We’ve all been there. It’s 10 PM, the kids have just remembered they need a 12-page project printed for school tomorrow, or you’re about to print a crucial shipping label for a package that has to be sent first thing. You hit “Print,” and your heart sinks as the dreaded notification flashes on screen: “Ink Cartridge Empty.” The ensuing panic, the late-night dash to a supermarket (if you’re lucky), or the resigned acceptance of failure is a uniquely modern frustration. For years, the printer industry has felt like a trap, locking us into a cycle of buying expensive, low-yield cartridges that seem to run out the moment you need them most. This constant anxiety over ink levels and the ever-rising cost of replacements is precisely the problem the HP Smart Tank 5105 All-in-One Printer with 3 Years Ink aims to solve for good.
- Wireless; High-volume printer tank; Print from phone or tablet; Scan to PDF
- KEY FEATURES – Print, copy and scan, mobile and wireless printing, Print up to 12 ppm black and 5 ppm colour
What to Consider Before Buying an Ink Tank Printer
An Ink Tank Printer is more than just an item; it’s a key solution for anyone tired of the traditional printer model. Instead of disposable cartridges, these printers feature large, refillable reservoirs that you top up with ink from bottles. The primary benefit is a dramatically lower cost per page and a massive reduction in printing-related waste. This shift in technology represents a long-term investment in convenience and economy, freeing you from the constant cycle of purchasing and replacing small, pricey cartridges. It’s about printing with freedom, not fear of the next “low ink” warning.
The ideal customer for this type of product is someone facing consistent printing needs at home. This includes busy families printing schoolwork and photos, students with dissertations and research papers, or home office professionals printing documents, invoices, and reports. If you print several times a week and find the cost of cartridges adding up, a smart tank system is designed for you. However, it might not be suitable for those who print only a handful of pages a year. For such infrequent users, the higher initial purchase price may not be justifiable. Likewise, a high-volume business office might need something with faster speeds and more robust paper handling, like an automatic document feeder, which this particular model lacks.
Before investing, consider these crucial points in detail:
- Dimensions & Space: The HP Smart Tank 5105 is not a tiny device. Measuring 43.5cm wide and 36.2cm deep, it requires a dedicated space on a desk or shelf. While its clean white design is unobtrusive, you need to ensure you have the physical room for it, including clearance above to open the scanner lid and access the ink tanks.
- Capacity/Performance: Performance is a tale of two metrics. The ink capacity is phenomenal, boasting a yield of up to 12,000 black pages and 8,000 colour pages from the included bottles. However, its print speed is more modest, with ISO ratings of 12 pages per minute (ppm) for black and 5 ppm for colour. It also lacks automatic two-sided (duplex) printing, a feature many find essential for saving paper.
- Materials & Durability: Like most consumer-grade printers, the HP Smart Tank 5105 is constructed primarily of durable plastic. It feels solid enough for regular home use, but it’s not designed for the rough-and-tumble of a heavy-duty office environment. The lids and trays feel secure, and the overall build quality is in line with what we expect from a reputable brand like HP.
- Ease of Use & Maintenance: This is where tank printers shine. The spill-free refill system is a game-changer, making top-ups clean and foolproof. Most of the printer’s functions are controlled via the HP Smart App, which is intuitive but, as some users report, can occasionally suffer from connectivity bugs. Long-term maintenance involves keeping the print heads clean, a process usually automated by the printer itself.
Keeping these factors in mind, the HP Smart Tank 5105 All-in-One Printer with 3 Years Ink stands out in several areas, particularly its long-term value proposition. You can explore its detailed specifications and current offers here.
