Printer Reality Check
Printer Reality Check Tue, 1 Jun 2021, 6:06PM
Come on, it s time to get real. We can t keep using printers they way we have been.
Something got seriously out of whack somewhere along the way and it suddenly became cheaper to buy a new printer than to replace the cartridges.
Obviously, that kind of printer is not a high quality printer but if all you re doing is printing off the occasional greeting card, a few recipes and the kids homework assignments, something cheap and nasty might just do the trick.
Until it runs out of ink.
Then it s moral dilemma time, isn t it? You know you re not supposed to throw whole printers away. especially when they re in perfectly good working order - but sometimes it s literally cheaper to replace the whole thing.
Cost-Saving Ink Strategies
One of the most common printer-related complaints is that ink is too expensive. You can pour a lot of money into replacing cartridges, which all-too-frequently have modest capacities and deplete quickly. Generally, the more expensive the printer, the lower its ink costs will be. Often, budget-price home inkjet printers and all-in-ones have the highest costs per printed page, bringing to mind the old strategy of giving away the razor to fleece you on the blades.
The good news is that in recent years most of the major printer manufacturers have introduced inkjets with unheard-of low running costs, employing a variety of strategies to do so. HP sells ink on several subscription plans through its Instant Ink program, which can offer considerable savings on color costs. Other companies, including Brother, Epson, and Canon, offer similar (though non-subscription-based) cost-saving initiatives.
Expensive without an Instant Ink subscription
HP has been making printers and scanners for years, but a lot has changed since the days of the boxy office printers of the ‘80s – now, we get lightweight and minimalist-looking wonders like the HP Envy Pro 6420.
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Instead of your typical grey cuboid, the HP Envy Pro 6420’s dimensions have been pared down so that each of its key functions – printer, scanner, and copier – are housed in their own discrete and easily recognisable sections.
Looks aside, the HP Envy Pro 6420 is a wireless all-in-one colour printer aimed at families and home office workers. Like the HP DeskJet Plus 4120, it’s a cartridge-based inkjet printer running on just two cartridges.