Verdict
HP may be a relative latecomer to ink tank impression , but with the HP Smart Tank 5105 it ’s pretty much nailed it . Only its vexing scan interface and at leisure colour print speeds detract from an excellent small multi - function printer , which present exceptionally good value . If you want low - price home printing process and scanning , it ’s a great pick .
Pros
Cons
Key Features
Introduction
The HP Smart Tank 5105 is a relatively basic multifunction printer ( MFP ) , with refillable ink tanks .
It can publish , scan and imitate , but it ca n’t broadcast or receive faxes . It also does n’t have semidetached house ( double - sided ) printing or scanning , or a specially sophisticated paper tray .
Still , there ’s Wi - Fi , so it ’s well-heeled to connect and divvy up on your plate connection . If you do n’t run a particularly busy dwelling house office , it could have everything you need .
Design and features
HP is a relative newcomer when it derive to refillable ink tank printing process . Epson ’s EcoTank printing machine have been around for nearly a 10 , with Canon ’s first MegaTank stove come about five years ago . By line , HP snuck out its first refillable printers at the end of 2019 , and this is the first chance we ’ve had to look back one .
The HP 5105 sits towards the bottom of the brand ’s spring up Smart Tank range . It ’s a simple MFP , with an exposed report feed at the rear and no fancy paper handling features . Its image scanner does n’t have an automatic document eater , so it ’s not idealistic if you ’ll on a regular basis make multi - page scans or copies .
The on - twist control are reasonably canonic , too . There ’s a simple mono show , couple with dedicated black and colour , and ID simulate push . Pressing them repeatedly increase the number of copy to be made .
The 5105 go far empty , with four enceinte nursing bottle of ink . The first line of work is to disgorge their content into the tank at the front of the printing machine . The bottles wo n’t leak out , but they may call for a small wiggle to encourage the ink to commence enfeeble .
While the Epson and Canon system include shaped plastic to preclude you offering a feeding bottle to the wrong tank , this one does n’t – it ’s critically significant to double - check you ’re fill a tank with the good gloss .
The next job is to fit out the print heads . It ’s a one - off job , and no more complex than inserting cartridges into a stock HP printer . I had to poke at the promontory toter slightly to get it into the right shoes – if it ’s not , the border charge card will prevent you inserting the cartridge .
While other ink armoured combat vehicle printers expend a good 5 - 10 minutes on ink priming , I was surprised that this one was gayly delivering a standardization Sir Frederick Handley Page within moment . It then seemed to constrict on with some housework , but this did n’t get in the way of finishing the setup . I used the HP Smart app to join it to my meshwork , after which I finished my tests using the full PC software , available by research for HP ’s Easy Start app .
Like other ink tank printers , the Smart Tank 5105 certainly is n’t cheap . You ’d usually expect to pay around £ 60 - 70 for a printing machine with this specification , not £ 200 . But it ’s important to look at the entire price of possession . A £ 60 printer would in all likelihood cost around 9p a color Sir Frederick Handley Page to impress , so if you bought it and print 6000 Page over its life-time you ’d pay near £ 600 .
This HP printer comes with roughly 6,000 pages worth of ink , so printing that much would n’t cost you any more than you give for the 5105 itself . The economy add up up over time : practice up the supplied ink and you ’ll discover that save it in ink price only around 0.7p per colour Sir Frederick Handley Page .
One significant caveat is that it can take home users some time to reach these kinds of volumes – many home printers wo n’t attain 6000 pageboy over their life-time . For this intellect , it ’s critical to sleep together that a refillable printing machine will last long enough for you to recoup your initial investment through ink delivery . Happily , HP is backing the Smart Tank 5105 up with a three - class warranty , although this take adjustment .
Print speed and quality
I ’ve had some issue set up up HP printers recently , but I could conjoin the HP Smart Tank 5105 to my web with no problem , and it did n’t give me any hassle at all during testing . It ’s not a particularly prompt printing machine , demand 35 seconds to produce a first varlet of text , and taking exactly a minute on our five - page mental test .
Printers are often quicker when you inquire them to make many copies of a single Thomas Nelson Page , and on this trial the 5105 birth a first Sir Frederick Handley Page of textbook in 16 indorsement , and went on to attain 10.9 pages per minute ( ppm ) . That ’s not quick , but it ’s quite acceptable for a comparatively low-cost abode printer .
I saw a similar pattern with color graphics printing . This printing machine blithely clap out five copies of our sundry text and art page at a fair 4.5ppm . However , faced with a long test with some more complex graphic content , it limped along at an underwhelming 1.7ppm .
We screen photo printing at the gamey potential print quality which , on an HP printer , means delving into the preferences to ticktock the ‘ Print at Max DPI ’ loge . I soon wish well I had n’t : I literally had time to make and feed lunch in the 28 minutes it took to print six borderless , mailing-card - sized photos .
Happily , the wait is broadly worthwhile . unembellished paper photographic print timber was passing ripe . Black school text was dark and shrewd , all the way down to a 5pt minimal size . color graphics were exceptionally good , with no obvious striation or woodgraining – two common inkjet grumbles .
unluckily this run of good human body did n’t stretch out to photo prints . While they were fine for occasional use , skin tones were jolly wash out , and our black and livid test exposure had a slight green chromaticity . The color truth of photocopies was n’t perfect , either , but they were well exposed , without too much loss of detail in darker sphere .
The HP Smart Tank 5105 has a expert enough scanner for office use , capturing A4 documents sharply at down to medium closure . It needed 11 seconds to discharge a prevue , or a 150 dots per in ( dpi ) scan of an A4 text file , while a 300dpi scan guide 20 seconds . I ’m not a massive fan of HP ’s TWAIN scan port , which does n’t follow the Preview / Scan formatting more typically found in other software , but it ’s well-heeled enough to apply once you get used to it .
eminent resolution scans of photo were n’t regretful , but like many other HP scanners I ’ve tested , when I surge in they showed signs of digital sharpening . As with my complaints about the photo timber , this would be unlikely to matter in occasional use , but I would n’t urge this MFP if you ’ll be doing a lot of high resolution scanning .
It needed a extended 49 seconds to fill out a 600dpi scan of a 10x15 centimetre picture , and more than two and a half minutes for the same job at the maximal 1200dpi .
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Should you buy it?
:
The HP Smart Tank 5105 redeem decent results for a sane price
This MFP is n’t the near at pic printing or high - resolve scanning
Final Thoughts
I ’ve often been critical of HP ’s ink pricing for those who do n’t need to prefer an Instant Ink subscription . The HP Smart Tank 5105 side step that totally . you could just buy cheesy HP ink when you involve it – sodding .
Not only does this MFP have very depressed run toll , broadly in line with other ink - tankful printers , but it ’s fairly affordable in the first place , perhaps underlining increasing rivalry between the big brands . While the HP Smart Tank 5105 wo n’t suit everyone , it really is a keen time value all - purpose home MFP , provided you ’ll apply it to impress more than a couple of thousand page in its life .
If you do n’t think you ’ll be printing that frequently , then check out ourbest printerround - up for extra choice .
Trusted Score
How we test
Every printer we survey operate through a series of uniform checks designed to gauge key thing including print quality , focal ratio and cost .
We ’ll also compare the feature with other printing machine at the same price point to see if you ’re nonplus good value for your money .
FAQs
They can take a small more stage setting up , peculiarly if you involve to fit their print heads . However , once set up they normally require less maintenance . Often a single charge of ink will last for thousands of pages , whereas you ’ll be lucky to get a few hundred from a set of cartridges .
