Compare the Best Inkjet PrintersOctober 2020

There are 2 main types of printers available on the consumer market - inkjet and laser printers. Both have strengths and weaknesses, and your choice will largely depend on what you plan on using your printer for. This guide will concentrate on information about inkjet printers - for a detailed rundown of laser printers, please see the guide under the Laser/LED printer category.

So, inkjet printers. As the name would suggest, these printers function by squirting a thin, focussed stream of black & coloured ink onto the page. This process makes inkjet significantly slower than laser printers, however there are capable of printing far more vivid colours, higher detail photos, and are generally far more preferable for colour-dependant printing.

Print Speed

Inkjet printers are significantly slower than their laser printing cousins. However even within inkjet printers, there is a significant variety in print speeds - some models of inkjet printer can take double the time to print a page when compared to newer and more efficient models. All of our printers have detailed stats on the number of pages they can print a minute, broken down into black and white, colour, photo, etc. This will allow you to make the best decision as to the printer that best suits your needs.

Connectivity

Most models of inkjet printers have several different network connectivity options to make printing easier and more efficient. Ethernet connectivity is now a common feature in modern printers - so data can be transferred over a network without having to plug your computer into the printer directly. This makes it far easier to share printers with groups: the printer can be placed in a central area and used freely by everyone around.

Additionally, many models of inkjet printer also have wifi and/or bluetooth connectivity. These options mean that you do not even have to use a wire to use the printer - data can be transferred over wireless connection.

Finally, the newest models of printers have support for cloud or app printing. These options allow you to send a document to print from anywhere in the world - from a browser over the cloud, or from an app on your smartphone. While you will pay more money for these options, the convenience they provide may be worth the extra expenditure.

Inkjet Prices

In total we found 93 inkjets ranging from $49 to $5,399. On average, a new inkjet printer costs $463 and 80% of inkjet printers are priced between $84 and $839. The HP DesignJet Z5200 is the most expensive inkjet printer that we found at $5,399, and the HP Envy 5010 is the cheapest at only $50.

Inkjet Printer Brands - Price Range

Xerox inkjets start at $254 and their most expensive inkjet printer costs $4,655. The average price of Xerox inkjets is $2,454 which is the highest average price of all inkjet printer brands.

Epson inkjet printers range in price from $68 to $1,599, and the average price of Epson inkjet printers is $491 which is the second highest average price of all inkjet printer brands.

The average price of HP inkjet printers is $460 which is the third highest average price of all inkjet brands. HP inkjet printers range in price from $50 to $5,399.

Inkjet Printer Brands - Average Ratings

We have evaluated 133 expert reviews and 701 user reviews for inkjets and used this information to evaluate the average rating for each brand of inkjet. Epson is the top rated inkjet printer brand with an average rating of 83%. Canon is the second best brand with 78% and Brother is the third best brand with 65%.

Biggest Inkjet Printer Retailers

The biggest inkjet printer retailer by number of products currently for sale is eBay. We found 214 current inkjet printer offers from eBay. The second biggest retailer is Adorama with 27 offers. That means eBay is over 7 times bigger than Adorama when it comes to inkjet printers. Overstock is the third biggest retailer with 14 current offers.

When Are Most New Inkjets Released?

We looked at the release dates for new inkjets over the last 3 years, but couldn't see any noticeable trend. The biggest month last year for new inkjet releases was April, with 37 new inkjet printers released that month. December was the biggest month in 2018 for new inkjet printers, with 20 new inkjet printers released that month. In 2017 most new inkjet printers were released in September, with 29 new inkjet printers released that month.

How Fast Do Inkjet Prices Drop After Release?

New inkjets drop in price by an average of 11% in the first 6 months after they were first released.

That means that on a typical inkjet printer costing $463 you could save on average $50 by waiting 6 months before buying.

Print Speeds (Colour)

'Print Speed' measures how long it takes the inkjet printer to print a single colour A4 page at normal quality.

The print speeds (colour) of inkjets range from 1ppm to 75ppm. The print speeds (colour) of the majority of inkjets range from 1ppm to 7ppm. The inkjet with the fastest print speed (colour) is the HP Pagewide Pro 552DW, which is a 50ppm print speed (colour, normal quality, A4/US Le inkjet and sells for $549.00. The Canon PIXMA PRO-1, which is available at $729.00, has the slowest print speed (colour) and is a 1ppm print speed (colour, normal quality, A4/US Le inkjet.

Maximum Resolutions

Maximum printing resolution.

The most popular maximum resolution amongst new inkjet printers is 4800 x 1200 DPI. We found 177 inkjet printers that are 4800 x 1200 DPI inkjet printers. 5760 x 1440 DPI is the second most popular maximum resolution amongst new inkjets. We found 66 inkjets that are 5760 x 1440 DPI inkjet printers.

Wi-Fis

'Wi-Fi' denotes whether the laser printer has a support for wireless communications or not.

Of the 470 new inkjets currently listed on Kagoo, the vast majority are inkjet printers with a Wi-Fi. 378 inkjets out of 470 are inkjet printers with a Wi-Fi.

Which Are the Cheapest Retailers for Inkjets?

The chart below helps you decide which retailer is normally cheapest for buying inkjets. For each retailer it shows the total number of inkjets where they currently have a market leading price. The chart below helps you decide which retailer is normally cheapest for buying inkjet printers. For each retailer we took all of their prices and looked at what proportion of those prices where the cheapest on the market. The cheapest retailer that we found was eBay. 145 of their inkjet printer prices were the cheapest that could be found anywhere.

Proportion of Inkjets for Which Each Retailer is Cheapest?

Assessing how cheap each retailer is for inkjets by counting the number of cheapest prices for that retailer, makes the retailers that offer the greatest number of inkjet prices more likely to offer the greatest number of cheapest prices. The chart below considers the proportion of each retailer's inkjet prices that are the cheapest compared to other retailers. The cheapest retailer that we found using this approach was eBay. 67.8% of their inkjet prices were the cheapest that could be found anywhere.