Free photo paper to keep you hooked on their ink (HP 363 Series Photo Value Pack)

Member Name: jamesontheroad

Product:	HP 363 Series Photo Value Pack
Date:	21/01/09 (84 review reads)
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Advantages: Works out cheaper than buying colours and paper individually

Disadvantages: Black cartridge only low / normal capacity model. Free paper only means you'll need more ink!

I've written elsewhere on DooYoo about the HP Photosmart 3210 All-in-one we inherited, and the good value offered by the 'XL' (high capacity) black ink cartridge available as part of this range of HP 363 series inks. For the real bargain hunter and heavy photo printer, you'll find this Photo Value Pack a steal.

The HP 363 series is a line of inks designed for a specific range of HP printers. As discussed elsewhere, these are not easily refilled, either at home or by professional ink refillers, since they're microchipped and can't be refilled to fool your printer. I've also had less than satisfactory output from cheaper non-branded compatible inks, so am happy to recommend that you stick with HP brand inks.

This Photo Value Pack is a store cupboard essential, primarily because the 363 series has separate ink cartridges for black, yellow, cyan, magenta, light magenta and light cyan. This obviously saves you wasting ink when only one colour runs out, but it can be a hassle and bad value to keep individual stocks of replacements. I prefer to make sure we have this Value Pack to hand, so that we have all six cartridges ready to replace at any one time.

Priced at around £25 - £30 online and in stores, you can't really complain about the value per ink cartridge. They last a reasonable life span, although I prefer not to specify how many pages since it's very difficult to compare different people's printing output. However, high quantities of mono pages will drain your black and white ink faster, and for that cartridge I'd recommend you consider the 363 Black 'XL' cartridge I mentioned above. Sold separately, this contains approximately double the ink as the black cartridge in this value pack.

The key selling point to this value pack is, of course, the free photo paper. 150 sheets are bundled inside for you to experiment with printing your own photos at home. Beware of course that this is a very cunning ploy by HP: all that free photo paper will only make you need to buy more ink!

Ink quality of the whole HP Vivera line is good, both on photo paper and regular paper. On our glossy photo prints, I've never encountered any smudging or colour distortion. It's hard to predict how well they will last to fading, but unless exposed to heavy direct sunlight every day, I doubt you will experience noticeable fading from them.

Summary: The best value way to replace your HP 363 series colour inks (but not black)

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