With Black Friday upon us, we’re already seeing a lot of great Black Friday printer deals ready to be bought up. So if you’re looking to pick up a printer for the first time or aren’t familiar with them, we encourage you to check out our primer on Inkjet versus laser to get a better sense of which one you might need. It’s also worth looking at our roundup of the best photo printers since they tend to be designed slightly differently than most printers and are made to take loads of color cartridges. Finally, it’s also a good idea to look at other Black Friday deals for things you can pair with your printer.
Top 5 Black Friday Printer Deals
HP DeskJet 2734e — $50, was $85
The HP DeskJet is probably one of the most common printers you’ll find, and while it’s not one of the best cheap printers you can get, it comes close. Given that it’s a very budget-oriented printer and scanner combo, it is rather basic and mostly works best for those who don’t have a ton of printing to do every month. It can print in both monochrome and colors, which is impressive for something so cheap, and boasts 1200 x 1200 dpi for blacks and 4800 x 1200 for color so that you can get a bit of quality out of it too. There’s also a 1200 x 1200 DPI resolution scanner on board if you need to scan and copy. Luckily, you can print off a mobile app directly through Apple AirPrint, Chrome OS, HP Smart app, and Mopria, which is an excellent feature for something in this price bracket. As if that wasn’t enough, this deal throws in nine months of Instant Ink, so it’s one of the best Black Friday printer deals if you don’t do a ton of printing and need something cheap.
Epson WorkForce Pro — $130, was $200
If you want something a little more heavy-duty, the Epson WorkForce Pro strikes a good balance between cost and features, and the slightly fancier version even made it to our list of best inkjet printers. The WorkForce Pro targets small businesses or businesses running out of the home that needs a larger volume with high quality. To that end, it has a massive 250-sheet capacity and can print 21 pages of monochrome per minute and 11 pages of color per minute, which is a pretty good pace. It also has a handy screen you can control and print from, as well as their Epson app, so you don’t have to go through the hassle of connecting it to a PC. It also prints on two sides if you want it, which is excellent, and the included scanner has a great editor to make the whole process a bit more user-friendly.
Epson EcoTank ET-2800 — $200, was $230
While most folks are familiar with traditional cartridge-based printers, cartridge-free have taken off in the past few years. That means you don’t have to waste cartridges when just one color of ink finishes, and instead, you can top up the colors as they’re used. The ET-2800 is an entry-level cartridge-free printer, but it’s still a good one, especially if you need something for your family or small office space. You get five pages per minute of color and 10 pages per minute of monochrome, which isn’t too bad, especially since it’s higher quality prints, even in monochrome. You also get a flatbed scanner and a thorough control panel that you can use instead of hooking it up to a PC.
Epson EcoTank ET-3830 — $330, was $400
Moving up a notch, the ET-3830 is a lot fancier, with the slightly lower-end model making it on our list of best printers, so while this one is somewhat pricier, it’s worth the cost. It has a higher print speed of eight monochrome pages and 15 color pages per minute and a larger 250-sheet tray. It also has all the different types of connectivity you’d expect for a high-end printer, from ethernet to Epson iPrint and Mopria. There’s also a slightly more complex front panel that gives you a few more control options over the ET-2800. Overall, if you need something for an office, moving up to the ET-3830 is a good idea. Between this and the HP Smart Tank 7301, it’s probably one of the best Black Friday printer deals on the list when it comes to bang for your buck.
HP Smart Tank 7301 — $350, was $460
Epson isn’t the only cartridge-free player in the game, with the HP Smart Tank 7301 being a pretty good contender in both price and quality. It can print nine color pages and 15 monochrome pages per minute, which is slightly faster and has the same print resolution as the Deskjet; 1200X 1200 dpi for blacks and 4800 x 1200 for color. Scan resolution is 1200 x 1200 dpi, although sadly, it doesn’t have a big screen like the Epson for easier copying and scanning. Luckily it has a 250-sheet input tray capacity and 100-sheet output tray, so you can set up a print job and not worry about where all the printer paper will go. Finally, it has all the standard wired and wireless connectivity to control it from an app or PC.
