HP ENVY 6455e Printer Review

This printer's plastic body feels fairly solid. It has a removable power cable, which makes it easy to replace if damaged. The input tray has adjustable width sliders for different paper sizes, and the output tray has an extender you can tuck into the tray when not in use. However, the input tray isn't removable, and there isn't a dedicated photo tray. The scanner bed's dampening mechanism isn't very robust either, as the scanner bed can slam down hard if you don't let it down slowly.

The HP ENVY 6455e requires a fair amount of maintenance. Like most inkjet models, the printheads can clog if you don't print for a long time. To resolve printhead issues, you can run the built-in printhead alignment and printhead cleaning tasks. You'll also need to replace the cartridges often if you print frequently since they don't last very long. The paper tray has a relatively small 100-sheet capacity, so you'll have to refill it often. Unfortunately, the bottom tray sheet roller is underneath the printer, which can be annoying to reach if a paper jam occurs there.

See the user manual here.

This printer doesn't have a display. Instead, it has indicator lights showing when it's connected to Wi-Fi or experiencing a document feeder error, and it has a separate counter indicating how many document copies are being printed. Touch-sensitive buttons exist for Monochrome Copy, Color Copy, Information, Cancel, and Resume. On the right side of the panel, a status light tells you when the paper is low, when the paper tray is open, or when the scanner bay is open. An indicator light above the output tray changes color depending on the printer's status. You can adjust the LED light brightness within the HP Smart app's settings, but you can't turn it off completely, which may be annoying in a dark room. The printer gives audio feedback for different tasks, like when a document finishes printing, the printer turns on or off, or you open the paper tray.

This printer's ink cartridges yield very few black or color prints, so you need to replace them often, especially if you print frequently. Also, since there's just one tri-color cartridge, you need to replace the entire cartridge even if only one color runs out, which can be wasteful. On the bright side, you can increase the page yield slightly with HP 67XL cartridges. If you're looking for a similar printer model but want one with higher page yields across the board, check out the HP ENVY Inspire 7955e.

This printer has a decent array of scanning features. It has an automatic feeder to process multi-page documents; however, it's pretty slow and lacks duplex scanning capability. Still, it's more convenient than scanning each page manually. Its optical character recognition feature lets you save scanned documents as searchable PDF files. It works well but makes mistakes occasionally, especially with special characters.

The scan quality is mediocre. The image processing removes a lot of fine details and makes colors look washed out.

• Setup Guide
• Power cord
• 1x black setup cartridge
• 1X tri-color setup cartridge

The print quality of black-and-white documents is mediocre. The printer reproduces text and fine details clearly, but there's visible banding in colored areas, making the text in those places look slightly misaligned. If you want a similar printer with better print quality, check out the Canon PIXMA TR7820/TS7720.

The print quality of color documents is decent. Printed text looks clear, and the colors look punchy. However, some finer details are very faint and hard to see.

The cost-per-print is high. Although the cartridges are relatively cheap, their low yields mean you need to replace them often. This printer is an HP+ enabled printer that comes with a free six-month subscription to the HP Instant Ink service, which sends you ink whenever your printer detects that the cartridges are running low.

It's worth noting that if you subscribe to HP+, you can only get genuine HP cartridges in the future. The printer also requires a continuous internet connection to function if you subscribe to the service.

This printer doesn't take too long to initialize and get a single page out, but it's quite slow for longer, multi-page documents and photos. The output tray only holds 25 sheets of paper, so you'll have to keep an eye on larger print jobs to avoid having your prints pushed off the output tray.

This printer has a disappointing color gamut. It reproduces bright blues and greens well but struggles with other colors. It also has trouble with darker shades. Its narrow color range causes a significant loss of details. Color transitions aren't smooth, as there's visible banding in the blues and greens.

The HP ENVY 6458e has bad color accuracy. The photos don't necessarily look bad; they just look overly warm. Naturally, it isn't ideal for professional work that requires perfect accuracy. If you need a printer for color-critical work, check out the Canon imagePROGRAF PRO-300.

The HP ENVY Pro 6458e is okay at reproducing small details. The use of halftones (dot effect) doesn't cause significant loss of details, though the contrast could be better. Edges of objects look a little soft, and distant objects are barely visible.

The HP ENVY 6455e has Bluetooth, but it's only for setup purposes, not for printing.

HP Smart is a superb mobile app. It lets you print, copy, and scan (with a smartphone's camera or the printer) directly from the app. You can also check the ink levels, manage your ink subscription, and perform maintenance tasks. The maximum scanning resolution is 300 DPI when using the app, though. Lastly, while the Private Pickup feature is an option in the app, the HP ENVY 6400e series doesn't support it.

You must install drivers and the HP Smart software on Windows devices to print and scan. You can print without installing any drivers on macOS, but you still need to install the HP Smart app to scan and use all the printer's features. You can scan and print on Chrome OS without installing any drivers or software. You can also install the HP Smart app from the Google Play Store to use all the printer's features as you would on an Android device.