HP - Smart Tank Plus 651 Wireless All-In-One Inkjet Printer

One thing about printers is having to replace the cartridges, which some can cost more than the printer itself. Recently several printer manufacturers have come out with models similar to this HP Smart Tank printer where you just replace the ink, instead of the full cartridge. However, this is the first one that I have seen that you still install a cartridge, just the difference is that it refills from the tanks. The cartridge looks like any other printer cartridge for the most part, with the built in printhead. So, should anything happen to print head quality, this is a part that could be user replaced. I don’t know the actual milliliter capacity of these cartridges, but you can see in the picture the comparison of the ink bottles and tell that it is going to be able to fill it up several times over. Setting up the printer does require removing some transportation parts, installing the cartridge/printheads and filling the tanks for the first time. The process is relatively mess free, as I found it messier to peel the safety seal of the bottles than anything else. The instructions are simple and you have multiple ways of connecting to this printer. One thing I have seen an issue with other printers is that they only have 2.4 GHz wireless, which can be difficult in some areas. This HP printer also has 5GHz, as well as USB, Ethernet and WiFi-Direct. You can also use other features to print such as AirPrint, Google Cloud or HP ePrint which gives you an email address to send attachments to be printed directly to the printer. By default, this feature is enabled with a ridiculously hard to remember email which can only be changed through your HP account once this printer is added to it. The directions tell you to get the HP software, drivers or app. However, I was able to print from my Android phone and computers on my network without any additional installation. Once installed, the HP Smart App on Windows 10 instantly found my printer and provided a simple interface to manage the printer. The HP Smart App on the Android phone required that I install the HP Print Service Engine, even though it worked without either apps to start with. However, the interface and options are the same as the PC app. For full feature control of the printer, the best way is to connect to it through a browser using the IP. Print quality, when set to best, is really good. I printed several photos and compared to other inkjet photos I have printed, I was amazed at how colorful and glossy they came out. The only downside of higher quality is speed, especially mixed color pages which get 3-5 pages per minute, doing color copies at 2 PPM with default settings. Scanning even seemed slow, especially if you decided to crank the DPI up. Which is maxed at 300dpi for the feeder and 1200 for flatbed scanning. Another downside to the 651, though it comes with an automatic document feeder for the scanner, does not have an automatic duplexer. So, double sided printing requires manually returning pages to the feed tray and hitting continue on the computer, not even the digital display of the printer. If you aren’t concerned with speed or duplexing, but know you print a lot, maybe a mix of photo and documents,there is no comparing a fraction of a penny per page in ink. With black claiming about 6,000 pages a bottle, compared to XL cartridges that come in at less than 1,000 and cost twice as much, it’s hard to beat. Especially when it comes to color cartridges that typically handle far less, these bottles claim up to ~8,000. I’m not going to test that theory any time soon, but with a fair amount of documents, photos and full page photos the tanks look to have barely moved.

The HP Smart Tank 651 wireless all in one printer is easy to set up and prints great. Setting up the printer was easy and straight forward. HP provides easy to follow documentation and they also recommend that you keep the box and packing materials to secure the printer if you plan to transport it anywhere, especially the box that holds the print heads in place. There are a few steps in the setup and initialization, after powering it on, takes a few minutes, then follow the prompts and prepare the ink. They are spill free and easily snap into place to fill up the tanks, be sure NOT to squeeze the bottles. After you fill up the ink tanks, you must install the print heads and then you are prompted to print out an alignment page and you use that to calibrate the printer. Be sure to download the HP smart app or visit 123.hp.com to finish the setup of your printer. This is when you connect it to your Wi-Fi and complete the set up. I have had other “tank” type of printers and this is the first one that I have had that actually has separate print heads. I am happy with the overall operation of this printer. The ADF on top works well for scanning and copying. Printing is great on this printer and I am sure with it being an HP it will run forever and always just work. HP states that this will print 22 pages per minute at the fastest (draft) setting. It also has fax color as an option, but I don’t have a phone line and I was not able to test this out. I have had great luck with their printers in the past and this one seems well built and I have no worries about it. Printing from your mobile device is also supported here, I used the HP Smart App to accomplish this, but it also supports Apple AirPrint as well. The best part of this printer is that you are given two years of ink in the bottles and depending on your printing it will easily last you that long with normal home use. These types of printers have flipped the conventional pricing for home printers. They are more expensive upfront, but the consumables are inexpensive, and you end up saving a lot more money this way. Pros: 2 years of ink Printer speed Color Fax option Duplex printing HP Smart App Cons: upfront price

