Although most printers come with wireless connectivity, certain models provide more alternatives. You might like one alternative more than another depending on what you'll be using your printer for. For instance, it's typical for printers to connect to devices wirelessly via Wi-Fi and can be an excellent option if you want to print wirelessly. Read our in-depth guide and learn everything about the best WiFi printers.
Ben Grindlow is the founder of ProXPN, a company that provides reviews about VPN products and services. Ben's interest in cybersecurity and privacy led him to start ProXPN, which has become one of the most well-respected VPN providers in the world. Ben is passionate about his work, and he is constantly exploring new ways to improve ProXPN's in-depth guides.
ProXPN Expert Picks
🔥 Save 60%! 🔥
In situations where you desire to print out a document or photo without directly leaving your present comfort zone, wireless printing is the choice for you where all your printing activities are conducted at your own pace and, most importantly, in comfort.
This certain comfort is not just limited to a home setting as maximum printing comfort can be obtained even in an 0ffice or work setting. Through careful consideration of the needs of various printer users, this article has selected the best wireless printers available for you.
This wireless printer is rated No 1 with a rating score of 9.4.
Apart from being the best budget wireless printer, this wireless printer doubles up as a compact wireless printer with its meticulous design and function aimed at meeting an individual's every need.
This wireless printer has a rating score of 8.7.
This is the best and most cost-friendly wifi printer bargain available in the world of wireless printers.
A wireless printer utilizes a wifi connection to print directly from several trusted partner devices by allowing its users to send content-related documents to be printed. All these are done with the least available connectivity options.
With 46.7 x 53 x 40.7 centimeters and a weight of about 22 kilograms, the PageWide Pro is relatively heavy.
This relatively large leading digital publisher compact printer has a paper capacity of up to 550 sheets of A4 in its paper tray and a supplementary tray that has a holding capacity of 50 sheets. You can further increase its paper holding capacity by adding a 500 paper sheet tray.
Its maximum monthly duty cycle is pegged at 50,000 pages per month, but it's recommended you print a maximum of 4,500 pages per month.
It has an A4 flatbed scanner and a single-sided auto document feeder to complement its 477dw for copying or scanning documents.
It has a dual scanning mechanism for scanning multi-page documents, the leading requirement among other future brands.
With a wide range of wireless connectivity options at your disposal, ranging from Wifi direct to Ethernet and USB for your creative projects, you can connect your mobile devices and wireless printer without connecting directly to a wifi network.
This wireless color laser printer offers near-field communications, which allow users to print directly from their mobile devices through a hotspot connection in the lower right corner of the touchscreen control panel.
The presence of the PageWide printhead makes this wireless printer quite similar to the Laser printer as it possesses a fixed array of ink nozzles that leaves a small footprint that spans the entire page.
Similar to Laser printers, the images of the entire page to be printed are first temporarily stored in memory to allow the page to print easily.
Apart from its good balance and impeccable printing speed against the not-so-impeccable all-in-one inkjet technology, its relatively small and tight nozzles save money when printing color documents.
It should be noted that the wireless inkjet printer consumes less energy than Laser printers.
When placed under the test bench in printing high resolution and high-image quality contents, the 477dw printer slows down to as low as 14.3ppm instead of the 19-22 ppm of laser printers under the same conditions.
The print quality of this wireless printer is relatively high for a wireless inkjet printer.
Although the picture's outlook came out almost perfectly colored but with slight imperfections. Small white horizontal stripes are visible on certain parts of the printed page, but only with the most scrutiny can this imperfection be noticeable.
Other than its slightly more reasonable pictorial outlook, there is no significant difference between them. Laser printers do not give users the ability to print borderless images.
Most wireless inkjet printers have a special design feature named “bleeds.” This feature enables the printer to print borderless images and documents, giving the printed document or images a much better outcome.
The picture output quality for this wireless printer is relatively clearer and of higher quality than the preferred color laser printer. This printer offers a slightly better and above-average copy and scan quality with the best printing paper than the widely used normal printing paper.
Some instances occur when the printed paper coming out from the printer came out slightly damp and soggy and took a relatively long time to dry,
With all the aforementioned stand-out features in its favor, this wireless printer is ranked the best wifi printer in this article.
This well-designed printer has its features compiled into a compact chassis measuring 19.3 x 43 x 41 cm with an additional 125-sheet paper tray and a 25-sheet output tray, increasing its initial paper holding capacity.
