Suggested wireless printer for 2016 MacBook Pro

[wrkeith]

I'm searching for a reliable wireless color printer that's compatible, that is one with a reliable wifi connection, with my 2016 MacBook Pro as well as my iphone6 and ipads. Suggestions please with model numbers. I'll be printing color and b/w documents mostly.
Thanks!

 

[chscag]

Welcome to our forums.

There are many printers which would be compatible with your 2016 MacBook Pro, iPhone 6, and iPad. Nowadays, all printers are wireless so that leaves a wide field of choice.

Our members own a variety of printers and of course everyone has his/her opinion of what works best.

I personally use a Canon color Inkjet printer and an HP LaserJet printer.

It would help if you tell us exactly what you would be using the printer for. For example: printing documents, greeting cards, etc.

 

[wrkeith]

Welcome to our forums.

There are many printers which would be compatible with your 2016 MacBook Pro, iPhone 6, and iPad. Nowadays, all printers are wireless so that leaves a wide field of choice.

Our members own a variety of printers and of course everyone has his/her opinion of what works best.

I personally use a Canon color Inkjet printer and an HP LaserJet printer.

It would help if you tell us exactly what you would be using the printer for. For example: printing documents, greeting cards, etc.

Mostly color documents. Models would be helpful. Yes there are many out there but sorting through reviews seems pointless if you have an opportunity to ask actual Mac users. Thanks for your input and time!

 

[chscag]

Like I said above, you should be getting some recommendations. Everyone has their favorite.

 

[Randy B. Singer]

I'm searching for a reliable wireless color printer that's compatible with my 2016 MacBook Pro as well as my iphone6 and ipads. Suggestions please with model numbers. I'll be printing color and b/w documents mostly.

I've been recommending this Canon all-in-one color inkjet printer (which is the spiritual successor to the wildly popular MX-922 and TR8520 before it):

Canon PIXMA TR8620
$181

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08FF2X3PV/?tag=macforums0e4-20

Big Sur driver:

Canon U.S.A., Inc. | PIXMA TR8620

The advantages of this printer are that it prints amazingly beautiful color photos (better than any color laser printer), it has both a sheetfeed scanner, a flatbed scanner, OCR, duplexing, and a bunch of other really nice features. It has USB, Ethernet, Wi-Fi, and even Bluetooth.

The disadvantages are that this is an inkjet printer, so it needs to be used occasionally or the ink might dry out. It uses a lot of ink, but I can tell you where to get ink cheaply, so that's not a problem. While it can print beautiful text, it's not really economical to do so if you are going to be printing a lot of text documents (a black and white laser printer is best for that).

The price is a little steep compared to a couple of years ago, but Covid cause a huge run on printers so the prices shot up.

 

[wrkeith]

I've been recommending this Canon all-in-one color inkjet printer (which is the spiritual successor to the wildly popular MX-922 and TR8520 before it):

Canon PIXMA TR8620
$181

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08FF2X3PV/?tag=macforums0e4-20

Big Sur driver:

Canon U.S.A., Inc. | PIXMA TR8620

The advantages of this printer are that it prints amazingly beautiful color photos (better than any color laser printer), it has both a sheetfeed scanner, a flatbed scanner, OCR, duplexing, and a bunch of other really nice features. It has USB, Ethernet, Wi-Fi, and even Bluetooth.

The disadvantages are that this is an inkjet printer, so it needs to be used occasionally or the ink might dry out. It uses a lot of ink, but I can tell you where to get ink cheaply, so that's not a problem. While it can print beautiful text, it's not really economical to do so if you are going to be printing a lot of text documents (a black and white laser printer is best for that).

The price is a little steep compared to a couple of years ago, but Covid cause a huge run on printers so the prices shot up.

Thanks Randy.

 

[wrkeith]

I've been recommending this Canon all-in-one color inkjet printer (which is the spiritual successor to the wildly popular MX-922 and TR8520 before it):

Canon PIXMA TR8620
$181

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08FF2X3PV/?tag=macforums0e4-20

Big Sur driver:

Canon U.S.A., Inc. | PIXMA TR8620

The advantages of this printer are that it prints amazingly beautiful color photos (better than any color laser printer), it has both a sheetfeed scanner, a flatbed scanner, OCR, duplexing, and a bunch of other really nice features. It has USB, Ethernet, Wi-Fi, and even Bluetooth.

