- Table of Contents
- Intro
- Updates
- Comparison
- Best Printers
- Conclusion
- Discussions
HP, also known as Hewlett-Packard, is a home electronics brand that focuses on computer-related products including printers. They make a diverse range of printers such as inkjet or laser, color or monochrome, and all-in-one or printer-only. While their selection can be overwhelming at times, they're separated into several different lineups to better fit your needs. Each lineup has different pros and cons that align more closely with their specific usages, and they also come at several price points so you can better easily find a printer that works for you.
Updates
- 07/08/2020 HP ENVY Photo 6255 reviewed
- 07/07/2020 HP Laserjet Enterprise M507dn reviewed
- 07/06/2020 HP ENVY 5055 reviewed
- 07/02/2020 HP LaserJet Pro M15w reviewed
- 06/30/2020 HP OfficeJet Pro 7740 reviewed
Best HP Printers
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Best HP Printer For Small/Home Office
Type All in OneTechnology InkjetWireless YesColor YesSuperTankNoThe HP OfficeJet Pro 9025 is the best HP printer for small/home office use that we've tested to date. It has an outstanding cost-per-print ratio, making it affordable to print a lot of black-text pages. If you want to extend the time between replacing cartridges, it also accepts higher-yield cartridges. HP even has an optional ink subscription service, so you can have new cartridges automatically shipped to you once your ink levels are low. This printer has a great printing speed, so you can get your documents out the door quickly. If you need a more secure connection, this printer has an ethernet port for a wired connection. There's also a USB port to support external storage like a thumb drive, which is handy in a pinch. It even has decent photo printing quality, should you need to print off an image here or there.
On the downside, it doesn't have Bluetooth support, which can be a small inconvenience if everyone at work uses a laptop or mobile device. It also has sub-par color accuracy, but if you're just using it to add a splash of color to your reports, it should be more than adequate. That said, this is an excellently built printer, and it's even among the best office printers we've tested so far.
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Best HP Printer For Printing Photos
Type All in OneTechnology InkjetWireless YesColor YesSuperTankNoThe HP Envy Photo 7855/7858 is the best HP printer for printing photos that we've tested so far. This is a smaller-sized inkjet printer than others on this list, but it's able to deliver excellent quality photos at a fairly quick speed. The images it produces look vivid with high contrast, and it has outstanding color accuracy. It also has a flatbed scanner so you can scan or copy passports or magazines, as well as an automatic document feeder (ADF) so you can easily process multi-paged forms in a row. Additionally, this printer supports Bluetooth as well as all common connectivity options, wired or wireless. It even has external storage support, so that you can print directly from your camera's SD card or from a USB thumb drive.
However, it has a poor cartridge system. As it uses one black and one tricolor cartridge, it yields a low amount of pages before its cartridges need to be changed, which can add up over time. Luckily, new cartridges are somewhat reasonably priced compared to the price of the printer itself, but if you print a lot of documents, you may want to consider purchasing a higher-yielding cartridge. Its print speed is okay, and color documents can take a bit longer to print than black text.
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Best HP Printer For Family Use
Type All in OneTechnology InkjetWireless YesColor YesSuperTankNoThe HP OfficeJet Pro 9015 is the best HP printer for family use that we've tested to date. While very similar in look and performance to the HP OfficeJet Pro 9025, this model has better photo printing quality, ensuring you get vivid and detailed images. It has a flatbed scanner for saving old photos while its scan sheetfed can handle work forms. Its cartridge system is outstanding and affordable to replace too, making it very affordable to print out black text as well as color documents and photos. There are even higher-yield cartridges available, which can help extend the time between replacing cartridges if you're always running print jobs. This printer has a great printing speed, and while the first page of a black-text document can be slow to print off, the following pages are quicker. You can also print off files directly from a USB thumb drive thanks to its USB port.
On the downside, it has mediocre color accuracy. However, it shouldn't be too much of an issue if you're printing photos or images for home use rather than for professional purposes. Just like many other HP printers, it's compatible with the HP Smart companion app too, but unfortunately, you won't be able to print off Microsoft Office, text, or webpage files, which is a little disappointing. That said, this is still one of the best HP all-in-one printers.
Compared to other brands
- Diverse lineup. They offer a lot of different models that focus on different needs like photo printing or office use.
- Quick printing speeds. For the most part, both the LaserJet Enterprise/Pro and OfficeJet Pro lineups have pretty quick print speeds for all kinds of documents. Although the ENVY lineup is slow to print black text and color documents, they can print photos fairly quickly too.
- Laser printers have affordable cost-per-prints. As their toner cartridges can yield a lot more pages before they need to be replaced, each page you print with their laser printers is affordable.
- Some Iineups have limited scanning features. Depending on the lineup, you may only have access to a flatbed scanner or sheetfed scanner with an automatic document feeder. The LaserJet Pro and LaserJet Enterprise lineups don't typically have any scanning features at all.
- Inkjet printer cartridges have low page yields. Inkjet printers such as the HP ENVY Photo 7155 or HP Deskjet 3755 don't yield many pages before their cartridges need to be replaced.
- No Bluetooth support. Most HP printers can't print wirelessly using Bluetooth, except for the HP Envy Photo 7855/7858.
HP tends to make a diverse assortment of printers, each of which is designed for different uses. Their photo printing lineup ENVY, for example, is comparable to Canon's PIXMA lineup, while their LaserJet Pro and LaserJet Enterprise lineups are more similar to Brother's current offering of office printers. As a whole, HPs printers have few similar characteristics between lineups, but most tend to lack Bluetooth support. However, thanks to their variety, their printers come in a lot of different price ranges, so you can find something at a price point that suits your budget.
Lineup
HP offers several different printer lineups to better suit your specific needs. They use the following names:
- DeskJet = Entry-level, compact inkjet printers for home use. They tend to have somewhat limited scanning features.
- ENVY = Inkjet printers meant for printing photos. They focus on rich and detailed photo printing quality as well as more precise color accuracy.
- LaserJet Pro = Laser printers for small/home office use. Some are monochrome and others use color toners. Unlike the LaserJet Enterprise, they usually support wireless connectivity.
- LaserJet Enterprise = Laser printers designed for small businesses that need to print off a significant amount of pages. They tend to be print-only, and they have a very quick print speed. They're also marketed as more secure as they tend to use wired connections for printing.
- OfficeJet = Inkjet printers that are better suited for home/small office use. They're usually well-rounded printers capable of printing in black as well as color.
- Smart Tank = Supertank inkjet printers. These printers tend to have outstandingly high page yields.
Notable Mentions
- HP Color LaserJet Pro MFP M479fdw: The HP Color LaserJet Pro MFP M479fdw is an outstanding printer for home or small office use, but its high price tag could set it out of reach of some users. See our review
Conclusion
HP is a well-known brand that offers a variety of different kinds of printers at varying price points to better suit your needs. As such, their build quality and performances to shift around depending on the lineup you're looking at. There's even a noticeable difference in their cartridge performances, with their Smart Tank and LaserJet Pros having the highest yields, but this is to be expected in supertank and laser printers. That being said, HP's printers can suit most budgets and printing needs while still offering a fairly well-rounded performance.
Check our recommendations for the best printers for small offices.
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