We’ve tested inkjet and laser printers to assess the quality and speed of their printing and copying, their usability, and how much ink and energy they use.
Lifetime score
Our overall score combines test performance (how well the appliance works) with predicted reliability (how likely models from the brand are to remain free of faults) and owner satisfaction (how likely owners of the brand are to be very satisfied).
We’ll only recommend appliances you’ll love to own, that work well and keep working well for a long time.
Test performance
It’s no good if a product lasts for several decades if it doesn’t work well in the first place. A disappointing product will soon become unloved and unwanted. For this reason, our independent lab testing still forms an important part of our overall lifetime score.
Our printer test includes:
Performance
We measure how quickly printers can print and how accurate the final product is, for a variety of print jobs including photos, letters and spreadsheets.
The test also covers ease of use, from how involved it is to connect the printer to a laptop, to whether it can print from an SD card or USB drive, to how long it takes to start up.
For multifunction printers, this score also includes scanning and copying performance.
Predicted reliability
It’s reasonable to expect a new device to remain fault-free for the first five years. Our predicted reliability won’t tell you whether the printer in your study will start jamming tomorrow, but it does show which brands make models that are less likely to fail.
Owner satisfaction
Satisfaction is important – no device should be a source of buyer regret. Printers with very satisfied owners are more likely to get maintained well, and owners are more likely to keep hold of them rather than chop and change.
About our survey data
In our annual reliability and satisfaction survey, consumers tell us about faults that have left an appliance they own unusable or mean they’ve had to change how they use it. We also ask them how satisfied they are with the appliance. We use their data to produce our predicted reliability and owner satisfaction scores.
We use a statistical test to rate the relative performance of each brand. Compared to data we have for all products (of the same type) in the survey, we rate each brand with highest, high, average, low or lowest reliability and satisfaction. You can compare the rating of different brands for the same product type (for example, the reliability rating for Miele and Haier washing machines), but you can’t compare the results for different product types (for example, satisfaction of LG TVs and Samsung phones).
We analyse brands that get at least 30 responses in our survey. That means there are some brands we can’t analyse because we don’t have enough data. For those brands, we assume they have average predicted reliability and owner satisfaction.
Our data is based on responses for 2085 printers in our 2024 survey.