The disadvantages are that this is an inkjet printer, so it needs to be used occasionally or the ink might dry out. It uses a lot of ink, but I can tell you where to get ink cheaply, so that's not a problem. While it can print beautiful text, it's not really economical to do so if you are going to be printing a lot of text documents (a black and white laser printer is best for that).

The price is a little steep compared to a couple of years ago, but Covid cause a huge run on printers so the prices shot up.

btw, where can you buy the ink cheaply?

 

[Randy B. Singer]

btw, where can you buy the ink cheaply?

These are "super high yield":

Canon PGI-280XXL & CLI-281XXL Super High-Yield Compatible Ink Cartridge 5-Pack Combo

Contains 1 Canon PGI-280XXL Black, 1 Canon CLI-281XXL Black, 1 Canon CLI-281XXL Cyan, 1 Canon CLI-281XXL Magenta, and 1 Canon CLI-281XXL Yellow Compatible Super High-Yield Ink Cartridges.

www.carrotink.com

 

[pm-r]

Mostly color documents. Models would be helpful. Yes there are many out there but sorting through reviews seems pointless if you have an opportunity to ask actual Mac users. Thanks for your input and time!

Don't forget to check out your late local Staples and Best Buy type big box stores, or even Amazon as they often have high top quality printers on sale for a super sale price.

But don't forget to check on Mac compatibility for the Mac OS you are or will be using.


- Patrick
=======

 

[badshoehabit]

I have a Canon PIXMA MG6650 which will have been superceded by now but have been happy. There was a continuing issue of it refusing to play with the paper but I found a hack online (wedge a bit of foam under the carriage!) and it's behaved since. I only ever buy compatible inks (from ebay UK) as manufacturers charge the earth. I've had several Epson printers which were fine too; the one HP was rubbish. I had a hiccup recently where I kept getting a message that the MBP couldn't find the printer but then I remembered I'd changed router and it was fine when I reconfigured the wifi.

 

[wrkeith]

Thank you. Much appreciated!

 

[ferrarr]

Inkjet printer brands I've had issues with (both Mac & Win OS) over 20+ years;

Brother, Lexmark, Canon, & HP, there may be others that I no longer remember. I also had a Samsung (laser), which was horrible, and I got rid of it within a year.

Printer brands I didn't have issue with (both Mac & Win OS) over 20+ years;

Epson, HP, Canon.

I've come to the conclusion that, like all things quality comes at a price. The higher priced models, work & perform so much better than the introductory base price models. My current printer is an Epson XP-620 from about 4 or 5 years ago. Both the HP & Canon also lasted around

 

[wrkeith]

Inkjet printer brands I've had issues with (both Mac & Win OS) over 20+ years;

Brother, Lexmark, Canon, & HP, there may be others that I no longer remember. I also had a Samsung (laser), which was horrible, and I got rid of it within a year.

Printer brands I didn't have issue with (both Mac & Win OS) over 20+ years;

Epson, HP, Canon.

I've come to the conclusion that, like all things quality comes at a price. The higher priced models, work & perform so much better than the introductory base price models. My current printer is an Epson XP-620 from about 4 or 5 years ago. Both the HP & Canon also lasted around

Thanks. I agree, quality does come with a price.

 

[wrkeith]

Don't forget to check out your late local Staples and Best Buy type big box stores, or even Amazon as they often have high top quality printers on sale for a super sale price.

But don't forget to check on Mac compatibility for the Mac OS you are or will be using.


- Patrick
=======

Thanks!

 

[Randy B. Singer]

I've come to the conclusion that, like all things quality comes at a price. The higher priced models, work & perform so much better than the introductory base price models.

I'd go much farther than that and say that each company has some excellent models, and each company has some putrid models, and while to some extent that depends on price, it doesn't perfectly track.

