Compare the Best Inkjet PrintersOctober 2018

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.

Ink Cartridges

Inkjet printers are generally cheaper than laser printers, however they have significantly higher running costs. This is because the individual ink cartridges used for the printing (usually 4 - black, yellow, magenta & cyan) are expensive to purchase, and are used up far quickly than toner cartridges for laser printers. Therefore though inkjet printers may seem like a good bargain when you first buy them, they may be a false saving if you only print black and white documents - a laserjet will save more money in the long term.

On the subject of cartridges, there are two main types of ink cartridges used for these printers - dye and pigment inks. While there isn’t a massive difference between the two, dye inks give more vivid and brighter colours, whereas pigments inks are more resilient, and less prone to fading. However recent improvements to both types of ink have shortened the gap between them, meaning you won’t really go wrong with either choice of ink type.

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.

Print Quality

When choosing an inkjet printer, print quality is among the most important considerations. The output quality of the printers on our site are measured in dots per inch (dpi) - higher dpi printers use more ink in denser configurations. This allow for far more detail and colour depth to be packed into every inch of the printing, leading to far higher quality prints.

It is also important to consider the number of print nozzles when choosing an inkjet printer. The more nozzles a printer has, the higher the density of ink it can apply to the page. Printers with a very high number of nozzles will be more expensive than other models, but you will gain far higher-quality prints from it, so it may well be worth the expense.

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 123 inkjets ranging from $27 to $6,595. A new inkjet costs on average $369 and 80% of inkjet printers are priced between $42 and $600. The Lexmark Cs820dte is the most expensive inkjet that we found at $6,594, and the Canon Pixma iP4200 is the cheapest at only $28.

Inkjet Brands - Price Range

Xerox inkjet printers start at $152 and their most expensive inkjet costs $4,655. The highest average inkjet price out of all brands is Xerox inkjet printers with an average price of $2,404.

Lexmark inkjets start at $29 and their most expensive inkjet printer costs $6,594. The average price of Lexmark inkjets is $1,691 which is the second highest average price of all inkjet printer brands.

The average price of HP inkjets is $352 which is the third highest average price of all inkjet printer brands. HP inkjets start at $30 and their most expensive inkjet printer costs $3,318.

Inkjet Brands - Average Ratings

We have evaluated 1,011 expert reviews and 53,907 user reviews for inkjets from across the internet and used this data to determine the average rating for each brand of inkjet. HP is the top rated inkjet brand with an average rating of 89%. Canon is the second best brand with 85% and Brother is the third best brand with 81%.

Biggest Inkjet Retailers

The biggest inkjet printer retailer by number of products currently for sale is eBay. We found 78 current inkjet printer offers from eBay. The second biggest retailer is Amazon US with 60 offers. That means eBay is significantly bigger than Amazon US when it comes to inkjets. Adorama is the third biggest retailer with 22 current offers.

When Are Most New Inkjet Printers Released?

The most common period for new inkjets to be released in is between September and October. That means that most of the latest inkjet technology was released in within the last 3 months, and now is good time to buy. In October 2017 seven new inkjets were released making it the biggest month that year for new inkjet releases. 25 new inkjet printers were released in October 2016 making it the biggest month that year as well for new inkjet printer releases. September was the biggest month in 2015 for new inkjet printers, with 121 new inkjet printers released that month.

How Fast Do Inkjet Prices Drop After Release?

In the first 6 months after release, inkjets drop in price by 61% on average. If you are prepared to wait then you could save an average of $226 on a typical $369 new inkjet 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.

Comparing all inkjet printers, the print speeds (colour) range from 1ppm to 63ppm. The print speeds (colour) of most inkjet printers range from 1ppm to 7ppm. The Lexmark MS811dtn, which is on sale for $29.37, has the fastest print speed (colour) and is a 63ppm print speed (colour, normal quality, A4/US Le inkjet printer. The HP DesignJet T730, which currently retails for $3,200.99, has the slowest print speed (colour) and is a 1.36ppm print speed (colour, normal quality, A4/US Le inkjet printer.

Maximum Resolutions

Maximum printing resolution.

4800 x 1200 DPI is the most popular maximum resolution amongst new inkjets. We found 112 inkjets that are 4800 x 1200 DPI inkjet printers. 5760 x 1440 DPI is the second most popular maximum resolution amongst new inkjets. We found 46 inkjets that are 5760 x 1440 DPI inkjets.

Wi-Fis

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

The vast majority of the 323 new inkjets currently listed on Kagoo are inkjets with a Wi-Fi. 271 inkjets (84%) are inkjets 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. 67 of their inkjet printer prices were the cheapest that could be found anywhere.

Proportion of Inkjet Printers for Which Each Retailer is Cheapest?

Assessing how cheap each retailer is for inkjet printers 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. 85.9% of their inkjet printer prices were the cheapest that could be found anywhere.