Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I like HP products. The company tends to do well in understanding their markets and creating devices accordingly. For example, my studio audio and video production machine is a HP workstation and it has performed admirably for as long as I've owned it. Sadly, I can not say the same thing for the HP Smart Tank Plus 651 Wireless All-in-One Ink Tank Printer. It is simply not a well thought out device that misses the mark in so many areas. The printer has a very small 2.2 inch touchscreen. Even my smartphone has a larger display. Heck, my smart watch has a display almost as large! Plus this is a monochrome (black and white) display. Who installs a black and white displays in a device intended to be sold in the 2020s? There are numerous questionable design decisions as well. For one thing. the paper feed is from the back. There is no paper tray. And the back holds a meager 100 sheets. Who does this in a printer intended for serious SOHO use? Furthermore, the printer as no automatic duplex function. Double sided printing is a totally manual process of printing one side of the page and then flipping the printed paper. HP completely missed the boat here as virtually every competing printer can print duplex automatically. The initial installation was more complex than any other printer that I've owned. Four bottles of ink have to be carefully poured into the four ink containers in the printer. This isn't a particularly difficult task. However, during the process of pouring the ink bottles into the printer, I got ink on my hands. Of more concern is that the two print heads must be installed by the user. As it is necessary to reach inside of the printer to install the print heads, this becomes a difficult task. The inside is dark and there is very little room to operate making the installation more difficult than necessary. The only upside to this is that it may be possible to for a user to replace a failed print head. However, in all the printers that I've owned and used over the years only one had a print head go bad. After installation there is a fair amount of material that must be thrown away. This includes the four empty ink bottles, several small plastic pieces, one large plastic piece and numerous cardboard and plastic wrapping used to transport the printer. This certainly isn't a printer that is kind to the environment during the installation process. The biggest swing and miss for the HP Smart Tank Plus 651 printer is that it needs an app to be installed (iOS or Android) to manage and to print. Even Windows 10 needs an app installed for printing. There is no other printer that I am aware of that can't be accessed for printing directly from Windows 10 without an app. Plus the printer requires Wi-Fi access in order for the app to work--even if your PC or laptop is wired to an Ethernet network. HP clearly needs to go back to the drawing board with the HP Smart Tank Plus 651 printer. They need to see how Brother, Canon, Epson and other manufacturers have designed their printers. Because as it stands now, the HP Smart Tank Plus 651 printer will not see any use in my studio and home office.