HP Envy Pro 6420 (6455) Review
The HP Envy Pro 6455 All-in-One ($149.99) is an affordable multifunction printer ideal for small businesses and households. It is a solid basic all-in-one printer, comparable to the Editors’ Choice Canon Pixma TR8520 Wireless Home Office All-in-One in terms of print quality and speed. The Envy Pro 6455 includes an automated document feeder (ADF) for scanning and copying many pages at once.
The Envy can produce high-quality prints, just like the Pixma can. When printing in color, the HP AIO has substantially lower operating expenses than the Canon when using HP’s Instant Ink monthly ink subscription service. The Envy Pro 6455 is an excellent alternative to our current favorite among budget color all-in-ones for the home and home office because of its affordable pricing, high print quality, and extensive features.
PROS
- Competitive Pricing
- Advantageous Instant Ink Expenses
- High-Quality Printing All-Around
- Affordable and packed with features
CONS
- This inefficient four-ink printer uses only two cartridges.
- Page costs are incredibly high if you don’t have an Instant Ink membership.
HP Envy Pro 6420 (6455) Specifications
Type | All-in-one |
Connection Type | Wireless |
Maximum Standard Paper Size | Legal |
Number of Ink Colors | 4 |
Direct Printing From Media Cards | NO |
Rated Speed at Default Settings (Color) | 10 PPM |
Cost Per Page (Monochrome) | 3.5 cents with Instant Ink |
Standalone Copier and Fax | Copier, Fax |
LCD Preview Screen | NO |
Printer Input Capacity | 100 |
Automatic Document Feeder | YES |
Design and Build
The paper-in tray and ADF (automatic document feeder) stick out of the front and top of the HP Envy Pro 6420, making it hard to tell how much desk space it will take up. At most, it will take about 194 x 432.5 x 511.5mm. It weighs just over 6 kg, which is pretty light for a printer that does everything. The ADF is in the unit on top of the HP Envy Pro 6420.
The bin in this unit can hold up to 35 sheets of A4 paper at once. The A4 scanner is right below this. Hook your fingers under the dark grey layer of plastic and slowly pull the top section up. I say gently because there’s no slow-close device here, so you’ll have to push everything back until it’s straight. Under all of this is where the printing process is. The sides of the HP Envy Pro 6420 have little cutouts that make it easy to find and pick up.
Setup, Apps, and Printing
Even though the Envy Pro 6420 is expensive, it doesn’t have a screen. You only get a bunch of simple buttons and status lights that only light up when they need to. So, to set up and connect the printer to your home network, you’ll need to use a desktop or mobile device. Using a desktop device and a USB connection is the easiest way to do this since using one of the mobile apps requires you to pair the printer with your phone via Bluetooth, which, in my experience, is unreliable.
Stay with the wired choice and download HP Smart for Windows or Mac OS. Not only will it be more stable, but it will also be easier to type in the password for your wireless network when you use a real computer. The whole process of setting up is easy and takes about 10–15 minutes. You’ll need a few A4 sheets to print test pictures to ensure everything is lined up right. With the “HP Smart” apps for iOS and Android, you can print both files on your phone and those saved in the cloud.
Performance
The speed you can print is good—about average for an inkjet printer in this price range. Regarding speed, it’s about the same as the Canon PIXMA TS7450. When I printed 20 pages of black text, it took me an average of 1 minute, 36 seconds per page, or 12.49 ppm. The usual time it took to print a 20-page file with text and color images like pie charts, bar graphs, and other simple graphics was 3 minutes and 16 seconds, giving me a page-per-minute count of 6.12.
Depending on how detailed the picture is and how much ink it needs, it can take anywhere from 44 seconds to 1 minute and 10 seconds to print a large color image on a single A4 page. Even though HP says the printer can handle glossy photo paper and borderless prints, the photo paper got stuck at the back of the printer during tests, and the rollers couldn’t pull it through. The roller wheels at the back of the printer tried to move the sheet through, but all they did was leave two grey smudges.
Costs of Running
The HP Envy Pro 6420 uses only two cartridges: one black and one tri-color (cyan, magenta, and yellow). This means changing them is cheaper upfront than with a system that uses four or even five cartridges. The standard-sized black and tri-colour HP 305 cartridges cost £10.99 each and claim to print an average of 120 and 100 sheets, respectively. When your HP Envy Pro 6420 notices running low on ink, HP automatically sends you new cartridges.
This gives you enough ink for a certain number of prints per month. Here are the prices:
- 15 pages: 99p/month 5
- 0 pages: £1.99/month
- 100 pages: £3.49/month
- 300 pages: £9.99/month
- 700 pages: £22.49/month
Assuming you print 100 pages a month, the middle tier is a great deal compared to the usual cartridge prices. Two HP 305 cartridges would cost £21.98 (£10.99 x 2), so saving £3.49, or 3p per page, is a real saving.