Original HP 303 Black Ink Cartridge by HP Envy Photo 7830 All-in-One Printer

Product Information

However, if you print that frequently, we would recommend one of the far more cost effective and rather less environmentally damaging ink tank systems. Though more expensive initially, the Epson EcoTank ET-7750 and Canon Pixma G4510 are superior machines that will save money in running costs in the long term.

We also calculate running costs, compare functionality and consider each product’s versatility, design and build quality. The overall score reflects all of these parameters and overall value for money. Testing did throw up some oddities in the drivers and the scanner software, though. With the latter, HP has prioritised ease-of-use over all else, with the result that you can’t set the resolution or colour depth of a scan, only the type of scan, which left a 10 x 8in photo scanning at just 200dpi. Detail and colour accuracy were fine, but if you’re using scans for any serious design work, this isn’t really going to cut the mustard. It’s difficult to comment on the longevity of products in bench tests, but in this case we called in two samples of the Envy Photo 7830 and both were faulty, raising the question of reliability. It feels rather flimsy and prints noisily, which suggests a poorly made machine. Final verdictIt’s a similar story when printing; you have to dive quite deep to find the options to set resolution to maximum and make sure you’re getting the best quality. True, this isn’t a device for professional photo studios – or even expert amateurs – but we’d like the options available and a little closer to the surface.