Last update on 2024-04-07 / As an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases. Learn more about us.
College classes are quite demanding. Many times, your lecturers will require you to print out papers for your assignments and term papers.
Without an efficient printer, you may get into trouble with your tutor over deadlines or work quality.
If you are a teacher, check Wireless Printers For Teachers.
So, what’s the best printer you can get for your school work? Let’s find out more below.
What To Look For When Buying A Printer For College
As a college student, you probably aren’t hung up on the high-end features professional printers offer. Unless you have demanding tasks like printing out engineering or architectural plans, you won’t need a specialty printer either.
Here’s a quick primer of what to look for when choosing a printer for school:
Inkjet vs Laser Printers
Often, you’ll have to pick between the two most common printer types: Inkjets and laser printers.
Inkjet printers spurt jets of ink onto the paper, producing a magnificent quality print ideal for creative students. If your classes require you to print lots of artistic works, graphs, or charts, an inkjet printer would be excellent.
Your only limitation will be ink cartridges, which can be quite pricey. If you print plenty of pages, it may be uneconomical for you.
Laser printers, on the other hand, use colored powders (or toner) to imprint text and images on paper. These printers are excellent for printing text, especially if your classes demand many printed reports, essays, or thesis.
For printing images, artworks, and graphs, however, a laserjet will give you dull results.
Ease of Use
Unless you’re a tech junkie who loves to tinker with complicated features, you’ll go for a printer that’s easy to use.
Nothing is as frustrating as trying to print your work from a device that requires too much technical input.
So, how do you check for usability in a printer? Here are some questions to ask yourself before making a purchase:
- Is the printer easy to set up and use? Most plug-and-play printers are excellent for students.
- How easy is it to load paper and media?
- Does it support USB and SD connectivity?
- Can you print your documents wirelessly?
- How easy is it to navigate the printer’s control panel?
- How many control features does the printer give the user?
- Can a user customize settings and details for future prints?
- Can you press Print and walk away?
Multifunctionality
You’re looking for a Swiss knife printer that saves you time on your activities. All-in-one printers that come with a scanner, copier, and fax are quite useful, and you can use them for various school purposes.
Compared to singular purpose printers, you can do more with the all-in-one’s. Students whose classes have advanced needs will benefit the most, as they can scan, copy, fax or email documents to their lecturers much easier.
Portability
Get a lean printer that you can easily carry around. An ideal printer can fit in your laptop bag, and you can carry it around at your convenience.
Also, a bulky office printer wouldn’t serve your purpose. You’ll not only need to find a stationary place to put it, but you’ll also need more room than your campus accommodation can allow.
Besides that, it’ll consume a needless amount of electricity and run up your energy costs.
Is Wireless Better?
For college students, wireless printers are better.
Wireless printers are more convenient. You won’t need to tether them to a laptop or computer. A reliable WI-FI network will connect your printer to your laptop, PC, tablet or smartphone.
With that, you can place your printer anywhere in a room and still get copies of your documents.
Afterwards, you can store the printer away in a cabinet and pull it out whenever you need it. Most wireless printers support printing directly from your phone or tablet, as long as your smartphone supports printing apps like AirPrint and HP smart.
Wireless printers also let you print a document directly from cloud storage without needing to first download it.
4 Best Wireless Printer For College Students
Here are some excellent options for
Brother MFC-J895DW
Last update on 2024-04-07 / As an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases. Learn more about us.
The Brother MFC-J895DW is a well-equipped 4-in-1 inkjet printer suitable for all your college activities. It can duplex print, photocopy and scan high-quality images of your assignments and papers.
With this wireless printer, you can use WI-FI direct connectivity and NFC tap-to-connect. NFC is simple to use. Touching your NFC-enabled device to this printer connects your smartphone or tablet to it.
Apps like AirPrint, Google Cloud Print, Brother iPrint, and Scan and Mopria allow you to print directly from your smartphone. Besides all these nifty features, it still supports the USB interface and ethernet cable. In case you want to connect this device to your laptop using a cable.
Pros
- Strong wireless connectivity
- Easy-to-use display control panel
- SD card and USB thumb drive support
- 20-sheet ADF
Cons
- Paper input and output capacities are low
- Running cost is quite high
- Graphics backgrounds and fills are not always spot-on
HP Laserjet Pro M15w
Last update on 2024-04-07 / As an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases. Learn more about us.
HP’s Laserjet Pro is a toaster-sized printing device. Its unique design makes it more portable, especially for students to move around a lot.
It prints single-side mono pages and delivers prints faster than most inkjets. At up to 19 pages per minute and the first page out in as few as 8.1 seconds, you’ll have your work done in no time.
Using HP’s Smart App, you can scan and order toner directly from HP. If your assignments are in cloud storage, you can still use this printer without downloading them.
This laserjet allows you to print documents from iCloud, Google Drive, and Dropbox.
With an in-built wireless capability you can access, print, and share your resources using your local network.
Pros
- Magnificent smartphone integration
- It’s small-size/portable
- Low purchase price
- Produce high-quality print
Cons
- High running costs
- Has no ethernet port
- No duplex printing,
HP Officejet Pro 6978
Last update on 2024-04-07 / As an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases. Learn more about us.
This all-in-one printer comes with features that can print, scan, copy, and even send faxes using your smartphone.
With the HP Officejet Pro 6978, you can auto duplex, print and photocopy on up to 35 pages with its automatic document scanner (ADF).
It supports wireless connectivity with a dual-band Wi-Fi, Wi-Fi Direct, and in-built Bluetooth.
The Bluetooth device inside this printer helps your smart device find the printer and use the HP smart app to add it to your Wi-Fi network.
Pros
- Great wireless connectivity
- Sleek space-saving design
- Strong app support
Cons
- Slow printing speeds
- Limited paper capacity
- Wasteful tri-color cartridge
Epson Expression Home XP-4000
Product currently unavailable.
Epson Expression is a convenient compact 3-in-1 printer with an SD card slot and can duplex print.
It’s quite easy to use the Epson iPrint app with cloud services like Dropbox and Google Drive. Besides that, this printer also comes with a paper tray that accommodates papers of different sizes, including A4.
Pros
- Large display for easy to use
- Duplex double-sided printing
- Fast mono-printing
Cons
- Replacement ink costly
- Dull photo print
- Duplex printing is slow
Final Thoughts and Best Pick
If you’re a college student, a printer is an essential accessory for your studies. You’ll need it to print out assignments and papers for your classes.
With the right laserjet, you may even print some photos of your favorite school memories to keep.
My best pick is the HP Officejet 6978. Although also an office printer, this device is all-in-one and can perform all your document printing tasks.
Besides that, it supports wireless connectivity, Bluetooth and the HP Smart app. You can print straight from the cloud too. If you have Alexa, you’ll also enjoy giving voice commands to your printer.
