* Not a printer for a student *
 Jul 13th, 2005
Advantages:
Quality and speed
Disadvantages:
Needs too many cartridges for frequent usage
Recommendable:
Yes
Detailed rating:
Picture quality
Printing speed
Colour sensitivity
Ease of use
Value For Money
more
  galaxynicole
About me:
Got a new job so I have 2 jobs so a bit busy to review will try and review things soon x
Member since:21.01.2003
Reviews:129
Members who trust:101
Review rated by 39 Ciao members on average: very helpful 
This review received a counterstatement by a party concerned
Read Comment
HP DeskJet 3650 I won this printer 2 years ago with Dooyoo, which was a pleasant surprise just near Christmas. This printer has been used for printing my CVs and my assignments.
As I didn't buy this printer, I don't know the original price but I'm guessing like most HP printers, it would of cost between £100-200 depending on the time of purchase.
You can buy this printer starting from 9.99 on Ebay and Ebuyer.com is selling it for £25 + £ 5 delivery.
The printer is made by Hewlett Packard, which is a well-known company who produces good quality and lasting products. This printer is for personal use, as the cartridge wouldn't more than a few hours in an office environment. General info on the printer, it's blue and grey. 42.9 cm x 20.6 cm x 14.4 cm and weighs 2.3 kg.
It has two blue buttons on the left side. The first buttons is the on/off switch. This button will flash to tell you when the paper is stuck or run out. The second button is for cancelling. For instant, you're printing something and you realise you've forgotten to add the header, press the button and it will cancel the print job and make sure your PC knows about it. So no more wasted paper.
This printer contains two cartridges. One
black cartridge and one colour cartridge. To see the cartridges, you have to lift the lid of the printer. HP cartridges will cost you around £18 - 23 for the black one and £20 - 25 for the coloured one. If none HP cartridges are used, they may be cheaper but I couldn't say anything about the quality of the ink. I've used none branded ink cartridges and I can't see much difference in the quality but I think it depends on the one you buy because there's a big variety out there especially on the web.
The black cartridge is 10 ml, which can give you up to 220 pages, depending on which option you use when you print. The colour cartridge is smaller for some reason and is only 8 ml can give you up to 190 pages, depending on which option you use when you print. So you have to buy lots of cartridges if you use it frequently.
The code for the black & white is 27 (C8727 Series) and the colour is 28 (C8728 Series).
These cartridges can be also used in the following printer:
HP DeskJet 3320, HP DeskJet 3322, HP DeskJet 3325,HP DeskJet 3420, HP DeskJet 3425, HP DeskJet 3520, HP DeskJet 3550, HP DeskJet 3620, HP DeskJet 3650, HP DeskJet 3653, HP DeskJet 3740, HP DeskJet 3745, HP DeskJet 3843, HP DeskJet 3845, HP OfficeJet 4215, HP OfficeJet 4255, HP Fax 1240, HP PSC 1110, HP PSC 1209, HP PSC 1311, HP PSC 1315, HP PSC 1315v, and HP PSC 1315xi. The colour cartridge uses three colours (cyan, yellow and magenta) hence the name of the cartridge Tri-colour, which is used for nearly all HP printers but can be use for 6-ink colour printing if the right cartridges are used.
I've noticed with the cartridges, it makes a hell of noice when it starts printing.
For the speed, this is not the fastest printer in the world but is better than some earlier HP printers.
This list is what HP claim this printer can do
Up to 17 pages per minute - black draft
Up to 8 pages per minute - black normal
Up to 0.9 page per minute - black best
Up to 12 pages per minute - mixed text/colour graphics draft
Up to 4 pages per minute - mixed text/colour graphics normal
Up to 0.8 page per minute - mixed text/colour graphics best
Up to 0.6 page per minute - photo normal - 101.6 x 152.4 mm
Up to 0.3 page per minute - photo best - 101.6 x 152.4 mm I'd have to say that I've tested it and most of it seems to be true. Although, I would say it's slightly slower than they say especial on the mixed text/colour graphics but you don't know what PC they tested it with or what brand of paper they used so my test could be slightly out of line with theirs.
The quality of the printing is excellent. A nice finish and no colour bleeding on the page. The maximum solution in black & white is 1200 dpi x 1200 dpi (dots per inch) and the maximum solution with the colour is 4800 dpi x 1200 dpi.
You have to be careful as the ink tends to smudge if you take it out of the printer to fast and if you're printing a lot, sometimes the ink goes onto the back of the next page which is annoying when it's important documents. This printer can handle various media types like Envelopes, transparencies, labels, plain paper, iron-on transfers, photo paper, cards. The maximum size is 216 mm (Legal) x 356 mm (Legal). The feed from the tray is automatic and has a total capacity of 100 pages. There are some papers that don't work in the printer, which you can find in the manual so just watch out for those.
The printer has 8 built-in typefaces. 4 in portait and 4 in landscape. CG Times, Universe, Courier and Letter Gothic. Also in italic as well. It has a maximum of 364 KB RAM to print off your documents, which think is nearly nothing. I think that's why it's so slow with transferring documents from PC to printer as it uses the PCs RAM (which is very limited on my PC) to do it and not it's own like other HP printers do.
With the HP drivers installed when you print something in Printing option, you can choose to print in draft, normal and best. Also there's an option to just print in black & white even if the document or picture is in colour. Again, you can choose the options draft, normal and best. Installing the printer on your PC
This printer works on Microsoft Windows 98/ME, Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional, Microsoft Windows XP Home and Professional Edition, Apple MacOS X 10.1 or later, Apple MacOS 9.1 or later. You can connect this printer only through the USB port.
To install, just pop the CD, follow the instructions on the screen and it will be setup in about 15 minutes.
The software that's installed has on-screen ink-level indicator and if there are any printing problems.
What comes in the box of the printer?
The printer, a manual - User's guide (in different languages), a CD with drivers and software and the power device.
You might have to buy a USB cable as mine didn't come with one. (Unless it did and Dooyoo forgot to send it) Customer care and support
There's a one-year guarantee with this printer.
http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/product?lc=en&cc=us&os=228&tool=softwareCategory&product=304535&dlc=en& > main page for the printer
http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/softwareList?lc=en&cc=us&tool=softwareCategory&product=304535&dlc=en&os=228 > for all the new drivers
http://h10032.www1.hp.com/ctg/Manual/c00043974.pdf > the manual On these three webpages, gives you all the information for when you need to update your drivers and solutions to your troubleshooting with the printer.
If your problem is not solved with this page there's also the forum and email support and if that doesn't work, you can phone up a person to help you with whatever problem you're having.
United Kingdom 44 (0) 171 512 5202
(You can find the other telephones in the manual if you live in another country than the UK)
Overall comment The quality and speed of this printer is great. The only problem is that the cartridges are too small and it's expensive to keep replacing them. I'd recommend this printer to people who only print documents and pictures once in awhile as it definitely doesn't meet the requirements of a student, as it's far too expensive to run if you're constantly printing off work and assignments that are due.
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by (5%):
14.08.2005 23:01
A really informative review that was a joy to read. Vicx. x
02.08.2005 10:17
Good luck in the computer competition. I have now entered this review for it. Fionaxx
22.07.2005 12:39
Great review, you are very thorough. Nicola