Most times certain paper prints require you to be quite meticulous while packaging them so they can be quality enough. This sometimes depends largely on the kind of printer you use to print the work. There are some vital things to keep in mind when looking for the best printers as a student. In this article, you’ll learn what printers are rated the best printers for college students. Maybe you’re wondering what you need a printer for as a student. Now see, getting yourself a nice printer as a college student is indeed one of the most important things you’ll do for yourself. This is because it will save you a whole lot of stress. It means you can print at any time, at your own convenience. Furthermore, it will help you package clear prints of your schoolwork. So you really need a printer in school. While considering the kind of printer to buy, you need a good printer that can conserve your ink and save you unnecessary costs and expenses. I have to tell you very honestly that it’s not all printers are just good for you. This is true whether you are a college student or a working-class fellow or an even organization. Some are not ink-efficient at all. Additionally, there are some that are just too fragile that you may not really be able to handle. So to help save you all the stress of fixing broken printers all the time or making unnecessary expenses refilling your ink, that is why I’m writing this article to help you know the best printers to buy, especially for college students I encourage you to carefully read this article through to the end for all it has to offer.

Do College Students need Printers?

If you still haven’t found a reason to own a personal printer as a college student, I’ll show you. Yes, I understand some colleges have large printing halls where they offer printing services, here are a few more reasons why you need your own printer in school. Having your own personal printer will save you a whole lot of stress as I’ve said before. It will help you print your work at any time and at your own convenience. It will further help you package clear prints of your schoolwork. Furthermore, If you fall within any of the categories of students listed below, then you’ll seriously need your own personal printer in college. If you’re ever going to need to print out your assignments rather than submit them electronically, then you’ll need your own personal printer. If your school offers limited printing resources to its students, then you need your own printer and if you anticipate the possibility of printing documents at hours when school facilities might be closed, just know you need to get your own printer as well.

How Much Does a Printer Cost?

The cost of a printer will largely depend on its value. Printer values differ. So there are a number of things that may influence the value and cost of a printer and its really very important you keep these things in mind. Below are some of the things that may influence the cost of a printer: These are what will determine the quality, value, and ultimately the cost of your printer. The number of pages a printer can print per minute determines the cost of the printer. Also, volume, ink or toner-based, connectivity, and color or black & white are some of the many considerations that affect a printer’s price. The cost of refilling ink cartridges can also affect the cost of a printer. The cost of maintenance is another factor that influences the cost of a printer. Furthermore, name brands can also affect the cost of a printer. Brands that are well trusted will likely raise their price above ones that are not very popular. This is because their brand has built trust with its customer base. But generally, printers are sold from $12 – $200. This depends on the aforementioned factors-features and capabilities.

How long should a Printer last?

Well, how long a printer lasts depends on how it has been managed. A printer that has been carefully and properly managed will last for a time before it breaks down. But usually and on average, a good printer should not break down within the first four years of purchase.

What is the Best Printer for College Students to buy?

There are so many printer brands out there in the stores that you can find. But however, it’s not all printers that suit you if you are a college student that wants a personal printer. There are some portable, easy to use printers that’ll suit you. So do really take your time to learn of the best printers you can purchase as a student.

List of best printers for college students

We have carefully handpicked and arranged below, a list of 20 best printers for college students. Take a look at them.

#1. HP Envy 5055

HP Envy 5055 is the best printer for college students. It offers fast and easy wireless printing with many exciting futures like Smart Bluetooth and Dual-Band Wi-Fi, allowing you to easily print wirelessly from a number of devices. With the HP Smart app, you can even print directly from any social media account or a cloud service like Dropbox, iCloud, or Google Drive. The HP Envy 5055 gives students in college the ideal balance of price and quality and also the ability to print high-quality borderless photos with HP’s optional Instant Ink replacement service, which automatically reorders ink cartridges when your printer is running low. This device supports a variety of paper sizes from 4 x 6-inch photo paper to 8 x 10-inch letterhead. It also has 1-year warranty with free 24/7 web support.
Unarguably, the HP Envy 5055 is designed with a number of conveniences to make your life easier.

