If you are the kind of person who loves to handle large printouts and views them as a way to display some of your best digital photos, then you may be well aware of the problems associated with printing them in house. For instance, you may not want to invest in a separate large printer that handles only photo prints and then waste quite a bit of time waiting for it to complete a job. What you need is just a printer that can handle all aspects of printing, including normal documents and photo prints. When it comes to all in one photo printers, HP ENVY Photo 7855 is a top contender.
The HP ENVY Photo 7855 combines a high quality all in one photo printer with wireless capabilities and the power to print from mobile devices. Isn’t that exactly what you need? Well, it depends on what you do with photo printing, of course. We decided to make this article like a review of every different kind of printing topic that you might be interested in. It has everything that is important for someone who doesn’t have much time to read a huge article about how to choose a photo printer or review of any particular model. This HP ENVY Photo 7855 review details how this machine differs from previous models and how it can benefit you. If you’d like to know more about the capabilities of this all in one photo printer, stick around for more information!
HP ENVY Photo 7855 Review
The HP ENVY Photo 7855 all in one is the perfect printer for someone who wants to create photos that can stand out from the crowd. With its modern and minimalist design, this one of a kind product offers you an all in one solution for printing, copying, scanning, and faxing documents.
HP ENVY Photo 7855 is a photo printer with a touch screen panel and wireless connectivity. This printer comes with many features like HP Photosmart software and Wi-Fi capability for print and scanning. Easily connect this printer to your home Wi-Fi network so you can print without wires from anywhere in the house. The best part about this printer is that you can print photos directly from your iPhone or iPad using the HP Smart app, AirPrint, and Google Cloud Print. HP Instant Ink Ready print system allows you to print photos instantly without worrying about ink cartridges while saving up to 50% on ink costs with the HP ink subscription service compatible with this device.
Design
Despite its small size, the Envy 7855 is rather bulky, with dimensions of 17.87 x 7.6 x 19.33 inches when the output tray is folded. There is only one button (the power button) on the control panel, and the touch screen is surrounded by smooth plastic.
On the fixed control panel with an upward angle, there is a 2.7-inch color touch screen. There are no physical buttons on the printer, so you must use the touch screen to perform printer functions on a stand-alone basis. You can scroll through the menus by swiping your finger across the screen.
A 35-page ADF is mounted on top of the chassis, which makes multipage copies easy. Lifting the lid and ADF reveals the scanner glass, which you need to use to make single copies or scan photos. However, the lid has no resistance on its hinges, so you have to turn it 90 degrees or support it while posing your document.
Input paper is loaded into the main drawer by sliding the photo-paper tray out of the way. The tray can hold up to five by seven inches of paper. It is located under an output tray, and it has a catch that springs outward when it is pushed into the output tray. This may be an issue in tight spaces since its protrusion adds 19 inches to the chassis’ depth.
With the Envy 7855, there are two ink cartridges- a tricolor cartridge that uses dye-based inks and a black cartridge with pigment-based inks that will produce deeper blacks.
The front panel has a dual-band Wi-Fi connection, a USB port for direct printing as well as a slot for SD cards.
Print Quality
On plain paper, HP ENVY Photo 7855 prints graphics that are rich in colors, have deep, rich shades, and have a smooth texture. However, some dark areas – especially flat areas in graphics – did display some banding.
You can print text documents in high quality. There was sufficient contrast and sharp edges on letterforms. The colors in photo prints on glossy paper appeared accurate, the details were sharp, and the saturation was good. As one of the best photo printers we have reviewed, we think it’s good enough to recommend.
In addition to making attractive copies, the Envy 7855 also made impressive scans. Graphics and text, however, have retained some of the original sharpness in gray-scale copies, while gray-scale copies of graphics have lost some of the subtlety of mid-tone transitions.
Colors in scans of photos were very natural, and shadow details were well preserved. Text, however, was less appealing. Compared to the original document, letterform edges looked lumpy and a little ragged.
Print Speed
We printed ten pages of text on the Envy 7855 in 66 seconds, at a speed of 9.1 pages per minute. These results are faster than the average for this category. When printing a color PDF file containing text and graphics, the Envy 7855 took 4 minutes and 15 seconds (or 1.4 ppm). There are 2 minutes and 31 seconds in the category average.
Duplex printing and copying are possible with the Envy 7855 because it has an automatic duplexer. A two-sided text document was printed at 3.7 pages per minute, which was faster than the average speed of 3.3 pages per minute. Our color PDF was also comparatively slow, printing at 1.2 pages per minute versus the average of 1.7 pages per minute for the Envy 7855.
