Advice for a new HP printer.

[Kobuk]

My 10 year old HP940c printer is about to go. I need to replace it soon in the next few weeks. I just got my tax refunds and have been looking at the following as a possible replacement:
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2397516,00.asp
I'm not quite keen on the $300 price tag, plus spending another $100 for the ink cartridges, but........I really like this printer.

I really like HP brand printers as I've had very, very few problems with that brand in past years. Can anybody else recommend some good quality HP printers, but maybe "slightly" less expensive?

P.S. - I will not buy/use wireless. 

[Natura Wolf]

Hey Kobuk,

*nerd mode, 'Yay it's rare when i get to test my IT skills*

What I say is this.  From experience the dearer the printer, the cheaper the Cartridges.
When getting a printer make sure you can alter the print quality to draft mode.  This allows the printing to use minimal ink and the pages come out faster to.  There isn't much difference either .

Also go for local PC stores that are low branch as they are more supportive in decent deals and will be more liaising with you than PC world

[Storm Fox]

P.S. - I will not buy/use wireless.  

I'm assuming that you mean a wifi only portable type printer, right?
Because the printer that you have mentioned is in fact a wifi printer, (it does have other connections types such as usb and ethernet) but it does use wifi as well.

Also, if you really like that printer but not the price, this one for $199.99 is a cheaper version of the same kind.
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1154394
The touch screen is smaller, just a bit slower at printing, And only accepts SD memory cards where the $299.99 (CM750A) version accepts a variety of cards.
If you don't need the enhancements of the (CM750A) version, maybe you could go with the cheaper (CM749A) version and save some money.

Just for comparison…
HP info page - HP Officejet Pro 8600 e-All-in-One Printer (CM749A) ($199.99 version)
HP info page - HP Officejet Pro 8600 Plus e-All-in-One Printer (CM750A) ($299.99 version that you mentioned)

[Kobuk]

Just for comparison…
HP info page - HP Officejet Pro 8600 e-All-in-One Printer (CM749A) ($199.99 version)
HP info page - HP Officejet Pro 8600 Plus e-All-in-One Printer (CM750A) ($299.99 version that you mentioned)

The link I gave in my original post is wrong. It's not the CM750A printer I like, but the CM749A instead which I saw at an Office Depot store a few weeks ago. It was the only model on the shelf that caught my interest.

[Storm Fox]

Then it's not as expensive as you thought, so that's good right? Or is it still to high?
Because in order to go lower you would probably have to look at the 6700 series printers, but even then you could only really lower the price by about $30 to $60 by going that route.

[Kobuk]

I'm still deciding on what to get and I can't make up my mind on either of the following:
* HP Officejet 8600 Plus
* HP Officejet 8600 Premium

The nice thing about both is that they come with ink cartridges in the box, but the Premium comes with an extra set of color cartridges. One thing I heard from my mother and which I'd like more info. on if anybody can confirm this: When manufacturers include ink cartridges with the printer in the box, I've heard the cartridges are only half capacity, and not full capacity? Is this true?

[Ziel]

I've never heard of such a practice, and a bit of googling didn't really return anything that could confirm or deny the claim. The one thought I do have is that some printers can use optional high-capacity cartridges instead of the basic capacity ones. It's possible (probably likely) that if the printer can handle both sizes, they would probably include the smaller of the two sizes with the printer.

[Weisseman]

This probably stems from the sponge in the cartridge. Even with this there isn't a definitive answer. People say it holds less. Manufacturers say the sponges hold the normal amount with less sponge (from technological advances). Unless you compare the paper count of a full with one you'll never know without getting them first. By that point there's no use worrying.