Comparisons Between Compatible Toners and OEM Toners

Nobody wants to buy anything with full price, especially for printer replace toner cartridges. If you have a printer in your office, you will find the most frequent problem you’ll meet is that the printer can be easily out of toner. Then here comes the question, will you buy a compatible toner or an OEM toner for the replacement? To make the right choice, we need to know the following things first.

What is a toner?

For many people, ink and toner probably are the same things. But actually they are quite different. Ink is the liquid that sprayed on the prints, while toner replies on static electricity and a fuser to print powers onto paper. They play the same role, but their make-ups and functionalities are completely different and unique.

Printers are various from brands to series, and each of them have their unique toner cartridges. Then what are the differences between the compatible toners and OEM toners?

An OEM toner means an original equipment manufacturer toner, which is manufactured by the company that made your printer. If you have a Brother printer, your OEM toners should be the Brother toners. Generally, the OEM toners are the most precise toners for your printer, and they will help your printer create the best quality printouts. The only problem is OEM toners are usually more expensive than the compatible toners.

Compatible toners are the generic replacements of OEM toners, even for the same printer, compatible toners can be very different depending on various remanufacturing process and different brands. Although compatible toners are tested in the printers they will be used in, their functioning standards can still be different from the OEM ones. Apart from saving money, you should also take the print quality, print volume per cartridge and fail rate into consideration.

Advantages and disadvantages

The only disadvantage of OEM toner is the higher price. But it might be offset by longer lifespan of the toner itself. The main benefit of a compatible toner is that it’s much cheaper. Although the quality and lifespan of compatible toners are various all the time, once you find a trustful brand, all the problems can be solved.

When you’re buying a replace toner cartridge, if you value print quality the most, you should take the OEM one into consideration; if you want to save some office expenses, the compatible ones can be your best choice.