Best laser printers for Mac in 2023: revolutionize your printing experience

Posted:
in General Discussion edited February 2023
Whether you own a business, have a home office, or just want something simple that gets the job done, we've rounded up the best laser printer choices for Mac with design, price, and must-have features in mind.

Best laser printer for Mac | HP, Canon options on paper mosaic background
Best laser printer for Mac


Selecting a printer, pulling it out of the box, and connecting it to your Mac for its first job used to be an exasperating ordeal.

In 2023, many printers compatible with Mac are wireless, work seamlessly straight from the box with software and 24/7 assistance that effortlessly guides, and can be commanded by your iPhone or tablet using relevant apps.

When it comes to laser vs. inkjet printers, we prefer laser. After fighting with clogged heads, ridiculous cartridge prices, and issues with ink drying up before use, affordable laser printers are now the gold standard for the home or office.

The best laser printers yield sharp, high-quality text and graphics, and unlike inkjets -- which require a once-a-week cleaning -- you won't need to worry about clogs if you go offline for a few weeks to that much-needed vacation to Hawaii.

Brother MFCL8900CDW

If you're a business owner with a team that demands higher print volumes, the Brother MFCL8900CDW is for you.

Brother MFCL8900CDW Printer
Brother MFCL8900CDW Printer




It includes cost-effective printing, easy-to-navigate scanning, document handling that is secure, and quality output.

We've all waited by a printer at work, staring lifelessly as it does its seemingly never-ending job. Thankfully, this printer is fast, with print speeds of up to 33ppm and a double-sided scan feature of up to 58ipm.

If you've got someone in the office who unnecessarily prints everything in full color, its advanced security features can limit ink waste by allowing the handler to control color printing and device access.

If you're printing 50-page handbooks for a meeting, with a 1,300-sheet paper capacity with extra trays, you won't have to worry about loading the paper tray halfway through.

One huge perk is just how fast it's ready for use. In minutes after turning it on, you can wirelessly print from your iPhone, iPad, and desktop without a hitch.

When using a wireless connection, it might take thirty seconds to wake up, but this beats the age-long waits of the past.

The Brother MFCL8900CDW is available from BHPhotoVideo.com and Amazon.com for $649.99.

Brother Monochrome Laser HL-L2390DW Printer

The Brother HL-L2390DW is a monochrome printer that is a more affordable choice than its hefty sibling above. It is best for homes or small offices that require the occasional print job.

Brother HL-L2390DW Printer
Brother HL-L2390DW Printer




It seamlessly copies and scans, with print speeds of up to 32 pages per minute. It is compatible with WiFi and USB interfaces and can be commanded using your iPhone.

The tray can hold up to 250 pages, which is a nice healthy amount of paper for larger print jobs.

The only small complaint is that you will need to input your WiFi password using the up and down keys on the printer. This might seem annoying and a little archaic, but it is a one-time process and can be completed in a few moments.

This printer comes with a one-year warranty and free support. It is available from Amazon.com and BestBuy.com for $189.99.

Canon Color imageCLASS MF644Cdw Laser Printer

This printer was chosen for the price of ownership, ease of setup, and image print quality. Though the cost to purchase the printer might seem steep, the cost of ownership overall will be a fraction of the ink cost over the life of the printer.

Canon Color imageCLASS MF644Cdw Laser Printer
Canon Color imageCLASS MF644Cdw Laser Printer




The quick start guide included with this packaging is sufficient for most home and small office users. The overall cost to own and use this printer is what sets it apart from others, as you can find cartridges for this printer online for less than the price of others.

You also have the capability to AirDrop photos from your iPad or iPhone to the printer for fast printing. This makes decorating your fridge with photos of the new grandbaby a breeze.

The printer itself requires very little setup. All you must do is connect the printer to the WiFi, tap print, and then select device.

It retails for $399.00, but is currently on sale at Amazon.com.

