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Old faithful moves on...

By Unknown
About 7 years ago I sank a LOT of money into a personal LaserJet printer. The HP LaserJet 1320 was a great little personal printer, despite costing a fair amount of money for a printer (around $500 MSRP at launch). For years that printer has cranked out page after page after page of beautiful black text. Originally we purchased it because our kids loved to color, and it was getting really expensive to print all their coloring sheets on an inkjet printer. So a laser printer was the perfect solution. We went through reams of paper printing outlines of Star Wars characters, dinosaurs, and other assorted topics that the kids were in to from time to time.

The time has come though to retire old faithful. Despite being a solid printer, and most likely having some solid life left, it's reached a point where I needed something with a few more features. In particular I've found myself in need of a scanner on a number of occasions recently for various document signings, and with my last cheap scanner sitting in a junk heap, I was stuck using places like Kinko's. I didn't want to just pick up yet another cheap scanner that would take up more room and another port on my computer. So I started doing some research on newer multi-function printers, and had narrowed my choices down to a few solid contenders. Well, today I was wandering through Office Max, and there was one of the printers I had been looking at (HP M1212nf MFP), on sale for 10% off of regular price. So I decided to pick it up. It's amazing how much technology gets cheaper. I paid about 60% LESS than what I bought my 1320 for, and got tons more options.

In addition to full copy/scan functionality, it also is AirPrint compatible (and ePrint), meaning that my mobile devices can print directly to it now. The only caveat is that I didn't get a wireless model, so I had to put it next to my router in the living room so I could hardwire it in. Not a huge deal, just a little funny seeing the printer sitting next to my TV and Xbox. It all works though and is a great upgrade.

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