It also possesses a 35-sheet auto document feeder to send documents to the fax machine and scanner. It also largely supports double-sided printing for various document and imagery printing.
This can be achieved through USB and largely supported wifi connectivity such as Apple's AirPrint for iOS devices or the ePrint app for Android users on phones and tablets.
The 7830 offers a maximum speed of 15 ppm for printings of black and white on plain papers and ten ppm for colored printing on plain papers. The standard for HP printers with glossy postcards is within the 40 seconds range for each.
This printer has maximum print speeds of 13.5 ppm for black and seven ppm for printing colored on plain paper, which is the standard for home printing. This print speed gives the 7830 the desired quality it needs to stand out among the best wireless printers with the best prices.
After the photo outcome has been portrayed, the result usually varies for printers' types. This printer has a 45 seconds print speed for postcards as there are no distinct photo inks for this printer.
Postcard printing goes on perfectly on this printer when utilized alongside glossy paper, with the sole exception of the heavy contrast. This sole factor is the only distinguishing factor between the use of this printer and the specialized photo printer. This specialized photo printer utilizes 5 or 6 inks, all geared at improving the overall photo tone and colors.
For photographers who deal with pictures of the highest quality or specialize in portrait or landscape photography, this printer might fall short of meeting your expectations. If your sole aim is to print selfies and pictures taken during vacations, you are good to go.
In the case of costs that builds up in the long run, you need to work around the alternatives to get the best out of this printer.
This printer is specifically designed to point the hearts of its users toward a stable HP's Instant Ink subscription as against the costly option of buying replacement cartridges' when needed.
It has been observed that the default cartridges' that come with this type of printer have a relatively high and largely unfavorable price-quality ratio. An average set of black ink cartridges costs €17 and has an average work rate of about 200 pages. This cost sums up about 9 cents per page for black and white printing, which is high.
This printer offers color printing with the highest standard available in the wireless printing world with a standard price of €20.69 for its tri-color cartridges. This opens you up to as much as coverage of 165 pages which is approximately over 13 cents per page.
One of the greatest distaste of this wireless printer is its ‘tricolor” in one single cartridge where all its three colored inks are in one. To use a separate color from the initial three colors, you must replace the entire cartridge.
The cheapest HP Instant Ink subscription, excluding the free 15-page free plan that costs €2.99 per month, and you can print up to 5o pages. This amounts to a gross total of 6 cents per page and allows you to print 50 pages.
Its other subscriptions come at €4.99 per month for 100 pages and €9.99 per month for 300 pages. These prices are slightly considerable since they provide a higher color and photo print outcome than most wireless printers while maintaining a basic high output for black and white text documents.
This printer measures 14.2 x 34.9 x 34 cm with a non-touch color screen and a set of buttons only making up its physical appearance.
A relatively small width can be achieved by mounting the five ink reservoirs behind each other instead of placing them next to each other.
This printer combines the Epson system of black-based pigment ink for plain paper with a paint-based black ink for photo paper while also utilizing the paint-based cyan, magenta, and yellow.
The bottom of the XP-6100 contains two trays containing a maximum of up to 100 A4 pages and 20 sheets of 15 x 10 cm or 13 x 18 cm photo paper. Unfortunately, this model does not have an auto document feeder, so manual feeding of paper is required when scanning.
The XP-6100's options for connections are more than sufficient to meet the all-in-one (AIO) system required for home use.
Other notable physical connections afforded by the XP-6100 include a USB connection for printing and scanning, a USB stick and PictBridge digital cameras, and an input for printing photos from SD cards.
The XP-6100, like most modern printers built today, supports smart voice activation via Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant, and standard IFTT scripting.
The third-party connectivity options available to the XP-6100 printer include the Apple AirPrint, Google Cloud Print, and Epson's Easy Photo Scan.
Epson, apart from its Easy Photo Scan, offers other Android and iOS utilities called Epson Connect, which includes its Email Print, Remote Print, and the likes.
The major distinguishing point that doubles up as an advantage that most consumer-grade photo printers have over the less consumer-grade inkjet printers is the standard four-process colors (cyan, magenta, yellow, and black) ink cartridges.
The XP-6100 has an additional “Photo Black” ink. Epson claims to be an excellent enhancer and deepener of black areas in photos aimed at producing colored photos of the highest quality keen on details.
It also has a very careful and observable blend production with solid fills and gradients from one color shade to another when reproducing charts with little or no visible streaks or bands.