While the HP Smart Tank 5105 All-in-One Printer with 3 Years Ink is an excellent choice, it’s always wise to see how it stacks up against the competition. For a broader look at all the top models, we highly recommend checking out our complete, in-depth guide:
- Wide range of features
- More for you in it! original HP 2-pack ink cartridges
- CANON INK: Value Pack includes black & colour inks & 50 sheets of Glossy Photo Paper - genuine Canon Ink provides consistent quality prints 100% of the time
First Impressions: Thoughtful Design from Box to Desk
Unboxing the HP Smart Tank 5105 All-in-One Printer with 3 Years Ink was a surprisingly pleasant experience. HP has clearly put thought into the process. Instead of wrestling the machine out of a tight box filled with crumbly polystyrene, the printer sits inside a sturdy plastic bag with built-in carry handles. You simply lift it straight out—a small but brilliant detail other manufacturers should copy. Inside, everything was neatly secured with easy-to-remove blue tape. The package includes the printer, a power cord, two print heads (one for black, one for tri-colour), and the main event: four large bottles of HP ink. The printer itself has a clean, modern aesthetic with a slightly larger footprint than some of its cartridge-based predecessors, but it feels sturdy and well-made. The front-facing, transparent ink windows are a fantastic design choice, allowing you to see exact ink levels at a glance, removing all guesswork.
Key Benefits
- Incredible long-term value with up to 3 years of ink included
- Exceptionally clean and easy spill-free ink refill system
- Excellent print quality for both documents and photos
- Intuitive mobile printing and scanning via the HP Smart App
Potential Drawbacks
- Print speeds are slower than many competitors
- Lacks automatic two-sided (duplex) printing
A Deep Dive into the HP Smart Tank 5105’s Performance
After spending considerable time testing the HP Smart Tank 5105 All-in-One Printer with 3 Years Ink across a range of tasks, from printing dense text documents to glossy A4 photos, we’ve developed a comprehensive understanding of its strengths and weaknesses. This isn’t just a printer; it’s a statement against the old way of doing things, and for the most part, it delivers on its promise of low-cost, high-volume printing without the hassle.
Unboxing and Setup: A Mostly Seamless Experience
As mentioned, the unboxing is a highlight. Once on the desk, the setup process is guided entirely by the HP Smart App, which you’re prompted to download on your smartphone or computer. We found the app-led instructions to be clear and visually engaging. It walks you through every step, from removing the internal packaging to plugging in the power cord. The next stage is filling the ink tanks. This is the moment of truth for any first-time ink tank user, and we were thoroughly impressed. The bottles are designed with a key-lock mechanism that corresponds to the correct tank, so you can’t accidentally pour cyan into the magenta slot. You simply uncap the bottle, invert it over the port, and it drains automatically without a single squeeze or drip. It’s a completely mess-free, foolproof process that takes all the fear out of handling liquid ink. One user aptly called it a “game changer,” and we wholeheartedly agree.
The only part of the setup that gave us a slight pause was installing the print heads. The access area is a bit tight, and as one user with larger hands noted, it can be “far too fiddly.” It requires a bit of dexterity to click them into place. Once that’s done, the printer runs an alignment process by printing a test page, which you then scan on the flatbed. This ensures everything is calibrated correctly. The Wi-Fi setup was straightforward on our end, but we did see user reports of initial connection failures, particularly with MacBooks, that were often resolved by using a phone for the initial setup. Overall, from box to first print, the process took about 20 minutes and was overwhelmingly positive.
The Ink Tank Revolution: Cost-Effectiveness and Convenience
The core appeal of the HP Smart Tank 5105 All-in-One Printer with 3 Years Ink is its ink system. The claim of “up to 3 years of ink” is based on an average monthly print volume of 150 pages. With a staggering yield of up to 12,000 black pages and 8,000 colour pages right out of the box, this claim is entirely plausible for the average household. For a family, this means potentially years of printing school reports, recipes, holiday photos, and return labels without once thinking about buying ink. This peace of mind is invaluable.
