PRINTING. The HP DeskJet 3633 prints using inkjet technology, which sprays liquid ink onto the paper from a moving head. It prints Very Good photos on glossy paper that most people would be happy with. Photo printing was reasonably fast, 2 minutes for a 4x6, costing 55 cents. Text printing is not a strong point, with noticeably fuzzy edges on letters. Text printing was very quick, 10 pages per minute, costing 7.9 cents per page. It prints color graphics well enough for most purposes, such as school reports, at 1.9 pages per minute, costing 30 cents per page. The multi-color ink cartridge must be replaced when a single color runs out.
SCANNING and COPYING. Scanning performance was Very Good, fine for general-purpose scanning. It can scan or copy an area up to 11.7 x 8.5 inches (letter size). Copying performance was Very Good, suitable for most purposes.
CONTROLS and DISPLAY. The printer has a small 1.2-inch display screen.
CONNECTIVITY and NETWORKING. You can connect directly to a PC with a USB cable, or to your network router wirelessly with WiFi. Apple AirPrint and Google Cloud Print are built-in, to print wirelessly from smartphones, tablets and PCs. You can also install HP's app on your smart phone or tablet, as another option for printing over your WiFi network.
COST OF OWNERSHIP AND INK. When this section was last updated, the printer's purchase price was about $60, cheap for an all-in-one inkjet printer. Printing uses up ink. Over time, as you print, the costs add up. This printer uses 2 cartridges. The HP ink cartridges used in testing were the 63XL BK and 63XL color. At the time, their prices were $32 and $34 respectively. We estimate the cartridges to last an extremely short time: around 2.1 months. After 2 years of typical use, we estimate the total cost to be $365, typical for an inkjet. The estimated yearly cost is $152, also typical for this printer type. So the 3-, 4- and 5-year estimates are $517, $670 and $822 respectively.
PRINTER FIRMWARE. Firmware is software that exists inside the printer. All models are evaluated using the latest firmware version available at the time of testing.
SOFTWARE. The collection of software accompanying the printer may include: the printer driver, printer applications, electronic user manual, (and for all-in-ones:) scanning, faxing, and OCR apps. These get installed on your personal computer. All models are evaluated with a Windows 10 PC using the latest version of printer driver and printer support apps available at the time of testing. The software version was 16.54.0.3909.