Despite not being a business printer, the XP-6100 offers photo, graphics, and text output of the highest quality attainable, which is perfect for most business applications.
The industry standard average running cost for high-grade photo paper printers with a minimum of 4 cartridges is 5 cents for a black and white plain page and 20 cents for a color page which falls nicely within the range for the XP-6100.
For a smaller scale printing schedule of a few hundred pages per month, the overhead running cost is most manageable compared to the running cost of large-scale printings'. It should be noted that the cost of printing rapidly explodes as the number of pages increases when using this printer.
The ET-2650 measures 16.9 x 44.5 x 30.4 cm when open and weighs roughly 5 kilograms, making it relatively light and compact for use in the office space.
It offers a maximum paper handling capacity of 100 papers as it has a 100-sheet tray extending from the back to the top. The printed pages usually come up in a tray that can further hold a maximum capacity of 30 papers.
It cannot print double-sided pages automatically, nor does it allow for an automatic document feeder for its scanning functions.
Its monthly maximum duty cycle is pegged at 3,000 pages.
It offers a wide range of connectivity options from its wifi and USB connectivity to its support for mobile devices via wifi Direct, AirPrint, Google Cloud Print, Mopria, Epson Connect, and Epson iPrint.
Although it does not support USB sticks, it allows for the use of SD cards to print through an SD card slot located on the left side of the output tray.
The ET-2650 has a control panel with a 1.4-inch color LCD screen which can be easily navigated with a set of arrow keys and an OK button. Other buttons that can be visibly seen on the panel are the Home, Back, Power, Start and Cancel buttons.
It has a software bundle that provides the much-needed interface for the operation of the scanner function called Epson Scan. Epson scan is a useful utility that allows you to choose an interface mode widely dependent on your prior scanning experience.
It takes roughly 20-30 minutes for the printer system to automatically fill itself with ink and initiate the software installation process. The printer's connection cannot be made until the software installation process has been completed.
Epson rates the ET-2650 at ten ppm for black and white pages and 4.5 ppm for color pages. This implies the ET-2650 falls short of the speed limits previously witnessed by previous wireless printers for both office and home printers.
There were noticeable irregularities with smaller fonts but not enough to flag the ET-2650 as inappropriate. The bands and dark fills and gradients often experienced with some inkjet printer models were not visibly observed with the ET-2650 printers.
Photos printed on good quality photo paper at default settings came out excellently well with the highest attainable standard quality. However, the time frame for the delivery of the output varies depending on the size of the photos and paper.
The ET-2650 comes short when printing documents and photos that do not require borders despite its excellent high print quality with the lowest running cost.
There is more than the required instant ink to print up to a maximum of 4,000 pages in black and 6,5000 colored pages, increasing to 7,500 for color in the next instant ink bottles.
The first instant ink bottle will yield less than subsequent instant ink bottles since a large amount of ink is first required to fill the printer on its first use.
The average cost of black and white pages and color pages on the ET-2650 is 0.3 and 0.8 cents, respectively.
The Canon Pixma TS-3150 is a low-budget inkjet multifunction printer and is best suited for users that require less page output.
It has a very comfortable and presentable outlook with a relatively small size of 14.5 x 43.5 x 31.6 cm and weighs about 3.9 kilograms. It can be purchased in either black or white.
With a cost price of little below the €45 mark, the TS-3150 strikes wireless printer users as a big bargain. It offers the basic connectivity options of Wifi, Google Cloud Print, and Apple AirPrint with a single USB connection as backup.
It has a well-balanced paper holding and release trays of holding capacity of 60 paper sheets each. The rear paper tray drawer can be closed when not in use, serving as a lid for the TS-3150 in ensuring the tidiest of printing processes.
The TS-3150 has a wide array of buttons on top than is often expected of a printer, including the standard printing cancellation, the black and white, color pages, and home buttons. The extra buttons visibly noted are included to aid in controlling the small LCD screen, which acts as an effective status message convener.
Due to these factors, the TS-3150 is relatively easier to install than its other wireless printer counterparts as it possesses a Canon Pixma installer that is effective in detecting wireless connectivity. This thereby strikes out the need for any additional user configuration.
It also offers a backup temporary USB cable connection to set up wireless connection access if the steps mentioned above fall short or you encounter a problem.
The TS-3150 comprises a single black ink cartridge and another cartridge with the standard colors of cyan, magenta, and yellow.
