Which Printer / AIO Should I Get?

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I have a problem choosing the right HP printer. I’m a former HP employee (enterprise), and I’ve been selling and using HP gear for over 30 years.

We have 2 MacBooks, 1 Win10 desktop (I built it myself, so it can never become a Win11 machine) and 1 HP laptop. We also extensively use 4 iPads and 4 iPhones, etc.

Our printing needs are very occasional, but when we need it, the jobs can get large (mostly printing scripts for rehearsing, and occasional work related workflow). Also scanning. I want to be able to print duplex, and scanning duplex would be nice, but I don’t want that to be the limiting factor.  ADF, though, is mandatory.

Originally I was looking at lasers, as color is a nicety, but not necessary. I also looked at Smart Tank, as the only reason I need to search for a product is my current ink cartridges have been discontinued - so I don’t want to get trapped by being dependent on cartridges not being available.  I figured I might as well try to get the duplex printing more automated (we invariably mess this up manually every time), and I have network issues occasionally with the diversity of devices. Right now I’m scanning from the flatbed on my PhotoSmart and printing single sided from the LaserJet.  Between those inconveniences and the network issues, it’s clearly time to move on.

My deal breaker is being dependent on an app to do anything other than print from it (no accounts wanted if at all possible). I want to be able to print from any device in order of importance: iPads and computers most important, iPhones secondarily (not the end of the world if we can’t print from phones).  I don’t mind using an app so much as we should not need to set up accounts to print from anywhere on the local network.

I could care less about managing any aspect of the printer from the phone. We’ve never needed a phone to manage supplies or set up, network issues, etc. I just need Windows drivers for the 2 Windows machines. We don’t use Windows accounts for anything (we have all the software we need, none of it is dependent on Microsoft accounts, and we’re just not going there). It’s an unnecessary complication, and the last thing I need is to be setting up accounts for 4 people (3 of whom would get lost doing any more than just “send to printer “ or set up a document scan) just to print or scan something.  Subscribing to supplies is not happening - I’d rather just gamble on the sporadic nature of our printing needs. This is why smart tanks and lasers appeal to me the most - they seem to tolerate long periods of inactivity better than cartridges. Ideally, I can just push the copy button on the printer to make copies, or whichever user has a document to scan should be able to load the software to start the scan process (select output type - such as PDF, quality, and destination), or hit the “scan to computer” button on the printer.  I have a $500 budget.

So - do I have any choices from HP? I hate to consider the other guys, but I’m beginning to think that might be my only option.