A Comparison of Different Quality Color Photo Printer Products

Compare Photo Printers With Smarts

After a deep comparison on photo printers, I learned some interesting facts. Use the guide below to make the best possible decision in purchasing a photo printer.

The first thing I researched is quality. I looked at many photo printers, testing them at the local office supply store using their demos. I found the HP photosmart series that uses the 02 ink system to be superior in quality. I get a studio quality print with my 7360 model. The touch screen is awesome to use and you can remove red-eye or edit a photo using the printer without it being hooked to a computer. Dual paper trays make it nice. You can put regular paper in one tray and photo paper in another tray. I bought a bluetooth usb adapter and put one in my laptop and one in my printer. This allows me to print wirelessly. If only I waited for the 7460 with built in wireless.

The improvements of the HP 7460 include built in wifi, printable school papers such as notebook narrow ruled, wide ruled, graph paper, music paper, etc. This printer beats every new model printer that I tested, including the Epson models with Clarion Photo Inks. The Cannon model printers annoyed me, because you have to go thru the menu to get the ink cartridges to appear centered to look at them. The menu was harder to use on the Cannon and the Epson printers. Ease of use is important to me. I just want things to work quickly and easily. Brother ink systems dispersed the ink out of a large hole in the cartridge and the ink cartridges were dirty after several sheets were printed. I researched and found that the Brother machine and the Epson needs cleaned more frequently because of the way the ink is dispersed.

The HP 02 ink system is more affordable on ink than the other printers I tested. It has a 6-cartridge system that blends and uses less ink per cartridge than other inks. The inks that use a tri-color cartridge with 3 colors in one cartridge and a separate black aren't as cost effective. With most color printing, the yellow is the first to run out. With a single tri-color cartridge system, one color runs out, you throw the cartridge away, even though you paid for all 3 colors. With the HP 02 system, the value pack is $35.99 at Staples, $17.99 for the black cartridge, which is much larger, and $9.99 for each color. Since I've had my printer, I've only replaced the yellow cartridge, and I do a lot of color printing. I've used two yellows, and none of the other colors are low yet. $9.99 twice is a cheap color replacement. Test that with other printers out there, and you'll be surprised at the expense. If you own a tri-color cartridge system, you'll pay several times more to replace every color, because you must buy a new cartridge. Ink refill kits are extremely difficult with a tri-color cartridge because all 3 colors are in one cartridge and you don't know what color is in what compartment.

There's so much I've learned about printers, that my advice is to get an HP 02 ink system printer. The HP 88 ink system is good, but the studio quality 02 beats it. The 88 system printers are more geared toward business use, but I use my 7360 for business cards, laser quality printing, and pictures. I'd rather own the 7460 with built-in wifi and Ethernet, to easily network it, but the 7360 still rocks.

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