What’s the most reliable printer brand?
February 23, 2010 by Steve HannafordPosted in: Dealers & Channel, In this week's e-newsletter, Latest News & Views
PC World recently presented the results of its 2009 reliability survey, one that reached 45,000 PCWorld.com readers.
The study included everything from smartphones and PCs to digital cameras and printers. It got responses on reliability (the ability to set up and run without major problems) and service (what happens when there is a problem). The survey asks for rankings in nine separate areas, include phone hold time and ease of configuration.
How did the various printer companies do?
Here are some of the results. Be aware that the survey was mostly about home models — not serious office workgroup models — and probably includes a large percentage of low cost ink jet models, so take it with a grain of salt:
- 7%t of users reported severe problems with their printers (almost the same as in 2008).
- Canon won top honors in this class — this has to be almost all ink jets, since Canon doesn’t really compete in the laser printer market.
- Brother showed very well, improving its ranking (the company offers both ink jet and laser models).
- Samsung slipped from second to third place, in a tie with Epson. Of course, Samsung sells only laser models, Epson only ink jet. Samsung got top ranking in ease-of-use.
- Dell improved from below-average to above-average (ink jet and laser).
- Kodak, on the other hand, slipped (ink jet only).
- HP, as it has done in previous years, ran last. That’s the case even though half of the respondents owned HP printers (laser and ink jet).
Again, a few caveats: These are mostly home machines, mostly ink jets. Those surveyed are among the most tech-savvy, so the answers are probably different than what you’d get from a less sophisticated group.
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Tags: PCWorld, printer brands, reliability, survey
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February 24th, 2010 at 11:50 am
HP has excellent brand recognition because they were the “enterprise print solution” of 10 years ago.
Spectacularly flawed software and drivers, poor lifecycle management, and way-over-the-top expensive ink and add-ons make HP the last on my list, too.
After struggling with HP drivers, repeated updates, tech support sessions with HP, and downloading half the internet to my PC to resolve the issue, I finally threw out my very last HP printer 5 years ago, and will NEVER look back.
I owned a Lexmark that lasted for a while, but ended up having nozzle / print head issues.
I have had a Canon now for 2 years…. the ink is cheap, it’s fast, it works with just about any paper, I have an “all in one” multi-function model with some neat features, the driver works without issue on multiple devices and platforms, works well across the network (which the HP did NOT), and I have had ZERO issues with it.
September 6th, 2010 at 2:40 pm
My HP printer All-In-One C6180 just failed after being in very light service for around 4 years.
This would be my 3rd HP printer to have failed . The first and second HP printers were cheaper
All-In-Ones with the second failing after 1 year, prompting the purchase of this more expensive
printer.
I remember my first Canon. It never broke, in fact it worked so long it became outdated. I
finally sold it to buy a modern color printer.
Looks like I’m shopping for a new Canon printer this time.