Compare the Best Inkjet PrintersJune 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

Inkjets range in price from $48 to $14,900 and in total we found prices for 98 inkjets. On average, a new inkjet printer costs $564 and 80% of inkjets are priced between $70 and $900. The cheapest inkjet that we found is the HP Officejet Pro 8210 at only $49, and the most expensive is the Epson SureColor F2100 at $14,900.

Inkjet Printer Brands - Price Range

Xerox inkjets range in price from $254 to $4,655, and the average price of Xerox inkjets is $2,454 which is the highest average price of all inkjet printer brands.

The average price of Epson inkjets is $957 which is the second highest average price of all inkjet printer brands. Epson inkjets start at $70 and their most expensive inkjet printer costs $14,900.

The average price of HP inkjet printers is $369 which is the third highest average price of all inkjet brands. HP inkjet printers range in price from $49 to $2,795.

Inkjet Printer Brands - Average Ratings

We have checked 504 expert reviews and 10,207 user reviews for inkjets and used these reviews 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

We found 140 current offers for inkjet printers from eBay making it the biggest inkjet printer retailer. That is over 6 times bigger than the second biggest retailer, Adorama for whom we found 23 current offers for inkjet printers. The third biggest retailer is Overstock with 15 current inkjet printer offers.

When Are Most New Inkjets Released?

February to April is the most common period for new inkjet printers to be released in. In 2020 most new inkjet printers were released in February, with seven new inkjet printers released that month. 39 new inkjet printers were released in April 2019 making it the biggest month that year for new inkjet printer releases. August was the biggest month in 2018 for new inkjets, with 17 new inkjets released that month.

How Fast Do Inkjet Prices Drop After Release?

On average inkjet printers drop in price by 9% in the first 6 months after release.

If you are prepared to wait then you could save an average of $50 on a typical $564 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 inkjet printers range from 1ppm to 75ppm. The print speeds (colour) of the majority of inkjet printers range from 1ppm to 7ppm. The HP Pagewide Pro 552DW, which is available at $699.99, has the fastest print speed (colour) and is a 50ppm print speed (colour, normal quality, A4/US Le inkjet. 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 available at $550.00.

Maximum Resolutions

Maximum printing resolution.

The most popular maximum resolution amongst new inkjet printers is 4800 x 1200 DPI. We found 198 inkjet printers that are 4800 x 1200 DPI inkjets. We found 69 inkjets that are 5760 x 1440 DPI inkjet printers, making 5760 x 1440 DPI the second most common 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 483 new inkjets currently listed on Kagoo are inkjets with a Wi-Fi. 415 out of 483 inkjets are inkjets with a Wi-Fi.

Which Are the Cheapest Retailers for Inkjet Printers?

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. 97 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 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. 69.3% of their inkjet printer prices were the cheapest that could be found anywhere.