8 MIN READ | CANON VS KONICA MINOLTA COPIERS
So, you're narrowing down your choices for your next office copier purchase. Canon or Konica Minolta copiers are the final two standing. Which one is better? In this article, we breakdown the most popular Canon copiers and their Konica Minolta counterparts to help you determine what qualities are most important to you and your organization or business.
Not a lot of time? Here's what we will cover:
Canon vs Konica Minolta Copiers
Canon Copier Reviews and Ratings
Konica Minolta Copier Reviews and Ratings
Copier Pricing and Service
To answer the question of comparing Canon and Konica Minolta copiers and which one is better, you have to consider your goals for this purchase. When you buy a car or a home, you likely have certain things that are make or break items when you're making such a large decision.
If fuel economy is important, then most trucks are out. If you want leather seats, then you're going to have to be prepared to pay more. If your home has to have a two-car garage, then that will narrow down your selection in some areas.
[RELATED: Top 15 Best Office Copiers of 2019]
Office copiers are no different, but here is a good 'considerations list' to get you started:
- Reliability
- Ease of Use
- Price
- Features
- Image Quality
- Security
- Service
Full disclosure: We are a proud Canon dealer, but we believe in creating transparency and helping people in any way possible.
For our list, we partnered with a third-party research company called Buyer's Lab to gather data for us. As a Canon copier dealer, we wanted to make sure this list was as transparent and honest as possible, so we compared the four most popular models we sell with their Konica Minolta counterparts.
We only rated five of the seven categories above. Price and service vary from dealer to dealer, but we will touch on that toward the end of the article.
Canon vs Konica Minolta Copiers [How we rated]
Our ratings for each machine were created by using a simple formula, though I would highly encourage you to use our numbers with your own formula based on what criteria is the most important to your company. For the sake of simplicity, we kept the weight value of each category equal in our rating.
Canon vs. Konica Minolta Rating Formula:
R + IQ + EU + S + F = SOS Rating
(R) Reliability - for many, this is the most important factor with any machine. A machine that prints a great picture isn't worth a lot if it's always down, waiting on a service technician.
(IQ) Image Quality - a copiers main function is the image it creates by printing or copying. Image quality, however, is more important depending on the industry of your business. A print shop is much more concerned about the quality of their images compared to a company who just needs to print reports and other mostly black and white documents.
(EU) Ease-of-Use - let's face it, it doesn't matter if your copier can turn on your coffee maker; if it's too complicated and not intuitive to use, you and your coworkers will be wasting a lot of time.
(S) Security - keeping your employees' and your customers' information secure from hacking threats and social engineers is becoming more and more important each day. Making sure your copier has protocols built-in to ensure it's difficult to retrieve data that needs to stay private keeps customers happy and your business out of the news.
(F) Features - many manufacturers add features that are only of value to a small handful of companies. It's important to speak to your vendor about your goals and general business operations so that they can find a suitable machine that meets your needs without exceeding them.
Canon Copier Reviews and Ratings
Canon imageRUNNER Advance C5535i III (color)
Market Entry Year: February 2019
Speed: 35 ppm
Dimensions: 37-3/8" x 24-3/8" x 29-1/4"
Our most popular Canon machine sold to businesses that includes features like HDD encryption, Universal Login Manager, Remote Operator's Software Kit, and more. Designed to reduce maintenance costs and downtime, with long-life drums, high-capacity toner cartridges and a waste toner container that is 3x larger than its predecessor.
| Reliability | Image Quality | Ease of Use | Security | Features |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10 | 8.5 | 8.5 | 10 | 10 |
Total Score: 9.4/10
Canon imageRUNNER Advance 4545i III (black & white)
Market Entry Year: February 2019
Speed: 45 ppm
Dimensions: 47" x 23-1/8" x 29-1/8"
A dependable A3-sized copier, this Canon is a good choice for mid-to large-sized work groups. Additionally, you can expect fast print times for short-run documents, fast duplex scan speeds, and fast first-copy out times. This allows your employees to accomplish tasks more efficiently and not waste time waiting for copy jobs to finish.
| Reliability | Image Quality | Ease of Use | Security | Features |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 9 | 7.5 | 8.5 | 10 | 6.5 |
Total Score: 8.3/10
Canon imageRUNNER Advance C3530i III (color)
Market Entry Year: February 2019
Speed: 30 ppm
Dimensions: 45-1/5" x 22-1/4" x 29-1/4"
This compact machine includes a number of benefits that make it great for medium-sized workgroups. This is one of the highest rated machines when it comes to durability, which means your machine is up and running longer, making your employees more efficient. Additional features include user-replaceable toners and drums and a strong ease-of-use rating. Where it may lack in some features, this machine makes-up in uptime.
