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Monday, March 22, 2021

Best wireless printers of 2021: top picks for printing from your smartphone

If you want the best wireless printers to kick off 2021, then we can help. All the brilliant wireless printers on this page come with either Wi-Fi or Bluetooth connectivity (and often both), which makes them incredibly flexible devices that are easy to install in any home or modern office. Some even add NFC (near field communication) connectivity for tap-to-connect convenience.

Because they don't need to be connected to a PC or router with wires, you can place them pretty much anywhere - as long as there's a power socket and decent Wi-Fi connection.

Not only does this make them easy to install in a building, but it also means you can easily connect wireless devices such as laptops, tablets and smartphones as well. A lack of wires also makes for a much cleaner desk or office as well.

Of course, by being connected to your network - albeit wirelessly - the best wireless printers benefit from advanced network features as well. If you have a small network, for example, every PC connected to your network can print to them, making them ideal for businesses. Many even allow you to scan and email documents directly from the wireless printer itself.

So, we've put together a list of the best wireless printers money can buy, alongside our very own price comparison tool so you’re also getting the best available price.

HP OfficeJet Pro 8035e

(Image credit: HP)

1. HP OfficeJet Pro 8035e wireless printer (8025 in UK)

True wireless printer that works with Alexa

Category: All-in-one color inkjet printer | Print speed: 29ppm (mono) | Paper sizes: up to A4 | Paper capacity: 225 sheets | Weight: 8.2kg

Works with Alexa
Strong wireless connectivity
Expensive cartridges

The HP OfficeJet Pro 8035e (known as OfficeJet Pro 8025 in the UK) looks slick with its blue detailing and small enough to sit on a desk in a home office. It is also has excellent wireless connectivity with self-healing Wi-Fi, Wi-Fi Direct and Bluetooth all built in. This makes it particularly easy to connect a mobile device for cloud printing using AirPrint, or Google Cloud Print. You can even yell at your printer to make it work thanks to its compatibility with Alexa voice commands. With a fairly fast print speed, a large paper tray and user-friendly touchscreen controls, there’s a lot to like about this competent all-in-one. 

Brother MFC-J5330DW

(Image credit: Brother)

2. Brother MFC-J5330DW wireless printer

High capacity inkjet with Wi-Fi and A3 skills

Category: 4-in-1 colour inkjet printer | Print speed: 22ppm | Paper sizes: up to A3 | Paper capacity: 300 | Weight: 16.9kg

Can print up to A3
High paper capacity
A4-size scanner
Slower than a laser 

With all the functionality a small business could need, this feature-packed inkjet can do anything from sending a fax, to saving a scan to the cloud. Most surprisingly, given its A4-size footprint, is its ability to print on A3 paper. Wi-Fi is built in and Brother’s companion iOS/Android app makes wireless printing a breeze. It prints clearly in monochrome, while colour photos look quite vibrant on photo paper. The touchscreen is rather small and it’s not as fast as a laser printer, but it strikes a good balance between performance and features.

Brother MFC-J895DW

(Image credit: Brother)

3. Brother MFC-J895DW wireless printer (MFC-J890DW in UK)

Entry-level inkjet adds NFC tap-to-connect

Category: All-in-one color inkjet printer | Print speed: 27ppm (mono fast mode) | Paper sizes: up to A4 | Paper capacity: 100 + 20 sheets | Weight: 8.5kg

Competitive price
Strong wireless connectivity
Limited paper capacity
Expensive ink

The Brother MFC-J895DW (known as the MFC-J890DW in UK) is a four-in-one inkjet printer aimed at the home or small office and for the money, it is remarkably well equipped. As you would expect, it can duplex print, photocopy and scan at a respectable image quality, but it is also especially well catered for in the wireless department. In addition to Wi-Fi and Wi-Fi Direct connectivity, it also offers NFC tap-to-connect, which means you can connect your NFC-enabled smart phone to this printer by simply touching the two together. 

HP Envy Pro 6420

(Image credit: Future)

4. HP Envy Pro 6420 wireless printer

A small business printer with added Bluetooth

Category: All-in-one color inkjet printer | Print speed: 10ppm (mono) | Paper sizes: up to A4 | Paper capacity: 100 sheets | Weight: 6.16kg

Space saving design
Strong wireless connectivity
Slow print speed
Wasteful tri-color cartridge

The HP Envy Pro 6420 is a compact and inexpensive inkjet with all the features you could ask for from a home office printer. It can print, scan, copy and even fax via your smartphone. The print speed is slow, but it can auto duplex print or photocopy a stack of up to 35 pages with its inbuilt ADF (automatic document scanner). Instead of an Ethernet port, you have both Bluetooth and self-healing Wi-Fi built in, making mobile printing via HP’s iOS/Android app particularly easy.  

