Dell 5130cdn Color Laser Printer
HP Officejet Pro 8100 N811A Printer
Samsung CLP-775ND Color Laser Printer
Keeping ink costs down is a high priority when it comes to home printing. That’s why we test printers for running costs as well as quality, speed and ease of use.
By comparing the number of pages printed in our labs, with the amount of ink used and cost of the cartridges, we can work out how many pennies worth of ink is used on each printed text, graphics and photo page.
The below printers are those that achieved the lowest ink costs per page. However, given that a home printer is only likely to be used occasionally, they may not be the best for infrequent use. Be sure to read each printer’s full review, or see our comprehensive advice guide, to find out which printers perform best when only used on occasion.
If you’re looking for a mono laser printer this Samsung Xpress M2825DW may appeal. This Samsung mono laser printer is great for printing quick text pages. It can’t print in colour and it doesn’t scan and copy, but printing costs are very low if you’re printing a lot in one go.
It is wi-fi connected too, but if you don’t need wi-fi you could go for the similar Samsung Xpress M2825ND for around £20 less.
Samsung Xpress M2825DW – find out more about the Samsung’s print quality.
This slightly bulky-looking officey HP inkjet printer is packed with features. It can print, copy, scan and fax. The automatic document feeder (ADF) on top of the printer can handle double-sided pages too, so you can save on paper as well as keeping costs down if you print lots in one go.
It’s a wi-fi printer with memory card slots and a preview screen, so you can print photos direct from a memory card without having to use your computer.
HP Officejet Pro 276dw – find out if it’s cheap to run if you only print occasionally.
This printer may be more than a year old, but it’s still a goodie. It can print on pages up to A3 size, although the scan/copy glass is only big enough for up to A4 size pages. It also has wi-fi and ethernet connections, so you’ll easily be able to print from a number of wireless devices on your home network.
Like the HP, it has an automatic document feeder (ADF) on top for scanning, copying and faxing multiple page documents, but this Brother one can’t automatically scan and copy double-sided. Photo prints are relatively low cost, but use an additional 11p-worth of ink compared with the HP model.
Brother MFC-J4510DW – see the full review for our definitive verdict.
This Epson’s running costs are pretty good when printing lots in one – indeed, it’s the best Epson inkjet in our tests for printing costs under these printing conditions. That said, its photo print quality falls far from the best we’ve ever tested.
The WF-3520DWF includes a fax function, has wi-fi connectivity and like the other inkjet printers here it has auto-duplexing – so you can set it up to automatically print on both sides of a page.
Epson Workforce WF-3520DWF – read the full review for exact details on its print quality.
The Canon Pixma MG5550 is the cheapest printer to buy of the five here, priced at less than £100. It doesn’t scrimp on features either. It has automatic double-sided printing, wi-fi connectivity and the ability to print wirelessly from smartphones using operating systems that are compatible with Canon’s print apps.
Text prints look good from this inkjet printer, even if it is a bit noisy to use. If you’re printing lots in quick succession, this is one of Canon’s cheaper printers to use.
Canon Pixma MG5550 – find out whether it’s pricier to use for occasional printing
The printers above are cheap to run based on test data from our continuous-print, ink-cost-per-page test. The printer with the highest ink costs per page used £81-worth of ink on printing our 310 text, graphics and photo test pages, compared with just £11 for cheapest model.
Printing occasionally can increase ink running costs five-fold for the most wasteful printers – something we also test for with our occasional printing test. For more information about ink
At this moment in time I am having a nightmare with my Epson P50, It just rejects compatible ink yet when I first got the printer it did work with compatible inks then after a while it started to reject the black, every now and then I would have to try and insert the black up to ten times before it worked, then all of a sudden it just rejected all color’s so I just gave up with the printer.
After leaving it off for a couple of weeks I thought I would go and buy some inks and decided on Tesco’s own, now these still are not cheap £43 for a set or £54 for genuine Epson so I thought for that price they should be spot on with working in the printer even though they are Tesco’s own.
I got home and placed all inks inside the printer and it worked!
Then after one print would you believe it the printer stopped and rejected all the inks inside the printer, took them all out, shoved them in all at the same time and it worked! Then rejected the yellow after one print, took it out then put it back in a few times and then it worked, so lets see how long it takes for it to go nuts again.
ALL I can say is what a nightmare Epson printers are. Not only have I bulk bought compatible inks which are now useless I have another Epson printer that does the same (Epson BX305F) which will not accept compatible inks either. At £36+ for BX305F inks and individual inks at £11+ I swear Epson inks are shockingly high priced and for running a business they are a high costly overhead.
I have used internet sites to buy genuine inks but still had the same problem with ink cartridges not working and was loosing quite a bit of money having to just chuck them out, I would have sent them back but it costs me to do so. :(
Moral of me writing this: EPSON lower your prices you money grabbing BLEEEEEPPPPP
HP Officejet Pro 8100 N811A Printer
Samsung CLP-775ND Color Laser Printer
Top five cheapest printers to run
Keeping ink costs down is a high priority when it comes to home printing. That’s why we test printers for running costs as well as quality, speed and ease of use.
