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The most reliable printer brands

The printer brands that stand the test of time, as chosen by CHOICE members.

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Last updated: 06 August 2020
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Stock images: Getty, unless otherwise stated.

The top performers 

Printer reliability is not great across the board and satisfaction is pretty poor, too. The scores were quite similar between the brands for reliability, owner satisfaction and customer service satisfaction, so there's no one brand that we can say is any better or worse than the others.

It's worth noting though that while Brother has the highest reliability score of 81%, it's closely followed by Samsung at 79%. This is a big shift from our last printer survey, when Samsung had the worst reliability score by a wide margin.

Printer performance by brand
 Brand  Reliability score (%)  Owner satisfaction score (%)
 Brother (667)  81  83
 Samsung (50)  79  79
 Fuji-Xerox (106)  76  82
 HP (692)  75  79
 Canon (829)  74  78
 Epson (670)  72  79
 Other (66)  79  86
 Average (3080)  76  80

NOTES: Number in brackets shows the sample size. Reliability scores are based on data from a five-year purchase period, 2015–19. For the reliability scores, differences of 8% or more between brands are significant.

Service satisfaction

Of the people who bought their printer in the last five years:

  • 57% have never experienced problems with their printer
  • 14% had problems with connections – USB, ethernet, Wi-Fi 
  • 10% felt the print quality was poor 
  • Only 11% had contacted the brand for service support.

Across brands, there were similar gripes. Ink, cartridges and consumables were too expensive or ran out quickly, and issues with wireless connection, setting up and remaining connected were common.

Service satisfaction score by brand
 Brand  Service satisfaction score (%)
 Canon (70)  68
 Epson (79)  67
 HP (86)  67
 Brother (50)  66
 Other (41)  65
 Average (326)  67
NOTES: Number in brackets shows the sample size. Not enough Fuji-Xerox or Samsung users contacted brand support to supply reliable results for a service satisfaction score. These two brands have been wrapped into the 'Other' category. 

Printer type satisfaction

Laser printer owners are more satisfied than inkjet owners across the board. Inkjet multi-function printers (MFPs) and standard printers were both below average, though inkjet MFPs were not below by a statistically significant amount.

Printer performance by type
 Brand  Reliability score (%)  Owner satisfaction score (%)
 Laser (B&W) (319)  84  85
 MFP laser (B&W) (131)  83  84
 Laser (colour) (134)  83  83
 MFP laser (colour) (368)  78  83
 MFP inkjet/photo (1526)  73  79
 Inkjet colour/photo (577)  73  76
 Average (3055)  74  80
NOTE: For the reliability scores, differences of 2% or more are significant.

About the scores

Reliability

Reliability scores are based on the incidence of problems reported in the last 12 months for products bought no longer than five years ago. Only brands with more than 50 responses are included; brands with fewer responses are pooled into the 'Other' category. The results are weighted to account for age.

Owner satisfaction

Owner satisfaction scores are rated by brand on a scale of 1 (Terrible) to 7 (Excellent), then converted to a score out of 100. At least 50 cases are required for a brand to be included.

Service

Service satisfaction scores are also rated by brand on a scale of 1–7, but only by members who had contacted the brand manufacturer for customer service or support. Ratings are converted to a score out of 100 for brands with a minimum of 50 cases.

Stock images: Getty, unless otherwise stated.