There are lots of different choices out there when you’re trying to find the right printer for your needs. Nowadays, inktank printers are becoming more and more popular amongst users, with people being attracted to their low printing costs.
The Epson Ecotank range has been the king of this range of printers for a while. So, it only makes sense that HP would release a competitor to the Ecotank, coming in the form of the HP Smart Tank. One of the better options from this range of printers is the HP Smart Tank Wireless 455.
So, just how good is this printer and is it a competitor to Epson? Or should you stick with their models? Let’s look at it in a bit of a closer detail.
HP Smart Tank Wireless 455 Review
The Smart Tank 455 is a genuine competitor to the Ecotank series, as it rivals the Epson range in terms of both printing costs and quality too. The biggest obstacle for most people will be the price, which may exclude some who are looking for something more budget friendly.
Though it does have a high price, it comes with one or two years of ink, which attracts a lot of people to it. There’s a lot more to say about this printer – let’s look at it in more depth to find out more about it.
Overview
The HP Smart Tank 455 is one of the mid-range models released by HP, with their intention of being one of the go-to brands when it comes to ink tank printers.
Whilst it’s still being sold in the UK, it has been discontinued in Australia, where it proved unsuccessful. If you still want an inktank printer, then check out our full inktank guide.
Print Quality
Overall, the quality of printing that the HP Smart Tank 455 produces is above average. Whilst it’s a very slow printer, it makes up for this in its overall quality and low printing costs. But, it prints well both of standard A4 paper but also on glossy paper, too.
The good thing is that with just one full ink cartridge tank, you can print more than 6,000 pages with black and 8,000 pages of colour, all at a good standard too.
Connectivity
The printer itself is designed to be fully compatible with Wifi, as well as other printing methods like via Apple Airprint too. Aside from wi-fi, you can also connect to this printer via cable.
Although the connectivity of the printer itself is supposedly extremely good, there does seem to be a lot of people online who have come across wifi connecting issues with this model. So, make sure you do your research before purchasing.
Printing Costs
The main reason that you’ll want to consider a Smart Tank product is that they’re very, very good on ink prices. Therefore, you’re going to save a ton of cash on printing costs over the years that you own this product. It’s very easy to refill both coloured ink and black ink into the tanks provided.
With most cheaper printers, you can end up spending more on printing cartridges per year than you did on the printer itself. This is where models like the Smart Tank 455 come into play, as instead of using cartridges, they actually use refillable tanks instead.
The printer comes with full tanks when you order it, so unless you print an insane amount every day, then it should be more than enough to get you through your first year. And moving on from there, your printing costs will be significantly lower than if you went for a cartridge printer.
Design
This is a well designed printer, with reducing ink costs as its core focus, and we can tell this from the start. Although printing costs are down, so are printing times, and it can take a long while to print, especially in colour.
It comes with 4 ink bottle, which should be enough to get you started. It has a 100 sheet input tray for you to insert your paper, and a 30 sheet output tray. Plus, it can produce 9 copies at once too.
Pros
Cons
Conclusion
All in all, I do like the HP Smart Tank range and the 455 is not a bad printer by any means. However, I’m not sure that it does enough to take the crown off the EcoTank series, which probably still makes the better inktank printer out of the two brands.
If you’d like to stick with HP, then it might be worth checking this model out. Although expensive, it is undoubtedly one of the better printers when it comes to print quality. But keep in mind its lack of double sided printing, which may be a deal breaker for some people.
