Customer Ratings & Reviews

Pros: Sleek appearance Flatbed scanner Instant Ink Compatible Good image quality Cons: Difficulty setting up Hidden complexities to the Instant Ink program “Always connected” state may be a turn off for the more security conscious Tiny capacity paper tray The HP Envy 5055 is a great home printer if all you’re doing is printing photos and the occasional document. I love how sleek this printer is. Everything is nice and contained in a clean, minimalist design. I have no problems leaving this out where guests could see it as it just blends into the room. My one complaint about the design is that the paper tray is so very tiny. At a guess, I’d say that this could only hold maybe 50 sheets of 24# paper. This isn’t great if you’re doing a lot of high volume printing, but it’s just fine if you’re primarily using this as a photo printer. The printer also feeds from the bottom and doesn’t seem to have a manual feed tray. I’d hesitate loading this up with thicker cardstocks or envelopes. I work with commercial printers every day, so I’m used to a very high standard where color printing is concerned. The Envy’s print quality is “good.” It’s far from the best I’ve ever seen (commercial printers and even some other home printers do much better), but it’s not bad by any means. I found that the contrast of my printed image was more than a bit off compared to what was displaying on my monitor. The brights were much brighter and the darks were much darker. A few minutes adjusting my image in a photo editor easily compensated for this though. I love the fact that it comes with a flatbed scanner. I’ll be honest, I primarily got this printer for the scanner. Sure, there are scanning apps for smartphones; but they pale in comparison to a device that’s actually designed for scanning. Unlike a smartphone, you don’t have to worry about lining up your corners, trying to get a jittery shot off without blurring your image, ambient lighting messing up your scan, or the color of your background making it so that your scanning app can’t find your page edge. With the Envy, you just place your page in the corner and scan it using either the phone app or your computer. No fuss, no muss. This printer is HP Instant Ink compatible. This is an optional feature. You have the option to bypass this when first setting up the printer if you only want to use this as a traditional printer. At the time of this review, HP is offering a free “15 pages a month” plan. Basically the way this works is that your printer is constantly connected to the internet and reporting back to HP how many pages you’ve printed and how much ink is in your cartridges. When you run out of ink, HP automatically sends you a new cartridge (at no additional charge). That being said, you are only allowed a fixed number of prints in a month. If you go over that, then you have to pay overage fees. While signing up for this service, I accidently clicked the link for the legal documents and disclaimers. I decided to go ahead and skim them since they were pulled up anyway. I’m glad I did. A couple things you need to know about Instant Ink that aren’t immediately apparent: 1. HP owns the cartridges: While you actively use the cartridges, HP actually owns them. You will need to return any empty cartridges to HP, and you will also need to return the cartridges currently in your printer should you decide to exit the program. 2. If you exit the free plan for any reason, you can never go back: If you decide to upgrade from the free plan to one of the paid plans, then you can never downgrade back to the free plan. Same for if you exit the program completely. You can’t turn around and go back to the free plan a few months down the road. 3. A printed page counts as any piece of paper that gets ink on it: That annoying last page that periodically prints with just a URL and a date when you’re printing a web page? Yes, that counts as a full page. Presumably, jammed pages would count toward this total as well. 4. The website and app do not register your page usage in real time: Page usage is only updated once a day. I printed four pages and the site said that I was only at zero until the next morning when all four registered all at once. 5. The free plan doesn’t roll over: HP advertises that unused pages roll over to the next month. The free plan is the exception to this rule. With the free plan, you get 15 pages a month. Period. 6. The free plan has different overages than the paid plans. The paid plans allow you to get an additional 15 pages for $1 more a month. The free plan only allows you to get an additional 10 pages for $1 a month. I think that Instant Ink is a great program, but you have to be very careful with it. My problem with inkjet printers has always been that I print so seldom that my ink drys out. In my case, this program is absolutely great. For others . . . maybe not. I would recommend this printer for home users looking to print the occasional document or photo. I would not recommend this printer for businesses or anyone looking to do high volume printing.

This one is a printer. I enjoy using my printer it is great

Ink doesn't last long . Sometimes goes off line. Prints very slowly.

I can’t seem to get it hooked up to wireless it’s really frustrating

Let me first say that a couple of months ago I got an HP printer for my wife that would only work if you subscribed to the HP Instant Ink program. It didn't take us long to fall out of love with it. There was an initial hassle signing up with the program, once we straightened it out, the ink we ordered didn't come. Took another 2 calls to HP. A month later, she had a big job to do, and ran out in the middle of it. All this, and you have a another Big Brother device in the house that reports back to HP how many pages you print in a month. So, I was happy to see that this takes readily available replacement cartridges. Well, not ecstatic, we all know how much they cost, but at least control of the situation was back in my hands. The feature I like the best on this unit is the size - this is the smallest HP printer I've seen in years. The small footprint doesn't take up valuable shelf space, or, if you like, is small enough to put on a lower or upper workstation shelf. And yet, it still has most every feature you'd want for home printing. Wi-Fi, copy, scan, 2 side print, photo print, and smartphone/tablet print with an app. If space is at a premium, I don't think you'll be able to find a more compact piece.

Good quality, but uses ink very fast. Ink should last longer and be cheaper.

Is a bit louder than expected but prints small jobs (<10pgs) great!

After owning for over a year I can honestly say this things is a complete piece of garbage. If you want a printer for anything serious or professional at all do not buy this. Have had nothing but numerous print quality issues just printing word docs. I seriously hope there is something wrong with this and it’s not how it’s supposed to work. Half the words look bold. Edges of paragraphs are smudged. And the worst part is how fast it goes through ink. I’ve tried several high quality papers with no luck. Very disappointing

Printer says connected, computer finds it, but won't prin to it.

my last printer was simple. this one is more complicated but I'm learning

The fella who talked me into buying this when I wanted a brothers printer should have let me buy what I wanted. I am really disappointed in this printer it's not at all what I want and it is hard to connect

Hard to set up, instructions not helpful at all. A bit flimsy.

Incompatibilities with Chrome has been a real headache for me!

A little advanced for the technologically challenged

Printer functions great, just goes through ink like crazy.

I’m sure it will break in a few months but still cheaper than new ink.

Not for seniors. Still haven’t figured out wireless feature.

I barely used this printer but it no longer turns on and now it's been just over a year and I can't take advantage of the warranty. I just signed up for the instant ink program too, Im disappointed I guess, it worked well when it was running.

Easy to assemble but the ink ran out in two weeks!

Purchased printer for wireless, Bluetooth, and network capability for an important meeting. After four tiring hours of following instructions and constant restarts and refreshes, I gave up. As it failed to install as promoted, it was returned. We're still awaiting a refund.