HP - Smart Tank 5100 Wireless All-in-One AI-Enabled Cartridge-Free Supertank Inkjet Printer with 3 Years of Ink Included¹ - Basalt

Works wonderfully with our mobile WiFi, Laptops, and Phone. I did not need a grandson to help set it up. Printing of files and pictures is fantastic.

It's very light weight. It's easy to use and efficient for everyday's printing needs.

HP SMART TANK 5100 ALL-IN-ONE PRINTER HP has a printer in my favorite category, the SMART TANK, or large ink reservoir category. No small, quick-to-dry-out cartridges. This is the ideal printer for those who are in education or any person or business requiring more than typical colorful printouts, especially photo quality prints. This is how to economize. Ignore the (actually reasonable) price of the printer, and save significantly on ink supplies. Let me point out early in the review, I now have a nicely working HP 5100 printer. It reliably handles paper, prints out colorful prints at speeds typical for mid-quality printers, and it connects easily to my iPhone, Mac Mini, and Chromebook. Getting here is unfortunately more frustrating than it should be. My experience with this printer, after many previous experiences with HP and other printers, I attribute to poor instructions. They simply fail to reflect what the end user sees while prepping the actual printer for setup. It’s also important to understand MY experience will be unique, hopefully. SETUP: The HP 5100 is well packed, and has all the advertised LARGE ink bottles that should fulfill the promise on the box of many prints to come. The bottles are well designed to get the ink into the printer reservoirs with no spill risk. HP gives the end user 2 paths to a complete installation. Either the simple pamphlet in the box, or an HP App that downloads to a mobile device. The App does appear to be more complete with steps to follow. A flaw in that approach is, while you can skip steps that are not working for you, it has no easy way (that I could find) to start the guidance over once a problem has been addressed. The biggest issue is such a small thing. HP expects the end user to INSTALL two printer heads. The heads are those moving spray guns that generate the photo or printout. Easy enough in theory. Not for me. The printer refused to follow the instructions. The printer head receptacle never voluntarily centered itself where it could be reached. The single tape holding it in place had a hidden companion. The large orange removable insert was responsible for interfering with the movement of the head receptacle, and it was really holding on to its temporary buried to the left position. Inserting the heads required careful alignment and a firm push into place. The instructions present the pertinent instructions and the fix to any problems in 3 short sentences. They didn’t work. I resorted to unapproved methods. It got done. Everything that followed works nicely. The time it took is frustrating. PERFORMANCE: I found all types of printouts on both paper and photo paper to be well done, colorful when required, and details were very good. Color prints may require some setting adjustments because photos lacked some punch or contrast (for my eyes). This resulted in a somewhat flat appearance, actually looking more like drugstore photos. When adjusted properly, the HP SMART 5100 photos are far superior than those automated store photo machines. HP advertises a 400 x 1200 optimized dpi for color prints, and it shows. Printing can be borderless. 6,000 color prints are estimated from each refill. I thought print-out times were reasonable and typical. Without a direct comparison, it’s just an opinion. Noise levels were typical, in fact, quieter during printing than usual. The HP made up for that a few minutes later when it either goes to sleep or turns off, making mechanical noises during that process. It won’t wake anyone up from a sleep. Ink replacement bottle kits are very inexpensive, and readily available. Scanning is easily managed via the HP App, and exceptional resolution and color correction is possible. Copies are accomplished directly off the glass platen. Seeing ink levels on the front panel is helpful and reassuring. There are features missing in this model, so if they are important to you, consider HP’s other models. There is no auto feed (ADF) for copies, no auto reverse-side printing (no duplex), and no Ethernet input. There is a USB printer port, cable not provided, but readily available. SUMMARY: The positives for the HP SMART TANK 5100 easily outweigh any disadvantages. I find that inkjet printing is preferable for printing color photos than laser printers. Colors are richer, details are sharper, and the many glossy and matte papers which are available easily match most commercial print kiosks and shops. But the price of those small, easily-dried-out ink cartridges most other printers use is prohibitive. These large, individual refill reservoirs and the large bottles that are included and very inexpensive to re-purchase are readily available. For a classroom or business setting, they are the only way to go. This is a rugged, well-designed printer that should be reliable. The straight line, gravity feed paper pathway, should eliminate jams and ensure printer longevity. The downside is the limited quantity of pages (100) that can be in the paper fill. The paper size setting appears to be recognized simply by moving the paper guides. I was annoyed by physical setup problems and an overly optimistic owner’s manual. Wireless setup from both computer and phone was instantaneous. I do not know why HP would not ship a printer with heads installed, but once that hurdle is crossed, you shouldn’t need to worry about them for years. I wish HP saved its sales pitch for products within the HP App for a separate tab and not integrate them into the otherwise comprehensive settings page. The tiny LCD window is pretty much useless for an older user, but then, the app does it all and shows settings and activity much better than any LCD.

The HP 5100 series Smart Tank printer has many great features but is not without faults. The best part about the Smart Tank printers is the fact that you don’t have to keep spending a fortune on ink cartridges every month. In fact, the bottles included in the box contain 3 years’ worth of ink, this not only saves a ton of money, but it also saves time. The design of the printer looks very elegant, with a champagne color mixed with white and black. Setting up the printer was easy. After I connected it to the internet, the setup menu walks you through the ink installation process, this is incredibly easy to do. The print quality of the printer is amazing, the colors come out very vibrant and detailed. Images look bright and detailed, while text looks crystal clear and easy to read. I am extremely impressed with the print quality. This printer also has a built-in scanner which takes great quality scans as well. This printer is completely wireless, so you can print from your phone, tablet, mac/pc. The biggest complaint I have about the printer is the print speed; it does take a while to print, especially if you’re trying to print multiple documents. I do like that you can load letters and print mail address. Overall, I really like the HP 5100 Smart Tank printer. The ink tank alone is reason enough to buy this printer, saving you hundreds of dollars in ink cartridges, and the refills are still a great value. Not to mention, the print quality is amazing. I would highly recommend this to anyone looking for a new printer.

HP Smart Ink Tank technology really makes printing in color economical. That and the fact the print quality is crisp, clear and amazing, makes this printer a super smart buy. Being able to reload just the ink saves me money which is much appreciated. Setup was a bit rough until I took the time to read through the brief installation guide. Following it eased that anxiety to nothing. Fill the tanks, remove the orange printhead shipping block, install the two print heads and run the print test. I am glad I saved my old printer cables. This helped add the printer to my Wi-Fi network using my PC. I was able to direct connect without it, but I like all my printers on the Wi-Fi. This allows me to chose which printer to use depending on the media I need and whether I need color or black and white laser quality prints. The Smart Tank prints at a reasonable speed. Not super fast, but worth the wait in the quality and clarity of the printouts. HP ink has always made me happy. Smudge resistant once dry. Great color reproduction and likeness to the photos being printed. The unit is very quiet, with minimal noise during the print cycles. Just enough to let you know it's working on your task. Takes up little space. The scanner is one off, not sheet fed. Perfect for reproducing photos and the like.