@apple_enthusiast It pains me to see all the efforts of Apple in the Apple Vision Pro, whereas what would really have made a significant difference is an Apple printer. Like a printer that actually works in a really, really easy way.
Brother laser printers just work. They don’t have all the bs that inkjets have and they certainly don’t put you through all the crap HP makes one endure. Highly, highly recommend them.
The best printer is still whatever random Brother laser printer is on sale.
100% agree. Buy a brother laser printer and be happy. I would NEVER buy anything else.
Hey watch it with that ‘never’ commitment eh!
A long time ago business class Brother printers weren’t always that easy or reliable, and the HP’s were rock solid and straightforward. If Brother enshittifies, the rankings will change.
My Brother laser printer will out live me; just like my Dad’s Brother laser printer before me; just like his Dad’s Brother laser printer before him… ok I kid about the grandfather case, but we’ve been using all of two Brother laser printers since the late 80s til now. Brother HL-10 (late 80s) and Brother MFC-L8900CDW (Pre-COVID). These things are built like tanks and isn’t likely to go anywhere in the foreseeable future.
@BombOmOm I’m struggling big time with Epson. Completely unpredictable. Works like a dream for a month or two, and then it will take hours to get it working again.
Point being, the iPhone was a reinvention of stuff that was already there. I’d like Apple to reinvent printing.
They DID! LaserWriter 1600. I had one with over 750k pages on it. HP laser guts, they popularized Postscript and made WYSIWYG a thing for printing.
But it’s now commodity. Not enough money in it when Brother is crushing it.
I would prefer Apple making routers again.
@ClassifiedPancake Also very true. People have no objection against living in the walled garden, as long as everything is there. The Wi-Fi in our house still runs on airport extremes without any issues, and close to 0 installation hassle.
What are you willing to pay for it? Apple makes really solid hardware but it’s not cheap. They’d need a huge segment of the population to want to pay $1,000 for a high end printer to make it worthwhile and the movement has been away from printing for some time now.
My office used to do tens of thousands of pages a year back 20 years ago. We might do a hundred pages a month now if it’s especially busy. Everything else is PDF.
HP already does the thing where they lock you into obscenely expensive proprietary ink cartridges, but the printers are cheap. An apple printer would be easily 2k to start and 3k for the pro version, and cartridges would have to be hundreds just to keep pace.
Printing is dying. For the time being I run a B&W Brother laser at home. Perfect for us.
@fourish Apple created the Apple Vision Pro for roughly four thousand euro’s. At best 1 million people were waiting for this inspiring device.
They could make a really good printer for €500. About 50 million people would be really interested just to get rid of the never-ending hassle.
A revenue of €25 billion euros in about three years would be easily achievable. Apparently, having your own ‘next big thing’ was more important for Apples decision makers.
But printers are a dying breed. That’s not apple’s target market. They’re trying to look a few decades into the future not the past. That’s scraps for the dog.
How would you define “works in a really easy way”? I don’t have any problem with current printer technology. What issues are you encountering? HP is a steaming pile of manure. But Brother and EPSON both make excellent models.
@th3dogcow thanks for the question, this was not meant to ask for help. I know it’s a commodity. I still think there’s a huge base of Apple fans that would be delighted if Apple would make a good printer with calibrated colours, that would connect to your computer as easy as your Apple Watch connects to your iPhone.
I see. I mean, Apple had printers in the early 90s (or earlier perhaps) but they were just rebadged HPs.
If you’re looking for color calibration you might want to look for a professional grade printer. Dye sublimation printers will offer the best quality for photography, which I assume is what you want a printer for, especially since you mention color calibration.
And dye sublimation printers are not compatible with apple’s airprint, so this could be a viable endeavour were Apple the enter the printer market again. But, I just don’t think there is demand for such a product. The printer market for consumers is already flooded with options, and most of them work just out of the box with Apple products.
Are you having any particular problems with your printer and Apple devices?
