Question Printer Shopping. Which brands?

[Oyeve]

Yeah I've loved HP since college. Gone out of the way to buy their stuff.

Our little computer company back in the day sold exclusively HP printers because you got a new head with every ink purchase so new ink fixed most common problems.

Our HP 9015 printer (shown in pic) worked great while we were all working from home during covid. Needing to sign in to an account to scan or print was a little annoying but it was great to be able to print from a PC or phone from anywhere in the house wirelessly. Loved it until i went to buy ink and it was $100. Well that XL ink will last a long time for as little as we print, i thought... got maybe 25 pages out of that $100 investment and then the thing just quit because it was out of one color. Wouldn't scan, wouldn't print in B&W. It burns ink just sitting there and i swear it uses ink when you just scan something. Ink is now up to $120.

Rather than spend $120 on ink for the HP i recently bought a $170 B&W Brother MFC-L2690DW. The Brother also works great from PC or phone but no stupid fiddly account is required. No $120 ink refills either. A brand name cartridge is $70 and off brand refills are dirt cheap.

To be fair this early in the life of the HP i still loved it. Time will tell if still love the Brother after needing refills but i might not need refills for 20 years as little as we print.

I still have my HP LaserJet 4250 2005 or 2007, has 1,889,796 printouts. And I changed the fuser once. Still kicking.

 

[manly]

Yeah I've loved HP since college. Gone out of the way to buy their stuff.

Our little computer company back in the day sold exclusively HP printers because you got a new head with every ink purchase so new ink fixed most common problems.

Our HP 9015 printer (shown in pic) worked great while we were all working from home during covid. Needing to sign in to an account to scan or print was a little annoying but it was great to be able to print from a PC or phone from anywhere in the house wirelessly. Loved it until i went to buy ink and it was $100. Well that XL ink will last a long time for as little as we print, i thought... got maybe 25 pages out of that $100 investment and then the thing just quit because it was out of one color. Wouldn't scan, wouldn't print in B&W. It burns ink just sitting there and i swear it uses ink when you just scan something. Ink is now up to $120.

Rather than spend $120 on ink for the HP i recently bought a $170 B&W Brother MFC-L2690DW. The Brother also works great from PC or phone but no stupid fiddly account is required. No $120 ink refills either. A brand name cartridge is $70 and off brand refills are dirt cheap.

To be fair this early in the life of the HP i still loved it. Time will tell if still love the Brother after needing refills but i might not need refills for 20 years as little as we print.

Honestly today's HP bears little resemblance to that from your college years, or that from their glory days. I'm still running an old LaserJet 2100 until the toner runs out, but won't buy another HP printer after that.

'Our long-term objective is to make printing a subscription' says HP CEO gunning for 2024's Worst Person of the Year award

Not satisfied with merely bricking printers, HP now wants to own them all forever!

www.pcgamer.com

 

[Oyeve]

Honestly today's HP bears little resemblance to that from your college years, or that from their glory days. I'm still running an old LaserJet 2100 until the toner runs out, but won't buy another HP printer after that.

'Our long-term objective is to make printing a subscription' says HP CEO gunning for 2024's Worst Person of the Year award

Not satisfied with merely bricking printers, HP now wants to own them all forever!

www.pcgamer.com

Which is why I have my job invest in parts. We have at least 10 HP laser jets that are well over 12 years old including 2 HP Color LaserJet CP1510 printers that print colors better than the $12,000 printer the design studio bought. So years ago I bought a few maintenance kits for them as you just can't get that quality any more.

 

[manly]

Which is why I have my job invest in parts. We have at least 10 HP laser jets that are well over 12 years old including 2 HP Color LaserJet CP1510 printers that print colors better than the $12,000 printer the design studio bought. So years ago I bought a few maintenance kits for them as you just can't get that quality any more.

Older HP business printers are still great. It's just a really different company after Carly Fiorina ruined it, and more so after HPE split from the consumer division.

 

[lakedude]

Well they had a good run but never HP again for me.

The Brother is so much easier and cheaper to use. No fiddly account that signs you out every chance it gets and no insane $120 ink that doesn't last.

At least my old Canon will still scan or print in B&W if out of a color, plus ink is cheap. Too bad it isn't wireless...