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Specs are compiled from manufacturer listings and verified buyer reviews and can change over time — please confirm the key details on the product page before buying.
You want one machine on your desk that copies a passport, scans a signed contract, and prints the shipping label on the same afternoon. This guide sorts the current field by what actually survives daily use.
I’m Mohammad Maruf — the founder and writer behind Gardening Beyond. This guide is built by comparing the manufacturers’ published specifications and the patterns across verified customer reviews, so you get each pick’s real strengths and trade-offs instead of marketing spin.
The picks below split into two families — toner-based laser units that never dry out and tank-fed inkjets that hold years of ink. Speeds, feeder sizes and running costs decide which one earns your desk, and the details below are what separate a copy scan printer you keep from one you return.
Our Picks at a Glance
How To Choose The Best Copy Scan Printer
Three decisions settle almost everything: whether you print color at all, whether you scan or copy more than a few pages at a time, and if you want to spend money up front or per cartridge.
Toner Versus Ink Tank
A laser printer puts toner — a fine powder — onto the page with heat, and it never dries out or clogs between jobs. That makes it the safer choice if you print in bursts and might leave the machine idle for weeks. An ink tank printer holds refillable bottles instead of cartridges, so a single fill usually covers a very large page count. The trade-off is that an idle inkjet can clog its print head, which is why tank models want regular use.
Black-And-White Or Color
A monochrome machine prints only black text and does it fast and cheaply, which suits contracts, return labels and school packets. A color model adds toner cartridges in cyan, magenta and yellow, so every color page costs more in supplies but gets you presentations, charts and signs. If color only shows up on the occasional report, a color laser still makes sense — just know the supplies are the real expense over the machine’s life.
The Auto Document Feeder And Duplex
The auto document feeder — the tray on top that pulls sheets through on their own — is what turns a ten-page scan into one button press instead of ten placements. Feeders vary in capacity, and loading past the recommended stack is the single most common cause of jams. Automatic duplex prints both sides without you flipping the page, and on the scanning side some machines handle both sides in a single pass.
Connections And Mobile Apps
Dual-band Wi-Fi (2.4GHz and 5GHz) is more stable than a single-band radio in a busy home, but Ethernet remains the surest way to keep a printer online. Almost every model here also talks to phones through AirPrint, Mopria or a brand app, so you can print a document from a phone without touching a computer.
Quick Comparison
| Model | Best For | Print Technology | B&W Speed | Color Speed | Amazon |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| HP LaserJet Pro MFP 3101sdw★ Best Overall | Small teams, heavy black-and-white volume | Laser (toner) | 40 pages_per_minute | No color | Amazon |
| Canon PIXMA TR7120Budget Champion | Home offices wanting color on a budget | Inkjet (cartridges) | 14 pages_per_minute | 9 pages_per_minute | Amazon |
| Canon Megatank G3290Most Economical Ink | High-volume color and craft printing | Inkjet (tank) | 11 pages_per_minute | 6 pages_per_minute | Amazon |
| Epson WorkForce Pro WF-7840 | Wide-format plans and schematics | Inkjet (cartridges) | 25 pages_per_minute | 12 pages_per_minute | Amazon |
| Epson EcoTank ET-2980 | Occasional printing with low supply costs | Inkjet (tank) | 15 pages_per_minute | 8 pages_per_minute | Amazon |
| Brother MFC-L2820DW | Compact home offices needing fax | Laser (toner) | 34 pages_per_minute | No color | Amazon |
| Xerox C235dni | Small offices printing up to 1,500 pages per month | Laser (toner) | 24 pages_per_minute | 24 pages_per_minute | Amazon |
| HP Color LaserJet Pro MFP 3301fdw | Color offices that also fax | Laser (toner) | 26 pages_per_minute | 26 pages_per_minute | Amazon |
| Brother MFC-L3780CDW | Small businesses wanting fast color duplex scans | Laser (toner) | 31 pages_per_minute | 31 pages_per_minute | Amazon |
In‑Depth Reviews
1. HP LaserJet Pro MFP 3101sdw Wireless Black and White All-in-One Laser Printer
Our pick — 4.5★ from 550+ verified ratings; the strongest balance of quality and price.
A 40 ppm monochrome laser that never dries out between jobs
If your day is contracts, invoices and return labels, this is the machine that ends the ink argument. It runs on toner — a powder that sits in the cartridge indefinitely — so it never dries out between jobs. The paper handling is what earns it the top spot: a 250-sheet input tray means you load a full ream and walk away, and a 50-sheet auto document feeder pulls multi-page stacks through on its own when you copy or scan.