HP Color LaserJet Pro Multifunction M479fdw Wireless Laser Printer

This printer is another fantastic choice for the small business or home office with moderate (under 1,000 pages per month) print volumes. It is a bit of an investment, but it is reliable, easy to program, and the toner cartridge replacement price is fair.

HP Color LaserJet Pro Multifunction M479fdw Wireless Laser Printer
HP Color LaserJet Pro Multifunction M479fdw Wireless Laser Printer




It has wireless and mobile printing capabilities, a large touch screen, top-of-the-line duplex printing, and a USB port for simple connectivity.

It can be connected to your home or office network with built-in Ethernet or WiFi. In addition to Wi-Fi, other mobile connectivity options include Apple AirPrint, Google Cloud Print, HP ePrint, HP Smart App, Mobile Apps, and Mopria.

Unlike the printer above, this printer is not a photo printer, but it can crank out 4x6 snapshots in around ten seconds -- which is standard for most color laser printers. Photo prints are not distorted in color and the detail is excellent.

Note that it is a beast, weighing around 51.6 pounds.

This printer is available from Amazon.com for $818.99.

Canon imageCLASS MF451dw Monochrome All-in-One Wireless Laser Printer

We included a high-end Canon above, but if you mainly print in black and white and are looking for something a little cheaper without sacrificing quality, CanonimageClASS MF451dw is a great option.

Canon imageCLASS MF451dw Monochrome All-in-One Wireless Laser Printer
Canon imageCLASS MF451dw Monochrome All-in-One Wireless Laser Printer




It is designed for small and medium-sized businesses and allows you to print, scan, and copy. While it is a black-and-white printer, scanning can still be completed in color.

It includes a 250-sheet main input tray, a multipurpose tray with 100 sheets, and supports an optional 550-sheet input tray. A 5" color touchscreen simplifies the user experience.

The scan function supports letter, legal, and statement document sizes. Additionally, duplex scanning is supported.

It is available from Amazon.com for $237.97.

Canon imageCLASS LBP6030w Wireless Black-and-White Laser Printer

If you didn't come here for extravagant printer features and just want a cheap workhorse that goes about its business without complaint, the Canon imageCLASS LBP6030w is for you. What you get is simple, black-and-white wireless printing.

Canon imageCLASS LBP6030w Wireless Black-and-White Laser Printer
Canon imageCLASS LBP6030w Wireless Black-and-White Laser Printer




If you don't use a printer daily and color printing isn't a must-have feature, this printer does the job. Mobile printing is supported and be completed through the Canon business app.

It is easy to set up and includes a 150-sheet front-loading paper cassette. It is compatible with wireless printing, and the printer's compact design will take up minimal space on your desk. Weighing in at eleven pounds, this printer is no heavier than your cat.

The printer is fast, energetic, and cost-effective to run in the long term. Aftermarket toner can be found for a great price on Amazon.

It is available for $69 at Amazon and $79.99 at BestBuy.com.

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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 24
    FWIW, we’ve got the Canon 644. Yeah, easy to set up, blah blah blah… But it’s also incredibly powerful as both a printer and as a scanner. The scanner simultaneously scans both sides of the page, which is a massive time saver for large documents. I scan frequently enough that I set up four icons on the first menu screen for B&W single and double-sided, and the same for color, each of which scan directly to a folder on my NAS which is actually a Dropbox folder so I won’t lose access to any important documents.

    Print quality is great and you can print onto different print stock single sided or duplexes. Third-party toner is easy to find and costs about a third of what Canon charges.

    The only thing I wish I’d done different is to buy the 700-series printer. Its paper tray holds more and the print speed is doubled. Otherwise, I’m completely satisfied with it.
  • Reply 2 of 24
    eightzeroeightzero Posts: 3,056member
    The Canon 644 (and likely the others) has something called a "fax" function. This is unusable unless you have a dedicated phone land line. Anyone know of any alternatives for use in the cell era?
  • Reply 3 of 24
    Email?      
    williamlondonappleinsiderusermike1
  • Reply 4 of 24
    rob53rob53 Posts: 3,241member
    eightzero said:
    The Canon 644 (and likely the others) has something called a "fax" function. This is unusable unless you have a dedicated phone land line. Anyone know of any alternatives for use in the cell era?
    There's plenty of fax apps available that let you fax through the internet for a reasonable cost. Scan everything to a pdf and fax it. It's much faster than the old twisted pair telephone connection. There's also the possibility of the fax function on these printers being able to send the scans through the internet. I haven't looked for one since I rarely need this function except for antiquated government agencies. 

