HP Smart Tank Plus 551 Printer Review

The HP Smart Tank Plus 551 has a mediocre design. It has a sturdy plastic build with visible ink level windows, so you can see how much ink you have left as you print. This printer also has removable printheads that can be replaced if damaged or clogged, which can extend the lifespan of your printer. If you need to remove the printheads or you're dealing with a paper jam, the front display opens so you can easily reach them. However, when you open this display, there isn't a lot of room for your fingers around the printheads, which can be a pain if you need to replace them or remove paper jams. There's no rear access for paper jams, though, and you won't be able to scan larger items with its flatbed either, as its lid hinges can't extend to accommodate them.

The HP Smart Tank Plus 551 is a lightweight and compact supertank printer. It isn't very tall and shouldn't take up too much room on your office or dorm desk.

The HP Smart Tank Plus 551 has a bad display screen. It uses a very limited display, which can't show anything other than individual ink levels and an exclamation mark if something is wrong. The light on top of the screen will also blink red if there's a problem. There are also seven physical buttons located around the screen. Unfortunately, the screen can't tilt or swivel for better viewing angles. However, it's still easy to see whether you're seated or standing and even if you're looking at it from the side, you can still see the screen.

• User manual
• HP Smart Tank Plus 551 ink bottles
• 1x 31 Cyan
• 1x 31 Magenta
• 1x 31 Yellow
• 1x 32XL Black
• 1x Black printhead
• 1x Color printhead
• Power cable

The Smart Tank Plus 551 has an excellent supertank system. It uses four ink tanks that you refill yourself and it yields an incredibly high amount of both black and color pages before any of the tanks need to be refilled again. It also has removable ink heads that can be replaced if damaged or clogged, which can extend the lifespan of your printer.

While it's technically possible to fill the supertank with any third-party ink, we didn't try it and don't recommend doing so as low-quality ink could damage the print heads and you may need to replace them. Using third-party ink could also void your warranty.

The HP Smart Tank Plus 551's scanning features are mediocre. It only has a flatbed scanner if you have a lot of pages to scan, each page needs to be done one by one. This printer also lacks a fax feature. If you need an Automatic Document Feeder to scan large projects, check out the Epson EcoTank ET-4700.

The HP Smart Tank Plus 551 has an exceptional cost-per-print ratio. Black, color, and photo printing are extremely cost-effective. However, each of the bottles can only be purchased separately as HP doesn't offer any combo packs at the moment.

The HP Smart Tank Plus 551 has a poor printing speed. It takes a while to print off the first page of a black-text document and subsequent pages aren't that much quicker. Color documents are incredibly slow, too, which can be a pain if you're trying to print out slides for class. This printer also takes over a minute to fully finish printing 4" x 6" photos.

Update 16/06/2020: With the 0.8.1 test bench update, this printer's color accuracy score has increased.

This printer has great color accuracy. While it should be more than enough for home use, it still may not be the best choice for those who need more accurate color reproduction from their printer.

The Smart Tank Plus 551's photo printing quality is okay. The colors are well-defined and greens especially have a nice tone to them. However, there's banding and color present on the grayscale and some areas of the photo are slightly grainy.

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 Smart Tank Plus 551 can support most paper sizes and its rear input tray has a width slider.

The HP Smart Tank Plus 551 has alright connectivity features. You can wirelessly connect to it by using Wi-Fi via your router or by using Wi-Fi Direct. You can also print, copy, and scan things directly from your mobile phone if you have Apple AirPrint or Mopria Print Service. On the downside, there's no Bluetooth support, and you can't use an ethernet cable or print directly from an external storage device like a USB key.

The HP Smart app is decent. You can print, copy, and scan directly from the app and you can even scan documents using your phone's camera. There's also a mobile fax feature so that you can send documents or images from your phone.