HP ENVY 6055e Wireless Color Inkjet Printer, Print, scan, copy, Easy setup, Mobile printing

I needed a printer for the odd occasional use for a MacBook. I had an old envy 4500 that was about 10 years old that finally tanked. I read the reviews here and at first I was concerned but I decided to go for it because the other printers were way too much for the few print jobs I need to do.

The printer was easy to set up, remove the packaging materials and turn it on. (I tend to not print out the alignment sheet because it burns through the color ink). The printer has a cycling glowing purple light and it sleeps in a low blue light with a green light on the side. I just turn the printer off when not in use. It has a button for color copies and a button for black and white copies. A cancel button, and an info button–no display, it’s very basic.

I purchased a USB printer cable also on Amazon and plugged the printer into my Mac (should work with Windows too). Note, once you plug into the printer cable, it seems that connecting to WiFi is disabled.

From there, you can get to the printer’s web page which lets you play with all the settings. I turned on web print and disabled blue tooth (which I believe is used by the HP app that I didn’t install).

That’s it. I can still print remotely to the printer from the sofa via web print, or print directly from my plugged in Mac.

I didn’t install any apps, I didn’t get the printer on WiFI to get it talking to HP, and I didn’t subscriber to any ink subscription service.

Super easy. I hope this is useful for someone to make an informed decision for their printing needs.

I would recommend to a friend and I would purchase this again.

The printer hooked up to WIFI first try, which is unusual for HP Printers.
I wasted money on their Instant Ink service for the last three HP printers I’ve owned, all of them 3700 series. None of them would stay connected to my network if they even connected at all! Every few days I got an email saying my printer isn’t connected. So I’d spend an hour trying to get it back online but it never lasted very long. I was paying for ink I didn’t get to use! I called Customer Service and they weren’t much help. Their attitude is buy a new HP printer! Each time they did give me a few months service for free but I seldom was able to print.

Why did I buy another HP? I had three important print jobs and only a couple of days. The only thing I found online that could be shipped overnight was the Envy and it was reasonably priced.

This printer connected easily and stayed online like it should! Everything works and it prints fine.

I guess I got lucky on this one!

Ok, so the fancy animated RGB lighting worked great… and the cute music when it starts up works great…. Installed Mac software, connected to WIFI, setting options, all good. Tried to sign up for the REQUIRED HP+ subscription in their app… waiting…. waiting…. waiting…. 10 minutes go by… still spinning… Rebooted everything, went back in…. same result. Never loaded up where I was supposed to make an account.

So, I decided to try to do it from their phone app. Phone app worked great. Created a user profile and mailing address. Installed paper and ink. The setup software tried to print a test page. I heard the printer move a bit, then it just stopped. No error. No print. No nothin. Unplugged printer AGAIN. Went back in. Could NOT find a place to print a test page anywhere. Maybe it’s in there somewhere, but it sure wasn’t obvious.

Pulled up a text file on my phone to print. Guess what? Now it says there’s a problem with the ink. Of course, it didn’t say what the problem was. So I took it out and put it back in. Then it said I’m not using genuine HP ink, even though I’m using the HP ink that came in the box with the printer.

Then I noticed in the app that there was a notification in the supplies section. But when I went in to read the message, all it said is, “Your most recent notifications will appear here.” Well that’s helpful…. One more reboot of the printer and it finally decided I had the correct ink. I was actually able to print a file. (About an hour after I started.) The print looked good enough. It was what I expected it to be.

Next I went back to the Mac app. Since I already had an account at this point, the software worked fine now.

All the high tech bells and whistles look like they were well done…. But I didn’t buy it for RGB lighting and cute melodies. Unfortunately we apparently still can’t design a printer that works straight out of the box every time, even in 2021.

“My transparent review of The HP ENVY 6000 Series” I RATED THE PRODUCT WITH 5 STARS EASILY AND WITH A FULL RECOMMENDATION.
Well, first thing first…, In 2008 I purchased an HP DeskJet 3512 printer (print, scan, and copy). It also had the capability of connecting to the Internet which was optional. Just like anything else, it quit working and I had to replace it. I am on the tech savvy side of things and this helped me to maintain my HP_3512 printer for lasting as long as it did. Anyway, The HP ENVY 6000 Series caught my attention after exploring other brand-name printers. As I read the bitter and sweet reviews from different purchasers, I remembered the same thing when I decided to purchase the HP DeskJet 3512 printer. The bottom line on that is you can give it a 5 star rating depending on how you understood the instructions and followed them as written. Now, my previous Hewlett-Packard printer was connected to my desktop via USB cable and The HP ENVY 6000 Series was also connected to my desktop via USB cable. Looking at the setup guide, you simply do what it says… Number 1. Remove the packaging, tape, and cardboard. Number 2. I placed it down by my Dell PC desktop and first plugged it in. The unit then automatically powered on. Just like the instructions says in (step 2) you will need to wait until the printer lightning turns purple. INTERJECTION HERE_ my Dell PC desktop is using Windows 10 with 64 bits. Keeping away from any conflicts, I went to my ‘Settings’ and made sure I removed the old HP DeskJet 3512 printer from the Devices “printers and scanners section” From there, I used the same USB cable from the old printer and connected it to The HP ENVY 6000 Series. Now, when you get to step 3. You have the choice to hook it up with your iPhone or PC. I chose to do it using my desktop. Although the chrome browser is set up on my Android phone, 123.HP.com refused allowing me to connect because I probably needed the Apple iOS or iPadOS. Apparently my Android phone lacked the secured hardware or software program for a performance connection. Nevertheless, I made the connection using my desktop with the USB Cable, downloaded, and installed the software on my computer. Obviously, you want to make sure you have your paper and ink already in place during the HP Smart app installation. The easy part here is to lift up the scanner section and allow the printer to go through a 2 or 3 minutes sequence. Then you’ll notice the color-black carriage automatically move into position so you can install your ink cartridges. Nevertheless, you will complete step 3. This is the online process for setting up the printer to work on your computer and hopefully successful. Then you go to step 4. Simply follow the instructions to connect the printer to a network and activate HP + features;during this part, I opted in to take advantage of the six-month free ink offer. In my case, I don’t use a whole lot of paper or copying. As of now, I have activated up to Jul. 2024.. I had success with this without any problems. Moreover, I am able to use my Android to do printing and copying online. You can either choose the Apple Store or Google apps offering a large number of applications to install on your iPhone connecting your printer to a Wi-Fi link. I chose the Airprint app to do my printing using my Android. I made the HP ENVY 6000 Series purchase during January 10, 2024 from Amazon. The company delivered the product around 5 PM on January 11. Of course, HP have their reasons for you connecting your printer through Wi-Fi using your iPhone rather than connecting through your desktop or laptop. I just preferred using the USB cable as everything is working great. After shutting down my desktop, I also shut down my printer. I took this action because
I prefer all lights turned off when I shut down my computer system. So, during Friday 12, I turned my computer back on and powered up my printer which automatically connected to the Wi-Fi without any problems. In conclusion, I had no problems with the installation nor am I having problems with the printer so far. However, if I have problems further down the road, I will do another review. Therefore, I have rated the product with 5 stars and do recommend it as a good purchase.

