HP 1050 Ink
FAX 1050 Ink Cartridges

HP 1050 Printer Review

The HP Fax 1050 is a compact machine that offers a variety of functions, including copying and faxing. For an affordable price of $110-$140, this inkjet unit can conveniently sit on any office desk without cluttering. Its average printing speed and decent fax transmission speed using printer ink make this unit a more viable option for a mid-volume output small business. The HP 1050 takes about 6 seconds per page to fax using a modem of 14.4 Kbps, which isn't slow, but isn't particularly fast either.

The HP 1050 ink resolution for faxing has a maximum of 600x300 dpi, also something not to get overly excited about. Both photo and plain paper print with the same quality, but photos may not produce their expected results because color HP 1050 ink is not available for this machine. The only HP 1050 ink cartridges compatible with this inkjet model are black. At best, this machine can make up to 100 copies with low capacity HP Fax 1050 ink.

Fax resolution for HP 1050 ink does not fair any better. At a maximum of 300x300 dpi, HP Fax 1050 ink for this device can appear grainy and sometimes cause faxed documents to be unreadable. The paper tray for this unit only holds 50-sheets and its total memory capacity is 100 pages, both features being conducive for only mid-volume work rates.

In the box users will find one 14ml black cartridge of HP 1050 ink, a user's guide, a power cable and phone cord. Inexpensive printer ink keeps replacing the tanks affordable, but not even low costs can distract users from the multitude of problems this machine has. Loud, disruptive noises, bad sound quality for the phone, and paper jamming problems with the output tray are all problems evident in user/expert reviews for the HP Fax 1050. Despite these issues, the HP 1050 could perform okay if it users accept that it can't produce at high-volume rates.