i got a new printer...whoa

so, i don't do a lot of printing. but you've got to have a printer just in case.
i had an hp 925c for the past 2 or 3 years. it's done me well. the banding in color pics was really only very slightly noticeable. definitely a damnshot better than anything i've seen a lexmark printer do. yikes!
anyway, in the past couple/few years i've replaced the ink cartridges maybe once. maybe not even that, i can't really remember. but the last couple times i printed i noticed that there was no yellow. and last night i printed some movie showtimes, and could barely read anything. so, it was time to go wal*mart and get me some ink.
so after the movie, i go to wally*world, grab the cartridges...60 bucks for one each of color and black! i was like, sheesh, i could probably buy a printer for that!! and then i thought, why don't i go look. so i did.
there were 2 inexpensive hp printers...one for $35 and one for $50. the main difference i could see between the 2 was that the $35 didn't come with black ink. and since the ink carts for these 2 printers were $18, it made more sense to spend the $15 more on the other printer. hell, i was still saving $10 over the ink carts in my hand!!!
so i spend $50 on an hp deskjet 3745. hooked it up last night. today i decided to test it, just so if it sucked, i wouldn't be surprised when i really "needed" it.
wow.
i was stunned. i'm not gonna say there aren't better printers out there, but this blew me away. serously. i don't see any noticeable banding at all! i printed a piece of art i did on the computer, and a screen cap from a dvd. they look amazing.
i gotta say, i'm very definitely happy with this baby!!
i love hp printers. now if only they could be bothered to make one with a freakin' straight paper path!!
grrrr.