A mixed bag describes the HP Deskjet 4155e. On the one hand, it functions generally well and even caught us off guard with its superb photo and graphic print capabilities. On the other side, it is one of the most costly models to purchase over time out of all the finest home printers we evaluated and has exceptionally high running expenses. However, it is constrained by HP’s exclusive ink service, rendering all available workarounds useless. Overall, this printer is a good choice for individuals who value inexpensive starting costs above great print quality and reliable photo prints, but who don’t use their printer frequently.
The HP Deskjet 4155e raises several questions. Although it performs well on the majority of the criteria we examined, excelling especially at photo printing, its high operating expenses and general operational inaccuracies make it difficult to recommend. Be aware that this device cannot print documents in duplex. It stands out from the competition because to its excellent photo quality and affordable initial purchase price, so if you don’t print a lot, this could not be a terrible choice.
Efficiency Evaluation
Text Excellence
The HP Deskjet 4155e did rather well in terms of quality but made some mistakes that decreased its rating. The 4155e misprinted the first line of a few pages on our black-and-white quality test, with writing that was pale or missing parts of letters. Other than that, the text quality was excellent, with clear, sharp character resolution.
The 4155e would have tied with some of the top-performing printers in our lineup in this category had it not been for the printing mistakes, scoring a point higher.
Operating Charges
The HP Deskjet 4155e has the highest running expenses of any printer we evaluated, earning it the lowest grade possible. You will pay $16 for every 120 monochrome prints, or $66.63 for a ream. Each ream of color prints costs $84.95 to purchase. By comparison, the second most costly printer in our portfolio runs $20 less expensively each color ream.
Because the 4155e requires regular ink replacement and has such high ink costs, its projected 3-year lifetime cost is a staggering $1,095. After three years of ownership, if you buy this printer and print 2,500 pages every year on average, you will have to buy it again 10 times.
Effortless Usage
The 4155e contains a little display that shows information like as paper loading, WiFi status, and ink levels. As print jobs are finished, it emits a nice noise, and ink cartridge refills are easy. The absence of duplex printing is this article’s main flaw. Overall, a powerful performance for such a (at first) cost-effective computer.
Overall, the 4155e did rather well in this category, although it is constrained by its tiny display screen. While sluggish, we found the mobile app and HP’s website to be rather user-friendly and informative. The first setup is quite straightforward and is made easier by the presence of a mobile app.
Graphics/Photos
Surprisingly, the 4155e performed well in this metric. The high-resolution printouts had excellent color and texture, and the final image was clear and precise. If you look closely, you can see some very faint striping, but not enough to distract from the image. Corporate graphics were strong, with clear writing, acceptable color displays, and occasionally extremely subtle striping (again, not terribly noticeable). Overall sharpness and color quality were excellent, with just very minor striping on things with deeper hues.
The 4155e showed extremely good photo and graphic printing capabilities in our tests, and it directly competed in this measure with some of the award winners in our list, despite its flaws. If not for the 4155e’s high running expenses, it would have received a very good overall grade.
Print quickly
The 4155e did okay in our speed testing despite not having a duplex printing feature and having a few minor flaws. The headlines on each page of our combined photo and text document test on the 4155e periodically cut off partially (the topmost portion of letters was missing). Apart than a few subtle stripes and photographs with black backgrounds, the text seemed clear.
Simplex papers print in roughly 2 minutes, 16 seconds, while full-page graphics take about 30 seconds. Again, since this printer is unable to print papers in duplex, we did not compare it to others who could. So be mindful of this restriction when comparing it to competing printers, potential purchasers.
Does the HP DeskJet 4155e Make Sense to Buy?
The 4155e appears to be a good deal at first glance: affordable pricing, excellent photo prints, small size, and respectable all-around performance. Our study, however, showed that its running expenses more than offset any cost savings you might have thought you were gaining by buying such a cheap printer. Having said that, the 4155e is a good alternative if you don’t print frequently but when you do, you want high-quality photo (and other) prints and don’t need duplex printing capabilities.
