Not sure which printer is for you?  You can read all our reviews, split between two different categories for inkjet printers and laser printers, or you can get straight to business, by looking at our selection of the best printers currently available.

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The first big choice is between the two technologies that dominate printing : inkjet, which used to be reserved for home users, and laser, which was often seen as a more business-orientated choice.  Now, thought, the two are more else equivalent in terms of price, with laser printers often costing less than £100.  Here are few things that set them apart:

• the very low running costs of black-and-white laser printing: around 1-4 p per page, compared to at least 5 p per page for all inkjets apart from a small handful of pro models
• laser printers are faster: if 8 pages per minute is average for an inkjet, you'll get at least twice that on a laser
• energy consumption, which shoots up from around 20 W on an inkjet to over 500 W for some laser printers
• inkjet printers are suited to a wider range of tasks, but laser printers aren't sophisticated enough to handle photo printing.

You should also forget about the traditional received wisdom: both technologies produce equivalent quality if you want to print office documents.

It's only really if you need to print a lot of documents, and want to ensure that the quality is maintained as the pages get handed round with no smudged ink that laser becomes an obvious choice.  Inkjets, meanwhile, are more suited to users who need to print a few pages every now and again, with a little bit of everything: a web page one day, some photos the next, then a letter ...

Latest Developments

More and more printers are compatible with WiFi.  Try it: it works just as well as a USB cable, even from one floor of a building to the other.  Touchscreen displays are also becoming more becoming, and they're replacing the sea of buttons to make printers much easier to use.

All of the main manufacturers are moving gradually to separate cartridges (with one for each colour of ink), which is bringing running costs down compared to earlier generations.

The most interesting new features we've seen were on the Lexmark S605.  This printer has a great selection of preset functions, and you can also programme your own.  You can configure it to do your filing for instance: pop a bill in the scanner, press a virtual button on the touchscreen display, and in a single pass the document is digitised and stored in a folder stored on your computer.  It couldn't be simpler!

First up, our inkjet recommendations

Best value
Office printing

Canon MP270 STORES £     amazon.co.uk  34.97  Amazon Marketplace  42.90  Crescent Electronics  44.18  Ballicom International  49.80          Compare prices

This is a fast little printer, and a great all-rounder without any frills.  There's no sign of WiFi or a memory card reader, and Canon isn't going to win any green awards: the MP270 still uses single cartridges, mixing all ink colours together.

Our favourite: customisation at your fingertips
Not necessarily the best printer ever, but the most useful and the easiest to use

Lexmark S605 STORES £     Amazon Marketplace  92.99  Printerbase  93.99  amazon.co.uk  99.99  Laskys.com  180.00  Crescent Electronics  196.07  IT247  202.93  Compare prices

Printers are getting smarter, and the cleverest so far is this S605.  If you start printing a lengthy tome, it automatically switches to double-sided mode; but if it's two copies of the same document, it knows to print them on separate pages.  As a bonus, there's a large touchscreen display (no more buttons!) which is fast and easy-to-use for programming your favourite features with the minimum of fuss.

Demanding users
The very best quality

Canon MP640 STORES £     amazon.co.uk  125.60  IT247  134.76  Crescent Electronics  134.93  Ballicom International  138.58  Amazon Marketplace  142.00  Warehouse Express  150.99  Compare prices

This all-in-one comes adds WiFi and a double-sided mode to fast, good quality printing.  It really shines with photos, where the prints can rival professional developers. Slightly cheaper is the MP560, which is even better value for money.  It's a little slower, and the screen is smaller.

And two laser options

Good value laser printing
Compact, stylish design

Samsung ML-1630W STORES £     IT247  108.83  Printerbase  111.62  Amazon Marketplace  116.49              Compare prices

Can you really get an all-in-one WiFi laser printer for such a lower price?  You certainly can, but like other 'cheap' lasers, you'll end up paying in consumables, with a high cost per page of almost five pence.  Still, that's half what you'd pay with an inkjet ...

Quality laser in colour
Great quality printing

Brother MFC-9320CW STORES £     Amazon Marketplace  240.95  Amazon Marketplace  242.39                  Compare prices

This is a four-in-one (with a fax) that gets you a colour laser printer for the cost of a black-and-white.  It's smaller and more efficient than other ranges, but it's a shame it still doesn't have double-sided printing. There are three versions: the MFC-255CW which has WiFi the MFC-295CN which has Ethernet the MFC-795CW at the top of the range with a large colour screen, WiFi and Ethernet