Having been on the market for over two years, the HP OfficeJet 5255 still boasts features found in many of today’s newer top models, but is its power for a good price or just your average Joe? Originally built to replace the OfficeJet 4650, let’s take a look at this machine in this HP OfficeJet 5255 review!
Some Quick Background
A Home Office Printer
The OfficeJet series of printers consists mainly of household-use printers which can easily fit into most home office workspaces and the model in this HP OfficeJet 5255 review is no different! These models are relatively compact with many of these models utilizing smaller ink cartridges (usually in pairs-color and black); many of these cartridges have two options: Original, and Original XL.
Multiplex of Functionality
Many of these OfficeJet printers have multiple features bundled together in a single product. Printing, scanning/copying, faxing, and document feeders are typical inclusions with many of these devices. These printers are easily identified by both, “All-in-One” and, “e-All-in-One” text in their models.
OfficeJet printers vary in the way they connect to your PC, Mac, Android, or iOS device. However, OfficeJet All-in-One printers generally connect in these ways:
- Apple AirPrint (for Mac OS X, macOS, iOS, and iPadOS devices)
- Wireless Direct Printing (for all wireless-capable devices)
- Wirelessly via Network Interface (for those connected to a single Wi-Fi source)
- Bluetooth (as another means of connecting or finding the device)
- USB (a cable which plugs directly into your Mac or PC—usually the least tedious option)
This means that no matter what your particular technical skill level is or the device(s) you own, you can easily connect this type of printer to almost anything.
Who Is This Type of Printer For?
The model from this HP OfficeJet 5255 review is a great printer for small, at-home offices with multitasking in mind. If you’re not needing scanning, copying, or faxing capabilities, this printer might not be right for you. With a close desktop footprint, a Canon PIXMA TS202
This printer from our HP OfficeJet 5255 review is also not great for volume printing or small office use. If you’re looking for an office color printer, an HP Color LaserJet Pro M255dw might be more suited to your needs.
HP OfficeJet 5255 Review 2025
The Good
Dual-Cartridge System
As we mentioned before in this HP OfficeJet 5255 review, this printer uses a two-cartridge system: one color cartridge and one black cartridge. With typical usage, this printer can readily print over 160 pages in full color and up to 190 pages in black and white. If you are not a repetitious printer, it will be a while before you see the need to change a printer cartridge!
With the easy-to-change cartridge system on the HP OfficeJet 5255, simply pop the top half of the printer up, unclip your color or black cartridge, clip in the new one and close the lid! There is no technical experience necessary to remove these cartridges, unlike LaserJet-type printers and copiers.
All-In-One Functionality
Earlier in this HP OfficeJet 5255 review, we mentioned the various capabilities of these types of machines. This machine has the following features:
- There is an ADF (or Automatic Document Feeder). This feeder provides you the ability to scan up to 35 documents collectively.
- This machine has a flatbed scanner. You can scan individual sheets when necessary.
- The HP OfficeJet 5255 can send faxes. Just load your document into the document feeder or flatbed scanner and with the touch of a button, your document is on its way
- The HP OfficeJet 5255 can copy documents and/or photos. Not only does this printer give you the ability to scan your documents, but it also gives you the functionality to copy them directly from the printer’s panel.
- This printer performs duplex printing right out of the box. No more having to manually orientate your sheets back into the printer to get them to print the wrong way! Simply print your duplex print and then watch the printer slide the page in and out automatically covering both sides perfectly every time.
These features are also great for you if you don’t want to waste desktop space. The HP OfficeJet 5255 takes care of having a printer (which is very close to the same size footprint) alongside a flatbed or ADF-style document scanner (which is usually half the size of a printer) on your desk space.
Having an All-in-One printer also saves you the price of combining an $80 printer with a scanner that could easily cost around $150-$200!
Good for Inconsistent Users
Being that the cartridges have a very limited print capacity, nearly 150-200 prints, not utilizing the printer constantly will not be an issue. For those long periods of being unused, this machine from our HP OfficeJet 5255 review carries a multilevel cartridge cleaning feature. This means that no matter how dry the cartridges get, the clean head can attempt to clean them.