One user raised a valid point about the ink bottles being labelled “use within 6 months” of opening, which seems to contradict the “3 years” marketing. While this is standard practice for ink to ensure optimal quality, in our experience and based on widespread use of tank printers, the ink remains perfectly functional long after this period, especially in a sealed tank system. The real value isn’t just the volume but the cost of replenishment. When you finally do need more ink, a full set of genuine HP bottles costs significantly less than the equivalent yield from traditional cartridges. This long-term economic advantage is the single most compelling reason to choose a smart tank model like the 5105 for your home. It fundamentally changes your relationship with printing from a costly chore to an affordable convenience.
Print Quality and Speed: The Everyday Performance
A printer can have all the ink in the world, but it’s worthless if the output is poor. Fortunately, the HP Smart Tank 5105 delivers excellent quality. Text documents are sharp and crisp, thanks to the 1200 x 1200 dpi resolution for black printing. We found text to be clean and highly legible, even at smaller font sizes, making it perfect for reports and professional documents. Where it truly surprised us was with colour printing. Leveraging a maximum resolution of 4800 x 1200 dpi, it produces vibrant and accurate colours. We printed several A4 photos on glossy photo paper, and the results were impressive for a home printer, with bold colours and good detail. As one user confirmed, the “print quality, particularly the colour is fantastic.”
However, this quality comes at the expense of speed. The official ISO speeds are 12 ppm for black and 5 ppm for colour. In our real-world tests, a 10-page text document took just under a minute to print, which is acceptable but not blazing fast. A full-page A4 colour photo took several minutes. Some users noted this, stating it’s “not as fast as I thought” and can take “AGES to print anything.” This is an important trade-off to consider. If your primary need is rapidly churning out multi-page documents, a laser printer or a more office-focused inkjet might be a better fit. Another significant omission is automatic duplexing; you have to manually flip the pages to print on both sides, which can be cumbersome for longer documents.
Connectivity and The HP Smart App: Your Command Centre
In 2023, wireless connectivity is non-negotiable, and the HP Smart Tank 5105 handles this primarily through the HP Smart App. The app is a powerful tool, allowing you to print, scan, and copy directly from your phone, tablet, or computer. Sending a photo from your phone’s gallery to the printer is seamless, and the ability to use your phone’s camera to “scan” a document and send it directly to print is incredibly useful. The app also provides access to ink levels, maintenance tasks, and a library of free printables, which one user’s daughter particularly enjoyed for therapy art projects.
However, the reliance on a stable Wi-Fi connection and the app can be a double-edged sword. We experienced stable performance during our testing, but several user reviews highlight a recurring issue where the printer will randomly report itself as “offline,” requiring a restart of the printer or the app to resolve. This can be a source of significant frustration, especially when you need to print something quickly. The printer also features “Smart Buttons” on its control panel, which illuminate to guide you through the current task, a helpful visual cue for less tech-savvy users. While the wireless features are a huge benefit when they work, potential buyers should be aware that occasional connectivity hiccups may occur.
What Other Users Are Saying
Synthesizing feedback from a range of buyers provides a balanced picture that largely mirrors our own findings. On the positive side, users are almost universally thrilled with the ink system. Comments like “the game changer for me is the ‘loading’ of the ink – amazing! Such an easy, quick and clean process” are common. Many praise the exceptional print quality, with one happy customer noting, “The quality of the printing is the highlight, we trialled it on a photo from a phone and it really is impressive.” The thoughtful packaging with carry handles also received multiple shout-outs for making setup easier.
On the other hand, the critiques are just as consistent. The most frequent complaint is the slow print speed, with one user describing it as taking “minutes to print one page.” Several others have experienced the frustrating Wi-Fi connectivity issue, where the printer constantly goes offline. One of the more colourful complaints mentioned the noise, stating it “Always Sounds like it’s about to die,” while another noted the printer “is shaking a bit too when printing.” These comments highlight that while the core value proposition of cheap, high-quality printing is met, the user experience can sometimes be hampered by performance quirks.
How Does the HP Smart Tank 5105 Compare to the Alternatives?
