Envy or Officejet, Which Should I Buy?

[WebRat]

I am looking to replace my Photosmart7515, which has served me very well for over 6 years. I like that the Photosmart was designed to print archive-quality photos, and that it uses individual color ink cartridges, an upgrade from the archaic tri-color cartridges that forced you to essentially waste and pay for two other colors of ink that hadn't run out yet when only one had. My dilemma is that the Photosmart replacement model seems to be the Envy, also designed to print photos, but HP has made the poor choice to go back in time to the old tri-color cartridges?! This is a terrible choice in my opinion. So I am looking at the Officejet line, which fortunately has retained the separate ink cartridge colors, but supposedly is designed for more office document use and not necessarily photo printing. In looking at the spec sheets, the Envy and Officejet have the same photo printing DPI using the same HP Advanced Photo Papers, and HP Sales Agents tell me the ink formulation is the same as well. So am I safe in assuming that the same ink, paper and DPI would produce the same quality photos, even though one printer is designed for photos and the other is designed for office documents? HP sales members were no help in being able to give me an answer, only saying that they could see that the Envy was designed for photos and the Officejet is designed for documents. If only HP had left well enough alone and kept the individual color inks for the Envy, my choice would have been much easier. Any advice anyone? HP has been no help! Many thanks.

[banhien]

@WebRat

Believe this or not: HP has SAME specs of many printers but carry different models/products on different markets.

From my observations: yes, HP Envy class printers are more photographic printring than Officejet class printers. HP also has HP Envy Photo class printers for more confusions.

I only print photo at home for testing otherwise I use a printing service, much cheaper and better results. But if I was you, I would go to an Officejet or Office Pro class printer.

Regards.