By comparing the number of pages printed in our labs, with the amount of ink used and cost of the cartridges, we can work out how many pennies worth of ink is used on each printed text, graphics and photo page.
The below printers are those that achieved the lowest ink costs per page. However, given that a home printer is only likely to be used occasionally, they may not be the best for infrequent use. Be sure to read each printer’s full review, or see our comprehensive advice guide, to find out which printers perform best when only used on occasion.
1. Samsung Xpress M2825DW
If you’re looking for a mono laser printer this Samsung Xpress M2825DW may appeal. This Samsung mono laser printer is great for printing quick text pages. It can’t print in colour and it doesn’t scan and copy, but printing costs are very low if you’re printing a lot in one go.It is wi-fi connected too, but if you don’t need wi-fi you could go for the similar Samsung Xpress M2825ND for around £20 less.
Samsung Xpress M2825DW – find out more about the Samsung’s print quality.
2. HP Officejet Pro 276dw
This slightly bulky-looking officey HP inkjet printer is packed with features. It can print, copy, scan and fax. The automatic document feeder (ADF) on top of the printer can handle double-sided pages too, so you can save on paper as well as keeping costs down if you print lots in one go.It’s a wi-fi printer with memory card slots and a preview screen, so you can print photos direct from a memory card without having to use your computer.
HP Officejet Pro 276dw – find out if it’s cheap to run if you only print occasionally.
3. Brother MFC-J4510DW
This printer may be more than a year old, but it’s still a goodie. It can print on pages up to A3 size, although the scan/copy glass is only big enough for up to A4 size pages. It also has wi-fi and ethernet connections, so you’ll easily be able to print from a number of wireless devices on your home network.Like the HP, it has an automatic document feeder (ADF) on top for scanning, copying and faxing multiple page documents, but this Brother one can’t automatically scan and copy double-sided. Photo prints are relatively low cost, but use an additional 11p-worth of ink compared with the HP model.
Brother MFC-J4510DW – see the full review for our definitive verdict.
4. Epson Workforce WF-3520DWF
This Epson’s running costs are pretty good when printing lots in one – indeed, it’s the best Epson inkjet in our tests for printing costs under these printing conditions. That said, its photo print quality falls far from the best we’ve ever tested.The WF-3520DWF includes a fax function, has wi-fi connectivity and like the other inkjet printers here it has auto-duplexing – so you can set it up to automatically print on both sides of a page.
Epson Workforce WF-3520DWF – read the full review for exact details on its print quality.
5. Canon Pixma MG5550
The Canon Pixma MG5550 is the cheapest printer to buy of the five here, priced at less than £100. It doesn’t scrimp on features either. It has automatic double-sided printing, wi-fi connectivity and the ability to print wirelessly from smartphones using operating systems that are compatible with Canon’s print apps.Text prints look good from this inkjet printer, even if it is a bit noisy to use. If you’re printing lots in quick succession, this is one of Canon’s cheaper printers to use.
Canon Pixma MG5550 – find out whether it’s pricier to use for occasional printing
Costs depend on what you print
The printer that’s cheapest for you will depend on how much of each type of document you print and how frequently you print.The printers above are cheap to run based on test data from our continuous-print, ink-cost-per-page test. The printer with the highest ink costs per page used £81-worth of ink on printing our 310 text, graphics and photo test pages, compared with just £11 for cheapest model.
Printing occasionally can increase ink running costs five-fold for the most wasteful printers – something we also test for with our occasional printing test. For more information about ink
At this moment in time I am having a nightmare with my Epson P50, It just rejects compatible ink yet when I first got the printer it did work with compatible inks then after a while it started to reject the black, every now and then I would have to try and insert the black up to ten times before it worked, then all of a sudden it just rejected all color’s so I just gave up with the printer.
After leaving it off for a couple of weeks I thought I would go and buy some inks and decided on Tesco’s own, now these still are not cheap £43 for a set or £54 for genuine Epson so I thought for that price they should be spot on with working in the printer even though they are Tesco’s own.
I got home and placed all inks inside the printer and it worked!
Then after one print would you believe it the printer stopped and rejected all the inks inside the printer, took them all out, shoved them in all at the same time and it worked! Then rejected the yellow after one print, took it out then put it back in a few times and then it worked, so lets see how long it takes for it to go nuts again.
ALL I can say is what a nightmare Epson printers are. Not only have I bulk bought compatible inks which are now useless I have another Epson printer that does the same (Epson BX305F) which will not accept compatible inks either. At £36+ for BX305F inks and individual inks at £11+ I swear Epson inks are shockingly high priced and for running a business they are a high costly overhead.
I have used internet sites to buy genuine inks but still had the same problem with ink cartridges not working and was loosing quite a bit of money having to just chuck them out, I would have sent them back but it costs me to do so. :(
Moral of me writing this: EPSON lower your prices you money grabbing BLEEEEEPPPPP
