HP ENVY 6055e Printer Review

The HP ENVY 6055e has an all-plastic build that feels relatively sturdy. The power cable is removable, making it easy to replace if needed. The input tray has width sliders that you can adjust to accommodate different paper sizes, and the output tray has an extender that tucks into the tray when not in use. You can easily access paper jams by pulling down the cover at the rear. The dampening mechanism isn't very good, so the scanner bed can slam down at the end if you don't guide it down slowly.

This printer requires a fair amount of maintenance. Like most inkjet printers, the printheads can clog if you don't print anything for an extended period. Also, the ink cartridges run out quickly, so you'll have to replace them regularly. Changing the ink cartridges is easy; you only need to lift the scanner bed and ensure the printer is on. Lifting the scanner also gives you access to the sheet rollers. The only issue is that the bottom tray roller is under the printer and hard to reach. The input tray holds 100 sheets of paper, so you may have to refill it often if you regularly print long, multi-page documents.

You can see the user manual here.

This printer doesn't have a display. Instead, it uses LED-lit icons to indicate the Wi-Fi connection status and the number of copies when copying a document. It also has touch-sensitive buttons for Monochrome copy, Color copy, Information, Cancel, and Resume. On the right side of the panel, there's a status light that tells you when the paper is low, the paper tray is open, or when the scanner bay is open. Lastly, there's an indicator light above the output tray that changes color depending on the printer's status.

This printer has a terrible page yield. Neither the black nor the color cartridge lasts long, so you need to replace them often. Since there's just one color cartridge, you have to replace the entire cartridge if one color runs out, which may feel wasteful if you regularly use one color more than others. You can get high-yield cartridges (HP 67XL) that'll last longer. This is an HP+ printer that accepts original HP cartridges only. The third-party cartridges we tested are re-manufactured HP cartridges.

There's only a flatbed scanner, so you need to scan multi-page documents manually, which can be extremely time-consuming. Also, the lid's hinges don't extend, making it hard to close the lid over thicker items like textbooks. It has an optical character recognition (OCR) feature that lets you scan documents into PDFs for quick keyword searches or editing; you simply need to save the scanned documents as searchable PDF files. If you want a similar printer with an automatic document feeder, check out the HP ENVY 6455e.

The scan quality is mediocre. Text looks clear; however, the image processing removes a lot of fine details, and the colors look slightly faded.

• 1x HP 67 Black starter cartridge
• 1X HP 67 Tri-Color starter cartridge
• Power cord
• Setup Guide

The print quality of black-and-white documents is mediocre. Fine elements are present and easily visible; however, some text looks blurry due to small artifacts around the letters, and there's visible banding. Also, the colored areas look grainy. The printer won't print if the color cartridge is empty; however, you can work around this issue by removing the color cartridge.

The print quality of color documents is decent. Text looks sharp, but some finer elements are faint or absent. Also, the use of halftones (dots) is very noticeable, making colored areas look grainy.

The cost-per-print is high. Although the cartridges are cheap, they run out quickly, so you must replace them often, making the cost-per-print very high. This printer comes with six months of free ink through HP Instant Ink, an ink replenishment subscription service that sends you ink whenever your printer detects the cartridges are running low. However, know that you must subscribe to the service to use the included cartridges, and doing so will prevent you from using third-party ink cartridges, even if you cancel your subscription.

The HP ENVY 6055's printing speed is mediocre. It doesn't take too long to warm up and get a single page out, but it's very slow to print multi-page black and color documents. On the upside, it supports automatic duplex printing, so you don't have to flip the pages manually when printing double-sided.

This printer has a poor color gamut. It has trouble reproducing bright, saturated colors and darker shades. Its narrow color range causes a noticeable loss of finer details, like the parrot's red feathers in the sample photo, which look almost like a single color with no texture. There's also some banding in the greens and yellows. If you want a similar printer with a wider color range, check out the Epson Expression Home XP-4200.

This printer has bad color accuracy. Most colors are visibly inaccurate, especially blues and skin tones. This level of accuracy isn't ideal for professional use, and even for casual photo printing, there are better options, like the Canon PIXMA MG3620.

This printer is excellent at reproducing small details. Fine elements and small, distant objects are easily identifiable. The edges of objects aren't always well-defined, though.

This printer supports Bluetooth, but it's for setup purposes only.

The HP Smart mobile companion app is outstanding. You can use it to print documents and pictures, use the flatbed or your smartphone camera to scan, and even send mobile faxes. You can perform maintenance tasks like printhead cleaning and alignment, update the printer's firmware, and manage your HP Ink subscription.

Note: The mobile app's Private Pickup feature isn't available for the HP ENVY 6055e.

You must manually install drivers to use the printer on Windows devices. On macOS devices, you can print without installing any drivers, but you need them if you want to scan, or you can install the HP Smart app, which will allow full functionality. Chrome OS doesn't need any drivers. Though not necessary, you can use the Android version of the HP Smart app from the Google Play Store.

You can find the drivers here.