Compare the Best Inkjet PrintersMay 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.

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 66 inkjet printers ranging from $36 to $5,399. On average, a new inkjet printer costs $450 and 80% of inkjets are priced between $80 and $578. The HP Deskjet 1112 is the cheapest inkjet at only $37, and HP DesignJet Z5200 is the most expensive at $5,399.

Inkjet Brands - Price Range

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

HP inkjets start at $37 and their most expensive inkjet costs $5,399. The average price of HP inkjets is $471 which is the second highest average price of all inkjet brands.

The third highest average inkjet printer price out of all brands is Epson inkjet printers with an average price of $344. Epson inkjet printers start at $105 and their most expensive inkjet printer costs $1,193.

Inkjet Brands - Average Ratings

We have evaluated 400 expert reviews and 4,747 user reviews for inkjets and used this information to determine the average rating for each brand of inkjet printer. The top three inkjet brands are HP, Epson and Canon. HP has an average rating of 86%, Epson has an average rating of 83% and Canon has an average rating of 79%.

Biggest Inkjet Printer Retailers

The biggest inkjet retailer by number of products currently for sale is eBay. We found 258 current inkjet offers from eBay. The second biggest retailer is Adorama with 26 offers. That means eBay is over 9 times bigger than Adorama when it comes to inkjet printers. Target is the third biggest retailer with 17 current offers.

When Are Most New Inkjet Printers Released?

The most common period for new inkjets to be released in is between July and September. If you wait until July 2020 then you might be able to get better features on your inkjet printer. It's also worth keeping in mind that the price of the current inkjets tend to drop off when the next models are released. The biggest month in 2019 for new inkjet releases was July, with 10 new inkjets released that month. 17 new inkjets were released in August 2018 making it the biggest month that year for new inkjet releases. September was the biggest month in 2017 for new inkjets, with 21 new inkjets released that month.

How Fast Do Inkjet Prices Drop After Release?

On average, in the first 6 months after release, inkjets drop in price by 11%.

That means a saving of $51 on a typical $450 new inkjet 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 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 printer and is priced at $549.00. The Epson SureColor P800, which can be purchased for $1,192.99, has the slowest print speed (colour) and is a 3ppm print speed (colour, normal quality, A4/US Le inkjet.

Maximum Resolutions

Maximum printing resolution.

The most popular maximum resolution amongst new inkjets is 4800 x 1200 DPI. We found 150 inkjets that are 4800 x 1200 DPI inkjet printers. 5760 x 1440 DPI is the second most common maximum resolution amongst new inkjets. We found 62 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 407 new inkjet printers currently listed on Kagoo are inkjets with a Wi-Fi. 348 out of 407 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 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. 204 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 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. 79.1% of their inkjet printer prices were the cheapest that could be found anywhere.