You’re probably thinking, give me the $49 printer. We get it. No one wants to spend their hard-earned money on one of the least-loved electronics items. But before you go with that Canon Pixma TS3722, consider that you could save money over the long run if you pay a bit more for a printer with low ink or toner costs, rather than basing your decision solely on the purchase price of the machine.
For example, that $49 inkjet printer would likely cost a whopping $157 per year in ink to operate, according to our estimates, while a $200 tank printer, which uses inexpensive ink bottles instead of cartridges, would cost just $5 a year.
A few years in, and the printer that looked so cheap at first glance could end up costing you way more. So weigh your options and consider how much you plan on printing every year.
We’ve handpicked the printers below—most of them all-in-ones that can scan and copy as well as print—based on their performance in our lab tests and prices of $250 or less. None score high enough to earn a CR recommendation, but if your printing tasks are simple (school work and recipes), they could serve you well.
Consumer Reports is a nonprofit member organization, and we buy everything we test at retail, from tiny printers to jumbo TVs. Without further ado, here are five of the best cheap printers, sorted by price.