    As for using a cellular connection, I believe I've seen Apple apps that let you "fax" using cellular including using the phone's scan feature. If you have a large amount of pages to send you can scan to a Mac, save it on a cloud account, access the pdf on your phone and fax it. It's a little more effort but probably more secure.
    edited February 2023 StrangeDays
  • Reply 5 of 24
    Dave CummingsDave Cummings Posts: 43unconfirmed, member
    Though it’s not a laser printer, I absolutely love my Epson Wf-7840 Scanner/printer. I can scan my 11x17 artboards from my iPad Pro at 600 dpi with zero problems. Between that and Affinity Publisher being on the iPad, I pretty much have zero need for anything but my iPad. The only exception is if a job I’m working requires After Effects work
  • Reply 6 of 24
    eightzeroeightzero Posts: 3,056member
    rob53 said:
    eightzero said:
    The Canon 644 (and likely the others) has something called a "fax" function. This is unusable unless you have a dedicated phone land line. Anyone know of any alternatives for use in the cell era?
    There's plenty of fax apps available that let you fax through the internet for a reasonable cost. Scan everything to a pdf and fax it. It's much faster than the old twisted pair telephone connection. There's also the possibility of the fax function on these printers being able to send the scans through the internet. I haven't looked for one since I rarely need this function except for antiquated government agencies. 

    As for using a cellular connection, I believe I've seen Apple apps that let you "fax" using cellular including using the phone's scan feature. If you have a large amount of pages to send you can scan to a Mac, save it on a cloud account, access the pdf on your phone and fax it. It's a little more effort but probably more secure.
    Thanks, but I was unclear: i'm looking for a hardware solution to use the fax port on the laser printer/scanner in place of a landline. Macs have a wifi calling feature compatible with iPhones, and it seems like maybe they could be connected somehow - perhaps even by a wire.
  • Reply 7 of 24
    oldenboomoldenboom Posts: 29unconfirmed, member
    Glad I switched back to inkjet from laser. I now have an Epson Inkjet 3000-series EcoTank printer. The ink-bottles aren't expensive and it even came with two sets of bottles. The teenage kid in the house, who loves printing, didn't manage to empty the first set in 1,5 years: they're halfway empty now.  Extrapolating that would mean the printer came with 6 years of ink included - this is a bargain. What a contrast to my former inkjet printers with those expensive ink cartridges and even my color laser printer with those expensive toner cartridges. And as a bonus a document feeder for scanning. Only drawback: one has to print at least one color page once in two weeks. With that teenager in the house that's not an issue.


    muthuk_vanalingamdewme
  • Reply 8 of 24
    eightzero said:
    rob53 said:
    eightzero said:
    The Canon 644 (and likely the others) has something called a "fax" function. This is unusable unless you have a dedicated phone land line. Anyone know of any alternatives for use in the cell era?
    There's plenty of fax apps available that let you fax through the internet for a reasonable cost. Scan everything to a pdf and fax it. It's much faster than the old twisted pair telephone connection. There's also the possibility of the fax function on these printers being able to send the scans through the internet. I haven't looked for one since I rarely need this function except for antiquated government agencies. 

