Customer Reviews
Mostly great for the initial cost 
2008-06-30
I think it was $39.96 at Walmart. We have used for over a year. Quality is good, speed ok, all-in-all, mechanically speaking, a good buy. HP apparently engineered it to accept only low-capacity, fairly high priced cartridges. A machine at my work is designed to accept the #27 (3740's specified black cart.) AS WELL AS THE #56, just a few dollars more with MUCH MORE INK. You can't win----buy a pretty good copier for little money and give the savings back if you buy the manufacturer's brand of ink. We have always been afraid of the refill/store brand stuff so I can't comment on that method of beating the system.
paper jam 
2006-05-12
Paper jam, every time. It's pretty amazing, this printer can suck in 10 pages at a time, not 1 page at a time, as a printer is suppose to. It jams half way, all the way, one page, two pages, 10 pages. So many variations- just to screw your day.
Don't get it.
Good printer for Home Use 
2006-01-19
It's a good printer for $40! I only use mine at home and maybe print 5-10 pics a month and a few pages of tab's and I've had NO problems!
Now it does go through you ink cartiridges faster than most HP deskjet's I've ever owned, but since I dont print that much it doesn't bother me!
Also it does print SLOW, but just like when burning DVD's the SLOWER the BETTER!!
So Basically, This is a good printer for home use!
Hope this helps!
Cheap, eats ink carts... AVOID IF POSSIBLE 
2005-12-18
Not a bad printer for $39 at Walmart... very good print quality and nice features for a printer in this price range. But it eats ink like crazy. When the cart gets low on a multiple print job you have to do each copy manually which is very inconvenient. I can get only about 20 pages of a full color document before the low ink (color) comes on. These companies that make the cheapo printers know that their dollar is going to come from ink cart sales... $48 for a black cart and color cart at Target! At these prices I'll go broke.
Junk 2005-11-16
If you're considering this product, consider it no further, it is absolute bollocks. It always jams and the catriges cost almost as much as the printer does. Get a lazer printer and get a good one.
Good but not great 2005-09-25
Powered by the Double Swath technology, the HP Designjet 4000 Printer series offers high-speed color and black-and-white printing up to 42 inches wide, complete with outstanding line accuracy, image quality, and remote printer management.
Great little printer 
2005-09-24
I needed a printer for a small space. The 3740 "fits the bill" nicely and its price could not be matched. It is quiet, works great, and could not be better for the task. I will not be able to comment on reliability or efficiency, since it has very light usage requirements, maybe a page per week.
Les mess 2005-09-08
IF YOU ARE LOOKING FOR A GOOD PRINTER THAT TAKE UP A SMALL SPACE AT A GREAT PRICE LOOK NO MORE. THE HP DESKJET 3740 COLOR INKJET PRINTER IS ALL YOU NEED.
Thought HP put out better products 2005-08-23
We've always had HP printers and when ours got ruined in a move, we went and purchased another one. I realize that this was a cheaper model but was not prepared to find all the problems that I have with it. It always jams with multiple paper feed. Frequently, the light on the front blinks and the whole thing stops working. I have to pull the usb plug on the back to reset it. I'm not happy with the purchase.
A solid budget inkjet printer. 2005-08-21
Some comments at the end, but first the basics after over 4 months of using this printer:
Installation and Driver
I use the printer shared beween my Mac Mini and a Windows XP Pro box. Installation was simple on both platforms. I only installed the printer driver, I already have select software that I prefer to use for image editing.
While accessing the driver options in Windows is simpler, the Mac driver, when you know where to look, offers a wider array of options (electronic flash, color adjustment, paper presets, etc.). In general I feel that the printer works better under Mac OS-X than under Windows, but that is a common impression between the operating systems in general.
Print Quality
I was very surprised at the print quality from this three color, budget printer. Text is clear with reasonably well defined characters under close scrutiny. Color printing on regular inkjet paper (20lb 90+ brightness) is acceptable if not stunning. Banding can creep in, dithering is visible on large areas of coverage, and some blooming occurs (but that is dependant a lot on the individual paper being used). Experimenting with driver settings can pay off here.
Photo printing, on the other hand, exceeded expectations. I mostly print 4"x6" prints on Kodak Premium Picture Paper (Satin and Gloss). The results are very nice, not a huge amount of dynamic range (it is a just a three color printer) but decent color and a surprising lack of banding and blooming on smaller (4x6 or less) prints. Larger prints show more of the printer's limitations, with visible banding, saturation, and dithering on 8"x10" prints, but it is still very usuable for a $30 printer.
Paper Handling
Unlike my Epson and HP Multifunction machine, I've had little problem with paper handling with this dimunitive printer. I do tend to print photos a sheet a time, but up to 20 sheets of 20lb paper have always fed reliably.
Overall Impressions
I've read all the reviews for this printer and most miss an important point: this is a budget printer. No, you don't get a USB cable in the box (I had several on hand so no big thing), and no black cartridge is included. But c'mon, folks, this is a sub-$30 printer! And for that, it delivers an impressive amount of usability.
Pros
-Acceptable quality text printing (especially with black cartridge) for personal or light business use.
-Low cost of printer and consumables (not price per page but price-per-cartridge)
-Surprising results for printing 3x5 or 4x6 photos (using good quality paper)
-Mac printer driver in particular offers a wide array of useful options
Cons
-Color printing on regular ink jet paper is less than stellar.
-Yield of ink carts is below average (but so is price)
-Speed, this is not a particularly fast printer (not an issue for me)
-Noise, it is a bit clunky sounding at times
Overall, for $30 you will be hard pressed to find this much capability in competing products from Lexmark. Add to that trouble-free printing from Windows or Mac and a truly small footprint and you have one of the best budget printers on the market today.
