These days I avoid HP with a passion. They're not the printers they once were. Most any other is fine. Some do some things better than the others, and some things worse than the others. Last fall I bought a 3in1 Epson and it's fine. I have a Brother laser and it's better than any other printer I've owned or used. I don't buy expensive printers anymore. To me, they're disposable items these days. Black toner of course is of course much cheaper than ink but if you need or want color, I'd go inkjet unless you do a lot of printing. There's some cheap laser color printers out there but they're quite fragile so you'd need to be very careful with it.

You can also set up a regular printer to work wirelessly for a reasonable price but might as well get it built in as long as you're buying new.

Sue, I have the HP Photosmart Plus. It prints, scans, and copies. I have not had one bit of trouble with it. Shop around for prices because it can be over $100 one place and $79.00 (like mine) other places.

Stay away from Kodak. All the ads say that the printer ink is cheaper than anyone else's, so it's cost-efficient.

Well that may be, but the darned thing says that it's out of ink when the cartridge still has lots of ink in it. And you can't over-ride it so that it prints again.

I've got an older HP, that works like a work-horse. Lately it hasn't been picking up the paper the first time so I have to wiggle it to coax it. I also have a laser printer, 1050 that works fine as well, no problems.

I think I'd like a wireless printer, but when I have to check it to make sure the paper is working smoothly, might as well be wired, since I'd be in the same room as the machine anyway, checking the paper. :)

Also check on line. Most stores will match their own on line offers. I did that with my last HP printer and saveed $20.

I have had several HP printers and only two problems, HP fixed both of them. I will continue to buy HP.

You don't indicate how much printing you do but a word of advice; go laser. If you don't print a lot, inkjet printers will have the nozzles dry out and you can't print. Laser works with heat (or light) to "burn" the toner onto the page. The toner is a powder in a cartridge and it won't dry out.

I have an HP 3050 all in one that is 4-1/2 years old. Gone through three toner cartridges and have no issues with the machine. If I had to buy a new one, I'd go with an HP with a flatbed scanner instead of a sheet feed and make sure it includes wireless. I have four PCs in the house and hate having to lug the printer (or e-mail a doc) around. Just make sure your home network is secure.

My principal hobby is photography so as you might imagine, I demand a lot out of a printer.

About 13 months ago I moved from Ohio to Massachusetts and when I arrived here I discovered that I had left my printer behind. I called and made arraingements to have it sent to me, but who knew when it might arrive. In the mean time, I needed a printer.

I decided that I would just go to Staples and get an el cheapo photo printer to use until I got my good one.

When I got to staples they had a big display of kodak ESP 7250 printers in the isle, which I walked past to look at the top line photo printers, but something in the back of my mind said Kodak developed their entire corporate image on photography, surely they would advertise a printer as a photo printer unless it could do a respectable job of printing photos.

As I looked at the Kodak printer a bit more carefully thier big calling card was that they claim they have the cheapest ink in the industry.

I decided what the heck, this printer will only be used temporarily until I get my expensive HP and at $99 for the wired model & $122 for a wireless model it appeared to be a bargain, but the real test would be in how well it can print.

I brought it home, set it on the counter and plugged it into the power strip, then I inserted the startup CD into the computer and followed the prompts which were clear enough that a child could to it. In about two minutes it told me to turn the printer on and voila's, within a matter of seconds it was installed and ready.

It came with a small sample of Kodak 4x6 glossy paper so I popped the paper in, then selected a photo from my files and hit print. Immediately I heard a couple clicks as the paper loaded, but then nothing, I mean, sitting here two feet away I could not hear it running. I was beginning to think I had a problem when to my surprise a finished print popped out.

I picked up the print and examined it with my good eye, giving it a really critical examination, and to say the least, I was amazed at the quality.

I then decided to try an 8x10 print so I inserted a sheet of generic paper that I had on hand and set up to print the same photo 8x10. Talk about a piece of crap, that was without question the worst printing job I had ever seen. What went wrong I asked? I then opened the help file and began trying to figure out what happened, and there it was. Kodak says for best results you have to use genuine kodak paper because they have a bar code printed on the back of the paper that tells the printer what grade of paper your using, otherwise you have to run a couple test prints and go through an ink setup routine, but then the ink setup routine is common to nearly all printers anyway. I figured this was just some high tech BS to convince you to buy Kodak paper at an exhorbitantly inflated price.

