Should I buy standard yield or high yield cartridge?

For a lot of laser printers you have the option of purchasing a standard yield or high yield cartridge. Different companies use different naming conventions for their cartridges, which can be confusing.

For HP printers, the cartridge model ends in an A for standard yield, or X for high yield.

For Brother printers, the cartridge model number is different, like TN730 and TN760.

Lexmark printers often have standard yield, high yield, and extra high yield. The cartridge model numbers are different, like 50F1000, 50F1H00, 50F1X00.

Let’s say you have an HP Laserjet Pro M402 printer. You need to buy a new cartridge. You can choose either the CF226A or the CF226X. What’s the difference between an A or X toner cartridge? It’s page yield.

The CF226A has a page yield of 3,100. The CF226X has a page yield of 9,000.

Page yield means the number of pages the cartridge is estimated to print. Page yield estimate is based on all pages only being covered with 5% toner. The chip on the top of the toner cartridge keeps track of how many pages you’ve printed, and how much toner was used on each page. This is also an estimate (see this blog post for details about how page yield is calculated).

So should you buy a standard yield or high yield cartridge? Of course, the high yield cartridge will be more expensive than the standard yield, but it’s your better deal because the CF226X high yield cartridge is not three times more expensive than the CF226A standard yield cartridge. This means that your cost per page will be lower. And since toner is a powder, it has a long shelf life. Even if you don’t print a lot, it won’t dry up or go bad.

As always, Your ETB Account Manager is happy to answer any questions you have about your printer consumables! 😊

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