Let’s be honest; not everyone can shell out hundreds of dollars behind their printers for providing business services. If you are on a budget, the best thing to do is to look at older printers. Sure, they might not have all the latest and greatest features. But they are still good enough if you just need a printer that does its job properly. The HP Deskjet 9800 is one such inkjet printer. It’s not the best printer for cardstock papers, not even close to the best large format printer out there. But it does work relatively well compared to most popular printers, and you should be able to find it at bargain prices used.
Related: In case you prefer a small but highly functional printer, check the HP Deskjet 2622 Printer review
Why We Like It – HP Deskjet 9800
The HP Deskjet 9800 is extremely old, but it’s not completely obsolete. It still has a few tricks up its sleeves that might surprise you. And because it’s so old, you should easily be able to find it at cheaper price points than most inkjet printers.
- 1200 x 1200 DPI
- Up to 30 PPM black and 20 PPM color printing speed
- Support for 13 x 19 inches photo paper
- Might not work with newer operating systems
- Extremely limited connectivity options
Related: If you still want to discover other options, read the HP Envy Photo 6222 Wireless review
Speed
The HP Deskjet 9800 is very fast for printing out monochrome and color prints. The exact PPM numbers come around 30 PPM for monochrome prints and 20 PPM for color prints; at least that’s what the product information section suggests. You should get close to the speeds mentioned above on lower quality settings.
Print Quality
The HP Deskjet 9800 supports resolutions up to 1200 x 1200 DPI, which should be perfectly fine for most people. And you can’t really expect any higher DPI count at this price range. Even the much newer (in turn, higher-priced) HP OfficeJet Pro 9015 has the same DPI range.
Efficiency
As we mentioned countless times before, it’s an old inkjet printer. So even though it’s more efficient than modern laser printers in terms of power draw, it’ll still be drawing much more power than modern inkjets. It’s relatively efficient in terms of ink cartridge usage. If the lower power draw is a priority for you, get the newer HP OfficeJet 3830 instead.
Advanced Features
Surprisingly, this inkjet printer has support for “Two-Sided Duplex.” That means the printer supports dual-sided printing. This is not something you normally see on older printers. However, connectivity options just consist of a wired connection. In today’s day and age where every device is becoming a smart home IoT device, WiFi support is sorely missed here.
Value
If you can get the HP Deskjet 9800 second hand at a cheap price, it does provide pretty good value for money. You might face some trouble finding replacement ink toner and ink cartridges, as it is so old. But you can contact HP support at HP.com, and they should be able to help you out with the compatible printer ink. But if you really don’t want to bother with second-hand products, just go for the Canon Pixma iX6820.
HP Deskjet 9800 Wrap Up
Even after 12 years of its release, the HP Deskjet 9800 photo printer still is great for usual home office use cases. Just the simple plug and play nature of it alone is the biggest selling point for some people.
