Are Printers What They Used To Be?

Fifster asks: "Has anyone noticed any trends in terms of printer quality nowadays? Perhaps it's just me being nostalgic, but I used to have an old HP Deskjet 500 maybe...ten years ago, and it worked for years. Sure, it wasn't colour, and it was noisy and somewhat slow, but it never died. After I decided to retire it and buy a fancy new colour printer with features I don't really need, I've gone through about a printer a year. I finally decided to get a Brother HL-1440 laser printer to avoid the cost of cartridges after my last HP died after I replaced an expensive cartridge. Has anyone else noticed this trend of poorer and poorer quality printers, at least in terms of life expectancy?"

Comments

Re:Exactly why printers suck

[shadowbearer]

Better yet, look at online reviews. You'll find that most people agree the Lexmarks (and the re-marks of them, such as Apollo) suck.

Oh, and the Barbie printers (remarked Lexmark rejects, currently on my suppliers list I can buy them for $10 apiece wholesale ;-) Yuck.

It really depends on what you want. Want to have a printer that you're going to do less than 500 prints with in a year or two? Go to Walmart and buy a cheapie. Want something that will last, spend money.

IMHO HP is the best brand out there in the consumer market right now, but don't spend less than $150 or so retail.

SB