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HP Printer Recommendation

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xenolite

macrumors newbie
Original poster
after much deliberation (powerbook vs. ibook), i'm going to be purchasing an ibook in the next week. hurrah!

does anyone have opinions on the hp printers currently being offered with rebates from apple? i don't need anything fancy. just something that'll print text documents well and not force me to replace ink cartridges every month.

also, the hp rebate deal is up at the end of this month. does apple always have some printer rebate offer going or do i need to act quickly?

thanks.
 
i would get the cheapest if you don't need anything special, the 5150 is free after rebates
if you want to do photos, the photosmart 7660 is a very good buy i have that with my ibook
apple usually has a printer promo there might be some lapse between promos though

xenolite said:
after much deliberation (powerbook vs. ibook), i'm going to be purchasing an ibook in the next week. hurrah!

does anyone have opinions on the hp printers currently being offered with rebates from apple? i don't need anything fancy. just something that'll print text documents well and not force me to replace ink cartridges every month.

also, the hp rebate deal is up at the end of this month. does apple always have some printer rebate offer going or do i need to act quickly?

thanks.
Click to expand...
 
i strongly recommend you get a WIRELESS printer, because you can install that unit anywhere not having to plug cables every now and then. those are however slightly more expensive (due to the network printing server involved) but in my opinion well worth it.
 
JFreak said:
i strongly recommend you get a WIRELESS printer, because you can install that unit anywhere not having to plug cables every now and then. those are however slightly more expensive (due to the network printing server involved) but in my opinion well worth it.
Click to expand...

I agree with JFreak. My parents have a HP 5850 plugged into a Microsoft MN-700 wireless router for their Windows computers, but they also have used it wirelessly (the 5850 has both 802.11b and ethernet). Both ways the printer has performed flawlessly, and I have always liked the text output on HP printers better than Lexmark, Epson and Canon. The 5850 is $50 after the $99 rebate.

I have a PSC2110 hooked up to an AEBS and it works fine (occasionally a print job will stop half way through).

The advantage of the 5850 is it will work with any wireless/router setup; the PSC 2110 requires a USB printer server (which happens to built-in to the AEBS and Airport Express).
 
i hadn't really considered a wireless printer, but after looking over specs, it seems like maybe the 5850 fits my needs best anyhow. would i need any additional equipment besides the 5850 and my airport equipped ibook? and is there any difference between a wireless printer and a regular printer plugged into an airport express (something else i'm considering)?
 
Shouldn't need anything else except to install the drivers. Let us know how it goes. I am very interested in this printer.
 
Take a look at the cartridges, the ones with the smallest fill numbers will be the replace every month type -- and you can also check the prices on them...

www.hp.com/sbso/product/supplies/compatchart.pdf

But generally, the cheap printers will have the higher cost for print supplies -- it's where the printer company expects to make their profit.

ie. the "95 Inkjet Print Cartridge, Tri-color • (N/A3/7 ml) • C8766WN" isn't a good choice for color cartridge if it's all that'll work in it.

At HP, you can look at the printer description online and at the supplies -- which will generally have the expected page life somewhere around.
 
The main difference between a wireless printer, and a printer with wifi (the 5850) is that you can put the 5850 any where, vs a regular USB printer to an airport, has to be next to the airport, which is most likely will have to be next to your cable modem. Not as mobile.

And yes, the 5850 is a good printer. I have had it for quite some time now, and really love. Depending on how you network is setup, you maynot even need to install the drivers, and can use the ones built into OSX.

A wireless printer is very handy. Esp, if you can get it for $50 after rebate, it is a very good deal. I would seriously consider it.
 
i just placed my ibook order along with the HP 5850. i'll check in again once everything arrives. thanks for all your help.
 
hp printers are cheap but the cartridges are expensive (printheads are built in so you are sure to get good ink delivery for the life of the printer; though you can replace print heads manually in other printers)... if you want i nice printer for a better value get the canon i850 (or similar). the ink is really cheap, but you can get nice prints on good paper.


peace.

*this advice is for others as i see you have already made your purchase.
 
update!

so it took awhile for everything to get here, but it's all here and i must say. the hp 5850 ended up being perfect for my needs. i neglected to mention in the original post that i also have a 500 Mhz iMac that i wanted to be able use with the printer if need be.

after doing some other searches on these boards, i settled on getting a linksys WRT54G as well. the iMac is wired into the linksys and my amazing new iBook is running wireless off the network. and i can print from either printer without having to hook up a USB cable.

i'm still stunned by how well this whole setup works.
 
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