Compare the Best Inkjet PrintersSeptember 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

Inkjets range in price from $27 to $6,595 and in total we found prices for 116 inkjets. The average price of a new inkjet is $361 and the 80% of inkjets are priced between $43 and $550. The HP DeskJet 3720 is the cheapest inkjet at only $27, and Lexmark Cs820dte is the most expensive at $6,594.

Inkjet Printer Brands - Price Range

Xerox inkjet printers range in price from $159 to $4,655, and the average price of Xerox inkjet printers is $2,407 which is the highest average price of all inkjet printer brands.

Lexmark inkjets range in price from $30 to $6,594, and the second highest average inkjet printer price out of all brands is Lexmark inkjets with an average price of $2,223.

The average price of HP inkjet printers is $309 which is the third highest average price of all inkjet printer brands. HP inkjet printers start at $27 and their most expensive inkjet printer costs $3,201.

Inkjet Printer Brands - Average Ratings

We have evaluated 877 expert reviews and 53,169 user reviews for inkjets and used this data to determine the average rating for each brand of inkjet printer. The top rated inkjet brand is HP with an average rating of 89%. The second best brand is Canon with 85% and the third best brand is Brother with 81%.

Biggest Inkjet Retailers

We found 77 current offers for inkjets from eBay making it the biggest inkjet retailer. That is significantly bigger than the second biggest retailer, Amazon US for whom we found 63 current offers for inkjets. The third biggest retailer is Adorama with 22 current inkjet offers.

When Are Most New Inkjet Printers Released?

We looked at the release dates for new inkjet printers over the last 3 years, but couldn't see any evident pattern. The biggest month in 2017 for new inkjet printer releases was February, with 10 new inkjets released that month. In 2016 most new inkjet printers were released in October, with 34 new inkjet printers released that month. September was the biggest month in 2015 for new inkjets, with 122 new inkjets released that month.

How Fast Do Inkjet Prices Drop After Release?

On average, in the first 6 months after release, inkjet printers drop in price by 43%. On a typical new inkjet printer costing $361, by waiting 6 months before buying you could save on average $156.

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 57ppm. The print speeds (colour) of the majority of inkjet printers range from 1ppm to 7ppm. The inkjet printer with the fastest print speed (colour) is the Lexmark Cs820dte, which is a 57ppm print speed (colour, normal quality, A4/US Le inkjet and can be purchased for $6,594.49. 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 printer and can be purchased for $3,200.99.

Maximum Resolutions

Maximum printing resolution.

The most popular maximum resolution amongst new inkjet printers is 4800 x 1200 DPI. We found 119 inkjet printers that are 4800 x 1200 DPI inkjets. We found 44 inkjets that are 5760 x 1440 DPI inkjets, making 5760 x 1440 DPI the second most frequently found 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 301 new inkjets currently listed on Kagoo are inkjet printers with a Wi-Fi. 263 out of 301 are inkjet printers 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. 59 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. 76.6% of their inkjet printer prices were the cheapest that could be found anywhere.