Wireless all-in-one inkjet printers are all the rage these days, and from a quick glance at the specs, you’d be led to believe that they’re mostly the same. The reality is, all wireless printers are not created equal, so we rounded up six Mac-compatible units (each from a different manufacturer) to find out which one is worth your time and money.
As it turns out, the answer to that question depends a lot on what you intend to use it for, and in some cases the model with the sexiest package and the most lustworthy features isn’t always the best for everyone. One thing is for sure: If you’re in the market for a new printer and your home or office is equipped with Wi-Fi (and really, whose isn’t these days?), wireless printing and scanning is where it’s at. In most cases, you can completely sever the USB 2.0 connection to your computer at long last. Your iOS device can also join the party as well, thanks to a host of free apps that make short work of printing shots directly from your iPhone/iPod touch camera or library.
To help you decide which printer should grace your network, we ran all six through a battery of tests, draining ink cartridges and suffering a barrage of paper cuts in the process. At the end of the day, one printer emerged from the ashes, victorious...
Setting up a wireless printer should be as simple as installing a driver, then adding the printer to your network—but some manufacturers make this unnecessarily complex. The worst offender is Lexmark, whose Genesis S816 requires a USB connection for installation, like it or not. The lowest-priced printer in this group, Brother’s $129.99 MFC-J615w, claims Mac compatibility, but its “one-step” setup requires a Wi-Fi Protected Setup utility only available for Windows.
Since you’ll want to print photos as well as documents, most of these printers sport two input trays. Kodak’s ESP 9250 holds up to 100 sheets of plain paper at the bottom and has a smaller tray on top for up to 40 sheets of 5x7 (or smaller) photo paper, similar to the Brother and Epson’s Artisan 835. Canon’s PIXMA MG8120 features 150-sheet rear and bottom trays. HP’s flimsy single tray with cheap plastic guides hampers an otherwise well-made printer. And Lexmark complicates paper loading by feeding it from the back of the unit only.
Canon’s bright LCD swivels up so you can see it without bending over.
Lexmark does make good use of touchscreen technology with a 4.3-inch WQVGA display, while Epson sadly wastes most of its massive 7.8-inch touchscreen on software-based navigation buttons. The best touchscreen is HP’s full-color, 3.45-inch “TouchSmart” panel with a simple row of options along the top, key printer functions (Photo, Copy, and Scan) at the bottom, and a sliding band of Internet-connected “apps”—more on that later. Canon gets the nod for best non-touch functionality, with a bright 3.5-inch LCD display that swivels up for viewing at any angle.
The six printers also double as flatbed scanners, and we had high expectations for wireless scanning. But only Canon, HP, Lexmark, and Kodak let us scan over Wi-Fi—the others require a USB connection. Most of the companies take advantage of easy scanning from the computer via Preview or Image Capture on Mac OS 10.6. Canon and HP still include their own scanning software, although Canon’s is more full-featured. Brother’s included software is absolutely terrible, but with Mac OS 10.6, you can skip it entirely and download only the printer drivers from Apple.
To test printing speed, we printed a letter-sized, text-only Microsoft Word document on plain paper, as well as a 4x6 borderless photo from iPhoto ’11 on each vendor’s own recommended glossy photo paper.
Epson was the fastest—just 16 seconds from clicking the Print button to plucking the finished text document from the output tray. Canon was a close second at 18 seconds, HP took 23 seconds, and Brother and Kodak tied for fourth place at 27 seconds. The document-centric Lexmark took 35 seconds, but had the best quality (as you’ll see in the next test).
A 4x6 glossy, borderless photo print was more telling, with Epson needing just 26 seconds, Canon still in second place at 31 seconds, Lexmark in third at 42 seconds, and Kodak fourth at 51 seconds. Poking along in fifth and sixth place were HP at 1:06 and the low-cost Brother, which took 1:43 to produce the exact same photo print—proof that you get what you pay for.
The Lexmark won the Great Scanning Race, needing a mere 8 seconds to scan a letter-sized document with mixed text and graphics (and only 12 seconds for a 300 dpi scan of an 8x10 photo), followed by Canon and HP at 24 seconds. Kodak brought up the rear at just under a minute, regardless of what type of scan it was doing.
The Lexmark printer scans quickly and had the best text output.
Finally, we used the Decibel Meter Pro app on our iPhone 4 (from about a foot away) to measure how much noise each printer made. HP wins the crown at 79dB, while the Canon registered the loudest at 89dB. In general, all of the units are fairly quiet, but the HP definitely gets the nod for generating the least amount of noise pollution.
Bells and whistles can’t save a printer if its output is low quality. We gauged print quality by examining our Word text document as well as a challenging 4x6 photo that featured a pair of subjects shopping for Christmas trees on a bright day—plenty of tricky highlights, deep shadows in the darker areas, and a good bit of fine detail.
