HP reminds me of Electronic Arts, years ago they were thinking of implementing a “pay to reload” your gun in their Battlefield video games. So many evil companies and their subscription services.
printer as a subscription is ridiculous. It won't be long until the industry goes computer by subscription. We had a couple of HP OfficeJets which were the worst printers we ever owned, truly awful things that guzzled ink like nothing else, never worked properly, and generally cost an absolute fortune to run and were a nightmare to maintain. We've had an Epson Ecotank for the last 7 years which has never put a foot wrong and even with moderate business use is still running on the original bottles of ink. They are so unbelievably economical it's a wonder they're not seen more in businesses, at least here in the UK. It's a great example of a company doing something right by the user for a change, as it can't be doing their profit margin any favours compared to a traditional inkjet.
It's been a long time coming with HP. Had to replace a HP B209 or B210 with 25k pages and waste ink pad issues for someone and I went with a M426fdw given my experience with the M401 which I still run (but I've since bought a mono laser from another brand I run alongside my M401). I've regretted that decision since it was only a few years old after I found out a chip read issue shuts down the printer which never happened on my M401; it just nagged you until you addressed it. The other thing that did HP in for me was the chronic wireless issues where I have had to redo the network settings time and time again to the point I have it setup such that I have the static IP binded to the router, and set to static on the M426 to make sure. I've even had trouble with the driver over IPP to the point the only way to not have an issue is to use TCP/IP on Windows, yet you can't disable IPP without losing AirPrint otherwise I'd have looked into deprioritizing it; my Mac has never had an issue with IPP, but the HP IPP implementation is garbage on Windows. HP will never take my M401 away from me, I'll stockpile compatible and reman toner for it until it has something major fail, even low PC machines. As soon as that thing dies, I'm getting them a Canon; I'm done with HP and their DRM, HP+ and the wireless issues. The cheap Samsung engines are just icing on the cake for me. As much as I try and tolerate that M426 for the Canon engine, you can buy a real Canon without the HP garbage. I'm used to the wireless issues with HP, there's a reason my M401 is on Ethernet and my not a brother replacement is on Ethernet, and when I go to a high volume unit when that HP gets to a point it will be done the same way. I was an HP customer for the last 20+ years I've had printers as well, I'm done. It's kind of sad my last HP will be older then dirt, but that's what happens when you get greedy.
My sister and I both owned a HP Deskjet 930c for over a decade with no problems. I then switched to a Canon Pixma MG2150 in 2012 and that has also been largely problem free. So my sister needed to upgrade and asked for my help. Based on her needs I chose the Canon PIXMA TS5351 and it has been nothing but trouble from day one. Currently it is refusing to accept brand new genuine ink cartridges, which it did not do before. The thing is that moving back to an HP model, would not solve most of the issues as they are not the company they were back in the 1990s.
I found a 930C in the dumpster a couple of years ago, it took a bit of coaxing to work but eventually, I got it working (sort of, the cartridges it came with weren't good anymore). I still have it but it's sitting in a cupboard waiting for the day that I can find replacement cartridges. I just connected it through USB and Windows picked it up instantly, no fuss no muss. Before that one I was given a HP Laser of some kind, a pro model to boot, but that one unfortunately had a mechanical issue that I couldn't sort out, the toners were in some sort of rotating carousel and sometimes, the printer would try to rotate the carousel and it wouldn't.. But if I turned it manually it would turn freely. I sorta regret not having been able to fix this one..
@@bbishoppcm The HP black ink text and font quality was WAY superior to the Canon I replaced it with. The colour prints were better too, despite the resolution being lower etc.
hp+ subscription is "optional" until you register for it, then it locks your printer to only use hp+ ink. they are unlocked at the start because they are not allowed to sell them locked.