The trend with printer makers nowadays is to give more ink, but that doesn't come without a cost or tradeoffs. With the HP Smart Tank 651 its immediately obvious that the tradeoff in more ink = less printer and lower quality. I'd say for the price you're getting $300 or 2 years worth of ink with a $150 printer that may not even last that full 2 years. The 651 is disappointing in almost all aspects for anyone who has used HP's extremely durable and easy to use Officejet line of printers. -Build quality is subpar, its extremely light and flimsy right out of the box. -It has a BLACK AND WHITE and NOT color LCD display and it is TINY overall. -The top scanner and doc feeder tray is super flimsy -All capacities from the built-in paper feeder to the copy feeder on top of the scan tray are vastly reduced. Literally the ONLY positive of this printer I can find is that it comes with a TON of ink. Overall it is very easy to use and set-up, the HP Smart app is very good and makes set up and printing a breeze. It also functions fine, I just don't know how durable it is given how cheap it looks and feels. This is a decent printer for those who want low maintenance printing and easy set-up without worrying about ink for a few years. However, for the price, I still prefer my much more robust Officejet printers, the latest of which the HP Officejet Pro 9020 makes this look like a toy.

I'm loving this printer. Its very nice looking, the white accent is welcomed. I like that its not bulky at all, compared to other all in ones, It has a very flat low profile. Setting it up was easy, you can either use a pc downloading HP's software, or you can use their mobile app. You pour the ink containers into it, and then install the printer heads. (the box says they include ink to last for at least 2 years, so that is still to see...). Be aware though, this printer is more designed to be used via wireless out of the box, as it DOES NOT include an USB cable (nor a telephone cable for the fax function), at least those were not in my box...Those cables are so cheap, that I feel HP should have at least included them to add more convenience on how the user is going to decide to use the printer. I'm loving that to scan, you have to options, you can either feed the paper from the top tray and it will take it (kind of like the ones you will see on a big office printer), or you can open the scanner bed and scan the "old fashioned" way. Very convenient. The paper feeder is good enough, but I wish it would fit more pages, so I don't have to keep putting more pages manually, but I guess its a trade off, since the printer is so thin, considering its an all in one. It also has a fax function (and line pass through), in case its needed. I highly recommend it to anyone looking to setup a small/home office and save on ink. As the you are only replacing the ink itself (the printer heads stay on the printer), they cost way less than the old printers were you would replace the whole cartridge containing the connector, logic and ink.

