HP OfficeJet 3830 All-in-One Printer

he HP OfficeJet 3830 All-In-One Printer ($79.99), an entry-level inkjet all-in-one (AIO), is a capable machine, but like many AIOs in this class, including the more-expensive Canon Pixma TR8520 Wireless Home Office All-In-One Printer, our Editors' Choice, it has many formidable competitors. Unlike the Canon TR8520, the OfficeJet 3830 does not support two-sided printing, Ethernet networking, flash memory devices, and a few other noteworthy features. What the OfficeJet 3830 does have going for it is that, not only does it cost less than the Canon model, it also costs less to use—as long as you opt for HP's Instant Ink subscription program, that is. The OfficeJet 3830 prints well, and it's a good alternative to the Canon TR8520 for low-volume printing and copying in a small or home-based office or student dormitory.

 

A Lot of Machine for the Money

When it comes to business-oriented AIO printers, the OfficeJet 3830 is certainly one of the least expensive. At 8.5 by 17.2 by 14.3 inches (HWD) and 12.4 pounds, though, it's close in size and girth to several other petite business-oriented inkjets. The Canon TR8520, for instance, is actually slightly smaller, but it weighs about five pounds more than the OfficeJet 3830. Brother's MFC-J985DW, another top pick, is an inch or two smaller in all directions, yet it weighs about six pounds more than the OfficeJet 3830.

 

Respectable Performance

HP rates the OfficeJet 3830 at 8.5 pages per minute (ppm) for monochrome pages and 6ppm for color pages. I tested it over USB from our standard Intel Core i5-equipped testbed PC running Windows 10 Professional. When printing our sample 12-page Microsoft Word text document, the OfficeJet 3830, at 9.7ppm, surpassed its rating by more than 1ppm. That's about 3ppm slower than the Canon TR8520, 5.5ppm slower than the Epson ET-4750, 2.6ppm faster than the Canon Pixma G4200, and 5.4ppm faster than the HP DeskJet 3755. Unfortunately, the Brother MFC-J985DW was tested under our previous benchmarking methodology; comparing its results here isn't possible.

 

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When I combined the results from printing the previous 12-page Word document with the results from printing several separate color-laden PDF, Excel, and PowerPoint documents made up of text, photos, charts, graphs, and other business graphics, the OfficeJet 3830 churned at 2.7ppm. If you're wondering why that number is so far behind this AIO's 6ppm rating, the reason is that our color business documents are more complex and contain a much higher percentage of ink coverage than the documents used by printer manufacturers.

 

 

Besides, compared with some competing models, 2.7ppm isn't really that slow. Printing the same documents, the Canon TR8520 managed only 2ppm faster, and the Canon Pixma G4200 churned at only 0.3ppm quicker than our OfficeJet test unit. The Epson ET-4750 beat the OfficeJet 3830 by about 5ppm, but the HP DeskJet 3775 came in 1.3ppm slower than the OfficeJet 3830.

When printing our two highly colorful and detailed 4-by-6-inch snapshots, the OfficeJet 3830 managed an average of 51 seconds, which is a little slower than the other AIOs mentioned here, but not enough to be overly concerned about. Besides, as I've said more than once, photo quality is often paramount to photo print speeds.

 

Surprising Output Quality for the Price

Keeping in mind the OfficeJet 3830's low purchase price (and low running costs, which I discuss next), I have no complaints about its print and copy quality. Our sample text pages, especially the more common serif and sans-serif fonts, came out well-shaped, well-spaced, and highly legible down to the lowest point size (4 points) we test, and in the more common size ranges—from about 8 to 24 points—the type looked near laser-quality, and therefore suitable for most business documents.

The OfficeJet 3830's Excel and PowerPoint output, which contained gradients of many shades and shapes, as well as several dark fills, looked great, with only very faint banding here and there. I had to look for it to see it. As for photos, I tested them on a few different types of paper, and got only so-so results on everyday copy paper. But when I set all the print quality settings to Best, and then printed borderless images on the "Everyday photo paper" that HP sent me, I was pleasantly surprised with how colorful and detailed the images looked. Granted, they didn't quite come up to the quality of five- and six-ink consumer-grade photo printers from Canon and Epson, but the OfficeJet 3830's photo output was impressive just the same.

 

A Low-Cost, Low-Volume AIO

Regardless of how little it costs to use (with Instant Ink, of course), the HP OfficeJet 3830 All-In-One Printer is a low-volume, entry-level AIO designed to print no more than about 250 pages per month. And while it has several slightly more-expensive yet significantly more-robust competitors, including the Editors' Choice Canon TR8520, it comes with strong productivity and convenience features—such as an ADF and a slick touch-screen control panel. That makes it a sensible choice for small and home-based offices and student housing with minimal print and copy needs. The HP OfficeJet 3830 comes with a black and a tri-color ink cartridge, but there's plenty of room for upgrading to XL cartridges. The Best All-in-One Printer. We now recommend the HP OfficeJet Pro 9015e. Its hardware is identical to the discontinued OfficeJet Pro 9015, but it has new software features, a longer warranty, and a 6-month trial of Instant Ink.

 

HP OfficeJet 3830 All-in-One Printer

excellent

Bottom Line: The low-price, entry-level HP OfficeJet 3830 prints well and at reasonable running costs—when you sign up for HP's Instant Ink subscription program—but you give up some features and functionality for the savings.