Compare the Best Inkjet PrintersApril 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

The price range of inkjet printers is from $55 to $13,995 and in total we found prices for 94 inkjet printers. A new inkjet printer costs on average $602 and 80% of inkjet printers are priced between $100 and $999. The cheapest inkjet printer that we found is the Canon MG2550S at only $55, and the most expensive is the Epson SureColor F2100 at $13,995.

Inkjet Printer Brands - Price Range

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

Epson inkjets range in price from $70 to $13,995, and the average price of Epson inkjets is $1,043 which is the second highest average price of all inkjet brands.

HP inkjet printers range in price from $64 to $2,495, and the average price of HP inkjet printers is $426 which is the third highest average price of all inkjet printer brands.

Inkjet Printer Brands - Average Ratings

We have evaluated 498 expert reviews and 10,765 user reviews for inkjet printers and used this data to evaluate the average rating for each brand of inkjet printer. Epson is the top rated inkjet printer brand with an average rating of 86%. HP is the second best brand with 81% and Canon is the third best brand with 78%.

Biggest Inkjet Printer Retailers

The biggest inkjet retailer by number of products currently for sale is eBay. We found 145 current inkjet offers from eBay. The second biggest retailer is Adorama with 27 offers. That means eBay is over 5 times bigger than Adorama when it comes to inkjet printers. Overstock is the third biggest retailer with 15 current offers.

When Are Most New Inkjets Released?

Most new inkjet printers tend to be released between February and April. That means that most of the latest inkjet technology was released in within the last 3 months, and now is good time to buy. February was the biggest month in 2020 for new inkjets, with seven new inkjets released that month. The biggest month in 2019 for new inkjet releases was April, with 39 new inkjets released that month. In 2018 most new inkjet printers were released in December, with 21 new inkjet printers released that month.

How Fast Do Inkjet Prices Drop After Release?

In the first 6 months after release, inkjet printers drop in price by 10% on average.

If you are prepared to wait then you could save an average of $61 on a typical $602 new inkjet printer 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.

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 printer with the fastest print speed (colour) is the HP E58650DN, which is a 50ppm print speed (colour, normal quality, A4/US Le inkjet printer and is priced at $1,599.99. The inkjet with the slowest print speed (colour) is the Canon PIXMA PRO-1, which is a 1ppm print speed (colour, normal quality, A4/US Le inkjet and is on sale for $550.00.

Maximum Resolutions

Maximum printing resolution.

The most frequently found maximum resolution amongst new inkjets is 4800 x 1200 DPI. We found 195 inkjets that are 4800 x 1200 DPI inkjets. The second most frequently found maximum resolution amongst new inkjet printers is 5760 x 1440 DPI. We found 69 inkjet printers 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 480 new inkjets currently listed on Kagoo are inkjets with a Wi-Fi. 411 inkjets out of 480 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 inkjets. 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. 89 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. 61.4% of their inkjet prices were the cheapest that could be found anywhere.