This special ink cartridge set up of the TS-3150 warrants for its wastage as regards ink as it uses more ink than a setup with separate ink cartridges would. This, in the long term, tends to inflate the overall printing cost.
The TS-3150 low cost comes in handy to haunt this printer as its print speed is found wanting when placed alongside other more expensive printers with similar output quality. Its print speed peaked at 7.4 ppm and 1.6 ppm for black text and color prints. This is relatively low.
An average span of about two and a half minutes is required to print a color photo of the highest quality. It should be noted that this cannot be done on a standard A4 color printing card.
This printer does not support printing photos on A4 photo printing paper but considers the creation and submission of the finished print output via its driver.
Photocopying on the TS-3150 is relatively faster than normal, with average print speeds of 26seconds and 57 seconds for black and white, and color printing photos, respectively. Its scanning speed also falls within the standard optimal range.
With a USB connection, the average time it takes the TS-3150 to print out a photo on a photo paper of dimension 15 x 10 cm is roughly around 37 seconds.
It offers a near-perfect print, scan, and photocopying outcome with the most bright colors and a fairly sharp contrast text.
All of your printing needs are accounted for in the best wireless printers, but this further complicates the selection process. Selecting a wireless printer to suit your specific need usually comes out to be a very daunting task. This is no thanks to the number of printer options available, all seeming to perform fairly similar tasks.
With this dilemma, this article aims to be a very effective light in that so-dark printers' choice tunnel.
You should read in detail and consider each printer-specific quality and attribute and make a well-educated selection choice on the option that seems tailored-made and is best suited for you.
Color inkjet printers are one of the go-to printer options in the printing world as they offer printing services for literally everything you can lay your mind on. This quality makes it stand out as the most searched-after printer ever created.
The current inkjet printers and all-in-one (AIO) printers being manufactured today are relatively faster when compared to their modern laser printing counterparts.
Although relatively slower than the modern color inkjet printers, laser printers are still quite effective for office printing that largely requires black and white.
Black and white laser printers are relatively cheaper than the inkjet and come at a nice bargain for their high-quality output with a considerable print speed and a low cost per page.
The choice to be made when deciding whether to stick with the Color inkjet printer or go for the laser printer bothers down to flexibility. The laser printer is not as affordable, coupled with its slightly higher cost per page than the color inkjet printer.
In the past, most laser printers offered a relatively higher yield per cartridge, but that is fast, not more becoming the case in today's reality.
Newer inkjet printers have now upped their numbers and can now deliver 10,000 and 7,000 printed pages for black and color ink cartridges respectively, with a lower cost per page due to less frequent cartridges change.
For printers that are more effective in preserving old family photos than against the modern job task of printing documents that has pie charts, you should turn your heart to a single-function photo printer.
Despite losing valuable points in flexibility compared to the best all-in-one printer, it does not compromise with its quality prints. It loses flexibility and is well-compensated in quality. This quality is usually what you pay for and is reflected in the overall printing cost.
Getting printing suppliers for multifunction printers is relatively more expensive than single-function printers as they are generally required to deliver a wider print than is usually accosted.
A pocket printer is your go-to option for the printing options available for your every go.
You should consider the cost of replacing certain replaceable printer parts before deciding on the best wireless printer to buy.
The main and most likely replaceable part of a printer is the first cartridges' as they will eventually run out at a point in time. You should consider choosing an expensive printer that can fit in cheaper cartridges to reduce running costs.
Refilling your run-out cartridges is relatively cheaper than stocking up on new cartridges. So if you are looking to save money from your cartridge, you should consider both the Canon and Epson printers as they now provide ‘ink tank' models that you can refill with small bottles of ink to cut down costs further.
Most printer suppliers are now using chips to keep tabs on the use of cartridges and are notified the exact moment the cartridge runs out.
You need to make considerable findings regarding fresh models and their ink subscriptions. For example, HP Deskjet and its other printer products have an Instant Ink program that automatically sends you cartridges when you run out.
The auto duplex feature is a new feature that is fast becoming a mainstay in the printers' world. This feature is often called double-sided printing or scanning, and it involves copying, printing, or scanning both sides of a page without the need to flip the page over manually.
A wide range of Ph.D. students that utilizes the auto document feeder(ADF) for their scanner also can print on both sides.
