Which ink does the HP OfficeJet 4650 use?

Two cartridges cover the whole OfficeJet 4650: an HP 63 black and an HP 63 tri-colour, each sold in a standard size and an XL. Our record puts this model outside the firmware lockout list. There is no HP+ enrolment on it and no Dynamic Security note against it, and third party 63 cartridges are commonly used in it, which makes it one of the easier HP machines to feed cheaply.

Both cartridges reward the larger size, though not equally. The 63XL black prints 480 pages for $37.00, which is 7.71 cents a page against 10.00 cents for the 190 page standard, so about 23 percent comes off. The 63XL tri-colour prints 330 pages for $40.00, or 12.12 cents against 13.94 cents, a saving closer to 13 percent. A pair of XL cartridges lists at $77.00 and a standard pair at $42.00.

The tri-colour is where the money goes. A colour page costs about 57 percent more than a black one on this printer, and the cartridge is finished when any one of its three chambers runs out, however much cyan is left. Printing in black wherever colour is not needed saves more on this machine than any cartridge choice.

Part of what makes those cartridges expensive is that each one carries a print head. On HP's tri-colour models the print head is built into the cartridge itself, so every replacement brings a fresh set of nozzles with it. That is genuinely useful when prints go streaky: blot the copper plate on the underside with a damp lint free cloth, dry it, refit, and a lot of print quality problems go away. A cartridge that still prints nothing afterwards has a dead head and no cleaning cycle run from the printer will bring it back.

Since nothing in the firmware will refuse a chip, compatible and remanufactured cartridges are where the saving is, and it is worth easing into them. Buy one cartridge rather than a multipack, print a nozzle check the day it arrives, and keep the receipt until you have seen a full page come out clean.