HP 6843 Ink
Deskjet 6843 Ink Cartridges

HP 6843 Printer Review

The HP Deskjet 6843 goes a bit above and beyond what is expected from a fairly simple color inkjet printer. It has very fast printing speeds of up to 30 pages per minute in black and 20 pages per minute in color, and it has upgrade options for duplexing and more paper capacity. Its best output quality requires swapping multiple HP 6843 ink cartridges, however, which some users might dislike.

The design of the 6843 is sturdier than many of the budget models in HP's line, and it has some nice extras like a covered input paper tray to keep out dust and dirt. The main tray holds up to 150 sheets of plain paper, and a second tray of 250-sheet capacity can be added at any time. An automatic duplexing add-on can further expand its capabilities as well.

With features like borderless printing and a PictBridge port, the 6843 can certainly handle photos, but it doesn't have some of the features one might expect from a photo-centric device, such as memory card slots and a full-color LCD for image previews, though there is a small monochrome display for menus. Users will mainly have to rely on the software for editing and printing photos easily.

The Ink-backup mode allows users to keep printing even when one of the HP 6843 printer ink supplies is empty, which is handy. Beyond the standard black and tricolor Deskjet 6843 ink cartridges, there are optional photo color and photo gray supplies as well. Users will need to swap in these optional Deskjet 6843 printer ink supplies to get the best output quality, which can be time-consuming.

The 6843 truly is a step up from the average budget-minded inkjet from HP, and could be worth the extra cost for those who want a little more reliability. It is also faster than most in its class, and low-cost HP 6843 ink can help make up the difference in purchase price in savings.