Xerox genuine toner vs. bargain brand toner – Which is the better deal? Well, bargain toner is less expensive so it’s obviously the better deal…right? Well, not exactly.
Toner is the lifeblood of your printer or multifunction printer. Without toner, you basically have a large scanner or paperweight. While you might be tempted to use a bargain toner due to the lower price tag, I would caution you against trying the bargain brands.
When it comes to toner, you really do get what you pay for. In the long run, bargain toner can actually end up costing you more by causing problems with your print device, and thus resulting in costs for service and repairs on your device, or even causing you to have to replace your device entirely. In addition, bargain toner can severely affect the quality of your prints and you could lose valuable business because of poor quality output.
Genuine Toner vs. Bargain Toner
So the question becomes what is the true cost of those bargain toners? It’s potentially much more than just the list price! Take, for example, testing conducted by independent printer evaluation laboratories comparing Xerox genuine toner cartridges vs bargain toner cartridges:
In comparative cartridge tests on several different printer cartridges, the Buyers Laboratory Incorporated (BLI) found that despite the higher price, Xerox genuine toner cartridges turned out to be the economical option. Xerox Genuine cartridges delivered superior overall page yields (27% higher than aftermarket alternatives), image quality and reliability performance compared to the remanufactured brand.1 Testing conducted by Spenser Lab on a Xerox Phaser 6360 proved similar findings as BLI — the bargain toner cartridges were found to not yield the amount of prints advertised, fail more often and cause expensive damage to the printer itself. 2
There you have it! Purchasing inexpensive aftermarket toner and ink for negligible short-term savings can ultimately be more expensive, due to frequent replacement of defective and leaky toner cartridges and lost productivity as a result of device downtime from failures of fusers and imaging units. So, the next time you’re looking to purchase toner for your print device, don’t let a lower price tag persuade you!
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