#2. Brother DCP-J1100W All-in-box

The product Brother DCP-J1100W All-in-box is the second-best printer for college students. It is an ideal three-in-one inkjet device that can copy, scan, and print at a fairly high resolution and turn out crisp and colorful duplex pages at a satisfactory rate. It comes with features like a color touchscreen interface for easy operation and with Wi-Fi Direct connectivity which will enable college students to print their works with ease. The printer has a weight of 8.8kg, includes enough ink and service with a printing speed of 12ppm. It’s not as fast as other Brother’s business-oriented printers, but with such high capacity ink cartridges installed, it is way more economical to run by a college student.

#3. Epson Expression ET-2650 EcoTank

Epson Expression ET-2650 is the third best printer for students. It is an ideal printer for college students who print unlimited stream of term papers, assignments, or syllabi throughout their school year. The Epson Expression has exciting features that include two years of ink or the equivalent of 20 printer cartridges. The Epson Expression ET-2650 is the perfect printer for college students because of its compatibility, huge value in long-lasting and convenient ink system and its easy to print wirelessly from any device. The device has a 1.44-inch color LCD which helps to easily navigate the menu for quick set up of the printer and connecting to a wireless network. This 3-in-1 printer-scanner-copier is relatively compact so it won’t take up all that much space in a room. It has built-in wireless plus Wi-Fi Direct which allows you to easily print your studies from your computer, iPad, iPhone, and Android tablets or smartphones. The Epson incorporates an SD memory card slot for printing documents and photos directly from the printer without the need for a phone or computer.

#4. Brother Compact Monochrome Laser Printer

Brother Compact Monochrome Laser Printer is a small, light, and mighty compact monochrome laser printer with dual-sided printing compartments. It combines with Brother’s own high-yield ink cartridges to cut down on the number of ink refills. This printer from Brother can handle all the largest print jobs you could possibly need as a college student. Brother adds additional printing options such as card stock or envelopes to round out a full suite of printing capabilities. It runs a wireless printing system which makes it easier to print directly from a laptop, smartphone or tablet without any messy cables or plugs. It has a 250-sheet capacity paper tray which helps to eliminate the need to often refill trays for both legal and letter- sized papers.

#5. HP Envy Wireless All-in-One Photo Printer

This is an all-in-one-wonder printer from HP and it is one of the best printers for students. It prints everything you could possibly need, especially if your art work, assignment or project work requires a short run of color. Students love it for its speed and high-quality graphic printing capabilities. HP Envy Wireless All-in-One printer works well for plain old text as well. It also has a scanner that can enable you print extra copies of notes.

#6. Brother DCP-J774DW printer 

Brother DCP-J774DW printer is one wonderful, Inexpensive, and effective 3-in-1 color inkjet printer which is good for every student who needs a portable and affordable printer. It has Wi-Fi and SD Card slot, USB ports front and rear. Its weight is 6.6kg, with high print and scan resolutions and a low price point. 

#7. HP Tango X

HP Tango X is one of the best smart printers designed for college students who want to optimize their workflow through technology. The entire unit is made with an ultra-compact design meant to fold up for discreet storage. It features a designer cloth cover to prevent dust build-up and add a touch of chic style to your dorm or office. The device has a two-way cloud-based network connection and interestingly, you can operate this ‘smart printer’ from your mobile device with or without a Wi-Fi network.  Generally, the device is cheaper. It is particularly user friendly, with an excellent app that can be voice-controlled with the assistance of Alexa.

#8. Canon PIXMA IP110

The Canon printer PIXMA IP110 is one of the best printers for college students. It is a very small and lightweight printer, but even so, it still prints quite well. The printer is the most Portable printer any student can have. It’s small such that a college student can take it from home to school to work or anywhere at all. it’s very portable to carry along and interestingly for Apple users. The Canon PIXMA IP110 printer also allows for AirPrint. This allows you to wirelessly print from iOS devices. You can also print wirelessly from some cloud services using the Canon PRINT app. As a college student, this printer will help you churn out papers but it’s also great for printing beautiful photos. The device performs borderless printing and a simple photo printing system which makes this particularly easy. The device also has an optional battery that makes taking the printer on the road more convenient.

