Compare the Best Inkjet PrintersSeptember 2021

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 Printer Prices

In total we found 98 inkjets ranging from $44 to $13,200. A new inkjet printer costs on average $538 and 80% of inkjet printers are priced between $65 and $794. The cheapest inkjet printer that we found is the HP Officejet Pro 8210 at only $45, and the most expensive is the Epson SureColor F2100 at $13,200.

Inkjet Brands - Price Range

Xerox inkjets range in price from $254 to $4,655, and 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 $13,200, and the second highest average inkjet price out of all brands is Epson inkjet printers with an average price of $917.

Brother inkjet printers start at $163 and their most expensive inkjet costs $794. The average price of Brother inkjet printers is $392 which is the third highest average price of all inkjet brands.

Inkjet Printer Brands - Average Ratings

We have analysed 488 expert reviews and 12,099 user reviews for inkjet printers and used these reviews to calculate the average rating for each brand of inkjet printer. Epson is the top rated inkjet brand with an average rating of 86%. HP is the second best brand with 82% and Canon is the third best brand with 77%.

Biggest Inkjet Retailers

We found 123 current offers for inkjet printers from eBay making it the biggest inkjet printer retailer. That is over 4 times bigger than the second biggest retailer, Adorama for whom we found 26 current offers for inkjet printers. The third biggest retailer is Overstock with 15 current inkjet printer offers.

When Are Most New Inkjets Released?

Most new inkjets tend to be released between February and April. If you wait until February 2022 then you might be able to get better features on your inkjet printer. Alternatively you might be able to buy one of the current inkjet printers cheaper in February once the latest models have been released. February was the biggest month last year for new inkjet printers, with seven new inkjet printers released that month. 39 new inkjets were released in April 2019 making it the biggest month that year for new inkjet printer releases. In 2018 most new inkjets were released in December, with 17 new inkjets released that month.

How Fast Do Inkjet Printer Prices Drop After Release?

In the first 6 months after release, inkjet printers drop in price by 16% on average.

That means a saving of $84 on a typical $538 new inkjet printer if you wait 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.

Across the range of inkjets, the print speeds (colour) range from 1ppm to 75ppm. The print speeds (colour) of most inkjets range from 1ppm to 7ppm. The HP Pagewide Pro 552DW, which sells for $599.00, has the fastest print speed (colour) and is a 50ppm print speed (colour, normal quality, A4/US Le inkjet printer. The inkjet with the slowest print speed (colour) is the HP DesignJet T730, which is a 1.36ppm print speed (colour, normal quality, A4/US Le inkjet and is on sale for $2,795.00.

Maximum Resolutions

Maximum printing resolution.

We found 199 inkjets that are 4800 x 1200 DPI inkjets, which makes 4800 x 1200 DPI the most common maximum resolution amongst new inkjets. We found 69 inkjets that are 5760 x 1440 DPI inkjets, making this the second most popular maximum resolution amongst new inkjets.

Wi-Fis

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

Of the 485 new inkjet printers currently listed on Kagoo, the vast majority are inkjets with a Wi-Fi. 417 out of 485 inkjet printers 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. 93 of their inkjet 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. 75.6% of their inkjet printer prices were the cheapest that could be found anywhere.