The HP Envy 6055 All-in-One is an affordable printer that makes it into our Editors’ Choice list, thanks to its excellent prints and for being a perfect all-rounder with an included scanner. It has decent features, looks great in most aspects, despite its relatively low asking price.
We recently reviewed the HP Envy 6020e; both printers share the design footprint. The body is made from plastic, not seen a metallic printer, though, but it feels solid and the power cable can be detached, hence can be replaced, unlike some printers with permanent cables. It has a small profile, measuring 5.1 x 17.1 x 14.2 inches, and weighs 11.5 pounds.
Design
With its compact form factor, the HP 5SE16A makes for a perfect candidate for offices with limited space. However, while you’d purchase it to conserve space, just remember to leave enough headroom to get the scanner lid up, should you need to use it.
On the front section, there are five lit touch button controls, and nothing else. Most of the interaction will be done via the app. While that seems like a lot of work for some, for others, it makes usage easier with minimal clutter and super easy to setup and use.
Print Quality
Not the fastest printer in the room – it’s a budget printer, but it still offers good print quality. You’re getting a good six pages per minute in black and white or four per minute if you’ll be doing color. For photo printing specifically, it takes around a minute for a 4 x 6-inch color photo.
Color quality on the Envy 6055 is pretty impressive, delivering well-toned, punchy prints that are within the defined range. Each color is clear, with plenty of detail, making for great photo printing – or at the very least, decent for an all-in-one.
On the downside, the Envy 6055 fails to impress on tone, which appears somehow washed out. The same can be said for the black which lacks the depth you’d ordinarily find on other photo printers. For the very keen eye, its possible to pick a little banding in the grayscale, but for the rest of us, it will go unnoticed.
HP ENVY 6055 Features
One of the great features here must be the HP app. It makes setup super simple, with just one-page instructions. Yes, just one and you can scan the QR code directly. A single scan will get you the app which will take you through setup for ink, paper and Wi-Fi. In total, you’ll spend under 10 minutes from setup to ready to print. Impressive.
Another impressive feature here is the scanner. Since the Envy 6055 All-in-One is I our list of photo printers, the scanner makes it stand out against dedicated photo printer, which often comes without this feature. The scanner’s max copying speeds are eight pages per minute in black and while or four pages per minute in color, at 300 x 300 dpi resolution.
The HP Envy 6055 offers a 1200 x 1200 dpi black and white resolution, backed by a respectable 4800 x 1200 resolution for color prints. The color is delivered via a four-color ink color cartridge, but the black cartridge is separate. Yup, just two making it easy to replace. This may not be ideal – though, especially if you print a single color too often since that will mean changing color cartridges for just one color while wasting the others.
Bottom Line
The HP Envy All-in-One stands out as a fine printer for anyone looking to print color photos but would also make use of scanner and copier features. With its compact profile, it’s equally a great candidate for small offices with limited space and ease of use. And, if you need a printer that’s easy to setup and use without too many extras, this should be it.
However, with the simplicity comes a few tradeoffs including lack of a display on the printer, and it can’t print the highest quality photos. Also, since it comes with only a single-color ink cartridge, meaning if you’ll be printing a single color often, you’ll spend more than average.
That said, the HP Envy 6055 All-in-One is a decent printer for an at-home school setup, a college dorm, and definitely great for a home office with exciting features including scan and copy capabilities as well. It’s our newest Editors’ choice for budget All-in-One printers.
Recommended Configuration
HP OfficeJet Pro 8025 All-in-One Wireless Printer, Smart Home Office Productivity, HP Instant Ink, Works with Alexa (1KR57A)
The Review
HP Envy 6055
The HP Envy 6055 All-in-One stands out as a fine printer for anyone looking to print color photos but would also make use of scanner and copier features
PROS
- Easy to use and setup
- Quite affordable
- Quality photo prints
CONS
- Lacks dedicated photo printer quality
Review Breakdown
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EDITORS RATING