Speed is where it separates from the inkjets here. It turns out black pages at 40 pages_per_minute and puts the first page out in 7 seconds, which is why the office-level quality and day-after-day reliability dominate what owners talk about. Two-sided printing is automatic, so a twenty-page report uses half the paper without you touching it. Connections cover Ethernet and USB alongside wireless, and the wireless setup is the part people single out as genuinely simple.
Owners describe reconnecting after a power outage without a fuss, and one long-term report notes a full year of use handling everything from single sheets to hundred-page runs, with the auto-feeder happy as long as you keep it around twenty-five sheets to avoid jams. The recurring gripe is toner lock-in: non-HP cartridges get blocked by chip checks, so firmware updates are best left alone if you plan on third-party supplies. An occasional wireless drop shows up too, usually fixed with a quick reset.
Where it wins
- 40 pages_per_minute black output with a 7-second first page
- 250-sheet tray plus a 50-sheet auto document feeder
- Automatic two-sided printing cuts paper use in half
- Ethernet and USB options keep it working when Wi-Fi misbehaves
What to weigh
- Black-and-white only, so no color documents
- HP chip blocks non-HP cartridges, so skip firmware updates for third-party toner
- A rare wireless drop can need a reset
Made for: busy small teams and home offices where the volume is black-and-white text.
Think twice if: your documents regularly need color, because this machine never prints it.
2. Canon PIXMA TR7120 Wireless Color Inkjet Printer
Color copy, scan and print in the smallest footprint here
This is the one to pick when floor space is tight and color matters. It copies, scans and prints in color, and its print quality is the thing people praise most — the two-cartridge hybrid ink system (one black, one combined color) is what produces sharp text alongside actual photographs. It reaches 14 pages_per_minute in black and 9 pages_per_minute in color, and the auto document feeder handles multi-page scans and copies without you standing over it.
Compare it directly to the tank-fed Canon further down and the speed gap is plain: this PIXMA runs 14 pages_per_minute black against the Megatank G3290’s 11, and 9 pages_per_minute color against 6. That is the trade for cartridge ink instead of bottles. Setup is quick enough that one owner clocked it at twenty minutes, and it pairs cleanly with Apple devices over dual-band Wi-Fi on either the 2.4GHz or 5GHz band.
The honest catch is ink cost. The black and color inks sit in separate cartridges, but the color cartridge carries cyan, magenta and yellow together, so running one color dry retires the whole cartridge. Wireless is also the mixed bag here — the connection itself works, but a few buyers report it drops on a restart until you assign a fixed IP address. Automatic two-sided printing saves you the page-flipping, and there is no fax.
The value read: you get color, scanning and copying in a body that fits a home desk, and the print quality keeps up with machines that cost noticeably more.
Where it stumbles: the combined color cartridge and the Wi-Fi restart quirk are the two things to accept before you buy.
Suits a hybrid worker who needs color prints and scans from a small home setup.
Look past it if you print color in volume and would rather refill bottles than swap cartridges.
3. Canon Megatank G3290 All-in-One Wireless Printer
Refillable ink bottles rated for up to 6,000 black or 7,700 color pages
The pitch here is supplies, not speed. It ships with up to two years of ink and Canon rates a single set of bottles for up to 6,000 black-and-white or 7,700 color pages. For anyone who felt the sting of cartridge replacements, that is the whole argument. Speed is the trade: 11 pages_per_minute black and 6 pages_per_minute color, the slowest color output on this list. It copies, scans and prints wirelessly, and automatic two-sided printing handles the page-flipping.
A 2.7-inch color touchscreen sits on the front for checking levels and settings without opening an app. What owners rave about is the setup and the ink economy together — one extensive report describes easy Wi-Fi pairing even through thick plaster walls, clean prints on the Draft setting, and bottle refills landing well under the cost of cartridges. The tanks also go the distance; one heavy user reported large tanks still around ninety percent full after months of photo and document printing.
What you should know before buying is that this is a color-tuner’s machine, not a set-and-forget one. Getting screen-accurate color takes adjusting, and the top paper feed holds around fifty sheets, so it wants clearance behind it. One frustrated buyer chasing true black across ten paper types gave up and returned it. Print speed is the other split — reasonable on text, but a full-color borderless page can take several minutes.