| Reliability | Image Quality | Ease of Use | Security | Features |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10 | 8.5 | 8.5 | 10 | 6.5 |
Total Score: 8.7/10
Canon imageRUNNER Advance C7570i III (color)
Market Entry Year: February 2019
Speed: 70 ppm
Dimensions: 48" x 27-1/8" x 37-1/8"
If you need a production level printer with outstanding reliability and performance, it doesn't get much stronger than this Canon. At 70 pages per minute, this machine is ideal for large offices or internal print departments. Downtime is minimal on this machine and its simple procedure for replacing consumables like toner, staples, paper, and more, deliver maximum uptime and increase efficiency. It's difficult to find a color printer with this kind of speed and reliability.
| Reliability | Image Quality | Ease of Use | Security | Features |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10 | 8.5 | 8.5 | 10 | 9 |
Total Score: 9.2/10
Konica Minolta Copier Reviews and Ratings
Konica Minolta bizhub C368 (color)
Market Entry Year: August 2015
Speed: 36 ppm
Dimensions: 31" x 24.2" x 27"
A highly reliable and excellent overall performer, the C368 offers customization options and flexibility while meeting the security needs of nearly every business. Buyer's Lab awarded a BLI award to this machine based on its MyTab feature which allows the C368's drivers to be fully customizable. A good option for small to medium-sized offices.
| Reliability | Image Quality | Ease of Use | Security | Features |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 9 | 7 | 7.5 | 9.5 | 7.5 |
Total Score: 8.1/10
Konica Minolta bizhub 458e (black & white)
Market Entry Year: December 2017
Speed: 45 ppm
Dimensions: 38" x 24.2" x 27"
This machine proved highly reliable during a test that ran 200,000 pages and only produced two misfeeds. Featuring a highly interactive 9" display screen, this machine is set up to be intuitive for most users. This powerful copier is perfect for medium-sized office groups and includes helpful features like automatic paper size measuring, improved compact PDF for storage saving, and support for mobile printing, makes this machine versatile for most office environments.
| Reliability | Image Quality | Ease of Use | Security | Features |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 9.5 | 8 | 9 | 9.5 | 7.5 |
Total Score: 8.7/10
Konica Minolta bizhub C308 (color)
Market Entry Year: August 2015
Speed: 30 ppm
Dimensions: 31" x 24.2" x 27"
With flawless reliability in testing in addition to flexibility and customization, the C308 is an outstanding overall performer. Like many Konica Minolta machines, the award-winning MyTab offers users fully customizable drivers along with the ability to move between three different interfaces. Additional care has been taken to make integrating with mobile devices seamless, and at 30 pages per minute, this copier is great for meeting the demands of a small to mid-sized workgroup.
| Reliability | Image Quality | Ease of Use | Security | Features |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10 | 7 | 7.5 | 9.5 | 10 |
Total Score: 8.8/10
Konica Minolta bizhub C659 (color)
Market Entry Year: December 2017
Speed: 65 ppm
Dimensions: 45.5" x 25.5" x 31.5"
A highly dependable machine and a quality choice for medium to large-sized workgroups. During testing of 300,000 impressions/copies, only two misfeeds occurred, according to Buyer's Lab. One of the big advantages to this machine is its user-replaceable drum, meaning that service is not required to replace these parts, unlike some competing models. Print quality is considered very good overall, but may not be a fit for print shops where quality graphic printing is a higher concern.
| Reliability | Image Quality | Ease of Use | Security | Features |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 9 | 7 | 8 | 9.5 | NR |
Total Score: 8.375/10
Copier Pricing and Service
Let's talk pricing and service for your office copier. The truth is that it is very difficult to price any of the machines above in this article because of the service factor. For a more in-depth look, you can read our article on how much a copier costs, but we'll give you a basic look below.
Copiers/printers can range from $2,500 to well over $200,000 depending on how robust you need your machine to be able to perform. Yes, most copiers will be closer to the $12,000-$30,000 range for an office, but why is there such a vast difference beyond the price of the machine?
Service.
It's true. A great machine with terrible service becomes a very mediocre machine. Think about it.
If your machine is functioning fantastically and meets all your needs, how many needs is it meeting if it breaks down for a week? None.
Make sure you understand how to choose a copier dealer near you and that you also understand the differences between copier dealers and manufacturers. By educating yourself, you'll be able to create a winning combination that keeps your bottom line, employees and ultimately, customers, happy.
