We recently bought an HP Officejet Pro 8500 all in one inkjet printer on sale for $149 plus tax from Staples.  It is quite a decent printer, scanner, and fax machine.  The software is a lot less bloated that HP consumer oriented printers. One bad thing is the long 2 minute warm up time.

It is Energy star qualified and sips very little power when turned off. HP touts it as Saving upto $500 a year compared with color laser printers.  It has individual color ink cartridges that you can replace as they run out.  Also available are extra large cartridges that help save money and approach 2 cents per printed page.

Some issues are of cost of consumables. The Black ink extra large cartridge costs $35.99 and are good for 2200 prints. The three colors ones cost $26 a piece and are good for 1400 prints. Of course your mileage will vary.  This OfficeJet Pro 8500 printer also uses two printheads that cost $60 each.  There is no approximate data on when they need to be replaced.  Filling this baby full of new ink and print heads costs $234!  It is cheaper for me to purchase an EXTRA printer for spare ink and heads.

HP makes its money on supplies so they have special 940 series ink cartridges that are not refillable and have not been cloned by 3rd parties.

Before you buy a new printer, check to see how much ink costs and whether compatible or refillable ink is available. Also check out our list of inkjet and toner saving software.