One thing I really hate buying is printers, not because they are overly complex devices or because they are particularly expensive, but simply because I hardly ever need to print anything. In fact the only things I do tend to print is electronic flight tickets and the occasional photograph.

So when my faithful HP 7210 Office Jet Printer kept asking me to check the print cartridges, which were brand new HP branded cartridges a mild form of panic started to set in. You see while I don’t do much in the way of printing the scanner plays a pivotal role in my Digital Office setup. Every letter, paper bill, useful flyer, that comes through the door gets scanned in and securely stored in Devon Think. Without the scanner I end up with is a desk overflowing with paper, which doesn’t fit well with my OCD tendencies.

As time went on the 7210 was no longer happy with me removing the cartridges, putting them back in, and then turning the printer off and on again, it just complained. So screwdriver in hand I set about taking it apart to clean the sensors and man do these thing attract dirt. I dutifully cleaned and air dusted and then reassembled the device, and smiled to myself when I realised that I didn’t have any “spare” parts left over. As I powered the printer back up it started its diagnostics, and then asked me to check the printer cartridges. Noooooooo!

So I hit the web looking for reviews and guidance on what was the best printer in terms of original cost and then running costs. This is the part I hate, as there are just so many on the market with so many bells and whistles, and they change so quickly that by the time you have made up your mind the one you decided on is end of life and the whole product line has changed direction.

I sat down and started to think about what I needed from the device, and looked back to the 7210 and the features it lacked. The biggest thing by far was the lack of a duplexing unit. A duplexing unit in essence allows the device to automatically flip the page over, allowing you to print, copy, fax, and scan both sides of a document without manual intervention. With the amount of scanning I do not having a duplexing unit involves a few extra steps in my workflow, as I have to manually flip all the pages over and then merge the two scanned document into one single document. The next shortfall of the 7210 was the quality of the printing, especially when it came to photo’s. The 7210 is really a small office printer, that is suitable for documents and not photo’s. Finally was the ability to print onto CD’s & DVD’s. This is only recently something I have wanted to do! After playing more with video I thought it would be really nice to be able to make up DVD’s of family events and share them with family members.

A little more research and I discovered the HP Photosmart premium Printer. An all-in-one device that supports printing, scanning, copying, and faxing as you would expect with the added benefit of allowing you to print on CD’s and DVD’s and includes and a built in duplexing unit.

I am still putting the device through its paces but so far it works very well and Snow Leopard automagically recognised the device and didn’t require any additional software to be installed.