Compare the Best Inkjet PrintersMarch 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

The price range of inkjets is from $49 to $13,225 and in total we found prices for 92 inkjets. On average, a new inkjet printer costs $548 and 80% of inkjet printers are priced between $100 and $895. The Epson SureColor F2100 is the most expensive inkjet that we found at $13,225, and the HP OfficeJet Pro is the cheapest at only $50.

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 brands.

Epson inkjets start at $100 and their most expensive inkjet costs $13,225. The average price of Epson inkjets is $918 which is the second highest average price of all inkjet brands.

HP inkjets range in price from $50 to $2,495, and the average price of HP inkjets is $367 which is the third highest average price of all inkjet printer brands.

Inkjet Printer Brands - Average Ratings

We have checked 390 expert reviews and 4,171 user reviews for inkjets and used these reviews to determine the average rating for each brand of inkjet. The top rated inkjet brand is HP with an average rating of 86%. The second best brand is Epson with 82% and the third best brand is Canon with 78%.

Biggest Inkjet Printer Retailers

We found 153 current offers for inkjets from eBay making it the biggest inkjet printer retailer. That is over 5 times bigger than the second biggest retailer, Adorama for whom we found 29 current offers for inkjets. The third biggest retailer is Overstock with 15 current inkjet printer offers.

When Are Most New Inkjets Released?

The most common period for new inkjet printers to be released in is between February and April. That means that most of the latest inkjet printer technology was released in within the last 3 months, and now is good time to buy. In February 2020, seven new inkjet printers were released making it the biggest month that year for new inkjet printer releases. April was the biggest month in 2019 for new inkjets, with 37 new inkjets released that month. 21 new inkjets were released in December 2018 making it the biggest month that year for new inkjet printer releases.

How Fast Do Inkjet Printer Prices Drop After Release?

On average, in the first 6 months after release, inkjets drop in price by 10%.

If you are prepared to wait then you could save an average of $56 on a typical $548 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 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 P57750DW, which is a 50ppm print speed (colour, normal quality, A4/US Le inkjet and is priced at $549.00. The HP DesignJet T730, which can be purchased for $2,495.00, has the slowest print speed (colour) and is a 1.36ppm print speed (colour, normal quality, A4/US Le inkjet.

Maximum Resolutions

Maximum printing resolution.

The most common maximum resolution amongst new inkjet printers is 4800 x 1200 DPI. We found 192 inkjet printers that are 4800 x 1200 DPI inkjets. We found 69 inkjets that are 5760 x 1440 DPI inkjet printers, making 5760 x 1440 DPI the second most common maximum resolution amongst new inkjets.

Wi-Fis

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

The vast majority of the 479 new inkjets currently listed on Kagoo are inkjets with a Wi-Fi. 415 out of 479 are inkjets with a Wi-Fi.

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. 95 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. 62.1% of their inkjet prices were the cheapest that could be found anywhere.