#9. Epson Expression Premium XP-6105 printer

Epson Expression Premium XP-6105 is a 3-in-1 color inkjet, compact, and stylish AIO printer for students. The printer is fully featured with Wi-Fi, auto duplex printing, USB, and it has SD card slots all built-in. Interestingly, it has the ability to print on any kind of media from blank CDs up to A4 photo paper. The XP-6105 is well suited to student accommodation because of its compatibility and sleek design. It’s quite easy to use and the performance is really very impressive.

#10. Brother WorkSmart MFC-J880DW

College students will always like devices that are easy to use. The Brother WorkSmart MFC-J880DW is one of such devices. It is a compact All-in-One Inkjet Printer capable of scanning, copying, and faxing as well. Being a fax machine, it lets you send faxes in color as well as black and white. As a scanner, you can also select either color or black and white scanning. You can scan directly to Facebook, Google Drive, Dropbox, Box, Onenote, and more. The printer also has an automatic document feeder system which gives it the ability to automatically print on both sides of the paper. The brother worksmart MFC-j880DW printer has the ability to Print any document right from your tablet or smartphone, using your choice of AirPrint, Google Cloud Print, Brother iPrint andScan, providing convenience and eliminating the worry that you will run out of ink. Another amazing feature of this printer is the 2-year limited warranty and free lifetime phone support.

#11. HP Envy 5030 All-in-One printer

The HP Envy 5030 All-in-One Printer is one of the best printers for college students. It is a student-friendly printer with an all-round appeal laced with automatic dual-sided printing. It also has an A4-sized scanner and a copy function. The printer has all of the features you could need to complete your course as a college student. In support of the USB port of the printer, you can connect any device wirelessly with or without a router using the dual-Band Wi-Fi module and Bluetooth. It can print on envelopes, glossy photo paper or any size paper up to A4.

#12. Canon Pixma TS9120

Canon Pixma TS9120 is the best color printer you can ever need as a college student. The printer normally comes with three different colors which can add to the beauty of your work. The printer has the best-in-class print speed for both photos and text. Pixma TS9120 supports CD/DVD and Blu-Ray disc printing and supports for loading files or images directly from a memory card.  It’s compatible with Apple’s Airprint and Google’s Cloud print wireless printing technology. It has a five-inch LCD touchscreen which helps to enhance the user interface for quick setup as well as other extras such as adding effects to photo prints prior to printing.

#13. HP Envy 5010 printer

Envy 5010 is an instant ink compatible printer. It has both Bluetooth and WIFI for easy mobile operation. It can print, scan and auto duplex print. Envy 5010 printer is the HPs cheapest instant ink printer with weight 5.51kg and 3 in 1 color inkjet printer. It is very compatible and can handle all kinds of paper up to A4 size.

#14. Canon Selphy CP1300

The Canon Selphy printer is one of the best printers for college students. This is because of its variety of printing choices ranging from postcard-sized to square label prints, as well as traditional 3 x 5 and 4 x 6 prints. The printer is the best printer for printing photos. Its 3.2-inch display helps to select, edit, and print photos from a memory card or directly from a USB cable. The Selphy is about 7.1 x 5.4 x 2.5 inches and weighing only 1.9 pounds. It is around half the weight of an average laptop computer.

#15. Canon Color All-in-One Duplex Laser Printer

As a college student, you’re going to need a printer for all that hard work you’ll be doing, and if you get one of these now, you’ll be set for the next four years. This is the printer you’ll wish you’ve always had. The printer can print any document from any of your smart devices with its wireless capability you can connect to Wi-Fi. The canon duplex Laser Printer has an impressive 28-pages-per-minute rate and duplexing capabilities. It’s just an ideal printer for college students.

