HP DeskJet 2621

SLOW BUT STEADY.

IS THIS AUSTRALIA’S best budget printer? For less than $50 (if you shop around), you get a printer that can handle the basics more than competently, being able to print, copy and scan. If you use this with a mobile, then you have a cheap and easy way to turn your documents into hard copies. Setup is easy too, as the scanner self-aligns the cartridges after spitting out a test document.

The 2621 will connect to your laptop via USB, and even at this price, HP has bundled in the appropriate A to B cord in the box. Wi-Fi Direct and wireless connection via a router are more flexible, though. Whether you pair the 2621 with your phone or laptop, you will need that device to send scanned documents as emails, or save them to cloud storage — there’s no way to do it from the printer alone. The only concession to device-less printing is being able to press one button on the top of the unit to instantly create a colour or black-and-white copy. Colour vibrancy is almost identical to the more expensive AMP, which makes sense as they use the same cartridges (one black, one tri-colour), but the 2621 produced a more consistent image with no banding on the colour test. Black-and-white text suffers the same slight blurriness, though, giving away its budget appeal, and it’s slow to print.

Our B&W test produced a sloth-like 2.3ppm, though the two-page scanner test was reasonable at 42 seconds. The cruel thing, too, is that the cost of the lower yield ink is only marginally less expensive than replacing the unit wholesale when it’s empty. A small screen under the power button shows off the ink levels left in the cartridges. Replacement B&W XL tanks costs $0.15pp and colour is $0.18pp.