HP ENVY 6055 Review [year]

The HP ENVY series has made a pivot in the past year, from top-end photo printers to affordable home printers. The HP ENVY 6055 is the newest mid-level option from HP. This compact home printer is advertised as everything your average user needs in the modern age. Does it make good on that promise?

In our HP ENVY 6055 review, we are going to take a look at what makes this printer tick. What does it do well, and where does it fall short? Is this printer worth the money, or is it the newest dud from HP?

So, if you are wondering whether the HP ENVY 6055 is right for you, we’ll let you know down below. Keep reading!

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HP ENVY 6055 Review [Year]

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The Good

Small-In-One Versatility

Most home printer users want a printer that does everything and doesn’t take up too much space. They also want it for free, but you can’t have everything.

The HP ENVY 6055 offers all-in-one functionality in a small printer. At just over 5 inches tall, 14 inches deep, and 17 inches wide, you are unlikely to find a home printer this compact with this much functionality. 

While it doesn’t have an auto-document-feeder, the HP ENVY 6055 does allow you to print, scan, and copy all of your documents. It will be slow going, seeing as how you will need to scan individual documents on the flatbed. However, at this size and price, it’s better than nothing.

Two-Sided Printing

The HP ENVY 6055 allows for automatic two-sided printing. When printing two-sided, you select the option in the print dialogue on your computer, or in the copy settings on the printer. Then, when it is finished printing the front side, it picks the page back up and prints on the backside. 

It doesn’t seem like a huge deal, but it’s nice to see it on a printer at this price. Most printers at this level have manual two-sided printing, where you print the page and reload it upside down into the paper tray. That is a confusing and time-consuming way to do things.

Automatic two-sided printing will save you time and money on your paper costs.

HP Instant Ink Eligible

While it has gotten some mixed reviews, at Joe’s Printer Buying Guide, we like HP Instant Ink. We might not like everything about it, but as a whole, we think it’s a good deal for families and home office users.

When you are subscribed to HP Instant Ink, you pay a monthly fee based on the number of pages you print. Then, when your ink cartridges are low, your printer sends a signal to HP, and they send you new ink cartridges. The cost of the ink is included in the subscription, and so are the shipping costs.

If you don’t print consistently, then Instant Ink isn’t for you. But if you print around the same amount of work documents or homework assignments every month, then this is a great way to save money on your ink costs. 

You can sign up for HP Instant Ink here, or you can read our full HP Instant Ink review.

Smart App Setup

If you’ve had issues in the past figuring out how to set up new printers, that won’t be an issue anymore. With the HP ENVY 6055, you can set everything up right from your smartphone. 

To set up this printer, all you need to do is install the HP Smart App on your smartphone. Then, follow the instructions on your app to connect to the printer, and it will take care of the rest. The app will guide you through everything, with photos of each step.

Affordable

This is arguably the biggest selling point of the HP ENVY 6055. This printer is cheap. 

Finding a printer with decent photo quality for less than $100 is getting more and more difficult these days. This printer delivers a lot of value for the price. Even if it isn’t super durable or built for heavy volume, this is a great budget photo option.

Simple Operation

As an electronic salesman, there is nothing worse than when a customer brings a product back because it is too hard to use. This is especially the case with printers. Next to routers, printers seem to be the hardest product for people to understand. 

Luckily, that’s not a problem with this printer.

The HP ENVY 6055, along with most other HP inkjet printers, is extremely easy to use. When you are making copies or scanning, you just press the button for what you want. When you are printing from a computer or smartphone, you just follow the directions in the dialogue window or printing app.

When all you need to do is poke the picture of what you want the printer to do, that’s as close to foolproof as you can get.

Now that we’ve covered everything we like about this printer, let’s look at what we didn’t like when researching for our HP ENVY 6055 review.

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The Bad

Inefficient Cartridges

If you buy this printer, you’ll probably want to get HP Instant Ink, because the ink cartridges are very inefficient. Inefficient ink means you will spend much more money in the long run. Unfortunately, this seems to be a trend with HP Photo Printers.

The HP ENVY 6055 takes HP’s 67XL cartridges; one for black and one for color. Each of these cartridges costs about twenty-four dollars. For that, you get just 240 pages of black and 200 of color. That’s about ten cents per page of black and twelve cents per page of color.

That’s not factoring in how much ink goes into photo printing. Printing photos uses up to ten times the amount of ink as printing documents, so color photos will cost up to a dollar each on this printer.

If you aren’t using HP Instant Ink, you will spend a fortune on ink with this printer. Sure, the printer itself is cheap, but it will cost you in the long run.

Slow Printing

I hate slow printers. Like, probably too much.

The HP ENVY 6055 is a slow printer. It prints ten pages per minute of black, and seven of color. And that’s for text documents.

If you are printing photos with this printer, they will likely take over a minute each. That’s fine if you are just printing one photo. However, printing more than a couple of photos will feel like it takes an eternity.

These days, we are trained to like things as fast as possible. We like instant satisfaction, and the HP ENVY 6055 just doesn’t deliver it.

Cheaply Built

This is the drawback of an affordable printer. It’s probably made with cheap plastic parts, like the HP ENVY 6055.

Everything that moves on this printer feels cheap. The paper storage tray, the scanner lid, and the printer itself. There just doesn’t seem to be any weight or durability to any of it. 

It’s not like I need a printer that I can throw down the stairs. It’s just that I don’t have any confidence that this printer would hold up to two years of daily use.

Mediocre Photo Quality

The HP ENVY 6055 has a max print resolution of 1200 DPI, which is fine. It’s not great, but it’s fine. 

The biggest reason the photo quality with this printer isn’t better is due to the limitations of a two-cartridge system.

A single tri-color cartridge contains cyan, yellow, and magenta ink. Along with the black, those colors can make a huge color spectrum. However, without a photo black cartridge, you can’t get as dark of blacks. 

All of that essentially means that the photos you print with the ENVY 6055 will be good, but they won’t be as rich and sharp as they could be.

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ENVY 6055 Review [year] | The Bottom line

Overall, the HP ENVY 6055 is a good printer for the price. 

This printer is compact, easy to use, and versatile. It’s a great option for home offices or families. 

If you are looking for a great photo printer or a dependable office printer, then the HP ENVY 6055 is not for you. This printer is a jack of all trades type of situation.

If you are looking for a cheap printer that can do whatever you want, and you only use it on occasion, then we recommend you give the HP ENVY 6055 a closer look.