HP is really a shit tier company. I haven't used any of their products that felt like it was of good quality and their support is just OK.
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I turned it in once because it was immediately issues with the graphics and the drivers they had on their website was out of date and clashed with Windows update drivers that basically blue screened the computer.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.
This is a disingenuous headline. From the context she clearly meant "locking in" as in a customer buying a subscription, not vendor lockin as in you can only use our ink (not saying it isn't happening, just that this was not the context).
Sounds like an abusive relationship between HP and their customers. It's worrying that people are printing less and yet HP are taking more money from people, but surely it's inevitable that at some point people will just refuse to deal with HP unless they change course and provide better value.
Because, when you don't get a subscription, an InkAdvantage printer is not that expensive and can work for more than a decade, without any issues.
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.
What about the ink drying out if you don't use it for printing for a couple of months?
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.
> What about the ink drying out if you don't use it for printing for a couple of months?
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.
Surprisingly, it doesn't. When compared to my older printers, this HP is extremely resilient to sitting idle for months.
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.
Interesting. Perhaps it(drying out/clogging) depends on environmental factors? How hot, how humid is it etc. I never had luck with it myself.
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.
The older printers were prone to drying, I must say that, and Canon BJC4300 was the biggest offender with self-destructing print heads. The ink not only dried, but expanded and killed the nozzle valves, leaving a four-color band at every line start where the head primed itself for the next pass.
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.
> a multi-year strategy to convert unprofitable business into something more lucrative
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.
HP had the best printers 20-30 years ago so I stuck with them. Recently I got so fed up with them and their ink BS that I switched to an Epson ECO Tank printer, and I’m happy to say that I’ve been delighted. HP is shooting themselves in the foot.
I have a M283FDW, it's great besides the firmware for toner checks. The one time I tried a third party toner, only to have it get bricked a week later, made me want to try to tackle creating a custom firmware or just straight come up with a drop in mainboard.
Would be an interesting project if I had the spare time
What's best these days for B&W laser? Something that works well with no subscriptions, and hopefully no near-term planned obsolescence? Wish list: can refill toner cartridges.
I can’t vouch for refillable toner, but Xerox (formerly Samsung) SoHo printers with network, duplexer and replaceable rollers are unbeatable.
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.
I wonder why there's not an open source hardware and firmware for a simple black and white printer that takes those old ubiquitous ribbon toner cartidges. We have open source robots of all kinds, 3d printers, but I can't find a single open source document printer.
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[ 1.3 ms ] story [ 75.1 ms ] threadI 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.