The biggest retail day of the year ended last night, but a bunch of the best Black Friday deals on everything from laptops to home office essentials are still up for grabs. These extended Black Friday sales are the best chance of the year to score hot deals on all sorts of electronics and appliances, so if you’ve been looking to buy a new printer to use for running off work documents, personal photos, shipping labels, envelopes, or anything else, you’ve still got time to do so on the cheap before the weekend is out.
Whether it’s for your home office or for someone you know who could desperately use a new printer, there’s almost certain to be a bargain here with your name on it. To help you out, we’ve put together a roundup of the year’s best still-ongoing Black Friday printer deals along with a quick buying guide to so you can make an educated buying decision. Our guide looks at all kinds of printers, too, from inkjet to laser and even photo printers.
Best Black Friday printer deals
One of the hottest sales today is a Canon Wireless Laser Printer deal going on at Amazon. See more discounts below:
Liene 4x6" Wireless Photo Printer
$91 $130
iDPRT SP410 Thermal Label Printer
$140 $198
HP Neverstop 1001nw Laser Printer
$240 $290
Pantum M7102DW All-in-One Laser Printer
$180 $200
How to choose a printer
Choosing a printer might sound like a relatively simple task, but with today’s best printers sporting some modern features, things can get confusing if you haven’t shopped for one in a while. First, you need to set a budget and determine what your needs are. Do you only need a printer for handling a few tasks or so per week, or is your printer going to be in an office setting where you’ll be running off hundreds or even thousands of prints on a weekly basis? Perhaps you’re looking for a portable photo printer to carry with you? Are you planning to print black and white documents, or would you like one of the best photo printers or best wide-format photo printers for sharing all your favorite digital photographs? You can even print directly from your iPhone or print from a Chromebook to share your favorite photographs quickly and easily.
If you’re after something basic and affordable, you can check out our recommendations for the best cheap printers. And if you want something for your living room that won’t be an eyesore, we recommend the handsome HP Tango X.
Printers can generally be broken down into two categories: Inkjet and laser printers. Inkjets are fine for most people who only need a printer for basic, low-volume printing. They’re slower and less efficient per-page than laser printers, but inkjets are typically much cheaper and use smaller ink cartridges that are more affordable than the larger toner cartridges that laser printers require. Even inexpensive inkjet printers typically come with value-added features such as scanning and copying capabilities, and there are plenty of great inkjets like the HP DeskJet 9670 that offer modern conveniences such as Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity for remote printing.
For high-volume printing, however, laser printers offer a lot of advantages. This is the type of printer you’ll most often find in offices and other professional settings. They are more costly up-front than inkjets and require more expensive toner cartridges, but they deliver fast, clean prints, and those toner cartridges — while admittedly pricier than inkjet cartridges — are made to put out thousands of pages before needing to be replaced. This makes laser models the clear choice for high-volume printing, although they may be overkill for average users. Note that many laser printers also only print in black and white, with consumer-grade color laser printers being a relatively new thing.
That said, the price of laser printers has dropped in recent years, and many on the market are perfect for smaller home offices, dorm rooms, and similar environments where you might want something more efficient than an inkjet printer but don’t need the sort of large, duty-grade laser printer you’d find in a large office. There are also quite a few color laser printers on the market today that aren’t as expensive as you might think, so when choosing a printer, you’ve got many more options in 2020 than you had even five or 10 years ago.
Should you buy a printer now?
It’s never easy to tell when the best time to buy an item is, and you can never be quite sure when you’ll get the best discounts. But the good news for you is that we have a lot of experience watching prices and sales year-round on electronics items. We can say that this is likely to be the cheapest you’ll find printers on sale before the end of this year, so you can buy now with confidence that you’re getting the best price.
How much should you pay for a printer?
Printers do not have to cost much, and that is especially true if you only want one for simple home use. You can easily get away with paying $50 to $75 for a basic home printer that suits your needs down to the ground. Extra features like wireless connectivity and label printers can push prices over $100. Most home printers are inkjets (rather than laser printers), and these excel at printing color documents and photos. For home use, you can probably stick to an inkjet.
Laser printers, on the other hand, are more common in office settings thanks to their longevity and efficiency. Though you will pay more up front for a laser printer, it will save you money in the long run if you do a lot of high-volume printing. Office printers, however, are usually more expensive than the home variety because they bundle in extra features like large paper trays and duplex (two-sided) printing. Prices can range from several hundred dollars to over $1,000, but you are unlikely to need one unless you print a serious amount of documents every day.
Are any Black Friday printer deals too good to be true?
Black Friday is chock-full of excellent printer deals, but some savings may not be as good as they first appear. Retailers often use Black Friday as a chance to offload old and outdated hardware, and if you are not careful, you could end up getting a printer that doesn’t do what you want. Before you buy, make sure you read reviews and check the specs to ensure it is the right deal for you. If it’s not, move on — there will be plenty of other great deals.
You also need to be aware of some of the high-pressure tactics some shops use to coax you into a rushed sale. You might see things like a countdown timer or warnings that other shoppers have your item in their baskets. Don’t panic — if a deal is not right for you, it’s irrelevant how many other people are looking at it. Take your time and do your research (viewing this page is a great start and will help you find a great deal), and you will have a much better experience.
Where to find the best printer sales
- Amazon Black Friday: Amazon has a range of extended Black Friday bargains on printers from just about any brand you can imagine. You can score some of the best discounts on printers from HP, Canon, and more here.
- Best Buy Black Friday: Best Buy is one of the best places to find printers and is still offering some of the best 2020 Black Friday printer deals this year. It has slashed prices on top models, including laser and photo printers from brands like Canon, HP, Epson, and Brother.
- Target Black Friday: Target has everything from photo printers to laser and inkjet printers to label printers, many of which are on sale for under $100 including models from big brands like Canon and Epson.
- Walmart Black Friday: Walmart is another good place for printer deals, even if the selection isn’t as extensive as some retailers (which may be a good thing if you’re prone to choice paralysis). It’s an especially great place to find cheaper all-in-one inkjet and laser printers from brands like Canon and HP if you don’t need a professional-grade model.
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