HP Photosmart 8250

We reviewed the Photosmart 8250 in our recent inkjet printer Labs (see issue 138, p134). Due to the way it's built, we couldn't individually weigh its ink tanks to discover how much ink was wasted during the nozzle cleaning process. Since then, we've been running the tanks right down by printing intermittent photos, and we can reveal that the 8250 wastes precious little ink. It printed the same number of photos during continuous testing as it did under intermittent use, 116 in total. If you buy HP's value pack of six cartridges with 150 sheets of Everyday Photo Paper, each photo will cost just under 20p. If you prefer to use Premium Plus paper for slightly better quality prints, you'll have to add 15p per sheet for the paper. But even at 35p per photo, the 8250 is the fourth most economical printer from the Labs and also offers fantastic image quality for the money.

Author: Jim Martin