A honest comparison between two high quality advanced sewing machines from Singer, the Singer 9980 and 9960. One is better value for money than the other.

Singer 9980 and 9960 are two advanced sewing machines from Singer that received quite a good feedback from its everyday users. Both are quality computerized sewing machines (there is no question about it). Both are feature packed as well. I mean, you can’t find any better feature loaded machines than 9980 and 9960 for the price. Coming to the price, this is where the difference lies. Both machines have a huge price difference between them. Singer 9980 is the more expensive of the two, which is understandable from the features. You can easily fit in another reasonably featured sewing machine in the price gap of the two.

So, what we want to know is whether the extra money on 9980 will be worth it or not. We want to know how much better is the Singer 9980 in terms of features and quality when compared to 9960 or is 9980 overpriced?

Singer 9980 Vs 9960 – Features Comparison

Even though both the machines are pretty close in model numbers, there isn’t much similarity in the design and layout. The position of the LCD screen and the control buttons are different. Singer 9980 comes in blue color whereas 9960 comes in white. At first, let us have a look at the difference.

Built-in Stitches : Singer 9980 is the winner here. 9980 comes with 820 built-in stitches whereas 9960 on the other hand has only 600 built-in stitches. The difference in stitches is limited to decorative stitches only (number of buttonhole and basic stitches are the same), so if you don’t want a lot of decorative stitches, 9960 will still be a good option.

Controls : There is no clear cut winner here, as they use different types of controls and buttons. Singer 9980 makes use of arrow buttons for navigation whereas 9960 relies on normal buttons. You can’t really say one is better over the other in ease of use.

Sewing Assistance : Singer 9980 projects ‘sewing assistance’ as one of its premium features. However, it is not very different from the ones that you see on Singer 9960 and other advanced sewing machines. The sewing assistance displays the selected stitch, length and width settings, tension, recommended presser foot etc on the LCD screen (this is a normal default feature on all computerized sewing machines). So it is even stevens here.

Now, let us have a look at the features as a whole

Singer 9980 Vs 9960 – Performance Comparison

Apart from the difference in number of built-in stitches and outside controls, both machines are identical and this reflects in their performance as well. Both are extremely quiet machines. The stitch quality is consistent across different types of fabric. These two have the finest stitch quality in their respective price band. So you can’t pick a winner here.

Verdict

Singer 9980 has 120 extra built-in stitches, but I don’t think those extra stitches are worth the price. Singer 9960 on the other hand, has almost all the features of 9980 and that too at a much lesser price. The quality and performance of 9960 is identical to 9980. This makes Singer 9960 a better value for money product when compared to 9980. If you ask me, I will choose 9960 over 9980, purely because of the huge amount of money you need to spend on 9980 (and you are not getting many extras).