Office printing in the pre-Covid era was all about big, full-function network printers. Now, with many of today’s employees evenly splitting their time between their homes and offices, there is a growing need for affordable, easy-to-use, and smart printing solutions. Quite frankly, when shopping for a printer for home use, you’re likely looking for something versatile enough to satisfy everyone’s needs. Your family might need to copy documents to sign, scan delicate old photos, or print long essays or reports at a moment’s notice. Then, having good scanning features is important to ensure you can digitise your work quickly and efficiently, while a low cost-per-print is a must to help keep you within your budget.
Trust me, a new-age printer from HP meets all the above-mentioned requirements – print, scan, copy. We are talking about HP’s new range of Smart Tank printers designed for the everyday printing needs of home users, micro and small businesses. Our trial unit was the HP Smart Tank 580. Available at Rs 18,848, it is affordable, easy to use and setup, and comes with plenty of smart features, and better connectivity – including self-healing Wi-Fi and mobility with Smart App and Smart Advance.
Let’s take a look at some of its key features.
HP Smart Tank 580 is an A4 colour Inkjet all-in-one printer, that is perfect for home. You can print, copy, scan, upto 12,000 black pages and 6,000 colour pages for uninterrupted printing with a pre-filled ink supply. To get started, use the mobile-guided, step-by-step animations to quickly set up your printer. You can monitor and maintain ink levels with integrated ink sensors. Once synced with the home network, you get fast connections using self-healing Wi-Fi. There’s auto on/auto off technology, so you can turn your printer on when you need it and off when you don’t.
The HP Smart App offers intuitive smart-guided buttons to guide through everyday print, scan, copy and fax tasks. It automatically detects IDs and prints with the ID copy button. Plus, there is HP Wolf Essential Security to protect sensitive information as today’s families continue to work and learn from the comfort of their home.
During the evaluation period, the HP Smart Tank 580 came across as a nifty machine that does a good job at print, scan or copy. It’s a great choice for households and small businesses that print a lot. It prints black and colour documents well and does so at a decent speed, churning out the first black page as early as 14 seconds while the colour one takes 21 seconds to print.
Overall, the HP Smart Tank 580 is a good choice for households and small offices.
KEY FEATURES
- Functions: Print, scan, copy
- Connectivity: Self-healing Wi-Fi, Wi-Fi Direct, Hi-speed USB
- Print speed: Upto 12 ppm black/5 ppm colour
- Paper handling: 100-sheet input tray, 30-sheet output tray
- User interface: Smart-guided backlit buttons, ID copy
- Best for: Home and small offices
- Estimated street price: Rs 18,848