The HP Smart Tank 7602 is a versatile multi-function printer designed for home offices and families. This inkjet tank printer offers scanning, copying, and faxing capabilities, and its refillable ink tank system promises long-term cost savings. But does it live up to the hype? This review dives deep into the HP Smart Tank 7602’s performance, examining its setup, print quality, speed, and features to determine if it’s the right printer for your needs.
Design and Features
The HP Smart Tank 7602 sports a distinctive tri-color design, featuring an off-white body accented with charcoal and dusky blue. While aesthetically pleasing, its unique look might not blend seamlessly with every home office setup.
A standout feature is the three-inch monochrome touchscreen display, nestled beneath translucent plastic on the printer’s top. Surprisingly intuitive and responsive, the touchscreen enhances user experience with clear visuals and helpful audio cues. Flanking buttons illuminate as needed, further simplifying operation.
HP gave the Smart Tank 7602 and unusual but nice touchscreen.HP Smart Tank 7602’s unique touchscreen display. Photo by Tracey Truly / MaagX
The printer boasts a 250-sheet input tray and a 100-sheet output bin. A front-mounted USB port enables direct printing and scanning from thumb drives. Translucent ink tanks, strategically positioned on the sides, provide clear visibility of ink levels. At 17 x 14 x 9.5 inches and weighing 16.8 pounds, the Smart Tank 7602 is compact and easily maneuverable. The inclusion of an automatic document feeder (ADF) further enhances its versatility.
Printing Performance
For an inkjet tank printer, the HP Smart Tank 7602 offers impressive speed, delivering up to 15 pages per minute (ppm) for black-and-white documents and 9 ppm for color. Its dual-band Wi-Fi connectivity ensures swift print job transfers, significantly faster than many competitors. USB and Ethernet connections are also available.
Plain paper photo quality is good and colors are true.Photo printing on plain paper demonstrates good quality and accurate colors. Photo by Tracey Truly / MaagX
Print quality is generally excellent. Text is sharp, color documents appear vibrant, and photos exhibit accurate tones and good contrast. While blacks occasionally appear slightly dark gray, overall photo quality is impressive, especially on plain paper. For superior glossy photo prints, the Epson EcoTank ET-8500, with its six-color ink system, remains a top contender. However, for faster plain paper photo printing in a higher budget range, HP’s Color LaserJet Pro 4301fdw is a viable alternative.
Scanning, Copying, and Faxing
The HP Smart Tank 7602’s all-in-one functionality streamlines workflow by integrating scanning, copying, and faxing capabilities. The flatbed scanner and 35-sheet ADF offer convenient document handling. Scan quality is good, although mobile app scanning is limited to 300 dots per inch (dpi). The HP Smart desktop app unlocks a wider range of resolutions, from 75 to 1200 dpi.
The HP Smart Tank 7602 can scan to a thumb drive, email, or cloud.Scanning options include USB drive, email, and cloud storage. Photo by Tracey Truly / MaagX
While ADF scanning doesn’t support duplexing, single-sided scanning with double-sided printing is possible. Scanning speed is somewhat slow at 8 ppm at 200 dpi. Scanning destinations include USB drives, email, and cloud services. Fax functionality, although untested in this review, should operate smoothly given the standard phone jack connection.
Software and Setup
Ink flows quickly with the HP Smart Tank 7602.The mess-free ink filling system simplifies setup. Photo by Tracey Truly / MaagX
Setting up the HP Smart Tank 7602 is straightforward using the HP Smart mobile app. The innovative ink bottle design facilitates quick, mess-free filling, eliminating the lengthy ink charging process common in other tank printers. Automatic head alignment further simplifies setup. While most functions operate seamlessly, printing envelopes from mobile devices proved problematic due to missing envelope size options in the app and AirPrint. Desktop printing, however, handles envelopes correctly.
Cost and Value
HP includes full ink bottles with the Smart Tank 7602.Included ink bottles provide a substantial initial supply. Alan Truly / MaagX
The HP Smart Tank 7602 retails for $450 but is often available for around $350. This price point is justified by the printer’s speed, efficiency, and the substantial ink supply included, estimated to last up to two years (8,000 color pages and 6,000 black-and-white pages). Replacement ink bottles cost $18 for black and $17 for each color, resulting in an incredibly low per-page cost.
Conclusion
The HP Smart Tank 7602 presents a compelling option for home offices and families seeking a fast, economical, and reliable all-in-one printer. While it might not be the ideal choice for high-volume offices or professional photographers, its combination of speed, print quality, and low running costs makes it a strong contender in its category. If you prioritize long-term value and ease of use, the HP Smart Tank 7602 is a worthy investment.
