As promised this is the first installment of our four part series with top picks for printers in four budget categories, $150, $300, $500 and $750. For the $150 budget, we feel that the multifunction HP Photosmart 7510 e-All-in-One printer is the best buy. This machine is billed as a photo-oriented home printer but it can handle far more than that.

It posted average or better speeds in printing, scanning and copying tests; and it includes an ADF, a feature that’s rare at this price. The automatic document feeder (ADF) allows you to fax, scan and copy unattended. You can also fax without a phone line using your internet connection and a third-party Service. You can print from virtually anywhere  using HP’s ePrint. Print from your iPad, iPhone or iPod touch wirelessly with AirPrint.

Other standard equipment is a 125 sheet input tray and a 20 sheet photo tray for media up to 5 by 7 inches in size and the unit’s automatic duplexing applies to both the printer and the scanner. You get to save energy with this ENERGY STAR qualified printer using less than 1 watt of energy in Off mode and you can conserve paper by automatically printing double-sided pages. On top of all these great features, the ink for this machine, the HP 564XL series is reasonable priced even if you buy the new OEM cartridges from HP. If you decide you want to save even more cash and help the environment you can purchase high quality remanufactured ink cartridges from Ink & Toner Solutions, Inc. You really can’t go wrong with this printer for home or small office printing.

In our next review we will look at a printer that will fit into a $300 budget, stay turned.