HP Deskjet 3650 review

Our first impressions of the HP Deskjet 3650 weren't good: the casing of its predecessor, the Deskjet 5150, was far smarter. The 5150 won a Best Buy award in our September inkjet group test. So the HP 3650 has a fight on its hands.

The 3650's Setup guide was poor - it told me to connect the printer to my PC using a USB cable - but no cable was supplied. We borrowed one, but when we plugged it in, the PC threw up an error. You need to install the printer drivers before connecting the printer - but it would have been nice to be told.

The HP Deskjet 3650 soon redeemed itself. Like the 5150, it's very quiet. The 3650 also prides itself on its photo printing. Again, it does not disappoint. It has a borderless 6x5in photo printing option, with realistic colours. Skins tones looked natural, with no banding at the Normal, Best or Maximum resolution settings. The first two printed at 600dpi, the last at 1,200dpi.

The 3650's print speeds were on a par with the 5150's, which was the fastest in September's group test. Our A4 test photo took 4 minutes 42 seconds at the Normal setting, 7 minutes at Best and 12 minutes 20 seconds at maximum resolution.

The 3650 also excelled at text. Black characters were crisp and sharp - and again, it was no slouch, taking just 29 seconds to print a full A4 page of text at the Normal setting, and 1 minute 28 seconds to print five pages. The FastDraft setting produced a single page in 15 seconds.

The 3650 performs well in the areas that matter - print quality and speed, and all for the bargain price of £47! This printer is a solid choice for anyone in the market for a budget inkjet. What lets it down compared to our Best Buy, the 5150, is its running costs. A page of black and white text costs 6.3p, against 3.6p for the 5150.

Author: Lynley Oram