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 Prices

We currently list 90 inkjets ranging from $49 to $14,900. On average, a new inkjet costs $579 and 80% of inkjets are priced between $80 and $824. The Epson SureColor F2100 is the most expensive inkjet printer that we found at $14,900, and the HP OfficeJet Pro is the cheapest at only $50.

Inkjet Printer Brands - Price Range

Xerox inkjet printers start at $254 and their most expensive inkjet printer costs $4,655. The average price of Xerox inkjet printers is $2,454 which is the highest average price of all inkjet printer brands.

The average price of Epson inkjet printers is $1,005 which is the second highest average price of all inkjet printer brands. Epson inkjet printers range in price from $100 to $14,900.

HP inkjets range in price from $50 to $2,495, and the third highest average inkjet printer price out of all brands is HP inkjets with an average price of $381.

Inkjet Brands - Average Ratings

We have analysed 388 expert reviews and 4,385 user reviews for inkjets and used this data to determine the average rating for each brand of inkjet. The top three inkjet printer brands are HP, Epson and Canon. HP has an average rating of 86%, Epson has an average rating of 82% and Canon has an average rating of 78%.

Biggest Inkjet Retailers

We found 160 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 30 current offers for inkjets. The third biggest retailer is Overstock with 15 current inkjet printer offers.

When Are Most New Inkjet Printers Released?

February to April is the most common period for new inkjet printers to be released in. 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. February was the biggest month last year for new inkjet printers, with seven new inkjet printers released that month. In 2019 most new inkjet printers were released in April, with 37 new inkjet printers released that month. The biggest month in 2018 for new inkjet printer releases was December, with 22 new inkjet printers released that month.

How Fast Do Inkjet Prices Drop After Release?

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

If you are prepared to wait then you could save an average of $59 on a typical $579 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 inkjets, the print speeds (colour) range from 1ppm to 75ppm. The print speeds (colour) of the majority of inkjet printers range from 1ppm to 7ppm. The inkjet with the fastest print speed (colour) is the HP PageWide Pro 750d, which is a 75ppm print speed (colour, normal quality, A4/US Le inkjet printer and can be purchased for $799.99. The Canon PIXMA PRO-1, which currently retails for $824.00, has the slowest print speed (colour) and is a 1ppm print speed (colour, normal quality, A4/US Le inkjet printer.

Maximum Resolutions

Maximum printing resolution.

4800 x 1200 DPI is the most popular maximum resolution amongst new inkjet printers. We found 183 inkjet printers that are 4800 x 1200 DPI inkjet printers. 5760 x 1440 DPI is the second most common maximum resolution amongst new inkjet printers. We found 70 inkjet printers that are 5760 x 1440 DPI inkjet printers.

Wi-Fis

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

The vast majority of the 479 new inkjet printers currently listed on Kagoo are inkjet printers with a Wi-Fi. 415 inkjet printers out of 479 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 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. 101 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 inkjet printers 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. 63.1% of their inkjet prices were the cheapest that could be found anywhere.