Wirecutter - A printer we don't hate

Ben Keough

Phil Ryan

When our old inkjet printer stopped working, I experienced the existential dread that our new one might actually be worse than the one that constantly needed a USB connection because its Wi-Fi always failed. After all, as we explained in 2016, all printers suck.

Luckily the situation has improved. And for the past two-plus years, we’ve lived happily with the HP OfficeJet Pro 9015—which is basically identical to our current top pick, the 9015e. Our printing and scanning life has been pretty dreamy.

The best part about the 9015 is that it works. Most printers are annoying, fussy, and frustrating. But not this one. Setup was as easy as unboxing, loading the ink cartridges, plugging in the power, and adding the printer to my MacBook.

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A simple driver download and install got the printer up and running on my wife’s PC. “It was super easy,” she recalls. The same can be said for setup on my iPhone and her Android. (Yes, we’re a technologically bifurcated household.) And it prints fast. So if you’re all set to walk out the door to mail a package when you realize you didn’t print a return label, you won’t be slowed down by the printer.

The document feeder makes scanning up to 35 pages at a time a quick endeavor, at just under 10 pages per second. If you have something that’s delicate, or if you want to scan something odd, like multiple receipts for an expense report, you can flip up the feeder and place them on the glass underneath.

The hardware of the 9015 and our current pick, the 9015e, is the same. The only differences in these models: the 9015e’s lengthier, two-year warranty; the longer, six-month Instant Ink trial, which automatically sends ink when you’re running out; and some added software features.

After testing it against six other all-in-one printers three years ago, the HP OfficeJet 9015 and its successor, the OfficeJet Pro 9015e, remain the best for printing documents or casual photos, or for scanning multi-page documents. Here’s why we love it:

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• Ink costs are “reasonable,” at 2.2 cents per page for black and 8.9 for color, though the color cost can be brought down through HP’s Instant Ink program.

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• Wi-Fi setup is unusually smooth. And its “self-healing” Wi-Fi means the most you’ll ever have to do is turn the printer off and on again should you encounter any trouble (which we’ve experienced only a couple of times over years of use).

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• Scanning is fast and can handle multi-page documents as large as 35 pages, so you should be able to make a backup of your tax return in under four seconds.

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Read more in our guide to the best home printers.

Good printer deals have been harder to come because of global chip shortages. You’re more likely to see a decent drop in price around Prime Day, Black Friday, and late-summer back-to-school sales—but don’t count on it.

The main thing you can do to keep an inkjet printer running well is to make sure that you print something every month or so to ensure the print heads don’t clog up with dried ink. If you haven’t printed anything in a while, printing a page with both black and color should prevent any clogs. If you use the flatbed scanner by placing things on the glass, it also makes sense to clean the glass with glass cleaner every once in a while.