Best Printer 2012

SMALL-OFFICE INKJET PRINTER
HP Officejet Pro 8100 ePrinter

$167.39
The HP OfficeJet Pro 8100 is faster than many inexpensive color lasers, and offers better paper handling, at a lower cost per page. This combination makes it one of the few inkjets that can go head to head with a color laser and wind up as the better choice for a micro or small office, or a busy home office.—Tony Hoffman

SMALL OFFICE COLOR LASER PRINTER
Samsung CLP-415NW

$299
The Samsung CLP-415NW provides good paper handling for a micro or small office, with a 250-sheet paper tray with a single-sheet feeder built into it. It offers Wi-Fi Direct for easy connection to smartphones and other mobile devices. Its key strength, however, is its combination of fast speed and high-quality output.—TH

SMALL OFFICE MONO LASER PRINTER
Brother HL-6180DW

$199.99
The Brother HL-6180DW provides a winning combination of solid speed and output quality, copious standard and optional paper capacity, a low cost per page, and both Wi-Fi and Ethernet connectivity. This monochrome laser printer is a good fit for heavy-duty printing in a micro or small office or workgroup.—TH

SMALL OFFICE MONO LASER MFP
Brother MFC-8950DW

$529.99
The Brother MFC-8950DW provides excellent paper handling and can serve as a heavy-duty mono laser MFP in a micro or small office. The touch-screen controls are convenient, especially if you expect to use the standalone copier and fax features often. This machine supports Gigabit Ethernet, which could make a difference in the print speeds across a network.—TH

HOME AND SOHO INKJET PRINTER
HP Officejet 6100 ePrinter

$79.99
The HP Officejet 6100 is fast for both business applications and photos, it delivers reasonably good quality across the board, and it offers a higher paper capacity than most printers at this price. It also can be shared over a network, prints from iOS devices with AirPrint, and prints from any device that can send documents as email attachments.—TH

HOME AND SOHO MFP
Kodak ESP 3.2 All-in-One Printer

$79.99
Aimed primarily at home use, the Kodak ESP 3.2 can also serve light-duty use in a home office, or in the dual role of home and home-office printer. It offers better than par print speed and output quality for photos, reasonable speed and quality for text, and a lower running cost than most printers in its price range.—TH