HP Envy Photo 6220 All-in-One Printer with 12 Months of Instant Ink Included, Black

We need a domestic printer for creating hard copies of documents, timetables and pictures, using Windows 10. Volumes are generally small but with heavier use in advance of caravan trips. Problems with our old printer clogging and failing to recognise cartridges led us towards the "Instant Ink "concept and the need for a quality photo paper print capability, to the HP Envy 6220.We ordered on a Thursday and it arrived "post free" on Saturday - Brilliant!Out-of-the-box connection was simple with just a few seals and card protectors to remove by following picture instructions. Plug in the mains and the LED display powers up to help you through the setup process.Here I must add a note of caution. We have a PC without Bluetooth wireless but close enough for USB connection (previous system). 3 laptops with varying connectivity but all too far for convenient USB cables. Previously, printing involved 3 different methods of connection which often failed. WiFi would solve all these issues and this was the route we decided to take.It would be fair to say the process was, at times, frustrating even though we downloaded the app immediately and thought we followed instructions. Most of the problems occurred because our computers remembered their previous printers and still defaulted to them - even reverting to the previous HP installation Wizard.I am delighted to say that by the end of day 2 we have full WIFi connectivity between all our computers at any part of the house, although I am not entirely sure how we got there. Once we had the PC set up, the rest seemed to follow without difficulty. The print quality on plain paper is excellent and photographs downloaded from Flickr, printed on photo paper are sharp and vibrant.We opted for the "Occasional Use" package giving us 50 pages/month with a carry over of up to 100 pages. We might do better to have the "Free" package of 15/month and buy in extra 10s for £1 when necessary. With our purchase however, there is a £32 credit which gives us 17 months to decide.So far so very good indeed. We may return to this review after a few months of using the "Instant Ink".

Does the job

Now I'm more than averagely computer savvy, but this was a real chore to set up...at least for me.When you power it up, after removing all the packing & transportation tape,& inserting the inks, it asks you do download the HP app to get started.So I download the app and run it....it can't find the printer as it isn't connected to the WiFi network yet....& you can't connect it to the network without running the app...kind of a catch 22.After a lot of frustration, I managed to quit out of the menu on the printer and enter manual mode for WiFi & set it up the long winded way, once connected to my network the app did work, but for a printer HP want to know EVERYTHING about you, what you print, what programs you use, the type of files, pretty much everything however remotely connected to printing is fed back to HP...WHY?Free marketing for HP.Same thing with the app for your smartphone, you sign your life away just to be able to print a photo....This was to replace a 3 year old Canon Pixma that died with the dreaded B200 error, that not a cheap printer & i expected longer than 3 years out of it, so i decided to change manufacturers, but i have to say the build quality is much better than this HP, this feels thin, flimsy...and quite cheap sadly.However the story isn't all bad, the print quality I would say was slightly better than the Canon, so that's good, just a shame this uses combined colour ink cartridges instead of separate, however, after signing your life away again...you do get free ink refills delivered to your door.Currently as you sign up you get 12 months "Instant Ink" not the standard 3 months free, on top of that this comes with a £32 gift card for this ink service once the free service expires...so assuming you go for the "Moderate" package which gives you 100 pages per month for £3.49...you get 12 months free, followed by 9 further free months using the £32 gift.Of course you can change your plan to "Occasional" @£1.99 per month you will get a further 16 months freeAnd you're getting genuine ink and should hopefully avoid any problems from "Compatible" inks, I'm pretty sure these are what killed my Canon, a service engineer once told me Genuine inks are spirit based, whereas compatible are water based and more likely to clog.Hopefully, despite the flimsy feel, this printer will last longer than its predecessor, you get a lot of free ink (at the cost of a lot of your data sent to HP), and very good print quality ...so I can recommend this printer but with reservations.Almost forgot...don't get your hopes up for any help setting this up from the included documentation...it is literally one small page in English....

Printer comes with a 12 ink deal so is really cheap to use. We only print 20 pages a week at most so didn't want to spend too much. oh well . poor print with gray bands .

I bought this printer in 2020 - it still looks like new. However, in the last couple of days an error code has appeared. HP support forum instructions on how to fix the error are rubbish, it doesn't work. Called HP support via telephone and whilst the initial person I spoke to was very helpful, after him talking me through several things to try which didn't work, I was advised the printer is not fixable and as it is out of warranty I have to get a new one. He advised to call the sales team to see if there's any discount of gesture of good will they can apply since I only have the printer 3 years. Sales team were extremely unhelpful and would not even meet me half way. I would certainly expect a printer to last more than 3 years. Disgraceful.

This printer comes with four months of instant ink at 300 pages per month and supposedly a coupon for a further eight months. I could not find the coupon and I am pretty sure it was not included.However, HP Support were very helpful and after raising a support call on their Web Chat and providing proof of purchase they did credit my instant ink account with £32 credit.Consequently, I have 4 months at 300 pages per month and then I can decide how to use that £32 - 16 months at 50 pages a month or 8 months at 100 a month or 4 months at 300 a month.

Waste of my time ordering this item.

If you need a new printer this the one for. Easy to set up and when connected know trouble at all. Got instant Ink with printer. Happy days.