🖨️ HP Smart Tank 7602 Wireless All-in-One: A Long-Term Review for the Home Office
The transition from traditional cartridge-based printers to high-capacity ink tank systems has revolutionized the home and small office printing landscape. Among the leading models in this category, the HP Smart Tank 7602 Wireless All-in-One Ink Tank Printer (Model 28B98A) stands out, promising not just multi-functionality but also unprecedented cost savings with its included two years' worth of ink.
This in-depth review explores the key features, performance metrics, and overall user experience of the Smart Tank 7602, assessing whether this AI-enabled, cartridge-free device truly is the best solution for a demanding home office environment.
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| HP Smart Tank 7602 Wireless All-in-One: A Long-Term Review for the Home Office |
Cost-Effectiveness and the Cartridge-Free Promise
The most compelling feature of the HP Smart Tank 7602 is its refillable ink tank system, which fundamentally changes the cost of ownership. Traditional printers often entice users with a low initial price only to recoup the cost through expensive, proprietary cartridges. The Smart Tank line flips this model.
Ink Longevity: The printer ships with enough Original HP ink to yield up to 6,000 black pages and 8,000 color pages, which HP estimates to last up to two years based on average customer usage. This massive initial ink supply translates to an incredibly low cost per page right out of the box.
Refill Simplicity: The refill process is remarkably clean and straightforward. The tanks are visible from the front panel, and the spill-free bottles lock onto the nozzles, ensuring a mess-free top-up.
Ongoing Savings: Once the initial ink runs out, the replacement ink bottles are significantly cheaper than purchasing new cartridges, locking in a low running cost for the printer's lifetime. For high-volume users, this feature alone makes the initial investment worthwhile.
All-in-One Functionality and Design
The Smart Tank 7602 is a true 4-in-1 All-in-One (AIO) device, capable of printing, scanning, copying, and faxing. Its design is practical and modern, catering specifically to an office setting.
Paper Handling: It features a generous 250-sheet input tray and a 100-sheet output tray, reducing the frequency of paper refills. Crucially, it includes automatic duplexing (two-sided printing), a must-have feature for saving paper and professional document creation.
Automatic Document Feeder (ADF): The 35-sheet ADF simplifies multi-page scanning, copying, and faxing, significantly boosting productivity compared to flatbed-only models. While it handles single-sided documents efficiently, it lacks auto-duplex scanning, meaning two-sided documents require manual flipping.
Interface: The printer features a 3-inch Touchscreen Mono Graphics Display (MGD). While some reviewers find the monochrome screen a bit small and sometimes finicky to navigate, it provides an intuitive interface for managing core functions (copying, scanning to a USB drive, etc.).
Performance: Speed and Print Quality
A great AIO printer must balance low cost with reliable performance and quality output. The Smart Tank 7602 generally delivers on these fronts, though with some caveats.
Speed
The ISO print speeds are respectable for its class, making it suitable for moderate to heavy home office use:
Black (ISO): Up to 15 pages per minute (ppm)
Color (ISO): Up to 9 ppm
While its speed for black text is roughly average, its color and photo printing speeds are often noted as faster than many competitors. For high-volume scanning, the ADF speed is a solid 8 images per minute (ipm) for mono documents.
Print and Image Quality
Text Documents: Text quality is a definite strength. Documents are printed with dark, crisp text and sharp edges, perfectly suitable for professional reports and everyday correspondence.
Color Graphics and Photos: The printer produces vibrant color graphics and high-quality images. It utilizes a combination of pigment-based ink for the black tank (for crisp text) and dye-based inks for the colors. Photo printing, in particular, has been praised for its fine detail and professional-level results on glossy paper, although some users have noted colors can occasionally appear oversaturated or unnaturally warm.
Resolution: Print resolution goes up to 4800 x 1200 optimized dpi in color, ensuring detailed and high-fidelity output.
Connectivity and Smart Features
The "Smart" in the Smart Tank 7602 is reflected in its robust connectivity and AI-enabled features, primarily driven by the HP Smart app.
Wireless and Network: Connectivity is excellent, including dual-band Wi-Fi (2.4/5GHz) with self-healing technology for more reliable connections, Ethernet, and USB 2.0. Mobile printing is seamless via the HP Smart app, Apple AirPrint, and Wi-Fi Direct.
HP Smart App: This application is central to the user experience, offering seamless, guided mobile setup and customizable shortcuts to eliminate steps in repetitive tasks (e.g., setting up a one-tap shortcut to scan and email a document).
AI-Enabled Functionality: The AI-enabled features are designed to improve print formatting and overall experience, ensuring documents are printed correctly from various sources. It also facilitates features like Print from Anywhere, allowing users to send print jobs to their home printer remotely, which won't print until the user is in direct view for security.
Faxing: Beyond traditional phone line faxing, the printer includes an internet fax option via the HP Smart app (often with an initial free subscription period), adding flexibility for a modern home office.
Pros and Cons: A Quick Summary
| 👍 Pros | 👎 Cons |
| Extremely Low Running Costs with up to 2 years of ink included. | No Auto-Duplex Scanning in the ADF. |
| Excellent Print Quality for both text and photos. | Small, monochrome 3-inch Touchscreen can be clunky. |
| Full AIO Functionality: Print, Scan, Copy, Fax, Auto Duplex Print. | Text print speed is average compared to some rivals. |
| Large 250-sheet paper tray. | Initial setup can be time-consuming, and finding advanced settings can be difficult (often requiring the embedded web server). |
| Easy, spill-free ink refill system. | |
| Robust Connectivity (Dual-band Wi-Fi, Ethernet) and HP Smart App integration. |
Conclusion: Is the HP Smart Tank 7602 the Right Choice?
The HP Smart Tank 7602 is a formidable machine tailored for the modern home office or small business that handles a moderate to high volume of printing. Its clear value proposition lies in the cartridge-free, high-yield ink system, which translates to phenomenal cost savings over time. The inclusion of automatic two-sided printing, a large paper tray, and a 35-sheet ADF rounds out its utility for a productive environment.
While it is slightly hampered by the lack of automatic two-sided scanning and a less-than-ideal touchscreen, these drawbacks are minor when weighed against the printer's overall performance, excellent output quality, and the sheer financial relief of ditching costly ink cartridges.
For users prioritizing long-term savings and reliable, high-quality output for a busy workspace, the HP Smart Tank 7602 (28B98A) is an outstanding, highly recommended investment.