Compare the Best Inkjet PrintersApril 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 Printer Prices

The price range of inkjets is from $28 to $4,295 and in total we found prices for 101 inkjets. The average price of a new inkjet is $374 and the 80% of inkjets are priced between $60 and $685. The Xerox 7800/DN is the most expensive inkjet that we found at $4,294, and the Epson 1500W is the cheapest at only $29.

Inkjet Printer Brands - Price Range

Xerox inkjet printers range in price from $97 to $4,294, and the average price of Xerox inkjet printers is $1,520 which is the highest average price of all inkjet printer brands.

The average price of Lexmark inkjet printers is $1,140 which is the second highest average price of all inkjet brands. Lexmark inkjet printers start at $30 and their most expensive inkjet costs $2,099.

HP inkjet printers start at $37 and their most expensive inkjet printer costs $3,450. The third highest average inkjet printer price out of all brands is HP inkjet printers with an average price of $370.

Inkjet Printer Brands - Average Ratings

We have evaluated 386 expert reviews and 9,258 user reviews for inkjet printers written online and used these reviews to determine the average rating for each brand of inkjet. The top rated inkjet brand is Brother with an average rating of 90%. The second best brand is HP with 89% and the third best brand is Canon with 84%.

Biggest Inkjet Retailers

We found 74 current offers for inkjet printers from eBay making it the biggest inkjet retailer. That is much bigger than the second biggest retailer, Amazon US for whom we found 37 current offers for inkjet printers. The third biggest retailer is Adorama with 20 current inkjet offers.

When Are Most New Inkjets Released?

Over the last 3 years we couldn't see any prominent pattern in the release month for new inkjet printers. February was the biggest month last year for new inkjets, with nine new inkjets released that month. 34 new inkjets were released in October 2016 making it the biggest month that year for new inkjet releases. The biggest month in 2015 for new inkjet printer releases was September, with 123 new inkjets released that month.

How Fast Do Inkjet Printer Prices Drop After Release?

New inkjets drop in price by an average of 45% in the first 6 months after they wer first released. That means that on a typical inkjet costing $374 you could save on average $168 by waiting 6 months before buying.

Maximum Resolutions

Maximum printing resolution.

We found 95 inkjet printers that are 4800 x 1200 DPI inkjets, which makes 4800 x 1200 DPI the most common maximum resolution amongst new inkjet printers. We found 71 inkjet printers that are 760 x 1440 DPI inkjets, making this the second most frequently found maximum resolution amongst new inkjet printers.

Colour Printing

This indicates whether the inkjet printer is capable of printing in colour, or whether it's limited to black and white only.

Of the 271 new inkjets currently listed on Kagoo, the vast majority are inkjet printers which support colour printing. 258 out of 271 are inkjet printers which support colour printing.

Print Technologies

Inkjet is the most frequently found print technology amongst new inkjet printers. We found 257 inkjet printers that are inkjets that have an Inkjet Print technology. We found 4 inkjet printers that are inkjets that have a Laser Print technology, making this the second most common print technology amongst new inkjet printers.

Which Are the Cheapest Retailers for Inkjet Printers?

The chart below helps you decide which retailer is normally cheapest for buying inkjet printers. For each retailer it shows the total number of inkjet printers 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. 34 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 printer prices more likely to offer the greatest number of cheapest prices. The chart below considers the proportion of each retailer's inkjet printer prices that are the cheapest compared to other retailers. The cheapest retailer that we found using this approach was eBay. 45.9% of their inkjet prices were the cheapest that could be found anywhere.