Decent printer for home or business use. There are better choices for photo printing.

My first experience with a Hewlett Packard Deskjet 5650 InkJet Printer was at work, where one was installed with the control computer for some manufacturing equipment. One of the main things I learned about it there were that it was the first two-cartridge Hewlett Packard inkjet printer I had encountered which could be operated with only one of the two cartridges installed. Many previous Hewlett Packard inkjet printers, if they accommodated both a color and a black cartridge, required both to be installed in order to function at all. The Hewlett Packard Deskjet 5650 InkJet Printer will happily turn on and print with only the black cartridge, or only the color cartridge, and make nicely readable text and images. For work this was a money-saver, because the control computers don't print anything in color anyway, so there was no need to spend extra money to keep color cartridges around. The other main thing I learned at work about the Hewlett Packard Deskjet 5650 InkJet Printer is that the printer's internal self-test page will prove that the paper will feed, and the printer will print, but it doesn't print enough to tell how well the cartridges are printing.

More recently, I purchased a used Hewlett Packard Deskjet 5650 InkJet Printer for $20 from a Goodwill store. I then spent $58 to get both a new color and a new black cartridge, since the printer came from Goodwill without either. I already had both USB and parallel printer cables at home.

One of the first things I did after getting the printer home was to download the owner's manual from the Hewlett Packard web site. From the owner's manual, I learned that the printer would turn itself on if the computer started sending something to print, and that there was a way to set the printer to turn itself back off after it sits idle for 30 minutes. Setting the self-power-off function requires either the HP printer software (which I did not have), or, luckily for me, the printer driver functions that are built-in with Microsoft Windows Vista, to send setting information to the printer. Once that setting is activated, it remains in effect unless you deliberately turn it off again using the driver or HP software.

Most of the time now I use the printer with a computer running on the Kubuntu distribution of GNU/Linux, and the drivers currently available for Linux don't allow access to the power-saving setting, but since I set it using Windows, I almost never touch the power switch; the Hewlett Packard Deskjet 5650 InkJet Printer turns on when I print (or my wife prints through the home network) and turns back off 30 minutes later. If you don't use the self-power-off, you can always turn the power off at your leisure, and just let it turn itself on when printing rather than turning it on, then printing, if you like.

Even when the power is off, some power is required for the transformer that converts house power to the 16v and 32v DC input the Hewlett Packard Deskjet 5650 InkJet Printer requires, and some power is also required for the circuitry that recognizes the computer is sending something so the main printer power can be turned on. If you really want to have no power-use by this printer when you leave the room, you can turn off the switch on your surge-suppressor (which you should be using with all your electronic equipment) or power strip, or unplug the transformer block from the outlet.

The transformer block for the Hewlett Packard Deskjet 5650 InkJet Printer is larger than average: 2 ½ inches wide, 4 inches long, and 1 ¼ inches thick. It is designed in such a way that, if you plug it into a regular duplex wall receptacle, there is no possibility of anything else being plugged into the other receptacle: if you use the top half, the bottom half will be completely blocked, and if you use the lower half, the upper half is partially blocked. If you have a surge suppressor or power strip that has the receptacles side-by-side, two adjacent receptacles will be blocked. If your outlets are lined up top-to-bottom, using the bottom receptacle will only leave one extra receptacle blocked.

At the printer end of the adapter, there is a three-prong connector that can only be plugged in one way, and has a sort of snap to help keep it from being accidentally unplugged. Above the power connector, there is a small, square plug for a USB cable, and then a large oblong plug for a parallel printer cable. All the plugs are on the back of the printer, on the right-hand side if the printer is facing you. Also on the back of the Hewlett Packard Deskjet 5650 InkJet Printer is a removable panel with a latch on each end. This is a handy place to gain access to remove paper if there is a paper jam. This panel can also be removed in order to install a duplex attachment for printing pages on both sides. I want a duplex attachment, but last time I checked it was going to cost me $75 to get one. I frequently print odd-numbered pages in reverse order, put the paper back in the tray, and print even-numbered pages in normal order to get two-sided print and save paper if I'm printing something that's more than about 6 pages.

