HP Inkjet Printers — A review

Most people do not think twice about buying printers when it comes to their use at home. Most of the time people print documents or their writings in black in white but for artists searching for the right printer can be a hassle and a rabbit hole.

In the last year I have been printing with the HP Envy 6458e inkjet printer at a deal from Costco of $129. Not bad right? I’ll start this off with a visual example of how some of my prints have turned out:

The Good

I print on 8x11 professional high glossy photo paper to ensure the highest quality prints. The above artwork is more stylistic with using blocks of color which make it easy for the printer to do the conversion between RGB to CYMK, and this is where the HP printer shines.

Above you can also see how well photos print as well. The printer is able to capture every pixel with no problem.

The Bad

However, despite how cheap this printer is there is a catch we should all know. THE PRINTER REQUIRES A SUBSCRIPTION SERVICE OF INK WHICH THE COMPANY DOES NOT DISCLOSE WELL TO THE USER.

You would think when you buy a printer, with your money, at your Costco at the expense of your membership the printer is yours right? Completely yours.

The printer advertises 6 months of free ink, so you would think that with this heavy printing, normally, when you run out of ink, you go buy some if you choose.

With any HP inkjet printer this basic concept of ownership is nonexistent. You don’t own the printer the printer owns you. This 6 months of free ink, is actually 6 months of a subscription service that requires not only your credit card information, but CONSTANT 24 hour monitoring of your device and home network and all devices connected to this printer.

Oh and you think getting ink sent to you when you run out without you ordering it is convenient? Think again. Let’s say after 6 months you don’t want to adhere to this subscription service and submit yourself to slavery. HP WILL LOCK YOUR PRINTER.

Yes that’s right. You have given control access to HP such that if you do not subscribe to their service, they will lock your printer and prevent you from printing EVEN IF YOU HAVE INK remaining in your cartridges.

Also they monitor how many pages you print. And they only initially allow 700 pages per month for 6 months but after that, you must subscribe to their service and pay some amount for 10, 50,100 or how many pages you are allowed given their options.

We all know we don’t always print the same amount every month. Sometimes I don’t use my printer at all but with HP I feel obligated since they are forcing me to pay for a service I did not want to begin with.

Be warned, if you turn off your computer they will harass you like this:

Rant over

In Conclusion:

• HP has found a way to invade our privacy and home network
• They force you to a subscribe to a service you did not sign up for
• You never truly own your printer
• But at least when you do print it comes out ok but at what cost? It certainly is not just monetary.
• Find a better printer