HP Envy 5530 Printer : and never running out of ink again!

I’m sure you’ve seen the adverts.  I know I have, and was extremely intrigued by the concept of buying a HP (Hewlett Packard) printer and never running out of ink again.  Well all this week I’ve been testing out the HP Envy 5530. Now I am a frustrated printer, as it always seems to be that we are run out of ink when me most need something to be printed off. Homework, forms we need to fill out, and deadlines that need to be met.  I’ve lost count actually, it’s as if the ink evaporates?  I also think that buying ink is extremely expensive, so was keen to know if this scheme would work for us and save money.

So how does it work?

Well, once you purchase an eligible HP printer there is also included an enrolment card to the scheme.  There is no start-up or annual fee, just the monthly fee.

You enrol on-line, choosing which of the three plans you want to go for.  Don’t worry though you can change this at a later date if you need to.

 

Also if you print less in a month, those pages roll over – terms and conditions apply.  When the scheme talks about pages per month it’s also important to note that it’s the same whether the ‘page’ is a colour, black and white document, or a photograph! This really surprised me.  There are currently 5 eligible printers for this scheme, so you do need one of those.  You also need a connection to the internet, an email address and a credit or debit card for the monthly payments.

Now here’s the clever bit, because you printer is connected to the internet, it automatically orders the ink for you when it is starting to run low. It even takes into account delivery times and regular ink usage into account. HP recycles the ink cartridge packaging, which is another definite plus.  The ink is delivered directly to you door!

Putting it to the test!

Now there was some ink in the printer box ( and I have been delivered my first lot, as part of scheme too) and it was incredible easy to install.  The box comes with a A4 instruction sheet.  Once the printer is plugged in and ink added, I hopped onto my laptop and visited the hpconnected.com site, selected the device and added it. So simple!

Now I really like to give things a thorough test before I review them on the blog and I’ve tried printing off various thing, to see what the quality was like.

First up, I tried printing out some gift tags for a project I’m doing.  They are supposed to look like chalkboard…

I was extremely happy with the results, you can see the chalkboard quality really clearly, and the printing was precise to how the image should look.

Now printing a document, I’m not going to show you, as they came out perfectly as I would expect.  I did however want to show you the quality of the photograph printing.  As this is a photograph of a photograph, viewed on your PC screen or device it’s not the best representation of the quality.

The photographs above were printed in best (left) and normal (right). The quality is fantastic and I’m extremely pleased, good enough to frame.

So overall I am thrilled with the HP Envy 5530. It works well for me, easy to set up, and provides excellent printing quality.  According to the statistics, as I am on the moderate printing scheme that is £3.49 per month I should save £162 per year.  In fact I think I’m saving more than that, and that’s my sanity, I will never be a frustrated printer again!

Printer available at John Lewis for £79.99 –

I was given the printer and a years enrolment to the scheme in order to do my review.  All feedback given is honest and my own words.