In terms of printing speed, it was on the middle ground. A letter-size test photo was printed on glossy paper by the Envy 7855 in three minutes and one second. Comparatively, it took less than two minutes (1:54) for Canon Pixma TS6020 to print the same photo and a whopping six minutes and 47 seconds for Brother MFC-J985DW.
It’s interesting that the Android phone print speeds are better than a laptop running Windows 10’s HP Smart software. It took the HP Envy 7855 about half the time to print the six-page PDF, taking just 1 minute and 45 seconds (3.4 pages per minute versus 1.4 pages per minute). It took 2 minutes and 9 seconds to print a letter-size photo, saving 52 seconds.
Speed of Copy & Scan
It took about 15.7 seconds to copy a one-page document. The Envy 7855 stands out from similar models due to the inclusion of the ADF. In comparison, the Epson WF-2760 produced 3.4 ppm, and the Brother MFC-J985DW produced 4.4 ppm for single-sided text copies.
A duplexer in the mix did not change the significantly improved performance of the Envy 7855. In the same two-sided copy test, the HP OfficeJet 4650 and the Epson WF-2760 both achieved 2.7 pages per minute, but the Envy 7855 quickly reached 4.3 pages per minute.
Its color copy took 4 seconds less than the average for the category of 28.2. For comparison, the HP OfficeJet 4650 had a printing speed of 34.4 seconds, more than 10 seconds slower than the HP Envy 7855, while the fastest model in the category was the Canon Pixma TS6020 at 19.2 seconds.
It took longer than usual to scan text documents. Compared with the average of 11.6 seconds, the Envy 7855 took 14.5 seconds to create a 300-dpi gray-scale PDF. The scanning of one page at 600 dpi in color took about a minute and ten seconds, which is about average.
Costs of Printing
Despite the low cost per print, the result is only okay. Compared with the printer, the cartridges are rather reasonably priced, so you shouldn’t have a problem if you don’t plan on printing very often. While it is convenient if you print frequently, it can still cost a lot of money if you need to buy replacement cartridges frequently. If you only print in black, you may still need to replace your color cartridge eventually since most inkjet printers continue to use the color cartridges for servicing.
HP Instant Ink
With HP’s Instant Ink Program, users of this printer can have a fresh cartridge delivered to their door for a small monthly fee whenever their printer runs low on ink. You can rely on this system to always have a cartridge on hand, so you will not have to worry about ink levels constantly.
Software & Connectivity
Printing and scanning can be done with HP’s Smart software suite. There’s also an option to use HP’s fax driver. These same functions, including copying, are also available through the touch screen. You can store your documents in the cloud, collaborate with others, and track your print history using HP Connected.
You can print documents and photos from your mobile device with the HP Smart app for iOS or Android. This app is very easy to use. Printing photos, scanning to email, printing documents, and printing Facebook photos are all available on the main screen.
Thanks to its built-in USB 2.0, Wi-Fi, Ethernet, and Bluetooth LE connectivity, you may find it incredibly easy to set up anywhere you desire. Mobile devices can directly connect to networked printers, which can be used to print photos right from their smartphones.
Also on board is a 2.65-inch touchscreen for easy control, as well as USB and SD card slots for printing directly from portable devices and syncing with them.
What We Like
- Excellent photo printing quality
- A variety of connectivity options are available
- Document feeder with 35-page capacity (ADF)
- Auto duplex printing
- Compatible with Amazon Alexa
- With HP Instant Link, print more photos for less money
- You can print directly from a USB or SD card
- HP Smart App allows mobile printing
What We Don’t Like
- It takes a lot of ink
- It’s too small for a touch screen
Note: This HP ENVY Photo 7855 printer is loaded with features that can help you daily. It’s light, very fast, prints high-quality pictures, and is wireless which makes this printer much easier to use for virtually anyone! If you are looking for a printer that gives you the print, scan, and copy functionality – HP ENVY 7855 might be what you need.
Final Words
The HP 7855 is an easy to use printer designed with the novice in mind. There are a lot of things to like about this model. This is a fast and very capable printer that can handle various printing tasks. Print quality is very good, and printing speed is among the fastest we have seen. This printer also supports mobile printing, which you do not see in most models of this type and class. Price will be a deterring factor for some, but if you’re in the market for a compact one-function photo printer with good quality, this should be on your shortlist.