HP ENVY Photo 7855/7858 Printer Review

The HP ENVY 7855 has a disappointing design. While the plastic build feels good overall, it doesn't feel as well-built as the HP OfficeJet Pro 8025, 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 ENVY Photo 7855 is a fairly compact multipurpose 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 Photo 7855 has a disappointing touchscreen. It's in color, which is nice, but is rather difficult to use, especially for those with bigger fingers. The icons in the top row are very small and difficult to press, which made setting up this printer challenging.

• 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, you'll have to change it 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 cartridges 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.

It's worth noting that 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 7855 has great scanning features. The Automatic Document Feeder (ADF) is helpful if you need to scan multiple documents in a row, while the flatbed is ideal for copying pages from a magazine or passport. The scan resolution and color depth are good, but you won't be able to scan larger documents like legal paperwork or tabloid pages with the flatbed scanner. Legal size should scan in the ADF, but we don't currently test for this.

The cost per print is 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.

The ENVY 7855's printing speed is passable. 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 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.

Excellent photo printing quality. There's negligible banding in the light green and blue, but reds are vivid, the grayscale palette is rich, and contrast is high.

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 7855 has an adjustable paper tray with a dedicated photo paper compartment to support most popular paper formats.

The HP ENVY 7855 is a wireless printer with excellent connectivity options. Not only can you set up wirelessly with either an existing WiFi network or its own via WiFi Direct, but it also supports Bluetooth, AirPrint, and Mopria printing for compatibility with even more devices. You can even print photos directly from your camera's SD card or documents from a USB stick, which is especially handy for students or photographers.

The HP 7855 has a decent mobile print app called HP Smart. It allows you to scan from the printer to your phone, print photos and PDF files, and manage your ink subscription on both Android and iOS.