#16. Canon MG6820

Canon MG8620 printer offers students easy integration with a number of cloud services, including Google Cloud. The cloud can definitely be an easy way for students to keep all of their academy related documents or work organized and easy to access from anywhere on any device. It also enables Apple users to print using the AirPrint and also from your iOS devices. Android users also have easy printing options. In addition to giving you lots of options for how to print, the MG6820 offers scanning and copying functions. You have the option of 2-sided printing but the scanning is only 1- sided. The printer prints well and makes it easy to print from a huge range of sources.

#17. Epson WorkForce All-in-One Supertank Printer

This is one of the best printers to use as a student. You need this because it has the ability to print to up to 14,000 pages in black or white, and 11,200 in color. That’s like two to three years worth of ink which enables you to save so much money in ink.  When you buy this printer, you won’t need to buy cartridges every month or semester. It can scan and print business cards, flyers, and will give your documents and project work nice colors.

#18. Lexmark35SC060

Lexmark 35SC060 is a printer that can easily print a large number of thesis and will not take long to crank all the pages. This monochrome printer can handle 2-sided printing, allowing you to save a bit on paper. The Lexmark 35SC060 is the best printer for college students who expect to do a ton of printing work. It can easily print up to 6,800 pages per month with fast printing speed and print quality. You can print by connecting via Ethernet cable or you can use Wi-Fi. Unfortunately, to print wirelessly, you will need to buy a separate wireless network card. Printing right from mobile devices is an option.

#19. Samsung SL-M2020W/XAA

The Samsung SL-M2020W/XAA is a very good printer perfect for the typical needs of a college student. Unfortunately, it lacks copy/scan functionality and also color printing might be missed. Students that are just looking to save as much money as possible should look out for the Eco button that allows you to reduce toner, paper, and energy use. It has a 400 MHz processor and 64 MB memory makes printing very fast and makes wireless printing easy, using NFC technology and/or the Samsung Mobile Print App. It’s easy to print from just any device or from any of the most popular cloud services like Google Cloud. SL-M2020W/XAA is just another fast monochrome printer with a great text print quality for a very reasonable price.

#20. HP Envy 4520

The HP Envy 4520 Photo Printer is an ideal printer that combines the ability to print, scan, and copy in color. It is cheap and affordable. Measuring 17.5 x 14.5 x 5 inches with a matte black finish, it’s inconspicuous in a dorm room or small apartment, and you can send print jobs from iOS devices and Google Chrome Web browsers. It is unarguably one of the best printers for dorm rooms. The printer is capable of printing up to 9.5 pages per minute in black and white. It is efficient and fast, perfect for days when you’re running behind. The touchscreen HP Envy 4520 can produce borderless photos and print double-sided pages to match your needs.

Conclusion

I have to tell you this: Be careful when buying a new printer. Carefully take out sometime to read the “what’s in the box” section of the manual before buying the printer. Always check thoroughly if all accessories such as cables and all are also included in the box?? If you find everything is included and intact, then go ahead and buy the printer. The HP OfficeJet Pro 8210 Printer is one of the most inexpensive ink-saving inkjets. The printer uses the HP 952 ink cartridge which prints more than 1000 pages with a standard cartridge and 3000 pages with an XL or high yield cartridge. Generally, printers are sold from $12 – $200. Some could cost more depending on their features and capabilities. HP is unarguably the most reliable printer brand name. You will find any printers in their collection. They always ensure to keep the quality in each product. Then if you are worried about printing or something about the perfect color contrast of your prints, Canon is your go-to printer brand. The biggest difference between inkjet and laser printers is that an inkjet printer uses ink and it is suitable for low volume printing and is the traditional choice of home users. While a laser printer uses toner, it is ideal for high volume printing and is mostly utilized in office settings. It is a more economical choice for home use.Whether or not you need an inkjet or laser printer would depend on what you print, how often you print, and how much your printing budget is.

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