Why the tanks matter: if your color printing runs into the hundreds of pages, refill bottles keep the cost per page far lower than swapping cartridges.
Who it is not for: anyone who needs fast color turnaround or wants true black without fiddling with settings.
Ideal for craft printing and steady color volume where the per-page cost matters more than raw speed.
skip it if you need color pages back in a hurry or easy color calibration.
4. Epson WorkForce Pro WF-7840 Wireless All-in-One Wide-Format Inkjet Printer
The only machine here that copies and scans up to 13″ x 19″
Wide-format is the reason to look at this one. It prints, copies, scans and faxes, and it handles paper up to 13″ x 19″ — a size none of the other printers on this list touch. The 500-sheet capacity is built for an office that does not want to keep reloading, and DURABrite Ultra ink is formulated to dry quickly so prints come out smudge-free. It runs 25 pages_per_minute black and 12 pages_per_minute color.
Owners who need big pages are devoted to it. One four-year report covers 12,000+ pages of AutoCAD work on 11×17 sheets without a single firmware update, and a separate buyer replaced a ten-year-old WorkForce that had finally clogged one ink line. What the copy side delivers matters here — the wide platen means oversized originals get scanned and duplicated in one pass instead of stitched together from two halves.
The friction is firmware and connectivity, and it is real. Epson’s update prompts come up constantly, and multiple buyers tie those updates to Wi-Fi failures that need a power-cycle and a killed print job before the next page moves. It is also heavy and bulky, scanning controls are awkward, and one reviewer noted firmware blocking remanufactured cartridges. If you keep it off the update treadmill, the hardware itself stays fast and jam-free.
Why the wide platen delivers
- Print, copy, scan and fax up to 13″ x 19″
- 500-sheet capacity for uninterrupted office runs
- 25 pages_per_minute black and 12 pages_per_minute color
- Automatic two-sided printing and quick-dry DURABrite Ultra ink
Where it gets annoying
- Firmware prompts are relentless and buyers link them to broken Wi-Fi
- Heavy and bulky for a home desk
- Scanning controls feel cumbersome compared with rivals
Reach for this if you print 11×17 or 13×19 plans, schematics or posters and need copy and scan at that size.
Look elsewhere if you want a light, quiet desktop machine for letter-sized pages.
5. Epson EcoTank ET-2980 Wireless Color All-in-One Supertank Printer
Tank-fed ink that sits idle for months without a cartridge to replace
This machine is built for the household that prints in bursts. The box includes enough ink for up to 6,600 black or 5,500 color pages, and Epson says one replacement bottle set equals roughly ninety individual cartridges. Refilling uses EcoFit bottles that seat into supersized tanks without the drying-out worry of a cartridge. It prints at 15 pages_per_minute black and 8 pages_per_minute color, scans, copies and prints both sides automatically.
The setup story is the strongest part of the ownership experience. Buyers overwhelmingly describe the guided phone app as easy and descriptive, and the printer quality earns the most enthusiasm overall — it comes out of months of idling ready to work, with no cartridge nagging to fight through. One mixed-use owner put 1,100+ pages through it in six months and still had roughly eighty percent of the black ink left.
Two things temper the picture. The screen is small, and the small-panel layout is the aspect buyers like least — it is usable, just cramped. Paper jams show up on duplex runs, and photo printing is mediocre for a tank machine, with ink that can rub off glossy pictures. A few units also report wireless trouble, including one that lost its connection after a few days and then needed a cable. Stick to documents and books and it behaves.
The running-cost angle: with bottles instead of cartridges, a low-volume household can go a long time between top-ups, which is exactly what this class of buyer wants.
The honest limit: this is a documents machine — jam-prone duplex runs and weak photo output keep it away from glossy work.
A good match for sporadic school and household printing where cheap pages beat photo quality.
Not the one if you print borderless photos or need a large, easy-to-read control panel.
6. Brother MFC-L2820DW Wireless Compact Monochrome All-in-One Laser Printer
Fax, copy, scan and print in one compact monochrome laser
Fax sounds like a relic until a vendor or a clinic asks for one, and this is the machine that answers. It brings print, copy, scan and fax together in a compact monochrome laser, turning out black text at 34 pages_per_minute with a first page out in 8.5 seconds. The 50-page auto document feeder covers multi-page copying, scanning and faxing, and it scans at up to 23.6 ipm in black and 7.9 ipm in color.
