Best inkjet MFP for home in 2021 - Canon, HP or Epson?

All four models have black as their key design color, and the lines tend to be more rectangular with a slight smoothing of the edges. Some exception here is only MFP Epson L3100, whose ribs are more rounded, and the surface of the case edges itself has a corrugated pattern, which clearly distinguishes the model from competitors. In addition, the L3100 is smaller in size and lighter in weight, which means it takes up less space and is easier to carry. Second place in this category will be given to HP Smart Tank 500 for the presence of another color in the design, because the scanner cover here has a shade of gray.

Models from Brother and Epson have taken the path of minimizing the number of buttons, which forces you to select modes by repeated pressing, and Canon PIXMA G3411 on the contrary, it is crammed full of buttons that take up all the space on the right side of the top bar. In this plan HP Smart Tank 500 occupies the golden mean, besides it is equipped with the most informational display, albeit a single-line one. Another undeniable advantage HP Smart Tank 500 – convenient angle of inclination of the control panel, which allows you to control information about the operation of the device from a distance of several meters. Microdisplay is also available Canon PIXMA G3411, which, together with a large number of controls, allows you to speed up the process of selecting the desired mode, for which this model is awarded second place.

As for the features of filling with black and colored paint, all models are made using a similar technology - small bottles are inserted into the corresponding filling holes, access to which is opened from the front of the MFP and is not blocked by anything. Thus, in this issue we fix full parity and will not single out any specific device.

Let's move on to the most delicious according to many users. It can print faster than anyone, of course, according to data from manufacturers, Brother DCP-T420W, capable of delivering up to 16 pages per minute in black and white and up to 9 in color. Slightly slower typing HP Smart Tank 500, but at the same time it leads in copying speed, managing to "spit out" up to 10 b/w copies per minute. In turn, no one compares to Canon PIXMA G3411 on scanning speed, so that your old photos or the necessary documents will be stuck to a message in social networks or e-mail almost instantly, after all, the speed of 14 pages per minute is incredibly fast. Epson L3100 prints at the level of a competitor from Canon, but the speed of the scanner in Epson is silent, so it is unlikely to be outstanding, therefore, in aggregate, the L3100 closes the top four in this comparison category.

Distributing places in the leading group, we will still focus on print speed, because users encounter it more often, and they buy a color MFP mainly for printing, and the scanner and copier functions are considered as a nice bonus that may be needed in the future. So, the best in this indicator - Brother DCP-T420W. Second line for HP Smart Tank 500, will close the triple - Canon PIXMA G3411.

As can be seen from the table, technically Brother DCP-T420W offers the highest resolutions for all three functions of the MFP and many will immediately consider it the best in terms of print quality, but there are a number of pitfalls.The fact is that this model is full of complaints from buyers, just related to the parameter in question. The DCP-T420W receives the lowest user ratings for print quality (there is no model on Yandex.Market, but the situation would be similar there). This is due both to the inconvenience of setting up the software, especially under MacOS, and to the inaccurate reproduction of color shades, which is especially striking when printing photos. Another common problem is the poor performance of the manual feed tray, which regularly “spits out” sheets back or drives them empty.

The remaining three models as a whole are as close as possible to each other, especially in terms of user experience, although they also have their drawbacks. For example, Canon PIXMA G3411 tends to "chew" photographic paper, Epson L3100 he also plays weird with photo paper, “forgetting” to grab it, and prints without it, splashing paint inside the case, but HP Smart Tank 500 darkens shades and eats up ink at a too frantic pace when you select the print mode in high quality.

As a result, everyone will receive a decrease in the rating, but we will single out a little for the better Epson L3100 for the best balance of resolutions for home use and the highest pair of marks for print quality. Next come Canon PIXMA G3411 and HP Smart tank 500, a Brother DCP-T420W in this nomination outsider.

Most of the participants have a standard paper loading capacity for home MFP models, i.e. 100 sheets and only Brother DCP-T420W allows you to load 150 sheets at once. At the same time, its output tray has a noticeably lower capacity, limited to 50 sheets, while Canon PIXMA G3411 and can even give out one and a half norms of loading without the need to remove the printed sheets. It is difficult to choose a leader here, after all, a larger loading volume is more important to someone, and someone prefers an increased output capacity so as not to constantly take out paper during large-scale printing volumes. Given this moment, the two models already mentioned occupy the first line, and the remaining ones will be located in second place.

All four models under consideration are built on the basis of a 4-color CISS with a convenient filling system and ink level indicators. At the same time, Brother and Epson have all four containers located side by side, while Canon and HP preferred to place the black container separately. This is not a plus, but not a minus, just information for your information. As for the volume of cartridges, then, if we evaluate the "factory" expectations, the largest number of black / white prints is able to produce HP Smart Tank 500, and in terms of the upper limit of color printing capabilities, the best result is Epson L3100. However, these are rather subjective estimates, the actual level depends on the page density, the selected print quality, and even the level of print head wear. Let's put Brother and HP among the leaders for high expectations of the volumes of possible black and white printing, used at home much more often.

