Printers Survey Results (Inkjet & Laser Printer Reviews and Comparison)

To get a perspective of the best printers in thefavorites in this segment:
market, recently PC Mag conducted the Reader's1. Canon: Canon tops the list in this category. With
Choice: Printer's Survey. After all, who better thanmore than average ratings, multifunction ink jets,
the consumer to review which printers are theas well as photo printers, Canon has distinguished
best! In the Reader's Choice survey more thanitself well. Another interesting aspect - less than
6500 printers, including color ink jets to mono3% of Canon printers needed repair on average
lasers were analyzed.and their technical support is much superior than
Service levels being the new driverothers. Even Canon's ink is top quality with
According to the Reader's Survey, the top two inaffordable rates. Canon ink cartridges cost has a
the list are Canon and HP respectively. While HPscore of 4.9 out of 10, with an overall rating of
has always remained the favorite, Canon has5.7.
moved ahead of it this year. Product features are2. HP: The overall score for HP is better than
no longer the sole yardstick of competitive edge.average. However their technical support still
The new 'mantra' of success is the service levelsremains unpopular, in spite of their Instant support
and maintenance required. That's why overall,utility which maps dysfunctional printers to the call
parts needing repair have declined from 11% tocenters for instant action. The root of the
8% over a one year span! Among printers lessproblem lies in HP's support providers. HP ink is
than a year old, the ones which stood theircostlier and also the 3rd party ink of HP printers.
ground were Konica Minolta and Samsung. TheseEven their photopaper is costly!
printers did not need much repair as far as their3. Brother's: The quality of ink is not as good
units were concerned.although cost of ink does not pose a major
Service levels have not been up to readers'problem with consumers. Their mono lasers
expectations although the basic technical supportrequire minimal maintenance and have scored well.
is fine by them.However Brother's ink and photos overall get a
Printer type scorespoor score.
As far as home printers go, Samsung seems to4. Epson: Their first-year printers have received
be the top on the list. Another interestingvery good scores- an 8.2 rating. However since
observation is that HP, which used to be the2005, there's been a sharp rise in repairs needed -
strong favorite, isn't anywhere among the top 2almost 6% of the new printers needed repair - a
in the photo printers category. In fact, Epson anddisturbing trend for Epson.
Canon take the top 2 slots. HP does seem to do5. Dell: While Dell as a brand commands respect
well in the monochrome lasers category, with aand trust, when it comes to printers, it doesn't
good margin. Brother and Samsung lag behind HPseem to get the same level of trust. Even their
in this segment. Konica and Lexmark are next inweb based support is below satisfactory levels.
line.6. Lexmark: The only saving grace for Lexmark
Ink jets: The most popular oneswould probably be its repair rating - a good score
Ink jets, being the most widely-used printers thatof 6%. Apart from this, all other aspects score
they are, deserve special mention. That's why thepoor - be it reliability, recommendation from
Reader's Choice survey chose to pick the top 6consumers or even technical support.