Generic Toner Cartridges - Better than the Original?

A question we get asked a lot is ‘just how good are generic toner cartridges’ (or ‘compatible’ toner as it is also called)? ‘Are they better than the original?’ ‘Even if they were equal, as generic toner cartridges tend be a lot more reasonable then surely they would be the superior choice?’

The answer to this question is actually fairly simple: generic toner is more than competent enough to handle home-use and internal office documents, though the more consistent and professional print-quality of original cartridges makes them ideal for outgoing documents; though having put it fairly bluntly, we can go into a tad more detail on some of these points to let you know how we came to such a conclusion.

Reliability

A study* done on HP LaserJet cartridges and generic alternatives found that the original exhibited no reliability failures whatsoever, while the generic toner scored an average of 41.7%. This isn’t to say the generic toner cartridges are unreliable full-stop, just that you will find the original a lot more consistent – this does seemingly justify the larger price-tag.

Quality

Results from that same study showed that original toner cartridges printed out sample pages which were deemed acceptable for multiple uses 97% of the time; compatible toner on the other hand only managed to score 61%. Again these results are heavily in favour of the original toner, though we think it’s fair to point out that you don’t always need a perfect print-out – it depends on the situation.

The study basically reiterates what we’ve always said: yes generic toner cartridges are completely competent but they cannot match original when it comes to reliability and quality, but where they can outdo the manufacturers-own is on price – basically, it’s that old cliché of you get what you pay for.

Because generic toner is more reasonable and still produces fair prints, we think this makes it ideal for everyday printing when quality is not paramount. If you are sending an outbound document and you want it to look pristine, you’re going to want to go with an original cartridge.

*You can find the full study here: http://www.businessdirect.bt.com/Images/3/pdf/EMEAmonotonertest.pdf