Instant Ink Eligible
Running out of ink is such an inconvenience! If you’ve ever run out of ink in the middle of printing an important document or printout for a presentation while everything was closed, you could understand how stressful it is. With the HP Instant Ink program, you pay a subscription fee that recurs monthly. This fee ensures that you never run out of ink. However, it’s not a monthly subscription where you receive color or black cartridges monthly. This subscription allows your printer to constantly update HP about your ink levels. Once they become low or dangerously low, your printer sends that information to HP, and an order is automatically provided to you at no extra cost.
Good Photo Quality
The printer in this HP OfficeJet 5255 review can print at a resolution of up to 4800 x 1200 dpi (dots per inch). This means you’ll get excellent color photo prints with a low-cost printer. For representation, standard printing usually occurs at 300 dpi or a quarter of the equivalent of this machine’s lowest photo dot matrix. With numbers like these, the HP OfficeJet 5255 prints just as well as many of your on-the-corner pharmacies.
The Bad
Slow
If you’re a home office user with a bit of printing in mind, the printer in this HP OfficeJet 5255 review is going to leave a bad taste in your mouth. Because of its high-quality photo-like resolution (1200 x 1200 dpi in black/4800 x 1200 dpi in color), there is a bit of drag in print speed. With a manufacturer-rating of seven color pages per minute and ten black/white pages per minute, you’ll be seeing a page print roughly every 6-9 seconds! However, if you’re willing to sacrifice speed for quality, then this printer is just right.
Not Built for Volume
Volume printers typically have a high monthly duty cycle (or ability to print without internal maintenance constantly) of over 200,000 pages per month. These types of printers and copiers usually have extendable trays, which expand their capacity to over 7500 sheets of paper. Copiers from this category can easily reach an astounding 50 pages per minute when printing
Quite contrarily, the machine in this HP OfficeJet 5255 review has a very low monthly duty cycle—1000 sheets per month. This OfficeJet 5255 also has a significantly small input tray on the bottom of the device which is capable of holding only a limited capacity of 100 sheets of paper. Couple small capacity with the already slow 7 pages per minute and you have the exact opposite of volume printing.
Inefficient Ink Cartridges
The machine in this HP OfficeJet 5255 review comes standard with two cartridges: HP 63 black and HP 63 Tri-color. As mentioned earlier, there are also the XL cartridges for each of these which save you money in the long run but aren’t very efficient either.
Being lower-capacity ink cartridges with a high cost that will need replacing more often, these ink cartridges are simply not efficient.
Impractical for office Use
Being that typical office print speeds range from twenty to forty pages per minute, this machine falls well below that standard. For example, let’s bring back a machine from earlier in this HP OfficeJet 5255 review, the HP LaserJet Pro m255dw. This machine’s print speeds are adequate for office printing at up to thirty pages per minute for both color and black and white prints—nearly 4.5x faster than the HP OfficeJet 5255.
HP OfficeJet 5255 Review | The Bottom Line
While the HP OfficeJet 5255 has plenty of features, there are a lot of factors to look at if you’re wanting to buy a 5255. For one, having been in the market for over 2 years, it’s a dated piece of equipment. However, the machine nips this in the bud with its array of network connectivity, and compatibility with all modern devices.
Different from some of the desktop printers of today’s time, printers can see print speeds of nearly 13-15 pages per minute—nearly double that of the machine in this HP OfficeJet 5255 review. Having low-capacity ink cartridges at rather steep prices, inflated use of this machine can start to rack up a chunk of change.
You’ll want to be a casual home office user with this machine; its slow printing speeds, pricey cartridges, and cleaning ability are for you if you do not need high-volume, lightning-fast, office-like printing. Again, if you prefer quality over speed, then this printer is perfect for you.
HP OfficeJet 5255 Review 2025 – Final Thoughts
That was our thoughts on the HP OfficeJet 5255! We hope this review served to inform you to make the right decision for buying your next home office printer!
If you loved this HP OfficeJet 5255 review, give us a shout out in the comments below! Be sure to let us know if you have one of these and what you like or don’t like the most about it! Be sure to check out our other guides as well such as our “Top 10 Best All-in-One Printers of 2020” guide!
