Compare the Best Inkjet PrintersNovember 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.

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 Printer Prices

The price range of inkjet printers is from $39 to $5,399 and in total we found prices for 94 inkjet printers. The average price of a new inkjet is $455 and the 80% of inkjet printers are priced between $85 and $823. The Lexmark Z705 is the cheapest inkjet printer at only $40, and HP DesignJet Z5200 is the most expensive at $5,399.

Inkjet Brands - Price Range

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

Epson inkjet printers range in price from $93 to $1,900, and the second highest average inkjet price out of all brands is Epson inkjet printers with an average price of $506.

The third highest average inkjet printer price out of all brands is HP inkjet printers with an average price of $442. HP inkjet printers range in price from $44 to $5,399.

Inkjet Printer Brands - Average Ratings

We have checked 401 expert reviews and 4,423 user reviews for inkjets and used these reviews 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 83% and Canon has an average rating of 78%.

Biggest Inkjet Printer Retailers

The biggest inkjet printer retailer by number of products currently for sale is eBay. We found 207 current inkjet printer offers from eBay. The second biggest retailer is Adorama with 36 offers. That means eBay is over 5 times bigger than Adorama when it comes to inkjets. Overstock is the third biggest retailer with 15 current offers.

When Are Most New Inkjets Released?

We couldn't see any obvious pattern in the release dates for new inkjet printers over the last 3 years. 36 new inkjet printers were released in April 2019 making it the biggest month that year for new inkjet printer releases. The biggest month in 2018 for new inkjet releases was December, with 22 new inkjets released that month. In 2017 most new inkjets were released in September, with 29 new inkjets released that month.

How Fast Do Inkjet Printer Prices Drop After Release?

New inkjets drop in price by an average of 11% in the first 6 months after they were first released.

If you are prepared to wait then you could save an average of $49 on a typical $455 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.

The print speeds (colour) of inkjets range from 1ppm to 75ppm. The print speeds (colour) of most inkjet printers range from 1ppm to 7ppm. The HP PageWide Pro 477dw, which can be purchased for $579.50, has the fastest print speed (colour) and is a 55ppm print speed (colour, normal quality, A4/US Le inkjet printer. 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 printer and can be purchased for $449.00.

Maximum Resolutions

Maximum printing resolution.

We found 180 inkjets that are 4800 x 1200 DPI inkjets, which makes 4800 x 1200 DPI the most popular maximum resolution amongst new inkjets. We found 66 inkjets that are 5760 x 1440 DPI inkjet printers, making 5760 x 1440 DPI the second most popular maximum resolution amongst new inkjets.

Wi-Fis

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

Of the 475 new inkjet printers currently listed on Kagoo, the vast majority are inkjet printers with a Wi-Fi. 410 inkjet printers out of 475 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 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. 139 of their inkjet 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. 67.1% of their inkjet printer prices were the cheapest that could be found anywhere.