The HP Smart Tank 555 — three years’ printing, straight out of the box

For the last month, thanks to the Insiders UK, I’ve been taking HP’s latest printer for a spin. Needless to say the thoughts below are my own.

HP, like most printer and ink manufacturers, are rethinking the economics of their business as customers migrate away from traditional computers in favour of connected mobile devices and get increasingly wise to the cheap hardware, pricey consumables trick.

So, how do you convince someone to buy a printer in 2019? Someone who perhaps hasn’t got a traditional beige box PC or laptop, who may have a tablet or a mobile and just wants to liberate the occasional document or photo? HP hopes that many will opt for either the wirelessly-connected HP Tango or HP Sprocket. The Tango is easy to hide away when not in use and then set up when needed (or add a designer cover to, and keep it on display, if you really must), while the Sprocket is as diminutive a photo printer as you could ever imagine and saves you uploading your snaps to a cloud printing service or schlepping down to Boots.

And, if you were HP, what would you do when countering the criticism that ‘Ink’s where you make the money after a customer has been persuaded to buy some ridiculously cheap hardware’? Until recently this would have been a hard claim to shake off.

HP’s first counter-attack comes in the form of its Instant Ink service. With ink-as-a-service, you convince the customer to sign up to a subscription plan for a set number of pages per month and send a set of inks through the post packed with umpteen times more ink than a standard set of carts (negating the need for regular shipments). For just a few pounds a month your customer never has to stomach a pricey bill for ink and the small monthly direct debit is easily forgotten allowing you to maintain your margins on your ink (and not lose customers to third party ink vendors), while keeping subscribers happy as you monitor the pages they print. And for the sneaky amongst you, no, it’s not possible to cancel the service and keep the capacious carts — HP renders them useless when you cancel. Boo.

In recent years a new front has emerged when it comes to convincing customers that they won’t be expected to fork out a king’s ransom for coloured liquids… provide bucketloads upfront and get the customer to pay a little more for their device with ink included. And that’s where HP’s Smart Tank 555 sits in HP’s product portfolio. It comes complete with an ink stash that HP claim will last for three years — making a slightly higher purchase price more palatable and erasing concerns about high costs for consumables. This becomes a ‘set it and forget it (for ages)’ solution to printing. In three years you can get lumbered with a bill for replacement ink (and it’s unlikely you’ll find any suppliers of easily-decanted compatible inks, so will have to opt for HP ones at this stage) or you might opt to buy a new device.

Of course, if you’re gifted a three year supply of ink upfront, checking ink levels isn’t going to be a task you need to perform with any kind of regularity. With that in mind, it’s surprising that the ink tanks are such a prominent aspect of the device’s design with front-mounted translucent pods showcasing the coloured printing fluid within. Even on a device without such, erm, transparency, I rarely check levels from the software or LCD display on the unit, so it’s hard to see what value they really add bar an ever-present reminder that I bought a slightly more expensive printer but I don’t have to worry about ink for ages.

Set up is simple but also designed to reinforce the fact that you’ve bought loads and loads of ink as you perform the ritual of decanting each colour slowly into the appropriate reservoirs. Thankfully, that’s a ritual that shouldn’t have to be repeated for a good few years.

While print heads usually come with ink supplies attached, unsurprisingly, this HP unit just comes with print heads that then suck the ink they need from the capacious tanks. On first install, you’ll need to remove a curious-looking device made from orange plastic that stops remnants of the factory’s test ink from leaking everywhere (care and kitchen roll are strongly advised). With print heads installed you’re good to go but when transporting the device in future you’ll need to take extra care (there’s an instruction sheet) to avoid spilling ink everywhere.

And so to the unit itself. It attaches via USB or wirelessly connects to your network. You can also connect to the printer itself as if it were a wireless network using HP’s Wifi-Direct feature (ideal for guest printing if you’re not able to access the local wireless network). The HP Smart app takes care of business on your tablet or mobile or you can install drivers and/or software on your desktop PC. When it comes to connections, printers have clearly come on in leaps and bounds in recent years.

The on-screen display helps you keep track on the wifi connection, pages being printed and any errors and buttons are provided for key features. There’s a flatbed scanner on top that will facilitate copies and scans and a fold-out paper tray at the rear and copy catcher at the front. In everyday use, we found print quality was good, even on copier paper, although print speed felt a little sluggish compared to the heavier-duty HP OfficeJet 5200 we’re used to working with.

The bottom line

If you need a printing solution that will last you a good couple of years without the need to purchase additional consumables, there’s much to recommend the HP Smart Tank 555. But as to whether it’s best to buy your ink upfront, each month, or as required, there’s more detailed number-crunching needed to determine the sweet spot of convenience and price, though it’s possible the ‘set in and forget it’ Smart Tank will find favour with many with less fiddling and fewer purchases needed to keep the household printer printing (if not for three years, then certainly for a good long while).