HP DeskJet 4155e Review

Even an era where home users tend not to print a whole lot, there are still times when you have to print the kids’ school papers, copy an ID or scan a form for work. That's when you reach for an all-in-one printer. In my rigorous tests of eleven printers, the HP DeskJet 4155e was my pick for the best value home printer. This model strikes a good mix of features and performance, and it does so at a bargain price.

During recent testing, the HP DeskJet 4155e was my pick for best value home printer.

This model stands out in part because it includes a feature you don't often find in a budget printer: an automatic document feeder (ADF). An ADF lets you scan or copy a stack of pages instead of placing them one by one on a flatbed—a tedious chore, to say the least. But it has many other points in its favor as well—including solid print output and a friendly mobile app. Read on to learn more about why the HP DeskJet 4155e stands out among its competitive set.

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Printer type: Inkjet | Features: Print/copy/scan/fax | Rated print speed: 8.5 ppm (black) / 5.5 ppm (color) | Duty cycle: Up to 1,000 pages | Print resolution: Up to 4,800 x 1,200 dpi | Scan resolution: 1,200 x 1,200 dpi | Total paper tray capacity: 60 sheets | Ink: 2 cartridges

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The HP DeskJet 4155e's appearance belies its price: Modeled in an elegant white with a sloped front and tapered base, this printer won't drag down your desk with "cheap printer" vibes. Rather, it has a modern, polished look.

There is one deceiving thing about that look, though: While admirably compact at 13.1 x 16.9 x 7.9 inches, the HP DeskJet 4155e needs a fair amount of front and rear clearance to accommodate its input and output trays. The former tilts out from the back and holds just 60 sheets, so plan on reloading paper often.

The paper tray is also kind of a pain, forcing you to lean way over the printer to see what you’re doing, since the ADF partially obstructs the view). Its sliding paper guide is particularly tricky to navigate, as it's both hard to see and hard to reach. If you switch among standard paper, photo paper, envelopes and the like, you might prefer a printer with a front-loading tray. The advantage here is that this design provides a fairly straight paper path, so heavier paper or envelopes won't curl on their way through.

HP's Smart app makes setup fairly easy, no thanks to HP's terse, incomplete instruction manual. Curiously, ink cartridge installation isn't even mentioned there; for that you have to look at a separate reference guide. And speaking of cartridges, the HP DeskJet 4155e's ink access panel is deeply recessed and difficult to open.

Like all all-in-ones, the HP DeskJet 4155e prints, copies and scans. The aforementioned ADF can hold 35 sheets, though it doesn't do double-sided scanning—not surprising for a model at this low price. Similarly, the printer doesn't do double-sided printing, at least not without manual intervention.

The HP DeskJet 4155e can handle multi-page scanning using the 35-sheet auto document feeder.

The HP DeskJet 4155e has a basic control panel, with a small, non-backlit status LCD, and seven buttons spread out on either side of the display. On the right, press the color or monochrome button to make copies; press multiple times to increase the number of copies. The left buttons are less intuitive (you’d think pressing "i" would merely show information on the LCD, but instead it immediately prints an information page).

Although the printer can't do landline faxing, it can handle faxing via the HP Smart app. You can scan documents on the printer or use your phone, then send them via an HP faxing service that's currently free. However, this is for sending only; you can't receive faxes via machine or app.

HP Smart also puts a lot of the machine's core functions—printing and scanning—at your fingertips. Tap "Printables" to access a large library of greetings cards, crafts, coloring pages and more. I especially like the user-configurable Shortcuts menu, which lets you set up automated multi-step tasks like "scan to Google Drive" or "print, email, and save." It may seem a small thing, but the Smart app really adds to this printer's appeal.

The HP DeskJet 4155e took nearly two minutes to print my ten-page sample document, which consists of charts, photos and text in a variety of fonts and font sizes. Competing yet similarly priced models from Brother MFC-J1010DW and Canon Pixma MG3620 finished the job quite a bit faster: 1 minute, 5 seconds and 1 minute, 30 seconds, respectively. I suspect that for everyday tasks, printing off a page here or there, the average home user won't notice the HP's slightly slower speed. However, if you have a larger print job, I can see where the time can add up.

It produced photos at a faster clip, easily outpacing the Brother on my 4 x 6-inch test images. These prints came out smooth and sharp, albeit with colors that seemed a touch muted. In my sample PDF, though, the HP DeskJet 4155e delivered the best results of any budget printer: dark, sharp text and vibrantly colored graphics.

How does the HP DeskJet 4115e "perform" when it comes to ink? Like the HP OfficeJet Pro 9015e, it comes with a 6-month HP Instant Ink trial when you sign up for HP+ (a free service that also bumps up the warranty to two years), so you can decide if an ink subscription works for you. You could pay as little as $1 per month to make sure you never run out, though this allows for just 10 printed pages per month. By contrast, à la carte replacement cartridges coast about $32 per standard set. (A high yield set runs about $53.) HP estimates you’ll get 100 pages from the standard black cartridge and 120 from the color one, which equates to around 14.5 cents per page.

The HP DeskJet 4155e may be a slower paper-handler than competing budget printers, but it does a better job of printing text and graphics than either the Brother MFC- J1010DW or Canon Pixma MG3620, both of which I also tested. That said, the Brother ran a very close second, offering a slightly superior feature set (ADF and automatic duplexing) but that model was bogged down by its difficult setup and dated software on desktop and mobile alike.

Although I sometimes found the HP DeskJet's small, awkward input tray a little frustrating, it's a very competent printer, scanner and copier that has a very low up-front cost. And it has the best companion app of any home printer.

As a writer with over 30 years’ experience covering consumer technology, I’ve used or tested just about every kind of printer imaginable. My work has appeared everywhere from CNET to Yahoo, and I’m the author of the weekly newsletter Deal Secrets, which shares great bargains and unique ways to save money. My expertise there helped to inform this review, in which I paid close attention to not only the price of the printer, but also its consumables.

While print speed and quality are obviously key factors in evaluating any printer, I also focused on real-world considerations like ease of setup, ease of use and overall versatility.

To gauge speed, I kept it simple: Starting with a ten-page PDF document containing a mixture of text, graphics and photos, I loaded Hammermill 20-pound copy paper into the 4155e, clicked "Print," and clocked how long it took for the final page to appear. I examined these pages for text weight and sharpness as well as image quality and color.

As for photos, I believe they’re less of a priority for home users—and especially home-office users—than in years past, and therefore weighted photo print quality lower than some of the aforementioned considerations (like cost of consumables). That said, I printed various 4 x 6-inch test images on standard glossy paper. And instead of starting with my PC, I sent the photos from HP's Smart app—an obvious decision given that most modern photos are snapped on phones.