All MFPs included in our comparison fully support printing on any type of paper: glossy, semi-gloss, matte, photo paper. They also print on envelopes and postcards without any problems, but none of the participants in the study have the option to print on discs. As for the density of paper, the lower threshold is the same for almost everyone, only a little worse for HP Smart Tank 500, but it is noticeably ahead of everyone on the upper threshold, which makes it possible to work with denser photo paper and even cardboard. It is for this quality that we still give the palm to the model from HP, and then we put Canon, which is as close as possible in terms of the upper density bar. Rounds out the list of Brother MFPs with the narrowest range of recommended media weights.

In terms of cable connection, all comparison participants are the same - the USB interface of the already outdated 2.0 standard is used, which is quite logical and expected from devices in this price range, and indeed from MFPs in general, for which USB 3.0 speed is excessive for standard tasks. But still, in this nomination there are a couple of leaders who, in addition to a wired connection, also have a wireless Wi-Fi connection. It's about Brother DCP-T420W and Canon PIXMA G3411that support direct printing from a tablet or smartphone, plus Canon has a good option for printing from the cloud, and in general, the wireless printing functionality in the software is better developed, for which the PIXMA G3411 wins in this nomination.

Economy parameters from year to year are becoming more relevant and more important for more users. As you can see from the table, the best level of energy savings can be provided by HP Smart Tank 500, and the advantage is the most noticeable, because the other participants in the comparison consume almost four times more in the operating mode.Epson has the worst result, while Canon provides slightly better idle savings, as close as possible to HP.

MFP buyers Brother DCP-T420W encounter problems 0.98% of the time. This is the data of the DNS service center based on more than 1000 sales, i.e. the reliability coefficient of the device is a good 99.02%, which indicates the rarity of critical breakdowns. If you study in detail the statistics of requests, then most often they are associated with a deterioration in print quality, frequent printing errors and failure of the Wi-Fi module. The reviews also write about the too noisy operation of the paper pick-up mechanism and the rapid contamination of the print head, so it will have to be cleaned regularly, otherwise we will get the aforementioned deterioration in print quality. There are also a lot of complaints about the overly complicated Wi-Fi setup process and especially its terrible work under MacOS, which ultimately led to a significant underestimation of the device's rating.

Canon PIXMA G3411 has a reliability rating of 98.51% and a user quality rating of 4.8 points. Most often, buyers contact the service due to problems with the paper capture mechanism, it either starts to chew the sheets, or does not see them at all, or complains about stuck pieces of paper that are not there.Another negative nuance is that the MFP starts to confuse colors, especially green shades.

At Epson L3100 the reliability rating is still slightly lower - 98.1%, i.е. problems occur in almost 2% of devices sold. As in the case of Canon, the Epson model also often starts to junk the paper pick-up mechanism, plus ink smudges are possible, which causes streaks to print.

Worst result for HP Smart Tank 500, which is generally expected, since over the past decade this American brand has noticeably spoiled its reputation and drastically reduced the quality of its office equipment. The reliability index of the model considered in comparison is 97.65%, i.e. 2.35% of all MFPs sold are sent to the service.

As you can see, all participants have a number of problems, but in general, their propensity for breakdowns is within acceptable limits by today's market standards. Another important point is that none of the manufacturers issues an official warranty for more than 12 months, but HP offers the possibility of extending the warranty to three years when registering on the company's website.

From the point of view of affordability, of the four models considered, the best choice is Canon PIXMA G3411 and HP Smart Tank 500. Both MFPs have the same average price on the market and often side by side in the distribution of places in the previous nominations, i.е. offer an approximately equal price / quality ratio. It will cost a little more Brother DCP-T420W, but for high-quality photo printing from Epson L3100 have to pay the most.

Our comparison study is coming to an end and it's time to sum up the result. All models, according to the average overall assessment, fit into the range from 4.70 to 4.80, i.e. very close to each other, but the MFP scored the highest score HP Smart Tank 500, winning in five categories. This is the most economical and affordable option with a wide range of paper weight support, as well as a large capacity of CISS. A little behind Canon PIXMA G3411, which is also the best value for money and the leader in wireless performance, plus has the largest output bin. The third line goes to the Brother DCP-T420W, which has no equal in terms of print speed. Also, this model is the least likely to be in service centers, holds up to 150 sheets in the paper feed tray and is not much worse than HP in terms of the possible number of printed pages. The Epson L3100 closes the list, it is beautiful and prints well on photo paper, but this is not enough for leadership.