Compare the Best Inkjet PrintersApril 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 Printer Prices

We currently list 103 inkjets ranging from $28 to $4,295. The average price of a new inkjet printer is $362 and the 80% of inkjet printers are priced between $45 and $617. The Xerox 7800/DN is the most expensive inkjet printer that we found at $4,294, and the Epson 1500W is the cheapest at only $29.

Inkjet Printer Brands - Price Range

The average price of Xerox inkjet printers is $1,521 which is the highest average price of all inkjet brands. Xerox inkjet printers start at $99 and their most expensive inkjet costs $4,294.

The average price of Lexmark inkjets is $1,187 which is the second highest average price of all inkjet printer brands. Lexmark inkjets start at $30 and their most expensive inkjet printer costs $2,200.

HP inkjet printers range in price from $37 to $3,450, and the third highest average inkjet printer price out of all brands is HP inkjet printers with an average price of $378.

Inkjet Printer Brands - Average Ratings

We have checked 397 expert reviews and 9,396 user reviews for inkjet printers and used this data to determine the average rating for each brand of inkjet printer. The top rated inkjet printer brand is Brother with an average rating of 95%. The second best brand is HP with 88% and the third best brand is Canon with 84%.

Biggest Inkjet Retailers

The biggest inkjet printer retailer by number of products currently for sale is eBay. We found 72 current inkjet printer offers from eBay. The second biggest retailer is Amazon US with 40 offers. That means eBay is much bigger than Amazon US when it comes to inkjets. Adorama is the third biggest retailer with 20 current offers.

When Are Most New Inkjets Released?

We couldn't see any prominent trend in the release dates for new inkjet printers over the last 3 years. The biggest month in 2017 for new inkjet printer releases was February, with nine new inkjets released that month. In October 2016 34 new inkjets were released making it the biggest month that year for new inkjet printer releases. In 2015 most new inkjets were released in September, with 123 new inkjets released that month.

How Fast Do Inkjet Prices Drop After Release?

New inkjet printers drop in price by an average of 45% in the first 6 months after they wer first released. On a typical new inkjet printer costing $362, by waiting 6 months before buying you could save on average $163.

Maximum Resolutions

Maximum printing resolution.

Amongst new inkjet printers, the most frequently found maximum resolution is 4800 x 1200 DPI. We found 95 inkjet printers that are 4800 x 1200 DPI inkjets. 760 x 1440 DPI is the second most common maximum resolution amongst new inkjet printers. We found 71 inkjet printers that are 760 x 1440 DPI inkjet printers.

Colour Printing

This indicates whether the inkjet printer is capable of printing in colour, or whether it's limited to black and white only.

Of the 272 new inkjet printers currently listed on Kagoo, the vast majority are inkjet printers which support colour printing. 252 inkjet printers out of 272 are inkjet printers which support colour printing.

Print Technologies

Amongst new inkjets, the most frequently found print technology is Inkjet. We found 257 inkjets that are inkjet printers that have an Inkjet Print technology. The second most frequently found print technology amongst new inkjets is Laser. We found 4 inkjets that are inkjets that have a Laser Print technology.

Which Are the Cheapest Retailers for Inkjet Printers?

The chart below helps you decide which retailer is normally cheapest for buying . For each retailer it shows the total number of 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. 33 of their inkjet 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 by counting the number of cheapest prices for that retailer, makes the retailers that offer the greatest number of prices more likely to offer the greatest number of cheapest prices. The chart below considers the proportion of each retailer's prices that are the cheapest compared to other retailers. The cheapest retailer that we found using this approach was eBay. 45.8% of their inkjet printer prices were the cheapest that could be found anywhere.