For instance, for inkjet printers I almost always recommend Canon printers. They are the least likely to clog (which doesn't mean that they never clog), and I've seen some amazingly good experiences with their support. But Canon makes a number of different entire lines of printers. For instance, they have an entire line of printers that are sold by Walmart, and I wouldn't touch any one of them, no matter what their price.

Instead, it's important to go with a brand and model of printer that many others have had good experiences with. That's what I try to track. I also track features of the models that users have had good success with. For instance, Canon models with less than a five cartridge ink system are probably best to avoid. Inkjet printers with only ONE color cartridge, from any manufacturer, are probably a bad choice.

Any brands that I recommend strongly AGAINST? Hewlett Packard. Not necessarily because their hardware is bad. Often it's great. But because their support for Macintosh users is often terrible. I have a bunch of user group members who have HP printers that are bricks because HP couldn't be bothered to update their drivers for the Mac for their model of printer....

 

[pm-r]

Any brands that I recommend strongly AGAINST? Hewlett Packard. Not necessarily because their hardware is bad. Often it's great. But because their support for Macintosh users is often terrible. I have a bunch of user group members who have HP printers that are bricks because HP couldn't be bothered to update their drivers for the Mac for their model of printer....

The same problems with HP printers seem to be a fairly common post to these forms as well as some other Mac forums I belong to. Too bad as some of their printers appear to be fairly decent units according to their specifications.

But I am sure I read somewhere that Apple would be responsible for supplying all software and drivers for all HP printers several years ago.

Apple Support: Apple provides HP drivers that are compatible with your version of macOS or OS X. Go to Apple Support - HP Printer Drivers for macOS and OS X Mavericks and later (in English) or Apple Support - HP Printer Drivers for OS X Lion and Mountain Lion (in English) to search for available printer software.

HP printer compatibility with macOS and OS X | HP® Customer Support

Find available drivers and apps to use your HP printer with a Mac computer or laptop.

support.hp.com

Regardless of brand and Mac software, I would avoid any inkjet printer that will just not print if it thinks a single ink cartridge might be empty.



- Patrick
=======

 

[chscag]

I have to agree with Randy when it comes to HP. I would avoid most HP inkjet printers and some of their newer Laser models. Cheaply built and poorly supported.

Older HP Laser printers such as the one I have are work horses and keep on going as long as you can buy cartridges for them. Not only that, but the older HP Laser printers are also driver supported by Gutenprint.

My LaserJet 1012 was purchased from Costco back in 2003 and still works well. Refillable cartridges are easily found on the web and are not expensive.

 

[pm-r]

My LaserJet 1012 was purchased from Costco back in 2003 and still works well. Refillable cartridges are easily found on the web and are not expensive.

It sounds like things have changed from the way things were quite a few years ago when HP was on the warpath and even charging some companies and taking others to court for selling their refilled HP toner cartridges, at least they were doing so in Canada. They were even sending in cartridge police to clear out any such non-genuine HP toner cartridges from a lot of the local stores that had been selling them.

Amazingly my old HP 4 ML Mac serial port LaserJet is still in working order, if I was to connect it up to an old Mac that was running Mac OS 10.5 I believe it needs that still had Apple-Talk available. Yes I had it connected to an Asante-talk USB-Serial connector.


- Patrick
=======

 

[Randy B. Singer]

The same problems with HP printers seem to be a fairly common post to these forms as well as some other Mac forums I belong to. Too bad as some of their printers appear to be fairly decent units according to their specifications.

It's a historical problem. When Steve Jobs made his return to Apple, a deal had previously been worked out for Apple to sell HP's printers re-branded as Apple's own. (Similar to the deal Apple had previously had with Canon.) Steve didn't like the deal and nixed it. HP was incensed, and ever since they have treated Macintosh users as second class citizens.

While HP's service and support can at times be excellent, I regularly hear from Mac users who tell me that they have called HP for tech support and they have been told that they simply should get a Windows PC. That's unacceptable.

So while HP printers are the premier choice if you have a Windows PC, if you have a Macintosh, folks might be best off to avoid them.

 

[DCM_UK]

I went for the the HP Instant Ink programme for my HP ENVY 2134. The Ink is free but you are charged for pages over and above a certain amount per month so if you are a low user like myself it is ideal, worth looking at if available in the US.