The 2.7-inch touchscreen is a real upgrade for standalone jobs, navigating straight to cloud destinations like Google Drive, Dropbox and OneNote without a computer in the loop. Connection choices are the broadest here — dual-band 2.4GHz and 5GHz Wi-Fi, Ethernet, or straight USB to one machine. Owners repeatedly mention easy setup across Linux, Windows and Android devices, and a few arrived from a previous Brother that ran for sixteen years.
Toner life is the recurring complaint, with supply cost showing up as a negative theme and Brother’s own Refresh subscription drawing frustration from at least one buyer when a declined card shut off printing. It is also black-and-white only, same as the HP at the top, so anything colorful leaves the building. Automatic duplex handles both sides on text documents without complaint.
Built around the fax and feeder: if your work still involves a fax line, this is the only monochrome laser under the top pick that includes one.
The price of admittance: black-and-white pages only, and toner replacement is where the money goes.
Best if you need a fax line alongside fast monochrome copying and scanning in a small footprint.
Think twice when color output is a requirement or you want third-party toner freely.
7. Xerox C235dni Wireless Color Laser All-in-One Printer
24 pages_per_minute in both black and color, with 500-sheet starter toner
Color laser prints are the reason to step up to this class, and the C235dni keeps both color and black at 24 pages_per_minute, so nothing gets slower when you add ink to the page. It copies, scans and prints, ships with starter toner that yields 500 sheets, and takes high-yield cartridges for lower per-page costs. Xerox positions it for small offices doing up to 1,500 pages a month, and automatic duplex prints both sides on its own.
Connection options cover built-in Wi-Fi with Apple AirPrint and Mopria, so phones and tablets print without a driver install. Setup through the Xerox Easy Assist app, or locally over the 2.4GHz network, USB or Wi-Fi from a laptop, gets you printing in minutes — a couple of owners mention the Wi-Fi finding the printer in seconds and printing right away. Print quality is genuinely good, with one buyer calling the move from inkjet to this laser the better choice for a home office.
Setup is also this machine’s weak spot. A determined minority runs into a wall — one buyer spent two weeks fighting Wi-Fi, Ethernet, the phone app and the computer without success, and a separate owner logged thirty minutes with a driver snag. Scanning also needs the bundled Xerox Print and Scan Experience software rather than a direct panel command. Slow and slightly loud for a laser, but the copies hold up.
Where the money sits: high-yield cartridge support and a 1,500-page monthly rating keep running costs predictable for a small office.
The setup gamble: the app-guided path usually works quickly, but the unlucky ones spend hours on connectivity.
Worth it for a small office that wants color laser copies at a steady 24 pages_per_minute and supports high-yield toner.
Risky if you are not prepared to troubleshoot a network connection on arrival.
8. HP Color LaserJet Pro MFP 3301fdw Wireless All-in-One Color Laser Printer
A color laser whose single-pass duplex ADF scans both sides in one trip
The standout feature here is the scanner. It is a single-pass duplex auto document feeder, which means both sides of a stack get captured in one trip instead of the machine pulling every sheet through twice. That is a real time saver on double-sided contracts. HP pairs it with 26 pages_per_minute in both black and color, a 250-sheet input tray, fax, and automatic two-sided printing on the output side.
Print quality is the reliable part. TerraJet toner produces crisp text and vivid color, and buyers describe sharp small graphics alongside fast first-page-out, with clean no-jam feeding through the ADF. Dual-band Wi-Fi with self-reset is meant to detect and resolve connection drops on its own, and the HP Smart app handles phone printing and scan-to-email or cloud workflows. Build quality feels sturdy and quiet in the reviews, even at 41.4 pounds.
Toner cost is the big variable, and the honest version is that the included cartridges are not generous — one owner reports the starter set running dry in about a month of light use, and the same firmware chip check that blocks non-HP cartridges applies here. There are also reports of early reliability trouble, including color banding and units that stop functioning after about a year. It is a capable machine when it works; just go in aware of the supplies math.
What makes it office-ready
- Single-pass duplex scanning captures both sides in one pass
- 26 pages_per_minute black and color with a 250-sheet tray
- Fax, auto duplex, ADF and dual-band Wi-Fi with self-reset
- Crisp text and vivid TerraJet color on documents and small graphics
The toner reality
- Included cartridges run out quickly under light use
- HP chip blocks third-party cartridges
- Some units report early reliability trouble
Fits a color office that wants fast two-sided scanning and faxing alongside crisp color prints.