Canon Pixma TS6250

(Image credit: Canon)

5. Canon Pixma TS6250 wireless printer

Bluetooth home printer with all-round appeal

Category: colour inkjet 3-in-1 printer | Print speed: 36ppm | Paper sizes: A3 | Paper capacity: 300 | Weight: 40kg

Compact A3 printing
Masses of features
Expensive  
No touchscreen   

This satisfyingly small and attractively designed all-in-one inkjet offers everything you are likely to need in your home office. It can print and scan at a high enough resolution to provide crisp and accurate colour photocopies using five inkjet cartridges instead of the usual four. The extra one is a pigment black, for more durable mono prints. It’s also blessed with a touchscreen interface and not only Wi-Fi and Wi-Fi Direct connectivity, but Bluetooth as well. 

(Image credit: Epson)

6. Epson WorkForce WF-7210DTW wireless printer

Affordable A3 printer with Wi-Fi and NFC

Category: colour inkjet printer | Print speed: 18ppm (mono) | Paper sizes: A3 | Paper capacity: 500 | Weight: 15.5kg

Duplex A3 printing
High paper capacity
Limited ink capacity   
No front USB port   

Duplex A3 printing is not something many affordable inkjet printers can manage, but this capable device does it well and it can hold a whole ream of paper in its dual paper trays. It also boasts Wi-Fi Direct and NFC connectivity for making a quick wireless connection and printing via your smartphone. It’s a pity the supplied Epson Durabright startup ink cartridges are rather limiting, but when you switch to XL capacity replacements it becomes more economical to run. It certainly has a high capacity for paper with room for a whole ream on board.

Brother MFC-L8690CDW

(Image credit: Jim Hill)

7. Brother MFC-L8690CDW wireless printer

Prompt printing and scanning in a multitalented MDF

Category: 4-in-1 colour laser MFD | Print speed: 31ppm | Paper sizes: up to A4 | Paper capacity: 300 | Weight: 27.9kg

Fast print speed   
Easy cloud printing
Expensive 
Heavy and bulky

Brother has endowed this hefty laser printer with all the features a small business might need. It can hold 300 sheets of paper and turn out mono or colour pages at the rate of 31 per minute. There’s a fax facility and electronic document feed for automated tasks. It also makes wireless printing from a mobile device, or scanning documents to the cloud very easy using its built in Wi-Fi and a slick iOS/Android companion app. Both Google Cloud Cloud and AirPrint are covered.

HP LaserJet Pro M15w

(Image credit: HP)

8. HP LaserJet Pro M15w wireless printer

Pint-size laser printer for the micro office

Category: mono laser printer | Print speed: 19ppm | Paper sizes: up to A4 | Paper capacity: 100 | Weight: 3.8kg

World’s smallest  
Wi-fi built in
No duplex printing
No display

Laser printers tend to be a lot larger than their inkjet cousins, but HP has turned that on its head with this toaster-sized device. It can only print single-side mono pages, but it can do it more quickly and economically than most inkjets and it’s small enough to carry around with you. You can connect via Wi-Fi, or Wi-Fi direct for wireless printing via AirPrint, or Google Cloud Print. The slick iOS/Android app by HP can help you with this.

HP Deskjet 3630

(Image credit: HP)

9. HP Deskjet 3630 wireless printer

Wireless printing on a budget

Category: 3-in-1 colour inkjet printer | Print speed: 20ppm | Paper sizes: up to A4 | Paper capacity: 500 | Weight: 12.1kg

Instant Ink ready 
Low price point
Costly cartridges
Flimsy plastic

At less than £40 (around $52), this three-in-one printer is something of a steal. Of course the catch comes with the relatively high price of the inkjet cartridges, but if you take out HP’s Instant Ink subscription, even this cost drops. The printer itself is rather flimsy, but it’s well kitted out with Wi-Fi and Wi-Fi Direct built in for easy wireless access via the rather good HP companion app.

Epson Expression Home XP-5105

(Image credit: Jim Hill)

10. Epson Expression Home XP-5105 wireless printer

Compact wireless printer with a surprising turn of speed

Category: 3-in-1 colour inkjet printer | Print speed: 33ppm | Paper sizes: up to A4 | Paper capacity: 150 | Weight: 5.5kg

Compact design   
Fast mono printing
High ink cost 
Dull photo prints

Epson’s conveniently compact three-in-one printer includes useful features like an SD Card slot, duplex printing and Wi-Fi Direct (as well as Wi-Fi) at a very reasonable price point. Expensive inkjet cartridges make it uneconomical for the busy office, but for occasional use, this is a very easy and reliable wireless printer that can turn out black and white pages surprisingly quickly. 



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