The home printer market is crowded, so it’s crucial to see how the HP Smart Tank 5105 All-in-One Printer with 3 Years Ink stacks up against its key competitors.
1. Canon PIXMA TS5151 Wireless All-in-One Printer
- WIRELESS PRINTER: Enjoy crisp prints & photos (with up to 100 years of album life) direct from your phone - ideal photo & document printer
- PHOTO PRINTING: Enjoy vivid, long-lasting photos from this photo printer with Canon XL or FINE ink cartridges & ChromaLife100 Ink - ideal for creative projects
The Canon PIXMA TS5151 represents the traditional cartridge-based approach. Its primary advantage is a much lower upfront purchase price, making it appealing for those on a tight budget or who print very infrequently. It also offers automatic duplex printing, a feature notably absent on the HP 5105. However, the long-term cost of ownership is significantly higher. Its standard ink cartridges yield only a couple of hundred pages, meaning you’ll be buying replacements far more often, and the cost per page will be exponentially greater. This model is a better choice for someone who needs to print a few documents a month and values automatic two-sided printing over long-term ink costs.
2. HP DeskJet 2720e All-in-One Printer with Instant Ink
- The ideal choice for the family: Quickly print out everyday documents such as homework, bills, tickets, etc.
- Discover HP +: Your printer stays connected and automatically orders ink, is safe and uses cartridges made from recycled plastic
The HP DeskJet 2720e offers another alternative economic model: the ink subscription. With HP’s Instant Ink service, you pay a monthly fee for a set number of pages, and the printer automatically orders new cartridges before you run out. The initial hardware cost is very low, sometimes bundled with several free months of the service. This is ideal for users who want predictable, low monthly costs and don’t want to think about buying ink at all. The downside is that you never own the cartridges, and if you cancel the subscription, they stop working. The Smart Tank 5105, by contrast, is for those who prefer to “own” their ink supply and avoid any recurring monthly fees.
3. HP Smart Tank 7605 All-in-One Printer 2-Sided Printing
- BEST FOR BUSY FAMILIES – Print a variety of colour documents in high volumes
- KEY FEATURES – Print, copy and scan, plus automatic 2-sided printing, 35-page automatic document feeder, borderless prints, mobile and wireless printing, Print up to 11 ppm black and 5 ppm colour
The HP Smart Tank 7605 is essentially the 5105’s more capable older sibling. It shares the same revolutionary ink tank system and massive ink supply but adds two crucial features for productivity: automatic two-sided printing and a 35-page automatic document feeder (ADF). The ADF is a massive time-saver for anyone who needs to scan or copy multi-page documents regularly. These upgrades make the 7605 a far better choice for a busy home office or small business. The trade-off is a significantly higher price tag. If your needs are simpler—mostly single-page printing, copying, and scanning—the 5105 offers better value.
Final Verdict: Should You Buy the HP Smart Tank 5105?
After extensive testing and analysis, our verdict on the HP Smart Tank 5105 All-in-One Printer with 3 Years Ink is overwhelmingly positive, with a few important caveats. This printer is a fantastic solution for the target audience: families, students, and home-based workers who are fed up with the endless expense and hassle of ink cartridges. The sheer volume of ink included in the box delivers unparalleled long-term value and peace of mind. The print quality is excellent for both documents and photos, and the spill-free refill process is a masterclass in user-friendly design.
However, it is not perfect. Its printing speed is modest, and the lack of automatic two-sided printing feels like a missed opportunity. Potential buyers must also be prepared for the possibility of occasional wireless connectivity quirks that may require a bit of patience. If you prioritize speed and office-grade features like an ADF, you should look at higher-end models. But if your primary goal is to break free from the cartridge cycle with a reliable, high-quality printer that won’t cost a fortune to run, the HP Smart Tank 5105 is an outstanding choice.
If you’ve decided the HP Smart Tank 5105 All-in-One Printer with 3 Years Ink is the right fit for your home, you can check its current price and purchase it here.
Last update on 2025-10-30 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API