Laser vs Inkjet Printer: Which Should You Buy in 2026?

This is the first question to answer before you spend a penny on a printer. Get it right and you’ll have years of hassle-free printing. Get it wrong and you’ll be throwing money at dried-out cartridges or wondering why your photos look like they were printed on a napkin.

I’ve owned both types — currently running a Brother mono laser for documents and an Epson EcoTank for colour/photo work. I’ve also wasted far too much money on cartridge inkjets that clogged every time I left them alone for a fortnight. So I’ve got strong views on this. Here’s the full breakdown.

How Each Technology Works

Quick primer, because this explains everything that follows.

Laser printers use a focused laser beam to draw an image onto a photosensitive drum. The drum attracts powdered toner (dry plastic-based powder) to the drawn areas, then heat and pressure fuse it permanently onto the paper. Fast, precise, and the pages come out bone-dry. You can stuff them straight into an envelope.

Inkjet printers spray microscopic droplets of liquid ink through tiny nozzles. Modern inkjets use either thermal (HP, Canon) or piezoelectric (Epson) technology to control the droplets. The results can be remarkably detailed — especially for photos — but the liquid ink introduces problems around drying and clogging. If you’ve ever come back to a printer after a few weeks and got nothing but streaks, that’s the liquid ink doing its thing.

For a deeper look at what makes laser technology appealing, see our advantages of laser printers guide.

Head-to-Head Comparison Table

Criteria	Laser Printer	Inkjet Printer	Winner
Print speed	20-40 ppm (mono)	8-15 ppm	Laser
Cost per page (mono)	2-4p	5-10p (cartridge), 0.3-1p (tank)	Laser (cartridge inkjet), Tank inkjet (vs laser)
Cost per page (colour)	8-15p	8-15p (cartridge), 0.5-2p (tank)	Tank inkjet
Photo quality	Basic/acceptable	Excellent (on photo paper)	Inkjet
Text sharpness	Excellent — crisp edges	Good — slight feathering on plain paper	Laser
Upfront price	£100-250 (mono), £200-500 (colour)	£40-80 (cartridge), £200-350 (tank)	Cartridge inkjet
Infrequent use tolerance	Excellent — toner never dries	Poor (cartridge), Good (tank)	Laser
Duplex (auto double-sided)	Standard on most models	Often missing on budget models	Laser
Physical size	Larger and heavier	Compact and light	Inkjet
Warm-up time	5-15 seconds from sleep	Instant	Inkjet
Energy use per page	Higher (heat fusing)	Lower	Inkjet
Paper variety	Plain paper, labels, envelopes	Photo paper, card, fabric transfers	Inkjet

Print Speed

Laser printers are significantly faster. A budget mono laser like the Brother HL-L2350DW does 30 pages per minute. Thirty. Mid-range models hit 36-40 ppm. First page out in about 8 seconds from sleep.

Most home inkjets manage 8-15 ppm, with premium models stretching to 20 ppm. The first page comes out quicker (no warm-up), but sustained throughput is much lower.

When does this actually matter? If you regularly print documents longer than 5 pages, the speed difference is very noticeable. I printed a 40-page report on my Brother laser in under two minutes. My old Canon inkjet would have taken four or five. For single-page prints, both are fine.

Cost Per Page

This is where things get nuanced, because there are now three categories:

Standard Cartridge Inkjets

The most expensive to run, and it’s not close. A set of HP or Canon cartridges costs £30-60 and yields 150-300 pages. That’s roughly 8-15p per colour page and 5-10p per mono. The cartridges are also tiny — you’ll be replacing them constantly if you print more than a few pages a week.

Tank-Based Inkjets

Ink tank printers like the Epson EcoTank ET-2860 come with enough bottled ink for 4,500+ pages. Replacement bottles cost £8-12 each. Cost per page drops to 0.3-1p for mono and 0.5-2p for colour — genuinely cheaper than most laser printers. This is the technology that changed the game.

Laser Printers

A standard toner cartridge for a mono laser costs £40-70 and prints 1,200-3,000 pages. Cost per page sits at 2-4p for mono. Colour laser toner sets run £100-200, bringing colour pages to 8-15p each — not cheap.

The honest answer: Mono laser is cheapest for black and white. Tank inkjet beats everything for colour. Standard cartridge inkjets are a false economy — cheap to buy, expensive to own.

Print Quality

Text and Documents

Laser wins hands down for text. Toner-fused text has crisp, sharp edges with no bleeding or feathering, even on cheap copy paper from Ryman. Text stays crisp at any size. If you’re printing contracts, letters, or anything professional, laser is the obvious choice.

Inkjet text is good but not quite as sharp. On plain paper, liquid ink can spread slightly along the fibres, causing minor feathering. It’s barely noticeable on decent paper, but side-by-side with laser? You can tell.

Photos and Graphics

Inkjet dominates for photos. Not even close. The liquid ink gets absorbed into photo paper, producing smooth gradients, deep blacks, and accurate colours. A decent inkjet on Canon glossy paper from Amazon UK can produce results that match what you’d get from Boots or Snappy Snaps.

Laser printers can print colour images, but the toner sits on the surface rather than being absorbed. The result looks flatter, with visible dot patterns if you look closely. Fine for charts, logos, and casual stuff — absolutely not suitable for anything you’d frame or put in a portfolio.

