HP Smart Tank 210 review: cheap and great value, with some minor drawbacks
Table of Contents
When it comes to picking out some of the best printers out there, HP has quite the assortment to choose from. With a wide selection of models for office and professional use, as well as all-in-ones for the home, it has an option for most people. Although it’s infamous for its cartridge economy and expensive replacement toner, it also has ink tank models.
Offering a larger, longer-lasting tank of ink, these printers are certainly made for those who print lots of pages. Now, HP has one aimed at lower budgets too. The HP Smart Tank 210 offers the basics of color printing without much else, although it still has basic connectivity. So, I got hands-on with the printer to see what it can do.
- Printer output: Color
- Printer type: Ink Tank (Thermal Inkjet)
- Connectivity Technology: Hi-Speed USB 2.0; Wi-Fi 802.11b/g/n; Wi-Fi Direct
- Duplex Printing: Yes, manual
With a low entry cost, the HP Smart Tank 210 does provide a great-value printer for the cost it takes to operate. With low refill costs and high yields, the HP is a great offering for the long run and big print jobs. It produces some rather high-quality prints in monochrome and color, with some seam issues, but generally offers great-looking finishes. Yet it is a rather basic option that takes time to complete but still offers plenty for the price.
- Small and light
- Affordable with low-cost refills
- Very basic and simple design
- Mostly good basic print quality
- Great-looking photo prints
- Rather slow print speed
- Does leave prominent seams on long prints
- Small display and lacks a scanner bed
Box contents and setup
Keeping things small and light, the printer box is rather easy to carry and unpack by myself compared to some of the others I’ve reviewed. It’s no surprise, as its basic design and functionality mean it weighs just 3.73 kg (8.22 lbs). But apart from the printer itself, here’s what the package comes with:
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- HP Smart Tank 210 Printer
- HP GT53XL 135-ml Black Original Ink Bottle
- HP GT52 50-ml Cyan Original Ink bottle
- HP GT52 50-ml Magenta Original Ink bottle
- HP GT52 50-ml Yellow Original Ink bottle
- HP Smart Tank Printhead
- Setup Guide, Reference Guide
- Ink Caution flyer
- Regulatory flyer
- Warranty flyer
- Power Cord
HP Smart Tank 210 box front, Image by PC Guide
HP Smart Tank 210 box side (1), Image by PC Guide
HP Smart Tank 210 box side (2), Image by PC Guide
HP Smart Tank 210 box contents, Image by PC Guide
HP Smart Tank 210 box contents unpacked, Image by PC Guide
HP Smart Tank 210 extras, Image by PC Guide
Unpacking the printer, the light box opens up to reveal the accessories box right on top. Beneath it, I found the printer wrapped in plastic and flanked by two cardboard inserts. Pulling it out and unwrapping it leaves the printer on its own, with plenty of blue tape to remove before setting it up.
HP Smart Tank 210 box top open, Image by PC Guide
HP Smart Tank 210 accessories box top, Image by PC Guide
HP Smart Tank 210 in box, Image by PC Guide
HP Smart Tank 210 packaging, Image by PC Guide
HP Smart Tank 210 setup (1), Image by PC Guide
The HP Smart Tank 210 comes with a rather large instruction manual, but that’s because of the range of languages included inside. The setup itself is simple and easy to follow. It gives you the option of setting it up through the HP smartphone app or getting it ready offline first. That’s the method I initially chose.
Following the guide was straightforward, although finding all the tape holding everything together does take some time. Getting it ready meant filling each of the ink tanks. The colored bottles emptied completely, while the black one left some extra behind for a top-up later. After that, it presented the printer head sled, which had its own transport safety mechanism. Simply sliding those into place meant the printer was pretty much ready to go. However, it remained disconnected, so I ended up going through the app to complete the setup.
HP Smart Tank 210 ink tanks open, Image by PC Guide
HP Smart Tank 210 filling ink, Image by PC Guide
HP Smart Tank 210 printer head carriage, Image by PC Guide
HP Smart Tank 210 printer heads, Image by PC Guide
HP Smart Tank 210 front open, Image by PC Guide
HP Smart Tank 210 ink tank close-up, Image by PC Guide
The app was simple to use too. It didn’t take long to connect the printer to the network, and the process was fairly straightforward. Although it’s limited to 2.4 GHz, it also didn’t require me to sign in to use it, although that does limit some of the features available.
HP Smart Tank 210 setup (1), Image by PC Guide
HP Smart Tank 210 setup (2), Image by PC Guide
HP Smart Tank 210 setup (3), Image by PC Guide
HP Smart Tank 210 setup (4), Image by PC Guide
HP Smart Tank 210 setup (5), Image by PC Guide
HP Smart Tank 210 setup (6), Image by PC Guide
Design
With the printer’s simple specifications, the design follows suit. At the front, it has the HP logo positioned dead center above the output tray, which sits flush with the main body apart from the rather long gray section that can be extended to make it longer. On the left are the four ink tanks, where you can quickly see how much ink is left, while the bottom right has the model name printed on the white body.
HP Smart Tank 210 front, Image by PC Guide
HP Smart Tank 210 front extended, Image by PC Guide
HP Smart Tank 210 ink tanks, Image by PC Guide
HP Smart Tank 210 logo front, Image by PC Guide
HP Smart Tank 210 model name front, Image by PC Guide
The sides of the printer continue in that uniform white color and are rather plain, only breaking up the design at the bottom with indents for your hands. Similarly, the back is rather plain, with the left housing the printer’s serial number and barcode, while the right has its limited connections. These consist of the USB-B and power ports, while the center has a cut-out in the chassis with a hinged section for the paper input tray.
