Q&A: Are brand names important when it comes to a printer’s quality?

Question by ChiDep ♥: Are brand names important when it comes to a printer’s quality?
I just bought a new printer from this brand called “Brother”
It’s not a very known one, and my mother thinks it will do crud.

Do brand labels make a difference on what you buy, when it comes to technology?
What are the Ups and Downs of the Brother printer?

Should I go buy a Canon, HP, LexMark, or Epson instead?

Do they cause as many problems as Brother printers?

Best answer:

Answer by D Professor
Yes. Most manufacturers kind of specialize on a type of machine. When it comes to printers the options are limitless but some brands are better than others for some types.

For dot-matrix printers I would recommend the Panasonic or Okidata printers. The others tend to fail prematurely or produce poorly defined letters. These are the printers other brands will imitate.

For Ink-jet printers I always recommend Hewlett-Packard. Their technology is imitated by many and few match it. Just a note: many folks buy Lexmark printers for their claimed dots-per-inch claims. Their quality is still inferior to the HP with less dpi standard.

If you want a dedicated Photo Printer I would suggest HP or Kodak printers.

For laser printers HP / Cannon / Xerox are among the best.

Brother printers are not amongst my recommendation for they lack the experience and technological quality to provide you with a printer that would last for years to come. HP is by far the most experienced in ink-jet printers the same as Panasonic, Okidata and EPSON are the leaders in Dot-Matrix printers.

When you buy a printer you must consider not only the initial cost of the printer you need to also consider if the ink/cartridge/ribbons are available locally or if you will have to buy from a particular store or web site. How many pages can you get from the ink replacement cartridge and the options the printer offers. Does it have the ports for you to read your camera data cards? Does it have options for you to set printer default options? -the cheaper printers are not adjustable- Can you see a preview of your printed page? Can you use photo paper as small as the 4×6 format?

Know better? Leave your own answer in the comments!