By utilizing this feature, you are allowed to scan both sides of the page while the documents are fed through the ADF. An AIO without an auto document feeder cannot auto-duplex without manually turning the page on the scanner.
Today's latest printers can now be shared across a connection network with multiple devices via Ethernet by merely connecting a network cable to your network router or switch.
The sole intention of using an Ethernet is to ensure a fast and safe connection for your printer. This setup is mostly used in an office environment as fewer built low-end printers now come with a built-in Ethernet port.
The most preferred option for a vast majority of home printer users for their network connection is Wifi with most users opting for the new wifi direct option. This enables you to connect your printer to a device such as a laptop that supports out without connecting to a prior network.
Latest printer models now offer their users the ability to connect a smartphone device directly to the printer by simply placing the said device on a certain printer area. This area is called the NFC chip, which is possible via NFC technology.
For users seeking to use their printers solely to print homemade photos, printers with built-in memory card readers, Bluetooth capabilities, PictBridge, or cloud-based support are your go-to options.
This feature allows you to print photos out directly from your camera or mobile device without the need for physical transfer of data by plucking out and inserting your SD card into the platform created for it.
Most printers usually pass the test on large piles of A4 paper, but have you considered how it would fare with envelopes, index cards, and glossy paper?
Most modern printers seem to be taking this factor into account in their design as the presence of special input trays for printing on special papers are now being developed and manufactured for an easier printing experience on all paper types.
If your printing is only restricted to the use of A3 paper, then you should consider opting for a specialized A3 printer to meet your specific need.
One key factor that is often overlooked in the selection process of a printer is the choice of the input tray. Input trays tend to make the printing process relatively easier as larger input trays mean less refill.
A standardized set of tests authorized by the International Standards Organization(ISO) is the standard for all printer manufacturers. This set of tests aims at ensuring the most transparent of processes in the printer's manufacturing process.
Each manufacturer's specific claim of specifications is subjected to the same document sets and testing procedures.
These specifications should only be used as a guide when comparing one wireless printer with another. It is seemingly difficult to ascertain if the established standard applies to you. The choice of printing often is not accounted for in these set standards.
Reviews by widely accredited technology sites should also be consulted before making your final choice of printer. Before purchase, it is safe to see an actual print result of the printer in question to get rid of any shred of doubt and be largely on the safe side.
Some of the best wifi Printers available are HP PageWide Pro 477dw, HP Envy Photo 7830, Epson Expression Premium XP-6100, and Epson EcoTank ET-2650.
A good wireless printer solely depends on its ability to meet your specific needs. Each wireless printer has unique attributes and distinguishing features that give them its unique specifications.
But all these specifications are often constrained by your budget, so the best bet is to get the best option with the least resources available.
Wireless printers offer wireless connectivity to a computer quite different from non-wireless printers by connecting to a local wireless network or any mobile device or computer connected to a pre-existing network.
Although wireless printers have the special ability to connect to a single computer device via a USB cable, this often limits the ability of the printer to serve as a network device.
The installation process of your wireless printer to your computer is perfectly crafted to make the print scan process relatively easier. You need to ensure your wireless printer is within range and connected to your source of connection. This can be done via the control panel of your printer.
Your printer is a peripheral device programmed to perform auto duplex printing functions. In contrast, your wifi dongle is programmed to be connected to the main device, which makes these two techniques largely incompatible.
A special type of wifi adapter designed that can be connected to your printer is a wireless print server.
Your final choice of the wirele
A WiFi printer is a printer that may print wirelessly from a home network without the need for an actual connection between the two. WiFi printing is becoming more frequent on many devices, and manufacturers are eager to include it as standard equipment on all future models.
Wi-Fi, like Bluetooth, typically operates on the same radio band as before. Wi-Fi uses a greater amount of power than Bluetooth because it connects to further devices through repeaters. A wireless access point must be within about 100 meters of devices that connect over a Wi-Fi network, although with repeaters the range can be significantly extended.
You may access documents on the cloud without first downloading them to your computer with a wireless printer, as is the case with standard printers. This is an important benefit for people who wish to print anything on-demand, regardless of where they are.
Depending on your printer's settings, it could be able to connect to mobile devices without being connected to a Wi-Fi network. Wi-Fi printers must be linked to the computer sending the print job on the same Wi-Fi network. They're more restricted than general wireless, but they're still useful!
A printer that is not linked to a computer or network via a traditional computer or Ethernet connection. All print job data instead goes through the wireless channel to the printer.