    As for using a cellular connection, I believe I've seen Apple apps that let you "fax" using cellular including using the phone's scan feature. If you have a large amount of pages to send you can scan to a Mac, save it on a cloud account, access the pdf on your phone and fax it. It's a little more effort but probably more secure.
    Thanks, but I was unclear: i'm looking for a hardware solution to use the fax port on the laser printer/scanner in place of a landline. Macs have a wifi calling feature compatible with iPhones, and it seems like maybe they could be connected somehow - perhaps even by a wire.
    Probably not. Things such as https://www.ebay.com/itm/194221573240 don’t do fax, just voice.
  • Reply 9 of 24
    I bought a Canon instead of an HP because HP goes out of their way to make sure third-party toner will not work. Canon on the other hand does not try to prevent that. You can get perfectly functional and reliable toner for Canons for a fraction of the OEM price. This is such a huge negative against HP that it should be the first thing mentioned in any review. The cost of ownership is orders of magnitude higher.
  • Reply 10 of 24
    eightzero said:
    rob53 said:
    eightzero said:
    The Canon 644 (and likely the others) has something called a "fax" function. This is unusable unless you have a dedicated phone land line. Anyone know of any alternatives for use in the cell era?
    There's plenty of fax apps available that let you fax through the internet for a reasonable cost. Scan everything to a pdf and fax it. It's much faster than the old twisted pair telephone connection. There's also the possibility of the fax function on these printers being able to send the scans through the internet. I haven't looked for one since I rarely need this function except for antiquated government agencies. 

    As for using a cellular connection, I believe I've seen Apple apps that let you "fax" using cellular including using the phone's scan feature. If you have a large amount of pages to send you can scan to a Mac, save it on a cloud account, access the pdf on your phone and fax it. It's a little more effort but probably more secure.
    Thanks, but I was unclear: i'm looking for a hardware solution to use the fax port on the laser printer/scanner in place of a landline. Macs have a wifi calling feature compatible with iPhones, and it seems like maybe they could be connected somehow - perhaps even by a wire.
    Probably not. Things such as https://www.ebay.com/itm/194221573240 don’t do fax, just voice.
    Seems to be the conventional answer, and there does seem to be some A/D incompatibilities. Yet manufacturers are still going to the trouble to include analog voice fax capability into these new all in one machines even while telcos are actively dropping support for landlines. 

    As others have noted here, the business machine makers are looking for revenue streams from cartridges, toner, ink and the like. It would seem  natural to maybe add a $5/mo SIM card and dedicated line sort of like iPad and Apple Watch do. I'm guessing there is an analog to digital problem here, and maybe it just isn't feasible. 
  • Reply 11 of 24
    I have the HP M182nw. I hugely regretted the purchase as the print quality was horrible including just black text. I was so disappointed after hearing about how perfect laser printers are at least with black text. I’m not sure if there is a difference between Windows and Mac. Maybe print quality looks better on Windows?
  • Reply 12 of 24
    Wife has a Brother monochrome laser similar to the basic one shown. Works fine when it works, but more often than it should it stops responding to her iMac and I have to shut it down unplug, and/or delete it from the Print app and re-install it. Aggravating. Love the line comparing weight to a cat!
  • Reply 13 of 24
    eightzero said:
    The Canon 644 (and likely the others) has something called a "fax" function. This is unusable unless you have a dedicated phone land line. Anyone know of any alternatives for use in the cell era?
    If you really want to send/receive faxes from your printer and don’t have a landline, you could use a VoIP solution like Ooma. I’ve been using it for years. You buy the box (which connects a phone line to the Internet) and the service itself is free, aside from about $5/month in taxes. We pay for Premier which gives a second phone number, enhanced spam filtering, and forwards inbound calls to the Ooma app on our iPhones as well as voicemails via text and email. That adds an annual charge of around $90.
    edited February 2023
  • Reply 14 of 24
    eightzero said:
    eightzero said:
    rob53 said:
    eightzero said:
    The Canon 644 (and likely the others) has something called a "fax" function. This is unusable unless you have a dedicated phone land line. Anyone know of any alternatives for use in the cell era?
    There's plenty of fax apps available that let you fax through the internet for a reasonable cost. Scan everything to a pdf and fax it. It's much faster than the old twisted pair telephone connection. There's also the possibility of the fax function on these printers being able to send the scans through the internet. I haven't looked for one since I rarely need this function except for antiquated government agencies. 