Infrequent Use: The Clogging Problem

This is the deal-breaker for most home users, and it’s the single biggest reason I push people towards laser.

Go two to four weeks without printing on an inkjet? The nozzles clog with dried ink. When you finally need to print — usually something urgent, naturally — you get streaky or blank pages. The printer runs automatic cleaning cycles that waste ink. Sometimes an entire cartridge’s worth. I once lost a brand-new Canon CL-546XL to a single cleaning session. Fifteen quid, gone.

Laser printers? No such problem. Toner is dry powder. Can’t dry out, can’t clog, can’t evaporate. Leave a laser printer untouched for six months and it prints perfectly the first time you need it. I’ve tested this personally — left my Brother unused from July to December, fired it up, perfect print on page one.

If you print fewer than 50 pages per month, this single factor should push you strongly towards laser. We cover it thoroughly in our best printer for infrequent use guide.

Tank-based inkjets handle inactivity better than cartridge inkjets, but they’re still liquid ink — they can still clog after extended periods.

Upfront Cost

Cartridge inkjets are the cheapest to buy. You can grab a Canon PIXMA TS5350i for about £60-70 on Amazon UK. But that low price is deliberate — manufacturers basically give away the printer and make their money on cartridges. It’s the razor-and-blades model, and it works brilliantly (for them).

Mono laser printers start at £100-130. The HP LaserJet M110we sits at about £130 with a starter toner included. Colour laser printers cost £200-500.

Tank-based inkjets cost £200-350 upfront but include enough ink for thousands of pages, making total cost of ownership significantly lower than cartridge models.

Three-year cost comparison (printing 100 pages/month):

Printer Type	Purchase	Consumables (3 years)	Total
Cartridge inkjet	£60	£400-600	£460-660
Mono laser	£130	£80-140	£210-270
Tank inkjet	£250	£30-50	£280-300

That £60 cartridge inkjet that looked like a bargain in Currys? It costs twice as much as a laser over three years. I wish someone had shown me this table before I bought my first printer.

Physical Size and Weight

Inkjets are generally more compact and lighter. A typical all-in-one inkjet weighs 4-6 kg and fits on a desk shelf without drama.

Laser printers are chunkier — fuser assembly, drum unit, and toner cartridge all take up space. Even a compact mono laser weighs 7-10 kg. Colour laser MFPs? You’re looking at 15-25 kg. You’ll want a dedicated shelf or a small table.

If desk space is tight (student room, small flat), an inkjet has the edge. If you’ve got a dedicated spot for a printer, the size difference is manageable.

Duplex Printing

Auto double-sided printing comes standard on most laser printers, even budget ones. Saves paper, looks more professional.

Many budget inkjets don’t have auto-duplex. You’ll need to spend £100+ on an inkjet to reliably get this feature. And when inkjets do offer it, the process is slower because each side needs drying time.

Environmental Considerations

Neither technology is clearly greener overall:

• Energy: Laser printers use more electricity per page due to the heat fusing process, but at UK rates (about 24.5p/kWh), the annual difference is a couple of quid. Not significant.
• Consumables waste: Toner cartridges are larger but last longer, producing less packaging waste per page. Inkjet cartridges get replaced constantly.
• Recyclability: Both types are recyclable through manufacturer take-back schemes. Toner cartridges actually have a higher recycling rate.
• Tank inkjets produce the least waste of all — you refill from bottles rather than swapping sealed plastic cartridges.

Which Should You Buy?

Choose a Laser Printer If You:

• Print mostly text documents
• Print infrequently (even once a month or less)
• Want zero hassle — no clogging, no cleaning cycles, no surprises
• Need fast output for multi-page documents
• Print 100+ pages per month in mono

Choose a Tank-Based Inkjet If You:

• Need both colour and mono printing
• Print regularly (weekly or more) so the heads stay clear
• Want the absolute lowest cost per page
• Occasionally print photos at decent quality
• Can stomach the higher upfront cost

Avoid Standard Cartridge Inkjets Unless:

• You only need a printer for a short period (a term, a temporary project)
• Your budget is genuinely under £80 and there’s no way around it
• You primarily print photos and accept the ink cost as part of the hobby
• You enjoy the thrill of gambling on whether your printer will work each time (I’m joking. Sort of.)

For most home users who print documents, a mono laser between £100-150 is the smartest buy in 2026. It won’t dry out, it’s fast, and running costs are low. Need colour too? A tank-based inkjet like the Epson EcoTank is the best value over time.

My Top Pick for Each Category

Best laser for home: Brother HL-L2350DW — 30 ppm, auto-duplex, WiFi, compact for a laser. Currently around £120 on Amazon UK. This is the printer I recommend more than any other.

Best tank inkjet: Epson EcoTank ET-2860 — sub-1p mono pages, included ink lasts 4,500+ pages, WiFi and auto-duplex. About £230. Brilliant if you need colour.

Best budget inkjet: Canon PIXMA TS5350i — solid all-rounder for light use, WiFi, borderless photo printing. About £65. Just remember what I said about cartridge costs.

Still unsure? Our best printer for infrequent use guide narrows it down further based on how often you actually print.