There are over a dozen different computer printer manufacturers. They all promise high quality printing, fast page per minute output, and ease of use.

The brand name of the printer is not as important as its intended use and compatibility with your computer. This is one area of computing where it is possible to buy too much of a good thing. Many computer printers today advertise their excellence of photo quality printing. However, unless you print a large number of photos from your computer this is not a good deal. You pay extra for that high quality printing. Let us determine the different uses for computer printers.

1. Student: Students write reports. Often their reports include graphs. Most students perform their photographic work and communications online. They do not need an expensively priced computer printer with all the bells and whistles, usually. A basic color capable printer with a quick page per minute output is probably the best for them. There are many such computer printers available under a hundred dollars. Be careful though, some ink cartridges cost more than the printer does! Check the cost of replacing the ink before buying the cheapest printer you find.

2. General Individual: Individuals need computer printers for a broad range of uses. Many printers, called all-in-one devices can copy, scan, and fax as well as print. It is certainly cheaper to pay a couple of extra dollars to have a fax capable printer in your home than have to pay seventy-five cents or more to use a commercial fax service if you have frequent or long term fax needs. Most of us however, need a fax only occasionally. Why pay for more than you need? If you do not need a fax more than once a month, look at a computer printer without that option. The scanning and copying options on the computer all-in-one printers are still a good buy for the general individual. Almost everyone likes to save newspaper articles and recipes for future reference. The photo quality of the print is an individual consideration here as well. If you enjoy taking photographs to share with others you may want to pay extra for that high quality print. If you can upload your photos online, though, the high quality photo printing option may be more than you want to pay. Remember, photo printing uses a lot of ink!

3. Home or Small Office: Here again, we need to determine just what use the computer printer will have. This is where you might want to consider purchasing that fax option and high quality photo option. While you may not need them all that often, the money saved in terms of time lost in leaving the office, to have it done, can more than make up the difference in cost.

Base you computer printer decision on what you will use it for and compatibility with your operating system and you will be able to buy the best printer for you. Remember to pay attention to the cost of replacing the ink this is where you will spend the bulk of your printing dollar.

Computer Printers

HP Deskjet 3050 All-in-One

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Most helpful customer reviews

133 of 133 people found the following review helpful.
Perfect for infrequent home printing and scanning
By B. Wueste
I needed to replace an old HP deskjet that I’ve had for more than 5 years that finally decided to stop working properly. I did a lot of research online and quickly got very caught up with all of these massive all-in-one devices that had way more functionality than I would ever need. If you are like me and just need a home printer to print the occasional directions/maps, recipes, coupons, bills, etc., then this is definitely the printer for you.

Before you buy a printer online you need to go to a store and see just how large these all-in-one devices actually are. My wife took one look at them and told me there is no way that is going in our home office even if it also served as a micro fridge and coffee maker. The great thing about this HP 3050 is that it has a much smaller footprint than most all-in-one printers. It has print, copy, and scan functionality, but no fax. Who needs a fax these days anyways when you can just scan a file and then email the scanned document. Most devices don’t have a fax out capability anyways so unless you are operating a business out of your house and you receive a lot of faxes the lack of fax on this model should not be a problem.

The printer is not too heavy and it’s packaged really well in the box. Instead of being wrapped in styrofoam it is secured with recycled cardboard and wrapped in a reusable canvas bag that you can use for your groceries. It comes with a quick installation guide, as most HP printers do, and the set up went very smoothly with no problems. There is one piece of cardboard wedged inside near the ink cartridges that I missed, but the printer told me of my error and it was easy enough to remove.

Setting up wireless was also not a problem, but you will need to be familiar with your wireless network security settings in order to get the printer connected. An alternative is just using the USB cable, which is nicely included in the box. I haven’t played around with web printing yet, but it’s not hard to just plug the USB cable into my desktop or laptop and print what I need.

The only negative I can think of is that the printing is a bit loud, but unless you’re keeping the printer in the room with the baby crib the noise isn’t THAT loud that it would be a dealbreaker. Ink consumption so far is not noticeably different than my prior HP, but I don’t print all that much all that often so this is tough to measure for me.

Overall a high quality printer with all the functionality non business users would need with a smaller footprint and lower price tag than most other all-in-one printers.

82 of 82 people found the following review helpful.
Dynamite, small-footprint computer printer!
By John W. Bradshaw
This dynamic printer is small, easy to use, fast and produces a clean, high quality classy print, whether it is text or enlarged, detailed photograph. You can use direct connection (USB) or wireless connection. The instructions and disc that come with the printer make it a snap to set up and begin printer. Even the wireless was hands-free and automatic.For its size and versatility, this printer is unmatched in price and speed of delivert. Very highly recommended!

124 of 129 people found the following review helpful.
hp6050 deskjet wireless all-in-one printer
By Desoto Frank
HP Deskjet 3050 All-in-One Printer (CH376A#B1H)

I bought this printer to replace my old Lexmark that was very faithful but used very expensive ink. I wasn’t
interested in wireless, but wanted a new scanner also and this item was very well priced. The install was painless on windows 7 and took only 10 min. including tests. Printer, copier and scan worked flawlessly. my only concern
is noise when printing starts. I hear several bumps and grinds as printing begins and I hope this is normal.

See all 107 customer reviews…