The next day I was again in Staples so I checked the paper prices. To my surprise, it was very cost competitive with HP paper and only slightly more than the generic papers. An hour later I was in Walmart and found they carried the Kodak paper at the same price as HP, and about 40% less than the staples price. ($6.90 for 100 sheets of 4x6 High Gloss).

I decided to put this printer to a test. I selected 6 photos and printed them 4x6 on this printer, then I went to Walmart and had them print the same photos on their professional printing equipment. I then wrote on the back of each print where it had been printed and took all the prints to the photography class I teach at our local senior center. I laid all the prints out on a table and asked everyone to select which prints they thought were the best. To my amazement, everyone picked the ones from my Kodak home printer, but then maybe I wasn't amazed either, because I had the same opinion.

Within a week I had used most of the ink so I set out to see if Kodak was correct about their ink prices. Once again, they were dead on the money. At Staples I found both the black & color cartridge in a packaged set for about $25, and it was a couple bucks less at Walmart.

I then went online and checked Ebay. I just bought a two pack of the black cartridges for $9.95 and a two pack of the color for $12.95 with free S+H.

Okay, I was convinced that it does a good job on photos but what about documents? I put the original printer instruction sheet in the scanner and hit the copy button. In about 30 seonds I had a copy that actually looked better than the original and the only setup I had to do to change from photo paper to bond paper was insert the paper. OH yes, did I mention that I am using cheap typing/bond paper instead of the more expensive copier paper?

OK, it seems to work fine when connected to the computer, but Kodak says it will work as a stand alone printer without a computer so once again I decided to give it a test. I pulled the SDHC memory card out of my camera and inserted it into the reader slot on the front of the printer. Immediately it started to show the image on the video screen on the front of the printer and asked if I wanted to edit or correct the photo. It then gave me the option of just printing all the photos on the card or individually editing them. What could be easier?

Now in my estimation, one of the true tests of a printer is how much do the prints fade with time? According to Kodak the prints are permanent, but anybody can make a claim, can they back it up?

Jan & I make a lot of day trips and shoot about 500 to 1000 photos a day, and we select some of the better photos from each excursion, which we dry mount and hang on the wall in our living room. Right now we have three walls completedly tiled with photos, some of which have been hanging in direct sunlight for over a year, yet not a sign of fading yet.

Last week Jan was looking through an old family album and she found some old, old, old B&W prints that were a bit faded. Out of curiosity I scanned a few of those photos with the Kodak printer scanner, then adjusted the contrast in a photo editing program and they look new again.

Then I got a real brainstorm. In her photo collection there were some old B&W negaitves, but not prints. I thought to myself, I wonder what would happen if I scanned the negatives, then open the file in "Photoscape" (a free phot editing program from Google) and use the programs reverse feature to reverse the negatives to a positive print? Once again, Kodak came through flawlessly.

Needless to say, when my expensive HP machine finally arrived I set it on a shelf and I have continued to use this Kodak cheapie...LOL

Now generally I am not one to endorse any product, but based upon my personal experience this is the only printer I would ever buy again.

How far are you from Costco? They have some good prices. I have an older HP that is ok. Also, if you buy online, go to Buy.com and they offer all sorts of stuff. Hubby buys all his computer from them and Egg (something) without a problem. If you need help how about your kids helping you to find what brand you might want, then go online. Hubby just ordered a new monitor and saved alot of money. He ordered mine and it is a ViewSonic. Wish we were closer to help you out.
Marie

I went with a Brother laser printer this time, I chose one that does both color and black and white and it is also an all in one so does scan, fax, copy etc. The toner cartridges last much much longer than those ink jet ones. It had very good reviews and the price was decent, they have come down a lot in price for the laser printers. Mine is also network enabled so it can work for any of my computers on my network even my laptops etc which makes it very nice, you likely only need it to be a network capable printer not necessarily wireless. It would have one wire from the printer to the router then your wireless router does the rest of the work sending and receiving from all your computers. It was a bit more for a wireless model but as long as I had the wireless router that was all I needed.

