HPDeskJet 2855eNo product photo yet

HP DeskJet 2855e

Inkjet all-in-oneTricolor cartridgeThird-party ink lockHP Instant Ink

Enrolling this printer at setup commits it to the manufacturer’s own ink or toner for the life of the machine, enforced in firmware. Source: HP's own HP+ programme page, which lists “Original HP Ink Cartridges — Required to operate”. Read 24 September 2026.

This is the printer the whole site exists to argue about. It costs about eighty-four dollars, and the high-yield cartridges that keep it running cost more than that between them: the 67XL black is rated 240 pages for roughly thirty-six dollars — fifteen cents a page — and the tri-colour is 200 pages for about thirty-seven, so a page using all the inks costs around thirty-three cents. At two hundred pages a month the ink bill passes the purchase price inside the first quarter. It is also an HP+ model, which means enrolling commits it to Original HP supplies for life. None of that makes it a bad object; it is small, tidy and perfectly pleasant for the boarding-pass-and-school-form household. It makes it a very expensive printer for anyone else, and the cost-to-own chart on this site shows exactly where it loses.

Approx. price: ~$84
Cost per mono page: 15¢
Cost per colour page: 33¢
Cost to own, 5,000 pages: ~$1,016
Print speed, mono: 7.5 ISO ppm

Best for

A household that prints a boarding pass and a form a month and genuinely will not print more.

marks an estimate. Computed from the consumable's ISO page yield and its list price. An estimate. Purchase price plus ink or toner over the pages shown, assuming four mono pages for every colour page. Price is an approximate snapshot from our last catalogue update.

What it costs to own

Black consumable: HP 67XL black cartridge · 240 ISO pages · ~$35.89
Colour consumable: HP 67XL tri-colour cartridge · 200 ISO pages · ~$36.89
Cost per mono page: 15¢
Cost per colour page: 33¢
Cost to own, 5,000 pages: ~$1,016
Cost to own, 200 pages/month for 3 years: ~$1,426 (7,200 pages)

Computed from the consumable's ISO page yield and its list price. An estimate. How this is worked out

Cost to own · 5,000 pages

HP DeskJet 2855e~$1,016
~$84 printer + ~$932 supplies
HP DeskJet 4255e~$1,051
~$119 printer + ~$932 supplies
HP OfficeJet Pro 8135e~$686
~$179 printer + ~$507 supplies

purchase priceink or toner. An estimate: purchase price plus 5,000 pages at each printer’s computed cost per page, assuming 4 mono pages for every colour page. Printers whose consumable price we could not source are left out.

Specifications

Manufacturer-published figures. Cost lines are computed from the consumable figures above and are estimates.

Approx. price: ~$84
Cost per mono page: 15¢
Cost per colour page: 33¢
Cost to own, 5,000 pages: ~$1,016
Cost to own, 3 years: ~$1,426
Technology: Thermal inkjet
Ink system: Tricolor cartridge
Inks: 4
Black consumable: HP 67XL black cartridge · 240 pages
Colour consumable: HP 67XL tri-colour cartridge · 200 pages
Third-party ink lock: Yes
Ink subscription: HP Instant Ink
Print speed, mono: 7.5 ISO ppm
Print speed, colour: 5.5 ISO ppm
Functions: Print · Copy · Scan
Two-sided printing: Manual
Document feeder: None
Paper capacity: 60 sheets
Max paper size: Letter
Borderless photo: No
Resolution: 4800 × 1200 dpi
Connectivity: Wi-Fi
Mobile printing: AirPrint · Mopria
Display: Mono LCD
Dimensions: 16.7 × 5.6 × 9.2 in
Weight: 8.4 lb
Released: 2024

Features

Compact 8.4 lb body with a 60-sheet tray
Flatbed scanner and standalone copier
Two-cartridge ink system: black plus tri-colour
Instant Ink subscription available
Prints from a phone over AirPrint or Mopria

In its favour

Cheap, small and tidy — it fits where nothing else here will
Scans and copies as well as printing
Under nine pounds, so it stores easily between uses
If the Instant Ink subscription suits you, it converts unpredictable cartridge bills into a flat monthly one

Against it

Roughly 15¢ a mono page and 33¢ for a colour page, the most expensive ink in this catalogue by a wide margin
A 240-page 'XL' black cartridge costs almost half the price of the printer
HP+ commits it to Original HP supplies for life, enforced in firmware
7.5 ISO ppm black, and no automatic duplex
A tri-colour cartridge is binned when any one of its three inks runs out
Letter-size only, with a 60-sheet tray that needs refilling constantly if it is ever used in earnest

What owners say

Distilled from owner discussions and long-term published reviews

No product in this catalogue generates more owner anger than the cheap HP all-in-one, and almost none of it is about print quality. It is about the terms. Enrolling in HP+ — which the setup flow encourages — requires an HP account and a permanent internet connection, and commits the printer to Original HP supplies for the rest of its life, enforced in firmware. Owners describe discovering this after the fact, and describe ink they had already bought becoming unusable when a subscription lapsed.

The arithmetic is the other half. A 67XL black cartridge is rated 240 pages for roughly thirty-six dollars — about fifteen cents a page — and the tri-colour is 200 pages for about thirty-seven, so a page using all the inks costs around thirty-three cents. At two hundred pages a month the ink bill passes the purchase price inside a quarter.

None of that makes it a bad object. It makes it a printer for people who really will print almost nothing, and a very expensive one for everyone else.

What owners like

Cheap, small and tidy, and owners who genuinely print a handful of pages a year report no regrets
Scans and copies as well as printing, in a body that stores in a drawer
Sets up quickly from a phone
Owners' objections are about the terms and the ink price rather than the printing — the output itself draws few complaints

Common complaints

The complaint that dominates all discussion of this class: HP+ requires an account and an internet connection, and commits the printer to Original HP supplies for its life
Owners report being unable to use ink they already paid for when a subscription lapsed
A 240-page 'XL' black cartridge costs almost half what the printer did
Head clogging in a printer explicitly sold to people who print rarely
Owners describe the app pushing subscriptions and accounts insistently

Questions that keep coming up

Do I have to sign up for HP+ or a subscription?

HP+ is optional, but the setup flow pushes it and declining it is not obvious. Enrolling gets extra warranty and free Instant Ink months; it also commits the printer to Original HP supplies for its entire life and requires it to stay connected to the internet. The commitment cannot be undone afterwards. Owners who want to use third-party cartridges have to decline at setup.

What happens if I cancel Instant Ink?

This is the source of the loudest complaints. Instant Ink cartridges are metered by the service, and owners report that when a plan lapses, cartridges they have in the printer stop working — ink they consider paid for. The subscription is genuinely cheaper for some usage patterns, but it is a lease on the ink rather than a purchase.

Is it actually cheap?

To buy, yes. To run, it is the most expensive printer in this catalogue: roughly 15¢ a black page and 33¢ for a colour one. Printing two hundred pages a month costs more in ink each quarter than the printer did. Under about twenty pages a month the purchase price still dominates; above that, a tank printer is cheaper within the first year.

Will it clog if I hardly print?

It can, and it is the awkward part of the pitch. This is sold to people who print rarely, and printing rarely is what dries out a thermal inkjet head. Owners describe cleaning cycles eating into already-small cartridges. A small mono laser has no liquid ink and does not have the problem, at a higher purchase price.

Computed from the consumable's ISO page yield and its list price. An estimate. Owner notes are a summary of what people who own the machine report, not a test result — there is no lab behind this site.