HP ENVY 120 Pro Reviews

By the numbers, the Envy 120 seems like a non-starter. But in terms of user experience and style, it leaves the competition in the dust. It's a perfectly viable option for low-volume printing, and it will turn more than a few heads while it’s working—and blend in nicely when it’s not.

The Envy 120 has style and it improves on the past generation Envy 110 in print quality and coolness factor (a transparent lid!) but I still felt underwhelmed in regards to overall performance. The Envy 120 offers average print speeds, average ink output, below average paper capacity and a irritating paper block error. I am excited to see how the HP Connected software continues to improve and I love the bigger touchscreen and fold out USB/memory card post. I think HP is on the right track with the Envy 120 but I'm not sure if it has a mass appeal quite yet, especially with a price tag of $249.99.

HP’s Envy 120 is a beautiful looking printer. However, it does disappoint in a number of areas. To obtain its good looks, the Envy 120 gives up an ADF, which is a convenience found in most AIOs in this price range. Also, other AIOs in this price range use separate ink tanks for each color. The Envy 120 lacks fax capability as well as wired Ethernet, but that might not be a detriment. Finally, while the Envy 120’s print quality is acceptable for most home-based tasks, our best quality output was obtained with HP’s premium papers. These are considerably more expensive than even branded high-quality paper like the Hammermill Premium Inkjet and Laser we use in our tests. The Envy 120 is a beautiful device, but in terms of print quality and functionality, it doesn’t live up to its price tag.

Still, if Apple made a printer, it would probably be a lot like the HP Envy 120. It’s beautifully designed and built, initial setup and daily use are both as easy as any we’ve experienced, and it comes with the highest price tag and running costs here. Whether it’s right for you depends on your approach to home furnishings: pretty much every printer here is better for actual printing, but nothing comes close to the Envy 120’s glorious design.

As we said in our Introduction, like the Envy models before it, the Envy 120 is offered as a premium AIO at a premium price. In this case, though, premium pertains only to this this device’s attractiveness, its sturdy construction, and some slick automation features. In nearly every other criteria we use to assess an AIO’s value—speed, print quality, cost per page, and crucial productivity features—this Envy comes in at about average or below. Granted, we understand that in some environments, a printer’s good looks are important, and at one time, the Envy models were (aside from Canon’s higher-end photo printers) the only inkjet options you had if style and high-tech appearance mattered most. Nowadays, though, a number of models have joined the fashion party, and they perform better in several key areas, such as speed, photo-output quality, and automatic multipage copying and scanning. Still, if all you need is a low-volume, occasional-use printer that won’t mar your carefully decorated office or living room, the Envy 120 won't disappoint. Its ability to automatically close up and look classy when not in use makes sure it stays looking sharp—without your intervention. That’s exactly what this AIO was made for.

The HP ENVY 120 e-All-in-One Printer focuses on its own good looks and on consumer-electronics touches like a paper drawer that automatically opens and closes like a DVD tray.