Over the past couple of years or more there have been few complaints of printer quality. It seems most makers have brought the quality to an acceptable level.

I have a 3 year old HP printer and a 2 year old Canon Pixma all in one and there are no complaints about either.

Your best bet in my mind is to select any model you fancy then Google it adding 'complaints' behind the model number and see what the average users feelings are.

The customer reviews at Newegg can be useful in determining product suitability and reliability.

I have chosen to stick with HP for my printers and have never been sorry, I always get an all in one and really like them.

When I want to read actual users reviews, which to me are the ones that really count, I go to the product page at amazon, newegg, and epinions

There are any number of sites that review printers. Obviously, customer reviews can be valuable as well but you need a sufficient number to offset folks who bought something not suitable for their application and then complain about it (like buying a B&W laser and complaining their pictures look lousy) or the "fanboys" who will say wonderful things about whatever the company makes.

I always believe good sellers are on Craigslist, the local paper or even ebay (locally) if they are - men over 30 who are in business like insurance or accounting and don't smoke. They , in my experience, offer good deals on computers and printers. Because they upgrade they got their
value from the product and sell it , because they want a
new one. If the old one is broken they usually give or
throw it away. In my experience if there is a product I like then I try to buy another, used in good condition, because I know it, have suppliers, might have tips on how
to make it work better, and might have supplies for it. I believe in staying with what works. If anything electronic still works well after a few years it's going to keep
working well if it's clean and hasn't been taken apart by
someone playing with it. Although I would clean the dust and replace the fans or be aware that I might have to
replace them because their bearings do fail unless they're
ball bearing (rare). Good luck.

We bought a printer (all in one) for our grandaughter last year at Christmas time. Wanted one that would print good photos, because she was expecting a baby at the time. The one we picked said it was especially good for photos. It came with one cartridge, and all colors integrated in that cartridge. The photos were terrible. Color was totally off, pictures unclear. It had an option for to add the black cartridge, so we did that. It didnt help at all. Reds were fushia etc. We ended up returning it and buying a Lexmark all in one, that has both cartridges, rather than the all in one color cartridge. It prints beautiful pictures, so if you are wanting it for pictures, I recommend, you do not buy one of the ones that say, only one cartridge. Make sure it is set up for both the color and the black, and both are included. Good Luck Cat

I too have never owned anything but HP printers.

In my casual periodic research just to be informed it appears that most name brand printers are now generally close to being equal in quality, and tiered only by item cost. What that leaves is PPM, pages per refill, and refill cost as the most discerning issues.

DA