HP Deskjet 3820 Ink Cartridges

HP 3820 Printer Review

For consumers who are looking for an affordable printer for printing family pictures occasionally, the HP Deskjet 3820 could be the best option. With a basic, compact design, the 3820 will be easy to move and store, but does not offer much in the way of something to look at. It is gray and white, with a retractable input tray near the bottom of the unit and an output guide. There is a 3-button control panel with indicator lights to alert users of paper jams and low HP 3820 ink.

Windows and Mac operating systems are compatible with this inkjet printer and will connect via parallel or USB ports. Networking can also be added. The memory is built-in at 2 MB and there is available space for a hard drive if needed. The input tray holds 100 sheets and is rather flimsy, and the output tray can hold up to 50 documents. An array of media types are supported, including cards, envelopes, labels, transparencies, and photo paper.

With a maximum speed of 12 pages per minute, which is about average for inkjet printers, the best selling point for this unit is its photo printing ability. Text and graphics are mediocre, but pictures printed on photo paper can have an optimized resolution of 4800x1200 dpi using HP PhotoREt III technology and the color layering system with the Deskjet 3820 ink.

The black HP 3820 ink cartridge can yield up to 500 pages while the standard tricolor printer ink will yield as many as 450 pages. There is also a high-yield tricolor Deskjet 3820 ink cartridge that can yield 970 pages, minimizing the cost per page. For users looking to save money, remanufactured versions of the HP 3820 ink are available for less than a third of the cost of the OEM options, but only for the standard capacity supplies.

There are a number of features that make the HP Deskjet 3820 a good personal printer, including its compact size, superior photo quality, affordable upfront cost, and third-party printer ink. It may not be the best unit for printing complex graphics or long text documents, but it will produce excellent photographs that will last for years.