HP Deskjet 3050

The HP Deskjet 3050 is one of HP's cheapest inkjet multi-function devices, which can print, copy and scan.

Both it and the even cheaper Deskjet 1050 are intended primarily for home use, and the DeskJet 3050 has a 38mm black and white display.

All cased in black, the printer has soft, rounded lines and unlike most HP all-in-ones, uses a straight-through paper path: the 60-sheet tray folds up at the rear and paper comes out into a pull-out tray at the front. The scanner cover looked more dark brown than black and there is a maroon highlight band below the cover.

A strip of flexible plastic houses six buttons down the left-hand side of the control panel and three of these are linked to prompts that appear on screen. Small lights are used to indicate power and sleep status as well as the wireless connection.

The Deskjet 3050 has a wireless connection as standard and if your router supports WPS setup, it only takes a couple of button pushes to establish. It can connect by USB to a single computer as well. The two ink cartridges, one black and the other tri-colour, slid in and clipped up into place easily.

HP specifies speeds of 5.5 pages per minute (ppm) for black text and 4ppm for colour in the highest quality mode. We measured 6.4ppm in normal mode but only 2.3ppm for colour. In comparison with other cheap printers, these speeds are good.

What isn't so good is the print quality. HP printers often produce some of the best results we see from inkjet devices, but the Deskjet 3050 wasn't up to scratch. Black text showed some blurring and the occasional misplaced dot and there was noticeable banding – visible horizontal lines – in some colour photos. Photo prints were detailed, but not as bright as from some rivals. Copies and scans were better, however.

The two cartridges give costs per page of 3.9p and 9.3p for standard black and colour pages, similar to those from other entry-level printer-scanners.

If you shop around, the Deskjet 3050 is available for £35, making it a cheap first printer, as long as you are not too fussy about the look of your prints.