HP DeskJet 5150 review

The 5150 has been our Top 50 Best Buy printer for almost a year and, again, it successfully beats every single one of its competitors. Despite looking a little cheap, with a plastic-looking case, the 5150 is still a tremendous piece of kit.

In our initial text test, where we printed using plain paper and the default text settings, the quality was sublime. Text looked almost as if it came from a printing press. There was no visible spidering, bleeding or any other imperfection. All characters were a crisp, bright black, making them really stand out from the page. Even better: standard text print speed was a solid 3.1 pages per minute. We were just as impressed with the draft text the 5150 produced. This was better than many of the competitors' best-quality text. At the expense of minor spidering and a loss in contrast, our document still looked superb. But best of all, it appeared at a barnstorming rate of 10.9 pages per minute.

The 5150's picture performance on plain paper was excellent. A document consisting of text mixed with graphics was printed with hardly a problem. The graphics looked fine with only very faint broad bands visible on closer inspection. Colour was a little undersaturated and there was a minor element of graininess - but this is all to be expected when printing on plain paper. However, printing on coated paper was flawless. Our newsletter test combines fine text with graphics and photos. The HP didn't put a foot wrong. Text was perfect, images displayed no hint of banding and you had to look very closely to discern any grain. Top marks again.

As it's good at everything else, you might expect the 5150 to have problems printing high-quality photos on glossy paper. Well, you'd be wrong - top marks again. Flesh tones were excellent and there wasn't a hint of graininess or banding. Every hint of detail was faithfully reproduced even in the dark areas. Most printers have an Achilles heel, and the 5150's print time of 5 minutes and 50 seconds is almost a third slower than the R200. If you're printing many photos, you'll be waiting a while.

For all-round quality, though, nothing else under £100 comes close to the 5150. To get a printer with cartridges that have built-in print nozzles (which are therefore replaced) at this price is fantastic value for money.

If you want a printer that produces crisp text, good-quality draft pages and top-notch photographs - this is it.

We haven't seen anything at this price that even comes close to being in the same league. It's incredible. So what are your alternatives? Only our other Best Buy printer, the Canon i865, gives the 5150 a run for its money - and that's double the price.