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Re:Why All Printers Suck, Even the Best Ones by 67726e on Wednesday April 06, 2016 @08:18AM (#11438220)
The reason I buy a cheap piece of shit is because there is little difference between it and the expensive piece of shit.

I currently have a $60 printer which does just fine. Previously I had a >$200 fancy HP printer, but I got rid of it when I found out it would "expire" my ink. As someone that prints maybe a handful of concert tickets a year, that is bullshit.

Re:Why All Printers Suck, Even the Best Ones by tdkl on Wednesday April 06, 2016 @08:48AM (#11438381)
$60 inkjets are still expensive if you consider you have to pay $50 for both cartridges quite fast.

I got a B/W Samsung laser for 80€, which printed for 3 years despite default toner that comes with the printer isn't even full capacity. After that I got a renewed toner for 28€, still prints.

Cousin bought a Xerox B/W laser for about 55€ last month and it comes with Wi-fi built-in. Renewed toner is also in the 30€ area. That's how cheap they are now.

But I don't agree with the article completely though, nowadays if you need colour printing (for documents, I wouldn't print photographs on a laser, it's still cheaper to print them in a shop) as well regularly, get a colour laser. It's 50-80$€ more then B/W (from 150 up) and you're also set for years.

Re:Why All Printers Suck, Even the Best Ones by bryanlarsen on Wednesday April 06, 2016 @10:12AM (#11438868)
All inkjet printers "expire" their ink.

Either you leave it plugged in, and it occasionally does a nozzle cleaning operation, using up ink each time, or you leave it unplugged, and it gets clogged if you don't use it regularly.

Granted, it does take longer than 6 months to empty an ink jet cartridge just through cleaning, but for an infrequently used printer, cleaning will use up a significant portion of your ink.

Re:Why All Printers Suck, Even the Best Ones by 67726e on Wednesday April 06, 2016 @11:08AM (#11439255)
Everything I've ever read put it in the realm of around one to two years, not 6 months. In my case, I didn't even own the printer for a year before it pulled that one on me, and I purchased additional ink for it. That's just shady practice on HP's part.
Re:Why All Printers Suck, Even the Best Ones by ucaetano on Wednesday April 06, 2016 @08:41AM (#11438349)
The $200 isn't the expensive PoS, it's already subsidized. Would you pay, let's say, $600, for the non-expiring version?
Re:Why All Printers Suck, Even the Best Ones by 67726e on Wednesday April 06, 2016 @09:47AM (#11438723)
That's bullshit and you know it. I've had about a half dozen printers my entire life and HP is the only one to pull that shit. It's a shitty tactic, not subsidization.