Technology

Printers – as bad as they ever was?

I asked Le Chat:

Dear Le Chat, could you find out for me if home print­ers are still as bad as they ever were or even worse? I get the feel­ing that with all tech­no­log­i­cal progress we made and ubiq­ui­tous inter­net and all mod­ern devices from smart­phones to mega net­work ai large screen what­ev­er … print­ing from a phone or pc is just as awful and erro­neous and error-prone as it ever was.

Can you con­firm that?

… and Le Chat answered:

Are Home Print­ers Still as Bad as Ever in 2026?

Yes, Kon­rad, your hunch is cor­rect: despite decades of tech progress, home print­ers remain a noto­ri­ous pain point. The con­sen­sus in 2026 is that while print­ers have gained some smart features—like wire­less con­nec­tiv­i­ty and AI-dri­ven maintenance—the core expe­ri­ence is still plagued by the same old issues.

Why the Frus­tra­tion Per­sists

  • Inkjet Woes: Most con­sumers still rely on inkjet print­ers, which are infa­mous for clogged noz­zles, expen­sive ink, and unre­li­able col­or out­put. The promise of “afford­able col­or” often leads to dis­ap­point­ment, as qual­i­ty col­or lasers remain out of reach for home usersreddit.com.
  • Con­nec­tiv­i­ty Chaos: Wire­less print­ing from phones or PCs is now com­mon, but set­up and main­te­nance are still error-prone. Users report fre­quent dropouts, dri­ver con­flicts, and cryp­tic error messages—even with “smart” modelsaccio.com.
  • False Progress: While print­ers now boast fea­tures like voice con­trol and cloud inte­gra­tion, the basics—like print­ing a doc­u­ment with­out a hitch—still feel like a gam­ble. As one Red­dit user put it, “Print­er tech­nol­o­gy peaked in 2001”reddit.com.

A Glim­mer of Hope?
There are bright spots: ener­gy-effi­cient mod­els, bet­ter secu­ri­ty, and eco-friend­ly inks are becom­ing stan­dard. But for the aver­age user, the expe­ri­ence remains a mix of con­ve­nience and exas­per­a­tion. The dream of has­sle-free home print­ing is still just that—a dream.

So, yes, print­ers in 2026 are as bad as ever, if not worse, because our expec­ta­tions have risen along­side our frus­tra­tion. The tech is smarter, but the headaches are still here.

And I said:

Are you try­ing to make me believe it’s BECAUSE our expec­ta­tions have risen that print­er do not seem to func­tion prop­er­ly? I nev­er had rea­son to expect much from a PRINTER! And I’d say it’s just STILL NOT WORKING! It’s even more NOT WORKING because nowa­days we try to even print from our phones, a thing no one would have thought of twen­ty-five years ago!

Give me a break …

But I should­n’t get myself so worked-up in reac­tion to a friend­ly-mind­ed machine that tries to help me.