Hands down, Epson had the best-quality photo, delivering accurate color reproduction and perfect contrast—even small details looked great. However, Epson ranked fifth when it came to our text document; the standard settings won’t fool anyone into thinking the document came from a laser printer, and solid black areas were a bit muddy.
The Epson Artisan 835 printed the best photos.
Canon came in a close second on photo printing. Its contrast levels were a bit lower than on the Epson, but overall, the quality of the prints was quite good. The Canon’s text document got a fourth-place ranking for strong and readable type. 
Kodak came in third for photos, and its prints actually appeared a bit sharper than the Canon or Epson models but were overall a little brighter than we would have liked using standard settings. Comparing text-document quality, Kodak came in second with clean, sharp printouts that rival those of decent laser printers—somewhat strange considering the company’s reputation is in photography.
Lexmark is also a bit of an enigma, ranking only fourth in photo print quality but first place when it comes to text documents. Its photos tend to have less definition, losing detail in the darker areas, while text documents are sharp with laser-like letters.
That leaves only Brother and HP, neither of which comes with a very high recommendation. Color photos on the Brother are acceptable for occasional use (especially considering the long print times), while HP came in dead last with muddy, lifeless color photos lacking in saturation and contrast. HP redeemed itself by ranking third on text-document quality, while Brother rounded out the tests in sixth place with washed-out black ink that resembled a poor-quality photocopy.
How many times have you bought a low-cost inkjet printer, only to suffer from sticker shock when you had to buy replacement ink or photo paper for it? Sometimes you’d almost be better off buying a new printer rather than shelling out for more consumables—though we don’t encourage such environmentally hostile practices. Each manufacturer provides approximate yields for their ink cartridges (sometimes this information is buried on the website), so it’s easy enough to price these consumables up front. We chose suggested retail prices to keep things fair, although thrifty shoppers can find coupons and sales.
Kodak promises the “lowest total ink replacement cost in the industry,” and that’s not a hollow claim. A 10B black ink cartridge at $9.99 nets 425 pages, while a 10C tri-color ink cartridge at $17.99 nets 420 pages, for a grand total of just 6.6 cents per color page. Of course, if you’re printing 8.5x11-inch color photos exclusively, you’ll likely see fewer page yields, but that’s to be expected with any printer.
Kodak lived up to its claim of the lowest ink replacement cost.
The second-place Brother costs more than double: 14 cents per color ink page with its four-cartridge system, followed by Canon at 18.8 cents (six cartridges), HP at 19.5 cents (two cartridges) and Lexmark at 22.6 cents (four cartridges). Epson’s six-cartridge system racks up a pricey 27 cents per color ink page, although as our print quality tests revealed, the cost is ultimately worth it—assuming you can afford it in the first place. With Shutterfly’s photo prints starting at 10 cents each, the Epson comes out looking costly indeed.
Photo prints also require photo paper, and that’s where we saw kinks in the low-cost armor, with Brother charging 25 cents per sheet (mostly because they only offer a 20-sheet pack) and Kodak close behind at 22.9 cents per 4x6 glossy sheet. Epson is a more reasonable 19.9 cents with Canon trailing at 18.9 cents, and both HP and Lexmark look like a bargain at 14.9 and 13.9 cents each, respectively.
Tallying up photo paper plus ink, the Kodak wins at 29.5 cents per page, followed by the HP (34.4 cents), Lexmark (36.5 cents), Canon (37.7 cents), Brother (39 cents), and the Epson (46.9 cents).
All six printers we tested take advantage of wireless functionality to allow printing from an iOS device. If you’re in the market for a new printer anyway, you might want to consider something compatible with Apple’s new AirPrint functionality, introduced with iOS 4.2. At this writing, that means buying one of a dozen HP models, including the Envy 100 tested here. The good news is that the feature works exactly as expected and even offers an option for duplex (double-sided) printing, but because the HP Envy only offers a single paper tray, you’ll find yourself switching paper types frequently, which defeats the purpose of printing wirelessly in the first place. (Although you may want to stick to plain paper anyway, since HP came in dead last in our photo-quality tests.)
While Apple is still figuring out how to make AirPrint work with other third-party printers, enterprising software developers Ecamm Network has created a Mac software solution called Printopia ($9.95, ecamm.com), which allows any printer on your network to show up via AirPrint, and also offers virtual printing to your Mac or Dropbox folder. Of course your Mac has to be running whenever you want to print from your iOS device. But Printopia is safe (it doesn’t require OS modifications like earlier hacks), quick (our tests reveal nearly identical times as when printing from the Mac), and cheap. The only caveat is we couldn’t print borderless photos with the Epson.
