HP OfficeJet Pro 8135e Wireless All-in-One Color Inkjet Printer, Print, Scan, Copy, Fax, ADF, Duplex Printing, Best-for-Home Office, 3 Months of Ink Included (40Q35A)

Sooooo happy with my new printer. It works very well. The installation was easy and quick as it comes with a user manual. Just follow the instructions and you are set in less than 10 minutes. This printer comes with free ink. Also, once you sign up and follow the instructions of the app, they will send you a new set of ink too. So far, no issues with connectivity. I was able to print using my laptop, phone and iPad. Grab yours now!! 👌🏻👍🏻

This is gonna be one of those “if I could give it a MINUS 5 stars, I would” kinda review. I’ve been a professional computer systems reviewer for 20 years, and this is the single most frustrating, time-wasting, money-wasting device I have ever used.

This is supposedly an all-in-one printer: It scans, copies, faxes, prints, autofeeds documents, works via Ethernet or dual-band (2.4 and 5 GHz) WiFi from a desktop computer, laptop, phone, web or any other device that will talk to a printer and can be connected.

I noticed recently that the price has dropped from $230 to $150. That could be because newer models are available…or it could simply be because HP is trying to unload a really rotten device.

Pros of the HP OJ Pro 8020e series
You will save trees. The print experience with the HP OJ 8020e is so awful that I go out of my way to avoid printing anything. Literally.

Cons (where do I begin…?)
Installation is confusing, largely because HP spends quite a bit of time inveigling you into installing its smart printing app that strays dangerously close to malware. Its primary function appears to be talking you into signing up for “Instant Ink,” HP’s ink subscription service that sells you ink whether you want it or not, and then getting you to buy more. It monitors your activity and sends a lot of data back to the HP mothership, and—like most of HP’s “smart” functionality—is a real pain to stop.

Installing a wireless smart device should be a no-brainer. Unbox, plug in the printer and power up, select a WiFi network and enter your password, then hit the print button. Ten minutes, max.

Not this printer—it took FOUR HOURS of install-test-reinstall before it could print its first page. Even then, I would up sending the document to my Android phone and printing from there.

The Ethernet connection was equally stubborn.

I wound up resetting the printer six times until it could find the WiFi network. Along the way, I accidentally activated HP’s ink subscription program, which has caused even more headaches.
Even than, the only way I can guarantee a print or scan is to shut down the printer, shut down my computer, and then restart. That gives me ONE immediate session to print or scan as much as possible before it goes offline again.

If it actually does work, the print/scan is high-quality, but after six months with this foul beast I’ve never managed to get actual output in less than an hour.

If you work from home (as many of us do these days), beware your company’s VPN: The HP apps will be shut out, and the printer won’t work. It also doesn’t seem to like Microsoft Teams. Best to save your printing until day’s end, then restart everything, do your print, and retire for the night.

HP advertises its “six months of free ink,” but read the fine print before you sign up, and be very careful: Once the printer/your network thinks you’ve agreed to accept that free prize, you’ll be forced to use HP’s ink cartridges—at 2X the price—forever.

Some HP printers allow you to disable “cartridge protection,” which allows the printer to reject any non-HP ink cartridge and simply refuse to print. The 8020e, and all “e-series” printers, however, do not, a practice I thought had been made illegal in the US, but apparently not.

So, in addition to a poorly functioning printer, you’ll also be stuck spending $90 on a set of HP ink cartridges instead of $45.

Now, I’ve nothing against HP ink, and I typically prefer to buy the printer manufacturer’s own ink just to avoid hassles. But I don’t want to be forced into it, and I also don’t want to be forced to purchase more ink than I actually need, given how little I print these days.

Supposedly you can rub an electrostatic rubber thingee across an ink cartridge’s microchip to get it to work…but that hasn’t worked for me.

At this point, I’m looking for a cheap, non-HP printer that does NOT lock you into a bogus ink program and doesn’t require hours of frustration just to get the WiFi actually connecting. I wish to blazes I hadn’t given my old Epson printer away.

The HP OfficeJet Pro 8130e is an all in one unit that prints, copies, scans and has fax capabilities. I chose this printer as a home consumer with medium volume printing needs who wanted the ease of a Wi-Fi connection for printing from my various devices.

Setup was relatively straightforward with the included quick start guide which directed me to download the HP Smart app. Connecting to my network was effortless and through the step by step setup guide in the app I was printing my first page in under ten minutes.

This device is in the family of HP+ printers (as indicated by the letter e at the end of the model number). HP+ is an optional program that provides a few “features” but the one that stood out to me was the inability to use third party ink if activated so I opted to decline HP+. You will want to do your own research before making a decision on this.

The print quality and speed are impressive for an inkjet printer that is not a dedicated photo printer. See my attached photo for a comparison of a high quality print sheet image compared to the actual printed version. Some quality is lost in photo printing, but again, this is not a dedicated photo printer.

I wish the ink cartridges had a higher page yield (cartridge yield is approximately 500 pages from black and 400 pages from each color). To be fair, I own a b&w laser printer and am spoiled by the longevity of a toner cartridge but I have always preferred high yield cartridges for their convenience and cost savings.

Overall I am pleased with this printer given its cost vs performance. Time will tell how it holds up and how long the ink actually lasts. I have not yet experienced any of the issues outlined in other reviews and will update my review if I do.

Works well.A bit slow sometimes.