That’s why we find it difficult to recommend conventional inkjets anymore. The typical consumer might spend $70 a year or more on ink cartridges, which can double the cost of ownership for a printer in as little as two years.Īnd finally, data from our surveys of CR members suggests that inkjet printers are not as reliable as laser printers.Īdd all that up and it’s no surprise that consumer satisfaction with inkjet printers, as measured in those same surveys, is quite low. Second, while they can be cheap to buy, they tend to saddle you with high ink costs for expensive replacement cartridges and wasteful ink maintenance cycles that are necessary just to keep the machine working. For starters, they often don’t do a great job of printing text, the primary job people want them to do. And while we understand that impulse-cheap is good-our consumer research and laboratory testing have found that for most consumers, there are better alternatives.Īccording to our expert evaluations, inkjet printers have three fundamental problems. If you’re like most shoppers, you’re probably looking for a cheap inkjet model. And most carry a low price, feature low operating costs, or both.īut first: A few words about the different types of printers. They print text with dependable quality and speed. The models below are great for a home, home office, or small business. To help you find a printer you’re likely to love, we’ve combed through our ratings to identify the best options available, each selected to meet different needs. We place more emphasis on printing text than photos, for example. The scoring reflects recent CR research into how people use their printers. We combine those test results with printer brand reliability and owner satisfaction ratings derived from our member surveys to arrive at an Overall Score that lets you compare every model on the same scale. We buy our test samples at retail, and our trained technicians evaluate each of them on more than 250 data points, printing hundreds of pages and running the models out of ink again and again. We rigorously test every printer we write about in our dedicated laboratories. Should you buy an inkjet or a laser printer? An all-in-one that can scan, copy, and fax? What’s the difference between that $170 model and its $220 sibling? With so many models to choose from, shopping for a home printer can be a daunting task.
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