If you’re only concerned about photo printing from iOS, all of the manufacturers offer free apps in the App Store to wirelessly print photos from your device. Brother’s iPrint&Scan app also allows scanning from the printer to the palm of your hand (far superior to the company’s antiquated Mac OS X software), although the app frequently had trouble finding the printer on our network.
Brother’s iPrint&Scan app lets you scan from the printer right to your iOS device.
Most of these iOS apps are also universal (for iPhone/iPod touch as well as iPad), with the notable exception of Kodak Pic Flick, which was still usable on the iPad. Lexmark’s LexPrint app allows easy queuing of multiple photos in advance and allows up to 99 copies at once. HP’s iPrint Photo 3.0 app is the only one incompatible with our test printer, which means that AirPrint is your only option for now.
These days, when we say “printer,” we’re actually talking about a multifunction device also capable of document (and sometimes film) scanning, plus photocopying, often faxing, and some specialty tasks like printing directly onto DVDs. To stand out from the crowd, manufacturers have started adding even more, including internet connectivity, printable templates, and even apps.
HP’s Envy 100 features a long list of included apps from brands like Disney, DreamWorks, PBS Kids, Snapfish, and Yahoo—their icons appear in a sliding row on the touchscreen. You can access and print maps, movie tickets, recipes, greeting cards, Facebook photos, and more, without using your computer. The printer even notifies you when software updates are available and downloads them directly to the device.
The HP Envy has an enviable list of apps on its pretty touchscreen.
Lexmark’s SmartSolutions is similar, but requires a clumsy web-based signup. Add your printer, then drag and drop the apps (including Evernote, Facebook, Twitter, Google Calendar, MobileMe photos, Picasa, and PhotoBucket), and sync them to your printer with just a click. Some functions, like the nifty Scan To Evernote, require a tedious outgoing email setup on the printer—wouldn’t it be easier to enter this information on the website?
The Canon is the only printer in our test to feature a capable 35mm slide and negative scanner, but it comes at the expense of an automatic document feeder (ADF), which is featured on the Brother, Epson, and Kodak models. Likewise, Epson is the only model featuring direct printing to CD-R or DVD-R media, a trend that was all the rage on printers just a few short years ago. Canon, Epson, and Kodak also feature printable templates, including graph paper; Epson also adds children’s activity pages—as well as the ability to convert a photo or drawing into a coloring book page—while Kodak offers handy templates for to-do lists, grocery lists, and even sheet music.
Just like in Highlander, there can be only one, and in this case, we chose the Canon PIXMA MG8120, which offers the best mix of quality, speed, and convenience at a fair price. Sure, the Canon lacks some of the competition’s sexier features like a touchscreen display, but it more than makes up for that in other areas, such as gracefully telling you when it’s time to change ink (the cartridges even feature a red light that blinks to show you which one needs attention) and the best arrangement of buttons to get you where you want quickly and easily.
Despite Canon’s victory in our overall tests, almost all of the printers we tested offered something to like, with the possible exception of Brother’s MFC-J615w, which is clearly a Windows-centric printer half-heartedly attempting to appeal to Mac users. Epson’s Artisan 835 is particularly enticing for users who print photos more than documents, and we also liked the feature set on HP’s Envy 100, likely a harbinger of things to come in the printer market.
Canon
usa.canon.com
Price: $299.99
Requirements: Mac OS 10.4.11 or later; USB 2.0, Ethernet, or Wi-Fi b/g/n connection (Bluetooth 2.0 printing optional); iOS 2.2.1 or later (for Canon Easy-PhotoPrint on iPhone)
Pros: Easy setup. Fast and clean prints. Decent scanner with Photoshop import capability. Quality prints from iOS or Android devices.
Cons: Bluetooth signal conflicts with wireless printing from iPhone. Confusing array of software options to install.
paquafit
January 08, 2012 at 12:40pm
any reviews for black and white laser printers -- 90% of my work is black and white text printing.
macjeffff
February 15, 2011 at 4:51am
How can you compare a $129 Brother machine to a $300 Canon? Come on! I just bought a Brother multi-function in the $300 range and it rocks. I'd prefer to read a more balanced comparison.
FloridaMacBoy
February 14, 2011 at 7:20pm
I have an Artisan 835. I agree with everything said about it but one thing - the unit can scan wirelessly. I do it daily.
kjfisher
February 14, 2011 at 2:33pm
I didn't see this before purchasing a new printer this weekend. I got an Epson Artisan 725: easy setup, totally wireless, and the print quality is great. Downloaded an app to print photos wirelessly from my iPhone camera roll, too -- so not sure why Epson only received 2 stars for iOS capability above. High-capacity cartridges will be about $50-60 on Amazon for a pack of ALL colors (as compared to $75+ PER color for my previous and now-retired color laser). Just thought I would throw in a few stars for this lower-cost model, which was on sale for $99!
