[zerobees]

I think the top-ranking comment about complexity is off base: they're not inventing inkjet printing from scratch. It's basically a bunch of existing modules in a new package, presumably with the promise that you will not need to buy subscriptions or DRMed ink cartridges.

Is robustness and reparability a compelling pitch? If I'm counting right, I owned eight different printers in my life. Dot matrix, dye sublimation, inkjet, laser. I don't think a single one ever required any serious repairs beyond replacing consumables, clearing paper jams, and pulling out lint. I upgraded as the technology improved. My first laser printer needed about 4x as much desk space as the current one.

[znhll]

> I don't think a single one ever required any serious repairs beyond replacing consumables

I think your experience has been an outlier. I've had several printers from different brands also, and have had some that last a long time, and still print with decent quality even with off-brand ink/toner. However, quite a lot have also failed due to bad capacitors, bad power modules, or the printer or it's firmware just refused to work/print for whatever reason and the manufacturer response was: "buy a new one." There's definitely planned obsolescence built into these machines, and that's why people dislike them, aside from the fact they can be a pain to configure. That's in addition to the ink DRM and other shitty cartel like bs from printer manufacturers.

[abustamam]

I owned a Brother inkjet for some time. I'd print maybe a few times a year. But it seemed like every time I needed to print, the printer was out of ink. Granted I used an ink service (ie not official brother ink) but still where the heck was the ink going?

I've since switched to a Brother LaserJet and I'm still on the starter toner after a couple of years.

[Gigachad]

An inkjet printer has to be used at least monthly if not more often. If you left it plugged in, the printer was likely squirting ink in to a waste tank to prevent the nozzles from drying out and ruining the printer.

Laser toner can sit unused without drying out (it's dry powder already).

[abustamam]

Oh that's interesting. Yes that is exactly what it did! Didn't think that'd use so much ink though!

[iamjackg]

I realized just a couple weeks ago that I've had my Brother laser printer for 10 years, and I've only changed the toner once -- so long ago that I don't remember when that was.

[culi]

The most compelling argument for me is this:

https://www.eff.org/pages/list-printers-which-do-or-do-not-d...

[extraduder_ire]

Are any of those printers inkjets? I think tracking dots are strictly a laser printer thing.

[culi]

Tracking dots (or lines, or barcodes, or whatever other technique) are not unique to laser printers. They are also not the only surveillance technology built into printers. There's digital watermarking, steganography, CDS, telemetry, and even logs kept in local memory/storage.

[extraduder_ire]

Can you link any examples? Very curious to learn.

[rini17]

Nope. Some even refuse to print black and white when yellow ink tuns off.

[Snacklive]

Do you have any recommendations for models or what should i look out for ?

My mom wanted a printer for her birthday and it's been a few months without any success when it comes to selecting the right model

[qingcharles]

I would highly recommend getting a laser, especially if she isn't doing a huge amount of printing. You can leave them forever without printing and they'll just spin up and work in an instant. Both B+W and color ones are really decently priced these days.

[orangesilk]

I want to second this: Unregular use is compelling use case for a laser printer.

[ssl-3]

If she wants to print words or shapes on paper, then a laser printer is perfect. If non-photographic color is also useful, then a color laser printer is fine. They're happy with heavy usage, and ~zero usage, and everything in between. Brother is the answer here; they tend to be low-bullshit.

If she wants to print color photographs regularly and absolutely doesn't want to wait for them, then: Some manner of inkjet. Brother inkjets take care of themselves (as long as they're powered up) with a ~daily automated song-and-dance to help avoid the head-clogging issue that many other inkjets face, but even then it's a more fickle technology than laser printing is.

It's also important to compare the price/convenience of printing photos at home to having someone else do it. Buying high-quality prints (whether from online services that deliver by mail or from the local pharmacy or big box) can be cheaper and better quality than doing it at home, and make maintaining the printing machine someone else's problem.

(edit- I unintentionally left it to implication, but: If she wants to print color photographs only once or twice per year, then... she's probably way, way better off by not doing that at home. At all.)

[zerobees]

I never had problems with Brother for laser and Canon for inkjet. The models I have are no longer being manufactured, so I can't recommend anything specific. I did my best to stay way from HP for inkjet, they always had bad rep.

[hn_throwaway_99]

> Is robustness and reparability a compelling pitch? If I'm counting right, I owned eight different printers in my life.

Like the other commenter mentioned, I think your experience is likely an outlier. But more to the point, the way printer companies make money (lose money on the printer, make it up on ink), the couple times my printer has broken, I just bought a brand new printer. I'm sure the printer probably could have been easily fixed but it wasn't even like that was a decent option.

This printer probably isn't for everyone but there are enough of us who are so fed up with "subscription fatigue" and locked down devices that having a tool that I fully own and could fix if necessary is appealing.

[Oxodao]

Yeah maybe you're lucky but I've had 3 printers in my life, ink jets, and those are the three individual worst tech experience I've ever had