HP Smart-Tank 7001 Wireless All-in-One Printer (28B49A)

Works well and the ink seems to last. Good speed of print

If i had internet…I think this printer would have been wonderful. The refills for the ink are amazing! Much easier to refill, cheaper than buying the little cartridges. Wonderful.

Negatives…wifi. I don’t have it. And if I’m printing from my phone, I can’t really do a Hotspot kinda thing. There’s a lot of hassle trying to get things printed off my phone. And it’s wireless…so no USB for hooking to your computer. Again, horrible if you have no wifi. You can work around it, but it’s gonna take some time.

Color quality is nice! Picture quality worked well. Not necessarily out of this world, but very nice. Print quick enough. Not super speed, but not slow!

First let’s begin with the cost of this device. I was a willing participant in this experiment. The device certainly is aesthetically pleasing to the eye. I will give HP credit there. However when you start looking at the value offered by this device you may want to start looking at different options. The price point for this printer, after taxes, exceeds $400. I was willing to pay amount that for a reliable and well designed, tank-based printer. Here are some of the things that caused me to return this for a refund:

1) The scanner: The entire scanner led light source continuously blinks 24 hours a day, once per second. I thought this was a broken printer. The HP agent on the phone also thought it was a failed printer. It turns out someone at HP thought it was a BRILLIANT idea to have the scanner blink in perpetuity in order for it to detect when the platen was lifted so it could illuminate 3 to 4 buttons. The platen has a tiny, white 1/4 inch block, attached to it that the scanner uses to determine if the platen is up or down. In my mind it is one of the dumbest design decisions I have encountered. I may use the scanner once every 3 months. I would have to watch that silly scanner blink millions of times for absolutely no reason. From my seated position, I can see the scanner blinking even with the platen down through a gap in the front, especially with the room lights turned off. It’s a waste of scanner LED longevity and energy. A properly designed device would use a hall effect switch, a physical switch or a dedicated sensor for this function. HP decided it was a great idea to save a few pennies on a dedicated sensor for one of their more expensive home based printers.

2) The paper tray: I really wanted a paper tray with my printer. I did not want to deal with rear feeding “ski-slope” type paper sources. The tray is there but is clunky at best. There is no rear guide for the paper to rest against. It seems like paper can slide back & forth. There is clearly a line delineating the 8.5×11 position but there is no adjustable guide or block to ensure the paper cannot move. The tray does have proper side-guides though. I thought the tray was missing components. IT IS NOT. This is their design.

3) The control panel: It is minimalistic at best. For me it was not a deal breaker. I can live without the big fancy color touch screens but in retrospect when I see a printer at the $150 price point range with full duplex ADF’s and color screens it makes we wonder where my $400+ went. Let’s face it folks. There is no “new” mind bending technology here. It is the same old ink-jet technology we have been using for years with large bottles for an ink source.

4) The support: It takes a while to set the printer up on the network. It has no ethernet jack and it certainly has no control panel to enter WiFi credentials and such. You must jump through hoops connecting it via USB, creating a printer, connecting to the printer and setting up WiFi credentials, deleting the original printer and adding the newly discovered WiFi device. Once it is setup the rest is easy squeezy. However when I called HP about the blinking scanner issue the first thing they have you do is completely initialize the printer, losing all the work you have done setting up the printer the first time. I told the rep I just took the device out of the box and it was blinking all the time. After I initialized it and the problem persisted, the rep wanted me to send the unit to them so they could ship me a refurbished unit. I don’t know about most but if my printer is less than a day old I don’t want a refurbished unit taking its place. To make matters worse the HP agent did not really know the equipment. They just follow a talk track. At this price point I do not want this level of service. I had to do my own research and testing to find out why the scanner blinks. HP sending a refurbished unit would only leave me with the exact same problem and no way to return it for a refund. No one at HP.com would acknowledge or deny what was occurring with the scanner. The scanner did work as expected when commanded though. After the scan job was complete it would resume the “blinky” routine.

So that this does not appear to be an attempted assassination of this printer, here are some of the things I did like:

1) The tank system was easy to fill
2) The print heads were replaceable…good for keeping the printer in top working condition over the years
3) The simplistic look and color scheme of the printer. It looked very modern and blended well with my surroundings.
4) The print quality seemed good for the short time I had it and it had good print speed.
5) The driver and PC interface. I did not use the phone based installer because it required me to set up some cloud account which I was never going to use. I downloaded the actual PC-based enterprise installer and deployed it this way. The driver is well designed and the internal web interface of the printer makes a number of options available that would otherwise be impossible to display on the tiny black and white LCD screen.

 The HP Smart Tank 7001 is a game-changer for families seeking seamless printing solutions. With its high-capacity ink tank and wireless connectivity, it simplifies the printing process from start to finish. Offering features like automatic 2-sided printing, borderless prints, and mobile connectivity, it’s versatile for various needs. Moreover, its exceptional quality ensures vivid color graphics, photos, and crisp text every time. With up to two years of Original HP Ink included, and a simple, spill-free refill system, it’s perfect for low-cost, high-volume printing.

Facile à installer et à utiliser j’ai beaucoup aimé et je la recommande vivement

The one thing I learned during setup is not to push the wifi button during setup until AFTER you have set the wifi up. The instructions were a bit hard to follow, and worse yet—this was not started until after I did research after I learned my lesson. I thought pushing the button would help the computer find my wifi. If you, like me, push the wifi button during setup before it’s connected, you’re forced to do a hard reset…GOOD LUCK!!

And I’ll be also completely blunt…under no circumstances do you want to call tech support if you run into issues! YouTube videos were way more helpful! However, this is an amazing printer so far.

My PROS: I was looking for a printer that would do colour printing, print on cardstock, have a tank rather than cartridges, and Do duplex printing…. And this was the only printer I could find that fit the bill. As a homeschool mom, I print A LOT, and had an EcoTank prior to this printer. I was so frustrated by what every homeschooler seemed to call a dream. The capacity of printed pages was very minimal and the printer would not print on cardstock. It also has issues with connectivity. This printer holds more printed material and makes printing a breeze. I don’t have any issues with wifi now. The printheads are also replaceable, unlike any other printer…and they’re easy to install!

My CONS: Tech support is excruciating to deal with. Not only is it outsourced, but it’s painfully slow and not the most helpful. It was a bit tricky to setup, but once it was done, I had no issues with it. Second, if you’re looking to print pictures, do NOT choose this printer. Printing on photo paper makes the ink smear as it doesn’t fully dry on the page. It’s not a photo printer!

All-in-all, I debated between a 3- and a 4- star rating, finally settling on the 4 because the printer is working exactly like I need it to!