The HP Smart Tank Plus 651 All-in-One is my first look at a refillable ink reservoir printer system, and I am exceptionally impressed, it’s like where have you been all these years! After receiving the 651 I went looking for a fitting place do add the printer to our network and found a spot in my kid’s room. The smaller footprint works exceptionally well in our application, a welcomed addition to our network. Perfect for the student who is hard at work. Next follow the setup in the HP pictorial quick start guide which clearly illustrates/explains everything you need to get unpacked and preparing the printer for first-time use. After filling ink reservoirs and installing two print heads (simple) - Download/install HP Smart App to PC or mobile device. Highly appreciate that you can use the app with a PC and not be tethered to a mobile or tablet. On HP Smart app scroll screen to the “Add New Printer” option and continue with set up. Joining the network was simple task using the settings on the printer’s Touch Screen. The printer does not have an Ethernet RJ-45 connection, I prefer to use a wired printer but most users today I am sure use Wi-Fi which connects simply. Setting the up the Smart Tank 651 and getting on-line took about 30 minutes, simple, easy and straight forward. All options you need are accessible through the 2.2” mono Touch Screen as well as through HP Smart App. The menus are setup intuitively on the printer, intuitive and easy to manage. All printer settings are accessible in HP Smart, personally I prefer to manage the printer through the HP Smart app. Any info you need for the printer are easily located in HP Smart, an excellent program and has been a great addition to the HP printer line. The new Smart Tank system I like, a lot. It is reducing the waste of materials and resources (planet friendly) and hopefully saves on ink expenses. Did a little comparison shopping comparing the Smart Tank HP31 70ml bottle to the HP 951XL which holds 25ml. The price I found for the Smart Tank HP31 is $17.17 where the HP 951XL for our other HP Inkjet sells for $35, this could represent a very considerable savings in expenses, if these prices hold. Good Stuff: - Color Ink bottles are 70ml each - Black Ink bottle is 125ml - Color ink wells hold 70ml - Black ink well holds 135ml - All ink wells are transparent in the front showing ink levels – great idea - Two Years ink included – “up to 6000 color pages or up to 8000 black pages” - Impressive - 35-page auto feeder - Fast Wi-Fi – dual band - USB 2.0 LE - ISO Print speed – Black 11ppm/Color 5ppm - Mobile printing compatible with Hp Smart app, HP ePrint and AirPrint - Scanning and sharing to the cloud - Sheet capacity – 100 Letter/legal with 30 sheet output tray - Small footprint - Excellent output Designed for light workloads and would fit right in many offices, homes or student dorms.

I wasn't sure we would switch back to an inkjet printer after using a laser for the last 5 years, but I am sure glad we did! We already printed our 50+ Christmas cards this year, full page card stock, then each cut down to two 5x7's. The paper fed well and the printed product was impressive. Bright color, sharp edges, on some tough to print on glittery holiday stock my wife picked out Out of the box, the printer does take a lil bit of setup. Carefully remove the secured tape areas, follow the instructions carefully, and you will be printing in no time. I really like that the print heads are swap-able, but the cartridges are built in and refillable. This should solve two of the major issues with printers in cost of ink, and fixed print head getting gunked up, requiring maintenance most home users will not do. Device connected to wifi very easy, and we easily added it to all 4 Win 10 computers in our home, as well as the HP Smart print app on our mobile devices. You can take a photo of a document as a copy with your phone, and send it to your printer no matter if you are 5 feet, or 5000 miles away. Very happy with this printer, only thing I wish it had was a large paper capacity. Other than that, this is a winner!

Although it is expensive for its tag price in the long run your savings pay for itself on its ink. Not the best but decent print quality and lots of features like airprint and remote printing.

Setup was not complicated but it took some time to remove cardboards and plastics, then to load the ink tank. The network setup was the easiest I had ever seen for a printer but I must admit that I had not tried an HP Printer in a while. I own three other brands and none was this easy. All I had to do was to download the HP Smart app and enter the password for my WiFi on the app. I was happy to see that it supports 5 Ghz in addition to 2.4 Ghz. Most wireless printers can only support the latter, which is very interference prone. Another very interesting feature that I had not seen in any other printer was that after printing the alignment page, it asked me to scan that same page to determine whether it aligned correctly. That is a huge and welcome feature. How many times have I printed alignment pages and was not sure if it was correct until I saw the result on pages I really cared about. This eliminates the guesswork. It is becoming more and more common for printers to come with ink tanks, instead of cartridges. In my opinion, tanks are better for the environment and often to your wallet as well. At least in the long run. HP Smart Tank 651 is one of those types of printers. They promise two years of ink in those bottles and I am convinced that it is true, unless you print too many pages on a daily basis. Although I own a faster printer used mostly for business, I was satisfied with its speed for home prints. The color pages came out very well and the blacks and grays were close to laser quality. No smudges. The scanner also performed well in both speed and image clarity and color accuracy. It is perfect for most home and small business work. Printing from an iPhone and iPad Pro was very straightforward. Actually, easier than printing from a computer although I still prefer to print from a PC. My only complaint is that the input tray cannot hold a lot of paper. I believe that it is because they intended to keep the printer slim and small. They accomplished that but I like to load a full ream of paper and not worry about reloading frequently.