HP ENVY Photo 7855/7858 Printer Review

This printer has a disappointing design. While the plastic build feels good overall, it doesn't feel as well-built as the HP OfficeJet Pro 8025/8028/8035, and loading paper into this printer can be rather frustrating. The input tray holds both plain and photo paper, which helps save space, but feels very flimsy. The output tray conveniently pops out once you start printing, but is surprisingly difficult to push back into place. This gets rather annoying whenever you need to load paper. Our unit also struggled to operate normally out-of-the-box and we had to run multiple self-cleaning cycles before it started working.

The HP ENVY Photo 7855 is a fairly compact all-in-one printer that doesn't take up too much space on a desk or table; however, the tray does stick out a bit, especially when printing.

The HP ENVY 7855/7858 has a disappointing display screen. It has inadequate touchscreen sensitivity, and the various tabs at the top of the menu are small and difficult to register.

• HP 64 Black starter cartridge
• HP 64 Tri-color starter cartridge
• User manuals
• Sample photo paper
• Power cable
• Phone cord

The printer has a bad cartridge system. Since there's only one color cartridge, it needs replacing every time any of the colors run out, which is disappointing for a photo printer. The standard replacement cartridges don't last very long, but there are high yield cartridges available which should help improve the yield a bit. Third-party ones also work, but this could void its warranty. If you're looking for an HP printer with a supertank system that can yield more pages per tank, check out the HP Smart Tank Plus 551.

Note: We had multiple issues printing with our unit, both during the initial set-up and after only two weeks without use. Multiple cleaning cycles were required each time before it would print properly.

The HP ENVY 7858 has great scanner features. It has an automatic document feeder for scanning multi-page documents and there's a flatbed scanner with a very high scan resolution, which is ideal for scanning photos in great detail. Unfortunately, there's no duplex scanning, meaning double-sided documents need to be flipped manually.

The cost per print is only okay. The cartridges are somewhat reasonably priced compared to the cost of the printer, but the price-per-page is still quite high, and you end up spending more the more you print, even if you print just in black and white. Keep in mind that even if you print only in black, most inkjet printers continue using the color cartridge for servicing tasks, so you'll likely still need to replace it eventually.

If you print a lot and you want a printer with a lower cost-per-print, check out the Canon PIXMA G6020.

The HP ENVY Photo 7858's printing speed is decent. Documents that only have black text don't take too long to print after the first page is out, but color documents take quite a bit longer. Thankfully, the tray holds 125 sheets of plain paper, so you shouldn't have to replace the paper very often.

The HP ENVY Photo 7885 has excellent color accuracy. Even though the colors aren't the most accurate for professional printers, it should be good enough for people looking to print their favorite family photo.

The HP ENVY 7855/7858 has excellent photo printing quality. The reds are vivid, the grayscale palette is rich, and contrast is high. That said, there is a very small amount of banding in the light greens and light blues.

These results are based on the actual physical photo, not the scanned image provided for reference above, which may not be representative of the printer's photo print quality.

The HP ENVY 7858 has an adjustable paper tray with a dedicated photo paper compartment to support most popular paper formats.

This printer has outstanding connectivity options. It supports most common connection types, including Wi-Fi, Ethernet, Bluetooth, and USB. There's also external storage support, meaning you can print off of USB flash drives or SD cards. Also, it supports Apple AirPrint and Mopria Print Service.

The HP 7855 is compatible with the decent mobile companion app, HP Smart. From here, you can scan directly from your phone, print photos or PDF files, and manage your ink subscription. Unfortunately, you won't be able to print Microsoft Office files from the app.