This is a review of HP’s approach to this printer.
First the light that stays on on the printer. The picture of this product is very deceptive; it does not show just how bright that blue-ish light really is and stays on 24/7/365. If you keep this printer in your room, that light will illuminate almost the entire room at night and the wavelength of the blue light is such that it keeps you from sleeping. Give me one good reason why there is an obnoxiously bright light on a printer that stays on 24/7. Why do I need a loud and bright reminder that the printer is “ready” 24/7? Thats what plugging it in is supposed to do. There is NO way to turn off the extremely bright light. Its almost as though the printer makers want to control your life by being obnoxiously present and having an annoyingly loud way of reminding you day and night that such inconsequential thing as a printer is now this huge thing in your life. There is no way to turn off this light. Plenty of other ways to serve the purpose of the light without having that light on. Honestly, it feels like a Big Brother situation. They have this thing on their app where they remotely monitor your printer and they claim its for your “security.” Personal printer security? Security from what? So does that mean that HP is getting a copy of EVERY page you print sent to them? This is a reasonable suspicion given that they can remotely monitor how many pages you print, so it makes sense that they have access to the CONTENT of those pages too. Its feels extremely uncomfortable to me how corporate America continues to increasingly invade our personal lives, take away our rights and privacy, even more than governments do.

The second issue is the printer ink subscription. The terms and nature of the subscription are manipulative. I actually read the fine print. The fine print conveniently leaves certain crucial information out such as when it says that you “may” need to return the ink if you unsubscribe and they will remotely disable whatever ink you already have. They then promptly send you the first ink long before you existing ink is low so as to mentally tie you down during that “free” subscription period. Now the ink subscription is NOT just an ink subscription; it is also a page subscription where you are basically charged if you print more pages than your subscription level. So now, you have HP invading your mind by making you always conscious of how many pages you print, taking away that mental freedom to print as many or as little as you like. Oh and they conveniently omit from the fine print how much EXACTLY you would be charged for each page overage; they merely say that you “may” be charged overages for printing more pages than your subscription level. Is it $1/page? $5/page? $500/page? It doesn’t say. How much per page? What limit? None of that is addressed int he fine print that comes with the printer. This is a TRAP that HP sets for their unsuspecting victims whereby the ink plan that is so overtly advertised as saving you up to 50% in ink costs could easily cost several times more than one would have paid without this exploitative ink subscription. One oversight or one month of heavier-than-usual printing is all it takes; consumers have many other things to worry about in their lives so may not always keep track of exactly how much they are printing and so if one stays with the plan long enough, they may inevitably trigger the overage charges which could wipe out all savings up to that point and then some. And of course there is a maximum page subscription level so there is always a chance of overage even at the highest level of subscription. I imagine, as is typical of Corporate America, that if one were to call HP when they suddenly see a huge charge on their credit card that they are not expecting, HP would simply use that opportunity to get them to subscribe to higher plans, thus essentially blackmailing them into spending more. This is theft, plain and simple; just that it is disguised as a “subscription plan.” Oh, what they get away with!

Why be this deceptive? Why not show on the product picture the true image of what the printer ACTUALLY looks like when it is plugged in? Why effectively eliminate the light from the picture when in fact it is the most noticeable and most obnoxiously loud and present aspect of the printer by design? Why abuse Americans/customers with exploitative subscription plans? Why invade the sanctity of our privacy?

Unfortunately as technology has become more sophisticated, this has been the trend throughout both with HP and other companies providing these technologies and services. These companies are competing with one another for a share of the consumer’s privacy and attention and in that stampede of competition, the consumer is the victim and collateral damage that gets stumped down in the mud at every turn. I am saddened by the direction of such practices. And I am just tired of companies like HP abusing and taking advantage of people like this. Someone has to stand up and say something. This is NOT an inevitable trend; these companies need to be held accountable for their corrupt practices and have these trends reversed. Human life is supposed to get better with technological improvements; we should not have to pay for these advancements with our very own freedom.