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Which? Don't Buy printers
Oliver’s expertise in computing, printing and tech helps you get the most for your money
Don't Buy printers are plagued by issues like poor-quality prints, being difficult to use and sending your ink or toner bills through the roof, as they guzzle ink.
Our expert and independent lab tests expose the Don’t Buy printers that will leave you out of pocket and patience.
As well as the Don’t Buys, our tests also reveal the printers you can rely on. Whether you’re printing a vital document or your precious family photos, Best Buy and high-scoring printers are everything that Don't Buys aren't.
Lowest-scoring printers
Below is a list of the lowest-scoring printers we've tested, including Don't Buys and those that are worryingly close to the 45% cut-off for this highly un-coveted award.
Join Which? to find out which printers failed to impress.
Printers to avoid
What makes a Don't Buy printer?
Don’t Buy printers can produce text, graphics and photo prints that best belong in the bin. Worst of all, they're hugely expensive to run, too, so even though the printer might cost less than others upfront, you'll pay through the nose over its lifetime.
Our lab tests will help you to avoid these substandard printers. You can use our expert reviews to choose a model with low running costs that will produce great-quality prints.
- The worst printers guzzle ink and will cost a lot to run. Based on our tests that replicate typical use printing, we know that some of the worst printers can cost upwards of £100 a year to run. Whereas the most economical can cost just £1 in ink a year.
- Our printing tests expose the printers that produce poor-quality black text printouts, or hazy and dull photos and graphics.
- A Don’t Buy can chug through a print job so slowly that you'll wish you'd written out the document yourself.
Finding the right printer for both your budget and your needs can be tricky, but our tests have found brilliant printers that won't leave you out of pocket or disappointed with your prints.
How we test printers
Every year, we test and review the latest laser and inkjet printers from all the big brands, including Brother, Canon, Epson and HP.
We don’t want you to end up with a Don’t Buy, so our lab experts put printers through an exhaustive series of tests, covering how easy each model is to use, the quality of its prints and how much it costs to run. We also test extra features such as the copier and scanner.
- We assess how much ink the printer uses while printing continuously, as well as on an occasional basis – and we see huge differences. As will your bank balance, if you buy the wrong model.
- We test print quality for text, graphics and images (including photos), and rate them for colour accuracy, sharpness and overall quality.
- All our tests go towards calculating the Which? test score. There's no room for unconscious bias, so you can trust our results and easily compare the best and worst printers.
Which? is independent – we work for you, the consumer, so you can be sure that our product recommendations are influenced only by our test results. We're not influenced by third parties and we don't accept freebies from product manufacturers or retailers. We buy all the products that we test ourselves, so our advice helps you to make the right choice first time and avoid costly mistakes.
Our reviews will help you to avoid a bad choice when it comes to buying a printer. Join Which? for instant access to our Best Buy recommendations and Don’t Buy models to avoid.