The best laser printers

If you mostly print black text and want a printer you can ignore for months, this is the one to beat. RTINGS names it the best budget laser and the best budget black-and-white printer, and it has everything most homes need: automatic two-sided printing, dual-band Wi-Fi, Ethernet and USB. Like every laser, it doesn't clog, so it's ready after weeks unused.

Its weak spot is quality out of the box. PCMag found business text perfectly readable but saw banding in graphics, and RTINGS says a few settings changes improve the defaults. Buy the XL toner: at Brother's October 2026 prices, a page costs about 4¢ with XL toner and the separate drum, versus about 6¢ with the standard cartridge.

Add a scanner, copier, fax and a 50-sheet document feeder to the HL-L2460DW and you get the MFC-L2820DW. RTINGS ranks it the best black-and-white printer overall, and it uses the same toner and drum, so running costs are identical.

The catch is the feeder: it scans one side at a time, so two-sided originals mean flipping pages on the glass. If you scan stacks of double-sided paperwork, the MFC-L2900DW (PCMag's top mono pick) adds a single-pass duplex feeder for about $50 more.

Color lasers usually cost a lot per color page. The HL-L3295CDW is the exception when you buy its XXL toner: PCMag measured 12.9¢ a color page at 2024 prices, and it's about 15¢ at Brother's current prices, still low for the class. PCMag calls it the best budget color laser, with text readable down to 4 points and charts good enough for handouts.

It's print-only and slows to roughly half speed for two-sided pages, but the near-full starter toner (2,300 black and 1,200 per color pages) means you won't buy supplies for a long time.

For a home office that scans and copies in color, the MFC-L3780CDW is PCMag's best mainstream color laser. Its 50-sheet document feeder scans both sides of a page in one pass, text is near top tier, and it shares the HL-L3295CDW's low-cost XXL toner.

RTINGS sees it as a close call against Canon's newer Color imageCLASS MF665Cdw, which it ranks slightly ahead for Wi-Fi speed and a bigger touchscreen. We compare the two in detail in [Brother MFC-L3780CDW vs Canon MF665Cdw](/comparisons/brother-mfc-l3780cdw-vs-canon-mf665cdw).

HP's small mono laser produces better text than the Brother HL-L2460DW in PCMag's testing, has the same duplex and networking, and often sells for less. The drum is built into the cartridge, so there's only one part to replace.

The reason it isn't our top pick is lock-in. HP's Dynamic Security blocks toner cartridges without an HP chip, and HP's own product page warns that firmware updates may block cartridges that used to work. Pages also cost a little more, about 4.4¢ with HP's high-yield 134X cartridge, and the 150-sheet tray is smaller. Buy it if you're happy to stick with HP toner.