BLI Report

Genuine Lexmark Brand Laser Cartridges vs. Six Brands of Remanufactured Cartridges

The test results are in* and genuine Lexmark toner cartridges outperformed six remanufactured brands in an independent test.

If your organisation could print every page with confidence, imagine how productive everyone would be. Recently, Buyers Laboratory Inc. tested and compared the performance of new Genuine Lexmark T644 toner cartridges against those from six remanufactured brands, and as the results* show, bargain brand toner cartridges may not be the bargain they claim to be.

The Lexmark Advantage

Throughout BLI's test the Genuine Lexmark T644 cartridges provided consistent, reliable performance, exhibiting zero reliability failures while maintaining the desired print quality performance throughout the life of the cartridges. However, all six remanufactured brand cartridges revealed reliability, page yield and/or print quality problems.

31% of the Bargain Brand Cartridges Failed

1 in 5 failed out of the box
One in five of the bargain brand cartridges were either inoperable upon installation or produced 20 or fewer acceptable pages.

1 in 10 expired prematurely
One in 10 bargain brand cartridges produced less than 75% of the average expected page yield.

1 in 25 failed to produce acceptable image quality
One in 25 bargain brand cartridges developed unacceptable image quality during their life.

Cartridge Faliure Rate

Lexmark (0%) / Remanufactured Brands (31%)

Statistical Prediction of Performance
(Expected Pages Printed per Cartridge)

Statistical Prediction of Performance Graph

Expected Pages

Shouldn't You Get What You Pay For?

When the test results of Genuine Lexmark cartridges and remanufactured brand cartridges are modeled, it's easy to see the unpredictable nature of remanufactured brand cartridges.

Genuine Lexmark cartridges (in blue to the left graph) are predicted to consistently deliver the page yields they are expected to deliver. The tall, narrow curve indicates little variation.

In contrast, the nearly flat curve of the remanufactured brand cartridges (in red) shows wide variability. This is an indication of high unpredictability. It means that you can never be quite sure with a bargain brand. You are just as likely to get a cartridge that delivers less than expected yield or one that doesn't print at all as you are to get one that performs as you would expect.

Read BLI 2012 Custom Test Report

^{*Test data excerpted from BLI's 2012 Custom Test Report: Genuine Lexmark Brand Laser Cartridges vs. Six Brands of Remanufactured Cartridges}