    As for using a cellular connection, I believe I've seen Apple apps that let you "fax" using cellular including using the phone's scan feature. If you have a large amount of pages to send you can scan to a Mac, save it on a cloud account, access the pdf on your phone and fax it. It's a little more effort but probably more secure.
    Thanks, but I was unclear: i'm looking for a hardware solution to use the fax port on the laser printer/scanner in place of a landline. Macs have a wifi calling feature compatible with iPhones, and it seems like maybe they could be connected somehow - perhaps even by a wire.
    Probably not. Things such as https://www.ebay.com/itm/194221573240 don’t do fax, just voice.
    Seems to be the conventional answer, and there does seem to be some A/D incompatibilities. Yet manufacturers are still going to the trouble to include analog voice fax capability into these new all in one machines even while telcos are actively dropping support for landlines. 

    As others have noted here, the business machine makers are looking for revenue streams from cartridges, toner, ink and the like. It would seem  natural to maybe add a $5/mo SIM card and dedicated line sort of like iPad and Apple Watch do. I'm guessing there is an analog to digital problem here, and maybe it just isn't feasible. 
    Yeah it’s the repeated analogue to digital conversations that stop this working. The gsm encoders expect voice sounds and the modulation used in fax tones don’t ‘sound’ like voice. 

    Landlines typically don’t use clever voice encodings, just simple sampling which lets the fax tones though correctly.  
  • Reply 15 of 24
    wozwozwozwoz Posts: 263member
    I had countless problems with Brother products, so it is not a brand that I would recommend. Most of the Colour Laser printers featured in the article are huge. I would also caution against having wireless capabilities built-in: that just ends up saturating your home with harmful and unnecessary radiation. The trick is to find a COMPACT colour laser printer that has DUPLEX and ETHERNET (with optional wireless for those that want it) and 1200dpi. I have been quite impressed with the OKI range and currently use a C332DN. They have a new model out called the C650DN that is apparently the most compact colour laser on the market (though I have not tried that model yet). 
  • Reply 16 of 24
    The HP looks nice but overkill. The HP Laserjet Pro M277dw is the same concept but more practical; I bought it for $330 eight years ago. (That model seems to have gone up in price for some reason, but I’m sure there’s a comparable)
    edited February 2023
  • Reply 17 of 24
    mystigo said:
    I bought a Canon instead of an HP because HP goes out of their way to make sure third-party toner will not work. Canon on the other hand does not try to prevent that. You can get perfectly functional and reliable toner for Canons for a fraction of the OEM price. This is such a huge negative against HP that it should be the first thing mentioned in any review. The cost of ownership is orders of magnitude higher.
    I use third-party toner cartridges on my HP. CYMK pack for $67, lasts me quite a while. 
  • Reply 18 of 24
    I've been down the OKI & HP route too, however, the Xerox Phaser 6510DN is my current fav, it's quite fast, duplex, has AirPrint, ethernet, wifi and is reasonably compact. Plus (3rd party) toner is cheap cheap cheap!
  • Reply 19 of 24
    maltzmaltz Posts: 453member
    Huge fan of Brother printers here.  After decades of fighting with inkjet nonsense (plugged heads wasting ink and/or cleaning cycles wasting ink) I made the leap to a color laser, and it's incredible.  It's a big cost up front, but no-hassle and no-waste from then on.  I have the predecessor to the first one listed here, to get full-duplex and the legal-size scan bed.  Love it.
  • Reply 20 of 24
    mattinozmattinoz Posts: 2,299member
    do they beep annoyingly at even the most minor things. 
    BEEP BEEEP BEEP - Out of paper
    BEEP BEEEP BEEP - Paper tray opened
    BEEP BEEEP BEEP - Paper tray closed
    BEEP BEEEP BEEP - Confirm paper size (hasn't changed at all)
    BEEP BEEEP BEEP - Resuming printing


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