I bought the Canon MP600 in 2009 and it finally died on me last week (June 2024) 😞 It has done me so proud as i print colour images all the time to do with my work. Sadly parts are obsolete now so i can even get it repaired or serviced. I definately had my monies worth. I bought the Epson XP-8700 from Amazon and lasted 2 days befor i sent it back. The paper jammed every time with only 6 pages in the cassette. (crap printer) Thanks for this review. 👍
I have two Epson eco tank printers one i got off Craigslist for $15 the other i got at the thrift store for $7. they both work but sometimes the paper wont go through right and you have to clean the print head a lot of times if not used for awhile i do have a Canon MF4350D laser printer that I've never had any problems with. I think Canon is a good brand
For that Hard Drive iMac, you can actually buy a m.2 thunderbolt 3 SSD enclosure and run Mac OS from that drive instead. It'll take up one of your thunderbolt ports but the iMac will be much faster and you'll have a portable OS drive.
My 1st printer was an HP Photosmart. It did a really good job at printing but something it would suffer from paper jams due to the mediocre paper tray, causing the papers to go into the feeder crooked. 4 years later, the caps on the main circuit board started to bulge, so I replaced all of those but the whole printer started to fail after 5 years of use. Replaced it with a Canon, that printer gave me hell. Usually I would agree that Canon printers are better than any other inkjets that what was on sale at that time but that particular model, a Pixma of some sort, consistently refuses to print, and it would frequently cause paper jams; even some that almost required me to disassemble the whole damn thing. Sold it for $1 after losing my cool with its last of the 100+ paper jams it suffered, gone back to an HP; an Envy this time, it worked smoothly, prints just as well as I expected and it is more compact in size. Issues are it would lose wifi connectivity to computers, since it only uses the 2.4Ghz band and for some reason my devices requiring it constantly falls off its signal, meaning I had to go through setting it up as a network printer again (I actually noticed this is happening not often anymore so probably Windows finally managed not to lose it), and lastly, the infamous ink kerfuffle. For some reason, if I leave the printer idle just for a month the ink cartridges will dry up, and this has happen multiple times. And yeah, their replacement cartridges are not that cheap, but I think it has gotten worse, as the prices might've gone up. I do wonder how the quality of their inkjet cartridges has been lately. It's not like back 10+ years ago when it takes a while for their cartridge to go dry, but the ink capacity was as tiny as a mouse cage; at least for that Photosmart printer. I have looked at the ink tank printers from Canon and Epson that day when I ironically went to buy the replacement cartridges to replace the dried up ones on my current HP printer. I tried looking up reviews on ink tank printers but people have been saying they're no different to inkjet printers in terms of quality, value and its PPM, vs the inkjet variants. Wasn't convinced so I'm hoping you would do a review after a while of use to see what you and your GF, who's going to be using it more, think. Because if this round of cartridges dries up again even if I tried to prevent them from doing so by running some maintenance on the printer, I might have to replace my HP with something else... but I do have to say laser printers are starting to look more of an attractive option to me but man, they aren't cheap. On another fun subject, as a millennial I do wonder if these younger millennials and Gen Z with their fancy dancy 5-figure computer setups do even have a printer? 🤔
My canon tank printer clogs if I don't use it just for a couple days. Literally clogged almost every time I want to use it and have to do a cleaning that wastes ink each time. Was going to buy GX1020 because of the pigment inks but realized they lie about that. Only the black is pigment based, but you have to dig deep to find that out.
Most of these ink model printers just copy each others designs... And flaws. If you go to any store that sells printers, the demo units all look identical on the inside. Same tray, same designs, different cartridges but very similar all around.
I would have recommended a brother laser printer...the one I've had since ~2017 is still going strong with 0 problems and because I print so infrequently I've never had to change the toner. 100% problem free and dependable...check them out!
My past experience with a Brother laser printer was - not good. Within a year, it began misfeeding paper, so it ended being thrown out my second floor bedroom window. Seriously.
I can't justify buying a printer not made by brother. they're simply better and more consumer friendly printers. I also just bought a canon printer and after 24 hours the firmware corrupted and wouldn't boot anymore. I returned it back to amazon and got a brother one and it's been problem free, not even using official toner. I hope that you get many years out of yours though, and not my measly 24 hours.
There are certain print jobs inkjets are actually better at, like photos for example. Not everyone is printing pie charts. Some specialty papers also will not work in a color laser. Further, I have many years of experience buying and supporting printing equipment - our Epson EcoTank printers are actually less problematic than our HP color lasers ever were. Now you know.
