Though you may get away with using the office printer for personal use now and then, there comes a point where it's much more convenient to buy your own. There are plenty of good quality printers that don't cost a lot of money upfront, but that's not the only expense you need to consider.
Some cheap models drink a lot of ink, which can end up costing more over time than a more expensive (but more efficient) model. Before buying, you need to have a rough idea of the volume and type of documents and photos you plan to print over the course of a year. Then you can find a printer to suit your needs that won't cost you a fortune in the long run.
Buying the cheapest printer for your needs
When you're in the market for a new printer, printing quality is the most important thing to consider, followed by annual ink costs. The other aspects in our test, such as printing speed, copying and scanning scores, are important but only apply to specific scenarios.
Give some thought to how often you'll use the printer, as this will determine how much of a factor annual ink costs will be. For example, you may find a low-cost printer that uses a lot of ink, but your recurring expenses will still be low if you only print documents from time to time.
Similarly, if you regularly print monochrome and colour documents, then a more expensive model with very good ink efficiency may end up costing less over time. Once you've figured this out, you can dig into the different printer types.
Calculating annual ink costs
When we test printers, we determine ink or toner life by running the printers almost continuously to calculate cost per page and long-term running costs. This is based on our average use scenario of 1000 mono and 500 colour prints over the course of a year. The colour prints are a combination of black and white text, colour text and graphics.
This can help you determine whether the initial recommended retail price (RRP) of the printer or recurring ink costs are more important.
Low RRP: If you don't plan to print very often, then a low cost, high scoring printer from our test results will be fine. Though annual running costs might be high, your usage scenario is likely to be well below what we use to calculate ink expenses when we test.
Low annual ink costs: If our typical usage scenario mirrors your needs, then look for a high-scoring printer with low annual ink costs. These tend to have a higher price tag, but you'll ultimately save money compared to many low-cost printers.
Below are two examples from our test results that help demonstrate the difference in costs. This doesn't factor in free ink that may be included with the printer.
| Cost | Annual ink/toner cost | Total cost over 3 years | Print quality score | |
| High RRP | $679 | $25 | $754 | 81% |
| Low RRP | $129 | $410 | $1359 | 73% |
Calculations based on annual ink costs multiplied over the course of three years. Some printers include free ink which can offset initial ongoing expenses for one to three years. These do not factor into the projected costs listed above.
Consider cleaning costs
Inkjet printers need to use ink during a cleaning cycle. This helps stop the print heads from clogging up over time, among other things. Unfortunately, some printers aren't exactly efficient in this regard.
It's not uncommon to find printers that use more ink during the cleaning cycle than the amount required to print documents in our annual average usage scenario. This can really drive up your ink expenses.
Though our annual ink/toner costs are calculated based on usage alone, we do test and score ink wastage during the cleaning cycle. This is worth factoring in while shopping for an inkjet printer.
Laser printers operate differently and don't face this issue. Ink wastage in continuous ink supply system(CISS) printers isn't measured during our test. In this case, the contributions to the ink wastage score are distributed evenly across the remaining parts of the test.
Printer types: Standard or multi-function (MFP)
There are two types of printers:
- standard printers have no additional functions
- multi-function printers (MFP) include scan and copy functions and are much more versatile, but they generally come with a higher asking price.
Within these two broad categories are a range of features that vary between brands and models. These include photo printing, refillable ink wells, eco modes and more. These features and specifications are included in our test results comparison table.
Are inkjet or laser printers better?
These days the two main ink delivery systems are pretty comparable in most respects, but there are a couple of key differences worth keeping in mind.
A good inkjet printer produces sharp, vibrant, top-quality prints across a range of paper types. Ink costs can be high, but the best models can really make your graphics pop, so to speak.
Laser printers can't match the quality of a good inkjet model, but they typically use less ink when printing. They can also print faster and don't have ink heads, which means they can sit idle for longer periods without clogging issues.
Inkjet and laser are the two main printing technologies.
Saving money with refillable ink
Continuous ink supply systems, or CISS, use a modified ink cartridge that's easy to refill. Not only can you top them up whenever you need to, but colour models let you refill individual tanks if one is running out faster than the other.
With traditional printer cartridges, which combine colours, when one colour runs out, the printer stops printing in colour correctly, or will only print in black and white (or in some cases it will stop printing altogether). This happens regardless of how much ink is left in the other vessels.
CISS is far and away the most economic way to print. So, what's the catch? CISS-enabled printers are typically more expensive. But the long-term ink savings will likely make up for that (especially if you print a lot).
We independently test and review new printers in specialised labs to find out which ones deliver the best performance, and which ones will be cheapest to run. If you're not yet a member, join CHOICE to get instant access to all of our expert, independent reviews. If you're already a CHOICE member, log in to unlock this article and read about the best cheap printers we've tested.
We recommend printers that achieve a CHOICE Expert Rating of 70% or more. The print, scan and copy score is comprised of printing speed and quality (60%), scanning speed and quality (20%) and copying speed and quality (20%). Weightings for standard printers that can't scan or copy are evenly distributed across printing speed and quality.
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