CastleScore November 2026: The Printers That Moved
Last Updated:November's story is a price tag. The Brother MFC-T780DW got about $60 more expensive at the big retailers, and that one change hands the Epson EcoTank ET-2980 the inkjet crown outright. An office EcoTank breaks into the Top 10, an old budget Brother drops out, and the laser list barely twitches.
The CastleScore rates every printer from 0 to 100 on six weighted pillars: owner sentiment, expert consensus, true cost to run, reliability and longevity, features and usability, and value for money. Here's what moved this month and why.
The short version
November 2026 at a glance
- Inkjet #1, now on its own: the Epson EcoTank ET-2980 stays at 90 (Castle Elite). Last month it shared the top score; this month nobody else is at 90.
- Biggest faller: the Brother MFC-T780DW drops from 90 to 89 after its street price rose to about $380. It keeps #2.
- 1 new entry: the Epson EcoTank ET-4950 comes in at inkjet #5 with 88.
- 1 departure: the Brother MFC-J1205W (78) falls out of the inkjet Top 10.
- Risers on points: Brother MFC-J4355DW (84 to 85) and Canon Color imageCLASS MF753Cdw II (85 to 86).
- Laser #1 unchanged: the Brother HL-L2460DW holds the top spot at 90 for a third straight month, with the same Top 10 in the same order.
Inkjet: the ET-2980 pulls clear
| Printer | Rank | Score | What changed |
|---|---|---|---|
| Epson EcoTank ET-2980 | #1 – | 90 | Nothing about the Epson changed. It leads alone because its co-leader lost a point. |
| Brother MFC-T780DW | #2 – | 89 −1 | Now about $380 at Amazon, Walmart and Best Buy, up from the roughly $320 we had. Still the lowest cost per page we track. |
| Epson EcoTank ET-4950 NEW | #5 | 88 | TechRadar's best ink tank overall. Adds an ADF and fax to the same ink as the ET-2980. |
| Brother MFC-J4355DW | #8 ▼1 | 85 +1 | Owner ratings keep improving, but the new Epson lands above it. |
Why a price rise moved the top of the list. The MFC-T780DW is still a superb tank printer. Tom's Guide kept it as its best-value all-in-one in its October 13 update, and it runs at about 0.3 cents a black page and 0.94 cents a colour page on its BTD180 ink bottles. But the price at the three big retailers is now about $380, roughly $60 more than when we last scored it. Value is only 5% of the score, so the drop is one point. With the leaders this close, one point decides who's #1.
The office EcoTank arrives. The Epson EcoTank ET-4950 is new to the rankings at #5. TechRadar named it the best ink tank printer overall in its October 15 update. It has a 30-sheet two-sided document feeder, fax, automatic duplex, Ethernet and a touchscreen, and it takes the same Epson 502 ink bottles as the ET-2980, so it costs the same to run. It sells for about $370 on sale (list about $500). That price keeps it out of the top three. If you scan or copy multi-page documents, though, it's the EcoTank to buy.
Canon's MegaTank holds #4. Tom's Guide named the Canon PIXMA G3290 its best all-in-one for photos on October 13. That nudged its expert score up a point, but its CastleScore stays at 88. It runs on GI-21 ink bottles. The older G3270 was on clearance at about $144 on Amazon in early October, if you can live without automatic duplex.
The successor keeps climbing. The Brother MFC-J4355DW gains a point to 85 as more owners review the model that's actually on shelves. It still slips a place, because the ET-4950 lands above it. The model it replaced, the MFC-J4335DW, holds #3 at 89 on its LC406XL cartridges. Buy one if you can find it new at a good price.
Out: the Brother MFC-J1205W (78) drops out of the Top 10. It's still a cheap way to print a few pages a week, but Brother is winding it down and everything above it now scores higher.
The rest of the inkjet list holds its scores and moves down one place: Epson ET-2850 (#6, 86), Epson ET-2903 (#7, 85), Epson WorkForce Pro WF-3820 (#9, 80) and HP OfficeJet Pro 9125e (#10, 79).
Laser: a quiet month
Every laser printer holds the same rank as October. The Brother HL-L2460DW and MFC-L2820DW share the top score at 90, and the HL-L5210DW is still the cheapest laser to run at about 1.9 cents a page. RTINGS refreshed its laser and all-in-one lists in October and the Brother MFC-L8930CDW tops both. That raises its expert score, but its CastleScore stays at 86 (#4).
The one mover on points is the Canon Color imageCLASS MF753Cdw II, up from 85 to 86. Tom's Guide kept it as its best all-in-one overall on October 13. It now matches the MFC-L8930CDW and Canon LBP246dw II at 86 and is listed sixth, just behind them.
Where owners and experts disagree
We flag printers where owner reviews and expert reviews are far apart. Two stand out this month:
- HP OfficeJet Pro 9125e: experts like its speed and features, but Amazon owners give it about 3.5 stars across roughly 3,700 reviews. Running cost and HP's cartridge checks come up again and again.
- Brother MFC-L8930CDW: our highest expert score on either list, but owners rate it well below the reviewers. It's a $700 machine, and owners notice the drum, belt and waste-box costs that reviewers mostly skip.
If you're weighing either one, read the one- and two-star reviews before you buy.
What this month says about buying a printer
Check today's price before you trust a ranking. The tank printers on our list run from about $180 to $380. The ink costs are close, so the price you pay often decides which one is the better buy. A $60 move was enough to change our #1.
Pay for the document feeder only if you'll use it. The ET-2980 and ET-4950 use the same ink. If you print single pages from your phone, save the money and get the ET-2980. If you scan or copy multi-page documents, the ET-4950's feeder pays for itself.
See the full November 2026 CastleScore rankings →Top 10 inkjet printers · Top 10 laser printers · PrinterIQ Finder · How the CastleScore works · October 2026 rankings
How we score. Every printer earns a 0–100 CastleScore from six weighted pillars: owner sentiment (28%), expert consensus (18% inkjet / 20% laser), true cost to run (24% / 18%), reliability and longevity (13% / 18%), features and usability (12% / 11%) and value for money (5%). Cost-per-page figures come from real cartridge and toner pricing. AI-assisted, human-verified: we use AI to read owner reviews and expert tests at a scale no team could match by hand, and our editors set every final ranking. Prices are street prices at the time of writing and change constantly. Some links to retailers are affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate, Castle Ink earns from qualifying purchases.
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An independent 0–100 score for every printer, refreshed monthly from thousands of owner reviews and expert tests — plus what the ink or toner actually costs to run. See this month's Top 10 inkjet and laser rankings, or use the PrinterIQ™ finder.
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