8 Best Affordable Color Printer | Skip the Cartridge Trap

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The Brother that asks what you are willing to pay for a noticeable speed bump in black.

At 16 pages per minute (ppm) black and 9 ppm color, this unit is a full 2 ppm faster on black-and-white than the Canon above — a 14% improvement that adds up on large reports. The 2.7-inch color touchscreen is a welcome upgrade from monochrome displays, making cloud app navigation (Google Drive, Dropbox, OneDrive) genuinely easy. Setup and print quality are the two most praised aspects; owners consistently say it is “easy to set up” and produces “excellent print quality.”

One big win is the ability to use generic ink cartridges. Several owners highlight this with relief: “Can use generic ink cartridges! Prints quickly.” The 150-sheet paper tray and 20-sheet ADF make it ready for small office workflows. It also includes fax capability, which the Canon doesn’t have, making this a more complete small business machine. The Brother Mobile Connect app lets you monitor ink usage from your phone, so you rarely run out mid-project.

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The INKvestment that gives you high-yield cartridges in the box to delay your first resupply.

Brother’s INKvestment line brings a different strategy: you get a 1,200-page black cartridge and 500-page cyan, magenta, and yellow cartridges right from the start. That is a serious head start on supply costs. The 16 ppm black and 9 ppm color speeds match the Work Smart 1410, and the 1.8-inch color display helps you navigate cloud printing apps. Owners praise the compact size (“perfect for small desk”) and the value for money — it delivers clear, sharp output for greeting cards and everyday documents.

The honest catch is that print quality itself gets mixed feedback. While many owners love the sharpness, some find the colors less intense than they expected. A few buyers report the ink drains faster than they hoped, with one calling it an “ink black hole.” The setup and connectivity also split opinion — some owners find it a breeze, others struggle with Wi-Fi and driver installation. If you are comfortable with a bit of initial configuration, the low run cost afterward makes this a solid mid-range pick.

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The AI-powered Envy that tries to make printing as simple as tapping your phone.

HP’s Envy 6155 stands out for its 2.4-inch color touchscreen and HP’s AI-powered formatting that automatically removes unwanted content from web pages and emails to save paper. It prints at 10 ppm black and 7 ppm color, which is slower than the Brother options above but still fine for light home use. Setup is the most praised aspect — owners find it remarkably easy, with one noting it was “very easy setup and use for a 91-year-old.” The dual-band Wi-Fi automatically detects and resolves connection issues, which helps keep it online.

The catch is the ink cost. Standard cartridges are small — the starter black yields about 120 pages and tri-color about 75 pages — so you will be buying refills often. HP offers a 3-month Instant Ink trial to offset this, but after that there is a monthly fee. Some owners mention that the printer is slow, and the software can be frustrating, with one calling it “crap.” The value proposition is clearly for low-volume households, not busy offices.

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The tank that gives you years of ink in the box, making each page cost almost nothing.

This is the pick where the value equation flips. HP includes enough ink bottles in the box — HP 32XL black (135ml) and three 50ml color bottles — to print up to 6,000 pages (black or color). That is two years of typical use before you even think about buying more ink. The tank refill system is mess-free: you plug the bottle into the tank and let it drain, no squeezing required. The print speed is 10 ppm black and 5 ppm color, so it is not the fastest, but the low per-page cost makes up for it for high-volume users.

The honest downside is reliability — the highest volume feedback. While some owners love that it “ink tank lasts over a year without refill,” others report errors after a week. The wireless connectivity also gets a negative reception; Bluetooth sometimes requires retries. It has no automatic duplex, only manual, which is a real loss for anyone printing two-sided documents. At its price point, this is a play for sheer volume savings, not feature polish.

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The Epson that crushed the cartridge model — 7th-gen supertank with up to 6,600 black pages included.

Epson’s EcoTank is the global supertank leader, and the ET-2980 shows why. It comes with a full set of ink bottles: one 502 Black (127 mL) and one each of Cyan, Magenta, Yellow (70 mL), enough for up to 6,600 pages black / 5,500 color. That is “3 years of ink included,” as Epson puts it. Each replacement bottle set is equivalent to about 90 individual cartridges, so the ongoing cost is a fraction of standard inkjets. The printer quality and setup are the most praised aspects — owners say “should have bought this long ago” and highlight its “incredible ink reserve.” The 15 ppm black and 8 ppm color speeds beat most tank competitors, and it has automatic duplex printing.

The main areas of feedback are mixed. Print quality itself gets the most mentions, but opinions split — some find it excellent for photos, others note that “blurs after one letter” or that print heads can clog if the printer sits idle for days. The screen size draws complaints, and the wireless connection can be finicky for some. This is a supertank designed for sustained weekly use, not a machine you leave untouched for a month.

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The color laser that prints a full page in under three seconds — if the toner budget allows.

If raw speed matters most, the Xerox C230dni is your pick. It prints 24 pages per minute in black and 24 pages per minute in color — a massive jump from the inkjet competition. The first page of blackprints in 11 seconds, color in 11.4 seconds. That kind of speed is for small offices running up to 1,500 pages per month. Print quality is the most praised aspect by far — owners consistently call it “crisp” and “professional.” It also supports high-yield cartridges to reduce ongoing cost, but the starter cartridges are only 500-page yield.

The honest issue is toner cost. The starter toner runs out after roughly 200 pages, and replacement black toner is over with few third-party options. As the review pages sum it up: “terrible value due to high toner cost.” Memory capacity is also a concern — printing an 8×10 color image can fail due to memory limits. This is a laser for speed and sharpness, not for economy.

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The business-grade tank that prints up to 3,000 pages before you need to refill.

Canon’s MAXIFY GX2020 is built for small offices that need reliability and low run cost. A single set of GI-25 pigment-based ink bottles yields up to 3,000 black and 3,000 color pages. That is industry-leading volume among the tank printers here. The 15 ppm black and 10 ppm color speeds are solid, and the 2.7-inch LCD color touchscreen makes navigation clean. It comes with a 35-sheet Automatic Document Feeder (ADF) for bulk scanning or copying, and automatic duplex printing is standard. Print quality and setup are the two most praised aspects — owners say “great picture quality” and highlight the “low cost of operation.”

The real-world feedback notes that the wireless connectivity and print speed both get mixed reviews. Some owners love the reliable Wi-Fi, others struggle with constant connection drops. Speed is another split — for a tank printer, 10 ppm color is decent, but some find it “takes several minutes to print a one-page document.” A few owners also report photo quality is disappointing for high-detail images, calling it “blurry, dull.” If your focus is sharp black-and-white documents and envelope printing, this is one of the strongest picks.