Nobody loves their printer. People tolerate them. The ones that work are forgotten, and the ones that don't get a whole evening of swearing, usually right before a form is due. Choosing a new one is awkward because the sticker price tells you almost nothing about what you'll spend.
The main point, before any detail: the printer is cheap, and ink is the product. Manufacturers know this, which is why a basic inkjet can cost less than a full set of its own cartridges.
Three types, three personalities
An ordinary inkjet sprays liquid ink through tiny nozzles. It handles colour and photos well and costs little to buy. The downside is that the nozzles dry out if you don't print for a few weeks, and then you waste ink on cleaning cycles just to get a clean page.
A laser printer uses toner powder fused onto the paper. It's fast, the text is sharp, and the toner doesn't dry out, so a laser can sit unused for months and still print the first page correctly. A black-and-white model is cheap to run. Colour lasers cost more, both up front and in toner.
An ink tank printer, sold under several brand names, looks like an inkjet but has refillable bottles of ink instead of small cartridges. The printer costs noticeably more, but the ink is far cheaper per page. For people who print a lot, it is often the cheapest long-term option.
| Type | Upfront cost | Cost per page | Good at | Annoying about |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Basic inkjet with cartridges | Low | High | Colour, occasional photos | Dries out; cartridges run out fast |
| Black-and-white laser | Low to medium | Low | Documents, forms, school work | No colour |
| Colour laser | Medium to high | Medium | Office-style colour documents | Photos look flat; large and heavy |
| Ink tank | Medium to high | Very low | Frequent printing, mixed use | Messy refills; bigger body |
How to decide in practice
If you print mostly black text, such as tickets, school forms and the occasional contract, buy a black-and-white laser. It's the least dramatic option. It prints the first page after three months in a cupboard and the toner lasts for ages.
If you print school projects, posters or photos regularly, an ink tank is the one I'd look at. The first set of bottles often prints thousands of pages. The refill process does involve a bottle and a small chance of staining your hands, but it's not as bad as it sounds.
The cheap cartridge inkjet only makes sense if you print very rarely and need colour on those occasions. Even then, running it once a week with a quick test page keeps the nozzles alive.
Things worth checking before you buy
Check whether the printer accepts third-party cartridges or toner. Some models refuse them after a firmware update, and that can undo the savings. Reviews usually mention it if a model does this.
Duplex printing, meaning automatic two-sided, saves paper and is worth having if you print reports. Wireless printing is convenient, but it is also where most of the support problems happen, so test it on day one while you can still return the box.
Think about the scanner. A flatbed that also scans receipts and forms into PDFs turns out to be what many people use most. A printer with no scanner, or one with a badly designed feeder, will annoy you eventually.
And finally, ask yourself honestly how much you print. Many households print under fifty pages a year. For them, the best answer is sometimes no printer at all: a local print shop or a library does it for pennies, with no cartridges and no jams.
