HP exec says quiet part out loud when it comes to locking in print customers
theregister.com
theregister.com
I have a Deskjet 4515 with duplexer and scanner. It's surprisingly robust for its age. It works with everything, incl. AirPrint, driverless CUPS, Google Cloud Print (while it lasted). Mine still has an e-mail address I can send documents and get printouts. Similarly it can scan to e-mail directly. Lastly it's still compatible with latest Smart App, which provides nice things like printables (To Do lists, notebook pages, etc.).
It can print good quality photos, and while the original inks are not all-pigment, the photo printouts can withstand the time (5+ years) pretty well.
I buy two sets of cartridges per year, and that thing costs less than month's gas in a year. Why wouldn't I like it? There's no reason.
I thought no informed person would buy one of these, let alone be happy with their purchase.
I bought a laser b/w printer a decade ago and I never looked back at ink.
It would be nice to be able to print in color maybe twice per year. Scanning would be nice to have as well as the ability to print photos, but more often than not I'd want a roller scanner rather than flat bed (when I scan I have many pages to do). When I have just one page, the smartphone is a good enough tool.
So unless one has a need to print color documents or photos regularly (at least once every 2 weeks) I struggle to understand the benefits.
If you really only print 2 times per year you don't need a printer.
Even when dried out, HP inkjet printers have integrated print heads with the cartridge so you can just replace the cartridge and print again.
My previous printer was a Canon which sipped a significant volume of ink by aggressively "cleaning" the print heads and still clogged up. A new print head was more expensive than the printer itself.
I don't like the HP subscription model, the annoying way of requiring an app/crapware to install the printer. It's untrustworthy and a blemish in whatever is left of the good name of HP from the past. But even 'just buy a Brother' tries that kind of tricks now so it seems enshittification has reached the whole market.
Not using a couple of months =/= printing 2 times per year.
However, I might have had years when I did print only twice per year, but when I did it was a great convenience to have. What's the alternative? Let's say it's Friday midday, you just learnt you have to print something, sign it and take a photo of it ASAP. You can't leave right now because you're working from home. There is a print shop in a city 30 miles away, but your car is under 2ft of snow. You finish work at 5pm (it's dark outside by now) and you know the print shop will close in an hour. Good luck.
Or scenario no2. You hit the print button while sipping your coffee, a (laser)printer that did nothing but light a small cupboard with its status diode springs to life and few seconds later you have your print. You sign it, snap a photo of it on your phone and send it away. 5 min later you're doing something else.
If you know you'll only print few times per year, having a fresh cartridge packed for the occasion makes sense, but laser printers exist and they don't require it. If you have to buy a new cartridge every time you print you'll quickly find buying a laser was cheaper (even if buying 3rd party cartridges). Color lasers exist (although I never used a consumer unit). I imagine they're meant for documents rather than photos.
Before moving out, this HP was accompanied by a mono laser, and this HP saw much less usage (a couple of prints every 3 months, or something). I probably changed a single black cartridge out of drying, because it malfunctioned and leaked inside the printer (which dried to a blob which I just picked out from the drip pad) during the decade I own it.
Sometimes a couple of nozzles get clogged in the array, but the print pattern hides these extremely well, and you can't spot them unless you ask for a print quality report which does unmasked full-nozzle test patterns. These nozzles unclog after a couple clean cycles, at most (if they're not unclogged during normal printing). So, it always prints, always prints well, and more surprisingly, it's "remaning ink" gauges are also accurate enough, unless you abuse a single color in the tri-color cartridge much.
I like to print scientific articles in color, because of the graphs mostly. Also writing dense documents in color aids them in reading. On the photos department, I generally print what I took, and holding a photo you like so much still creates these warm feelings, esp. if you didn't take it with a phone.
This is my fifth inkjet, and fourth HP inkjet. Only one of these HPs were given away becauase it's worn down (it was a very entry level AIO).
I also owned a couple of lasers, both Samsung (Rebranded Xerox, basically), and they're rock solid, too. One of the Samsung's rollers have worn down and they were not replaceable, so I had to give it away. Current one is a higher end model with replaceable rollers. It'll probably live forever if I can find imaging units and toners for it.
On the scanning department, while phone is good enough (Prizmo is a great app), a flatbad is always a notch higher, and it pays if you want some archival scans. If this HP breaks down (and that's a big if), I'll get one an AIO with document feeder.
My first ink printer was a lexmark 1000. This was the only printer I could afford at the time (cheap ink jet printers just became available in my country). It printed OK-ish. It was a 3 toner or black toner cartridge printer. You'd swap in the correct cartridge for the type of the print. I was printing mostly in B/W. When I tried to print in color (maybe 2 months after) for the first time it was fine, a couple of months later it required a couple of cleaning cycles, a couple of months further it just dried out completely and I remember trying to soak it etc.
I ended up buying only B/W cartridges after. Later I moved and I didn't need a home printer as I always had access to big office machines, but I worked doing "it support" amongst other things so I'd go to someone's home to help them with their wifi, or printer/scanner at least once a week. I saw my share of clogged ink jet cartridges of all makes.
However this was almost 2 decades ago. Perhaps the technology of these inks really has changed as well as printing patterns to hide non functioning nozzles etc.
I don't think I'll try ink again unless a photo-focused small printer comes out that is advertised as being "non drying" for months and reviews say its true.
I considered buying a color laser for the kind of printing you do (documents, charts). It would be nice, but I until my current laser breaks (which may be next decade, or tomorrow) I find it hard to justify buying it.
My 500C was a single cartridge printer, and almost never used the color cartridge, because it dried even when I stored the color cartridge in its heavy, sealed cartridge carrier, which pressed the nozzles against a rubber gasket with force.
I used my 5150 and the other AIO pretty regularly, so I don't remember how they fared. It was probably better, but not as bulletproof as my 4515, I'm sure.
As I said, I worn down a laser printer with success, and its rollers was not replaceable, so I donated it. My current Samsung MD2825ND laser will probably live for another decade, so I'm fine with that.
I had a laptop and I turned it in once because it was immediately issues with the graphics and the drivers they had on their website was out of date and clashed with Windows update drivers that basically blue screened the computer.
Luckily, I don't use either HP or windows anymore. Their Z-line is ok tho and most of them have great linux support.
Would be an interesting project if I had the spare time
3000 page toner, 9000 page imager, AirPrint, Linux and macOS support, incredibly nice economode, starts quick, prints fast. No frills printers with tons of goodies.
I had two. First one lasted a decade, rollers gave up. Second one (MD2825) has replaceable rollers and is around 6-7 years old IIRC. Unstoppable.
That's the Shit Squeeze right there. The MBA geniuses going all-in on their customer-hostile business models to keep the superficial value creation going. Of course in reality they're hollowing out the brand, the user experience, and through the horrors of game theory probably also the entire industry. The only thing they're squeezing out in the long term is a fat steamy turd. But that's probably not anyone's concern.