Heads-up if ongoing toner cost is your main concern — the supplies, not the printer, set the budget.
9. Brother MFC-L3780CDW Wireless Digital Color All-in-One Printer
Fast color duplex work for a small business that scans as much as it prints
Brother puts speed and scanning at the center of this one. It runs 31 pages_per_minute in both black and color, and the scanner moves at up to 29 ipm black and 22 ipm color with single-pass duplex copy and scan — so a double-sided stack gets read in one trip. Add print, copy, scan and fax in a single machine, automatic duplex, and support for standard, high-yield and super high-yield toner cartridges, and it covers a small business that does real volume.
Connection options are the widest on this list: dual-band 2.4GHz and 5GHz Wi-Fi, Gigabit Ethernet, Wi-Fi Direct, and USB 2.0 for a local link. Setup lands fast — buyers describe getting it online in around ten minutes, with instant AirPrint and bright color that suits documents rather than photographs. Copies come out clean, and it stays quiet while running.
The catches are worth knowing. Heavy card stock can jam on double-sided passes, and the Mac software is not native to Apple silicon, running through Rosetta and likely to break on the next macOS release. The Brother Refresh subscription also drew one sharp complaint when a declined card halted printing. Colors run slightly less saturated than HP’s, which is a minor point for documents but a real one for image work.
The speed and scan angle: single-pass duplex scanning at up to 29 ipm black pairs with 31 pages_per_minute color to make short work of two-sided jobs.
For documents, not photos: bright color holds up on text and charts but not on photographic output.
The pick for a small business that needs fast color duplex scanning and printing with flexible connection options.
Step away if you rely on Mac-native software or print photos.
Understanding the Specs
Pages Per Minute
This number tells you how fast finished pages stack up once printing starts. It is usually quoted twice — one figure for black text, one for color — and those two numbers often diverge. A machine rated at 31 pages_per_minute color keeps pace with its black output, while a combined-ink model like the Canon Megatank G3290 runs 6 pages_per_minute in color against 11 in black. If color fills your day, weight the color figure more heavily than the black one.
Toner Versus Ink Tanks
Toner is powder that sits in a cartridge until heat fuses it to the page, so a laser printer can sit idle for weeks and start instantly. Ink tanks hold refillable bottles of liquid ink, which keeps the per-page cost low but needs regular use to stay clear. Neither is universally better: laser favors burst printing and text, while tank-fed ink suits frequent color and craft work at a lower supply cost.
Auto Document Feeder
The feeder is the tray that pulls sheets through for scanning and copying without you lifting the lid. Its capacity sets how long you can leave it — a 50-sheet feeder covers most contracts and reports in a single pass. Staying inside that capacity keeps the rollers happy; overloading is the most common cause of paper jams.
Duplex And First Page Out
Automatic duplex prints both sides on its own, saving paper and the manual flip. First page out — the time from pressing go to the first sheet landing — runs to a few seconds on the laser models here, and it matters most for short, frequent jobs. Single-pass duplex scanning, where both sides of a page get read in one trip, is the scanning-side equivalent.
FAQ
What does an all-in-one copy scan printer actually do?
Is a laser or an ink tank printer better for heavy copying?
How many pages can the auto document feeder handle at once?
Will a copy scan printer work with my phone?
Can these printers copy and scan extremely large documents?
Do I have to use the brand’s own ink or toner?
Is dual-band Wi-Fi worth it on a printer?
What is single-pass duplex scanning?
Can a copy scan printer send a fax?
Why does my printer keep asking me to update firmware?
Final Thoughts: The Verdict
If your desk runs on black-and-white paperwork, the copy scan printer to beat is the HP LaserJet Pro MFP 3101sdw, because its 40 pages_per_minute output, 250-sheet tray and 50-sheet feeder keep a busy office moving without babysitting. Want color pages with a small footprint and a low sticker? The Canon PIXMA TR7120 delivers them at 14 pages_per_minute black and 9 color. And for wide-format plans or schematics up to 13″ x 19″, the Epson WorkForce Pro WF-7840 is the one to reach for. Pick by your page size first, then by color, then by running cost — that order settles the choice faster than any spec sheet.
How We Picked
We do not accept paid placement. Every pick is matched to a real buyer and a real use-case; we do not hands-on test units.
Sources & Methodology
Specifications: manufacturer listings and product documentation. Review insights: verified customer reviews, as of September 2026. Pricing: not shown on this page (it changes often); check the current price via the retailer link.
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