HP Smart Tank 750 review: Offers low cost, secure, hassle-free printing

In the box: HP Smart Tank 750 printer, power cable, USB cable, 2 bottles of black ink, 1 bottle each  – cyan, magenta, yellow, printheads

 

We might be living in the digital world today yet the need for printing documents is still imperative for various reasons. But if you cannot completely do away with printing, the least you can do is shortlist a smart printer. And by smart, I don’t mean just wireless connectivity but also low printing cost, which ink tank printers offer, just like HP’s Smart Tank 750.

 

 

Housing features of a commercial-grade printer, the Smart Tank 750 is designed along the lines of the inkjet printers. Measuring 427.54 x 364 x 240.25 mm, it manages to fit in a corner (on a table) without occupying much space. As it weighs 7.70Kg, moving it around was rather easy. The printer is accompanied by the regulars – cables and ink bottles.

 

Setting up the printer was simple and does not require any technical know-how. Just scan the QR code from the smartphone directed to the setup process. All I had to do was plug in the printer, and removed the orange plastic and cardboard pieces to start with. The next step required me to insert the printheads in the respective positions (just the way we install cartridges) and fill the ink in the respective tanks. The printer comes with small 70ml bottles of yellow, cyan and magenta, and two bottles of 135of black. There is a small screen displaying the basic information along with smart guided buttons such as paper input, and WiFi among others. I completed the setup process using the wireless network and instantly the printer was accessible through the Mac devices in less than five minutes. I also installed the HP Smart app, a rather nifty one, for all wireless printing and scanning needs.

As this Smart Tank printer can connect to the wireless network and even create its wireless network, I found the former to be hassle-free. All I had to do was be on the same WiFi network to give a print command without manually adding the printer or even installing the compatible software. Adding to the convenience was the printer’s ability to hold 250-sheets in the input tray for regular printing needs, and the 35-page automatic document feeder that comes in handy for scanning and photocopying documents.

I prefer reading articles in print format over a digital copy. And with the Smart Tank printer in house, I decided to put it to the test. I decided to go for black prints on both sides of the page. To leverage duplexing printing feature, I was able to switch the setting while giving the print command. The printer's duplexing feature worked perfectly fine, there was a pause of about a few seconds before the machine started printing on the opposite side, letting the ink dry and not smear on the page. The Smart Tank 750 was able to print around 21 black pages per minute and 20 colour printers per minute. I also used the auto document feeder to scan a few pages and it worked smoothly. The document scanning was clean and quick. Both the print and scan quality were great and there wasn’t any instance of paper jam.

 

Most importantly, HP says this printer has a secure boot that helps make sure that a device boot with the software trusted by the Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) and immediately stops if it’s compromised. In addition, it validates memory code and stops functioning if not authentic. Even the write memory is protected avoiding the introduction of malicious codes while the printer is running.

 

Although priced on the higher side – Rs 23,147 for this one, the print cost per page comes out to be significantly lower – 10 paise for black and 20 paise for coloured. HP claims the accompanied ink is good enough for printing up to 8000 colour or 6000 black pages from the Original Ink including in the box. And I couldn’t agree anymore. Been using the HP SmartTank 530 for almost a year, and I haven’t run out of the accompanied ink yet. Most importantly, unlike the cartridges, the ink doesn’t dry if not used regularly.

 

Having a wide portfolio of ink tank printers for home and small/medium office setups, the Smart Tank 750 is ideal for the heavy print load. It onboards some of the features from the corporate-style large format printers such as duplex printing, automatic document feeder, security, etc., in a rather small footprint.

 

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