HP Smart Tank 210 left side, Image by PC Guide
HP Smart Tank 210 right side, Image by PC Guide
HP Smart Tank 210 back, Image by PC Guide
HP Smart Tank 210 back middle, Image by PC Guide
HP Smart Tank 210 back ports, Image by PC Guide
On top, it has a similarly basic and uniform design in a near-black color. The lack of a scanner and copier leaves the top looking rather bare, with only a simple display and various control buttons on the left-hand side. It keeps things very simple and basic in terms of what it offers.
HP Smart Tank 210 top, Image by PC Guide
HP Smart Tank 210 top display, Image by PC Guide
HP Smart Tank 210 underside, Image by PC Guide
HP Smart Tank 210 back tray, Image by PC Guide
HP Smart Tank 210 back tray side on, Image by PC Guide
HP Smart Tank 210 extended, Image by PC Guide
Print results and speed
After the setup, I ran a few test prints on the HP. With a variety of colored and monochrome pages, images, and scripts, I could see how well it performs at its job, while also timing how long each print took.
In the case of the five-page document, the lines and writing were very clear and legible. It didn’t produce any smudging and had a rather crisp finish. As for the speed, it took a total of 1 minute and 30 seconds to print, although that included me manually moving the paper to print double-sided. The first page took 12 seconds, with subsequent pages taking between six and seven seconds each. Of course, figuring out which way to put the sheets back in added a little more time.
As for color pages, a single page took 40 seconds, while three printed in a row took 35, 32, and 20 seconds respectively. The quality is generally good, with a nice finish, but there is noticeably more artifacting on the page. The areas between each print line are visible and could do with better alignment. The printer doesn’t automatically prompt you to fix this, nor could I find any information on how to do it.
This is most noticeable with long colored lines that span the length of the page and require multiple passes. On simpler pages, it’s much less obvious, but it’s still present across longer sections of print. Generally, though, it produces clear and finished prints without any smudging.
The monochrome pages similarly have a clear and defined finish, but they also show more defined stripes across the joining sections. This causes some variation in the shades of gray and black it produces, so it’s not ideal for those sorts of long patterns.
Those drawbacks are much more prominent with color prints, which can create a strange illusion of squares appearing within the print itself. However, for a budget printer, it still offers a surprisingly decent option for most basic printing needs. Those drawbacks disappear when printing full photos on glossy paper. While these take plenty of time to complete, whether on A4 or 4×6-inch paper, the finish is impressive, with great-looking colors.
HP Smart Tank 210 prints (2), Image by PC Guide
HP Smart Tank 210 photos, Image by PC Guidev
Specifications and price
| Printing Technology | HP Thermal Inkjet |
| Maximum Print Resolution | Color: 4800 x 1200 Black: 1200 x 1200 |
| Ink Type | Ink bottle refills for tank |
| Scanner resolution and type | N/A |
| Operating Systems | Windows 11; Windows 10; Android; iOS; macOS 10.15 Catalina; macOS 11 Big Sur; macOS 12 Monterey; macOS 13 Ventura; Chrome OS; macOS 14 Sonoma |
| Dimensions (W x D x H) | Printer: 434.1 x 360 x 134.5 mm Package: 495 x 478 x 175 mm |
| Weight | 3.73 kg/ 8.22 lbs |
| Connectivity | Hi-Speed USB 2.0 Wi-Fi 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi Direct |
| Mobile and Cloud printing | HP app; Apple AirPrint; Mopria Print Service; HP Print Service Plugin (Android printing); Wi-Fi® Direct Printing |
| Paper Sizes | A4; B5; A6; DL envelope, legal |
| Input Paper Capacity | 100-sheet standard/10 envelopes |
| Display | 21 Segments + 1.1-inch iCON LCD Display |
Looking over the specifications, it is a rather basic option overall, with the bare necessities making up the printer. There’s no scanner or much in the way of onboard connectivity, for example. Yet it does offer a good range of wireless connectivity and capabilities, while also supporting a decent range of paper sizes and capacities.
HP Smart Tank 210 setup (1), Image by PC Guide
HP Smart Tank 210 setup (2), Image by PC Guide
HP Smart Tank 210 setup (3), Image by PC Guide
HP Smart Tank 210 setup (4), Image by PC Guide
As for the cost of the printer, it can be found for £159.99, which isn’t a lot for an ink tank printer. These do tend to have a higher initial cost compared to cheaper cartridge-based models, although the refills are considerably more economical. Something like the Smart Tank 7005 AIO comes in at £269, while it’s not too far below the Epson ET-2800.
As for the refills, a pack of four can be found for £45.29. These have a claimed yield of 8,000 pages for color and 4,000 for black. That works out at roughly £0.003 per black page and £0.004 per color page, making it considerably cheaper than standard toner replacements, provided you use the printer often enough to prevent the ink from drying out.
- Printer output: Color
- Printer type: Ink Tank (Thermal Inkjet)
- Connectivity Technology: Hi-Speed USB 2.0; Wi-Fi 802.11b/g/n; Wi-Fi Direct
- Duplex Printing: Yes, manual
Conclusion
Overall, the HP Smart Tank 210 is a convenient and budget-friendly ink tank printer. It provides the bare essentials while offering good value if you need to print lots of pages economically. It doesn’t produce perfect results across the board, with some obvious banding and alignment issues, but it produces perfectly usable pages for most everyday needs, especially at this price.
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