Brother MFC-9120CN Digital Color All-in-One Printer

that is the one I got but for just a basic laser printer you could find them for much cheaper.

I researched this for an older friend just last week, and recommended this Brother wireless laser printer. It prints on both sides, which can be important--and a good paper saver.

Unless you're printing photos or have some other pressing need to print color, laser is the way to go: fast and economical.

I would get another Brother wireless one.
Prints,copies,sends and receives faxes.

We have it downstairs in the family room, and can even print from our laptops on either outside deck of the house. Photo quality is superb.

It's 3 years old now, and still works great.

Oh - and it was not expensive at all.
Stay away form HP, they are and always have been junk.

I too would get another Brother, I have one that is 5 or 6 years old and it prints like a champ, the only issue I have is that the paper pick up in the lower tray is dying. I also have an HP laser that prints a couple hundred pages a month and has yet to fail me. I just bought a Sharp that does everything and also runs as a wireless on the network, it is an amazing printer but is a commercial printer.

Marie, I am about 40 miles from Costco and do not have a membership. I have two printers right now, a Canon and it is the only one hooked up and it is hooked up to my desktop. The other one is a great big Dell. I have not used it in a while. I don't like the way the Canon prints pictures but it is okay for letters or recipes which I do use it a lot for. My laptop is in my kitchen downstairs and the desk isn't big enough for a printer so thought a wireless one setting somewhere else down there would be nice. I am sure Amber and Mike will help me get a good one, but I have to decide what I think I might want. I am reading all of your replies and trying to make a decision, so thanks so much.

Sue

I've been using an HP Photosmart Premium for over a year with good results. The ink is a little pricey, but results are good. One of my requirements is a good photo print. It does well in that department.

My wife bought a Lexmark last year. She prints only a few pages a day. At 6 months, it got a paper jam that could not be cleared. it was so bad that it messed up some of the internal delicate assemblies.

After my wifehad a seance with Lexmark on-line, they did replace the printer - took 3 days - delivery to our door. Not long afterward, few of trhe jets on the print head clogged. Shipped it back the they replaced the print head. It has been 9 months since the last repair, and it is still working. Wife not the happiest about the printer, but it is now doing acceptable work for her.

She is running it wireless through our ATT gateway. At present, we have 3 devices serviced by the gateway (combiation modem and router). My computer is connected by an ethernet line and her computer uses the WiFi side of the gateway. We've has as many as 3 computers simultaneously talking to the gateway without a problem.

Ink cost for the Lexmark appears to be less per page than the HP. Again, the amount of black ink used will depend on how the prnters are installed. Both printers are installed to default to the draft mode. This is the fastest printing and uses only half the ink as "nornal" printing. If the printer is installed to print in "normal" mode, it uses a lot of black ink.

I don't know much about printers but here is what the salesperson told me.The cheaper the printer the more you pay for the ink.I brought a lexmark and I love it.While I'm asleep the thing is upgradeing it's self.It also put my photos on the computor without much help from me.How it was done I'll never know.

Actually Jasdip, there are cartridge resetters available for the Kodaks. This is a trick not unique to Kodak. All manufacturers that I know of do it. Each uses a different method to reset to use the rest of the ink in the cartridge but most all can be reset. What I liked about the Epson I bought is there's a reset button on it so it's a simple matter to use the last of the ink..

I got a Brother MFC-j410w all-in-one a few months ago and it is working fine. I am on the 2nd black ink cartridge but then I am a student and printing a lot. I am just not ready to spend the $$ on a color laser printer for the house. I liked the Brother because it has a auto feed scanner and I am still cleaning up and want to scan stuff I cannot get online. I had actually went to the store to buy more ink for my other printer and decided that getting a whole new printer would be roughly the same price!

I do like the Brother printers because you can replace on color at a time instead of the tri-color cartridges.