The front has a power switch on the right. On the left is a long two-ended button which also has two lights behind it. A light near the center of the button indicates a problem with the ink cartridges, with a water-droplet shape. The other light, behind the right end of the button, has an arrow shape and indicates when paper is out or jammed. If paper runs out, once paper is reloaded you can press the right end of the button and printing will continue. The left end of the long button is supposed to be a reset button, but I can never remember that when I've cleared a paper jam to see if it works.

On the subject of paper jams, in my experience with the Hewlett Packard Deskjet 5650 InkJet Printer they are a fairly rare event. I usually use 20lb or 24lb paper, and only have any problems if the paper hasn't been stored flat. Occasionally, I use a heavier card stock (can't remember the weight of it, I think 60lb) and that jams more frequently. The card stock has a tendency to pull in more on the left, if I don't hold it centered as it starts to feed. Once printing starts, the card stock then continues through with no problem.

Changing the ink cartridges is pretty easy. When parked between print jobs, the ink cartridges are on the left. When you lift the top cover of the Hewlett Packard Deskjet 5650 InkJet Printer, the rubber pads that keep the ink from drying move down away from the cartridges, then you lift a latch on top of each cartridge to release it. The old cartridges can then be lifted out and new cartridges dropped in. All that remains is to close each cartridge latch, and close the top cover. There is no warning if the ink runs out, except the pages start getting intermittent printing and then fade to blank. Lifting the top cover will stop all printing, move the cartridges to the parked position, and ready them for changing, even in the middle of printing a page. Printing will resume when the cover is closed again.

Paper feeds from a flat tray in the bottom front of the printer. It can hold about 100 sheets of 20lb paper. A4 and letter-size or smaller paper, and envelopes can be accommodated, but legal-size paper will not fit.

There is a removable paper-out tray that fits above the fresh paper. The paper-out tray is only about 5 ½ long, half the length of letter-size paper. To prevent the printed pages from sliding across your desk or onto the floor, a 5 inch wide small tray slides out 3 ½ inches from the center of the paper-out tray, and another 3 ½ X 3 inch piece flips over from the center of the small tray, with a lip to stop the paper from sliding away. This paper-out tray arrangement will not accommodate paper longer than A4 or letter-size.

An accessory paper-feed tray is available that sits under the Hewlett Packard Deskjet 5650 InkJet Printer and will hold up to 500 sheets of paper. I don't know much about the accessory tray, but I think if it is installed the software will allow you to choose whether to use paper from the built-in tray or the accessory tray.

For home use, I've been happy with the speed and quality of the printed output. The black print is good enough to be suitable for a resumé or formal letter. Splashes of color come out looking pretty good, too. Photographs are only so-so on plain paper, pretty good but not great on glossy paper. For better photograph printing, a “photo cartridge” is available that goes in place of the black cartridge, alongside the regular color cartridge, which is supposed to produce even better photographic printouts on glossy paper. I've never tried a “photo cartridge” to see how well it works. The regular black and color cartridges are already expensive, and good enough for everything I've wanted to print so far.  In fact, lately I have only had a black cartridge installed.

From the HP web site:

Features
Borderless printing on 8.5 x 11 inch photo paper
Optional six-ink printing (with the regular tri-color cartridge and the photo cartridge)
Media sense (identifies the paper type being used and sets the correct print mode)
Print mode can be select on the front panel as well as in the printer software
Five print modes in the software
Reserve print mode (printer can operate with one pen installed)
Auto-off feature places the printer in a low power, energy efficient mode after being idle for 30 minutes
Memory information
8 MB built-in Ram
Duty cycle
5000 pages per month

Physical specification
Width 17.7 inches (449 mm)
Height 5.7 inches (145 mm)
Depth 14.6 inches (370 mm)
Weight 11.7 lbs (5.3 kg)

Power consumption
2 watts max when off; 4 watts average when idle; 30 watts average when printing