely. Sure, it's a monochrome printer; but if you have a networked home office and your printing needs tend to be Office documents (and, perhaps, you have a dedicated photo printer for your other print jobs), then this Brother all-in-one might be just what you're looking for. At about $300, it's priced the same as a top-of-the-line inkjet printer, but the crispness of the prints makes it superior to those machines.

The 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 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 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 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--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.

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).

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. For the price--just over $100--the NX515 is a best bet.

You'll pay twice as much for this Canon Pixma all-in-one as for the Pixma MX330. 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. 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.

For nearly $300, the Lexmark X204n wasn't the fantastic printer I expected it to be. It did a fine job and produces extremely sharp printed pages. It's also very compact and easy to set up. But I found it rather slow for most print jobs (though certainly up-to-snuff for copying and scanning). So if your office has limited space, this could be the laser printer you've been waiting for; but if space is less of an issue than speed, you might take a look at some faster--and cheaper--competitors.