4 ms·

I abandoned an HP PageWide color inkjet MFP for a Brother color laser MFP and couldn't be happier. Brother's front panel tech and UI isn't as polished, but the

I abandoned an HP PageWide color inkjet MFP for a Brother color laser MFP and couldn't be happier. Brother's front panel tech and UI isn't as polished, but the printer is rock solid and the company isn't scummy. (There's an easily-found way to reset toner counts, for example, and get anther 25-50% more pages from a cartridge. Although I no longer use it as running out of toner mid-job is a hassle. The toner is cheap enough, and long-lasting enough, that I happily set-and-forget with their auto-order system.) The only thing that's bothered me about them is they're making it harder and harder to figure out how to return toner cartridges for recycling.

l8rlump 4y ago
Those Pagewides also have expiration dates programmed into their inks. If you install one that's "out of date," the machine will just tell you that it's incompatible. I haven't come across another brand with use-by dates on their inks. Maybe that's why the error message is so cryptic. The other one (with the bigger Pagewides at least): they had a problem with the formulation of the black ink, where the constituents would separate over time. They changed the formulation and that formulation doesn't dry properly on their own photo paper. I wanted optimal quality photos, so I went through the specific calibration function for the HP Advanced photo paper. Because of the way the machine shuffles the page back and forth in the machine to perform the calibration, all the black was smudged and the calibration would fail every time. When HP support eventually realized I had a point, they told me calibration on HP Advanced photo paper is "not supported." I bet they remove it as an option in later firmware, if they haven't already. I have never dealt with a more user-hostile company than HP.

4 ms·

I abandoned an HP PageWide color inkjet MFP for a Brother color laser MFP and couldn't be happier. Brother's front panel tech and UI isn't as polished, but the

by jdlshore 4y ago

l8rlump 4y ago
Those Pagewides also have expiration dates programmed into their inks. If you install one that's "out of date," the machine will just tell you that it's incompatible. I haven't come across another brand with use-by dates on their inks. Maybe that's why the error message is so cryptic. The other one (with the bigger Pagewides at least): they had a problem with the formulation of the black ink, where the constituents would separate over time. They changed the formulation and that formulation doesn't dry properly on their own photo paper. I wanted optimal quality photos, so I went through the specific calibration function for the HP Advanced photo paper. Because of the way the machine shuffles the page back and forth in the machine to perform the calibration, all the black was smudged and the calibration would fail every time. When HP support eventually realized I had a point, they told me calibration on HP Advanced photo paper is "not supported." I bet they remove it as an option in later firmware, if they haven't already. I have never dealt with a more user-hostile company than HP.