Having the need to buy a new printer for your office or business activities you do from home, you were inquiring about the solutions that could save you more on the costs of cartridges and toners, which, alas, have become increasingly heavy on your monthly budget. At the same time, you were looking for a printer that is “smart” enough to allow you to print and digitize documents even remotely, with the ability to manage all settings from smartphones and tablets.
Your research stopped when you found HP printers including HP + , a printing solution offered by the well-known American company that seems to have all the credentials to satisfy your needs; however, you have not fully understood how it works and what advantages it includes, so you would like some clarification on this. Well, if that’s the case, you don’t have to worry: that’s why I’m here today!
In the next few lines, in fact, I will show you in detail what the HP + ecosystem is, what advantages it offers and how to use it on all supported printer models. If you want to find out how HP + works and thus make the final decision on the purchase of your next printer, all you have to do is take five minutes of free time and keep reading: everything is explained below.
Index
- What is HP +
- How HP + works
- How to activate HP +
- HP Smart and the benefits of HP +
- For more information
What is HP +
First, let’s see in detail what HP + is and what advantages it offers. Let’s start by saying that HP + is not a subscription service and has no monthly cost: rather, it is a cloud-based ecosystem composed of some key elements.
- Class-leading hardware– HP + only works with a dedicated line of HP printers, such as the HP LaserJet M200 series (Red Dot award winners for design), HP OfficeJet Pro 8000e / 9000e , HP DeskJet 2700e / 4100e, and ENVY 6000e / 6400e ; those lasers are native to HP + (the complete list can be found on the HP website and on Amazon ). These are cutting-edge models, all characterized not only by excellent performance, but also by smart functions that allow you to optimize time and costs in everyday work. Some HP + printers can also be purchased in the HP Standard version, however, giving up all the advantages we are talking about, both in terms of smart functions and advanced connectivity, both in terms of extended warranty and HP Instant Ink (not giving the right to the 6 months of included service provided by HP + instead).
- HP Instant Ink with 6 months trial included– this is HP’s service, already used by over 9 million users worldwide, which allows you to save on ink supplies (cartridges and toner) and receive it automatically sooner to “run dry” (the printer recognizes when the ink is running out and, via the Internet connection, orders new cartridges or toner). With HP +, customers benefit from a 6-month trial of ink or toner – if they sign up for the service within 7 days of setting up the printer – after which they can cancel their subscription (after the initial 6 months a fee will apply. monthly in case of non-cancellation) or continue starting from 0.99 euros / month withSave up to 70% on ink and up to 50% on Original HP toner . In this regard, it should be noted that HP + printers only use Original HP ink cartridges for their entire life.
- HP Smart App– HP + printers rely heavily on smart features and the printing app that allows you to manage them, HP Smart , is among the simplest and most complete in the industry; it offers the ability to perform advanced scans, edit documents (with integration with cloud storage services such as Google Drive and Dropbox ), send faxes from your smartphone and much more. You can enjoy the advanced features of the app ( HP Smart Advance ) for free for 24 months, after which a monthly fee is applied.
- Additional 1-year HP commercial warranty– for a total of 2 years of HP commercial warranty.
Other strengths of HP + are certainly the Cloud resiliency , which allows you to automatically detect and resolve printer connectivity problems; the Smart Security monitoring system that allows you to detect and prevent malware attacks; the Private Pickup function to print immediately and collect the job later when you are at the printer; the Smart Dashboard to manage all aspects of the printer in a single panel and printing from the operating system , therefore virtually from any place and on any device.
Equally important is HP ‘s commitment to respecting the environment : the company combats deforestation and promotes the recycling of used ink cartridges to create new ones. Read more here .
As you can see, it is a 360-degree ecosystem consisting of hardware (the printer), software (the HP Smart app for mobile devices and PCs) and cloud services (like all those mentioned in the previous lines) which is very interesting for professionals and all those who rely heavily on the printer for their work; all accessible with the simple creation of an HP account (free) and the availability of a continuous Internet connection for the printer. For more details on how it works, read on.
How HP + works
Now that you have a pretty clear idea of what HP + is, I think it’s time to take a closer look at how the entire ecosystem of products and services designed by HP works.
In the following lines, therefore, I will show you how to activate HP + after purchasing a compatible printer and how to use the HP Smart app to manage your printer at 360 degrees. I will use an HP DeskJet 4120e but the steps to be taken are similar for all inkjet models, instead for lasers it is even easier, you decide for HP + during the purchase phase (HP laser printers, in fact, are native HP +).
How to activate HP +
After purchasing the printer and putting it into operation (removing the covers, installing cartridges or toner, connecting it to the power supply and turning it on), you need to install the HP Smart app , which is available on the Android device stores , iPhone / iPad , computer Windows (for versions of Windows without the Microsoft Store can be obtained from here ) and Mac . For convenience I used the mobile app, but the steps to be taken are almost the same even on a computer.
The first step is to start HP Smart , accept the terms of use and press the Login button , in order to log in with your HP account or create a new one, for free. In the latter case, click on Register and fill in the on-screen form with the required data (name, surname, email address, mobile phone and password). Once logged in, you must start the procedure for adding the printer by pressing the dedicated button, which is present both in the Home section of the app and in the Settings section .
If necessary, you must therefore allow the use of Bluetooth , select the name of the printer (which should appear on the screen in the meantime) and enter the password of the Wi-Fi network in use on the device. If required, you must then press the button (i) of the printer and wait a few seconds for the connection to the network by the latter to be completed. After this step too, you have to go on until the HP + screen appears .
To activate HP + simply press the Continue and Activate HP + buttons , then you have to choose whether to take advantage of the 6 months of HP Instant Ink included in the offer: to accept, you must press the Continue button and enter the information relating to the plan to be subscribed (from 0 , 99 euros for 15 pages / month up to 24.99 euros for 700 pages / month for inkjet printers, different plans are available for laser ones; you can cancel your subscription at any time and at no cost additional), to the shipping address and to the billing address(i.e. the payment method to be used, chosen between card or debit on C / C; payment will take place only in case of renewal after the 6-month trial). If, on the other hand, you do not want to take advantage of HP Instant Ink, just click on Continue without selecting the ink benefits .
The game is done! At this point HP + (with or without HP Instant Ink, depending on your choice) is active. Pressing the Continue button will then prompt you to load paper into the printer and print a test page to make sure everything works as it should.
Finally, it is proposed to send the other devices a link to download HP Smart (the software is necessary to print from other devices, so it is advisable to install it) and, if available, the presence of a firmware update for the printer is notified ( which is installed automatically, if the printer remains on).
HP Smart and the benefits of HP +
Once your printer is set up in HP Smart , you can immediately enjoy the benefits of HP + .
On the main screen of the application there are (customizable) tiles that allow you to quickly access all the most important functions of the printer and the HP + ecosystem.
- Instant Ink– to view the status of your HP Instant Ink subscription and manage it.
- Printables– Gives you access to a variety of ready-to-print brochure templates, coloring pages, calendars and more.
- Shortcuts– allows you to create automatic actions for which input from the device camera, printer scan or a user-chosen file can be printed, emailed and / or saved to a cloud service at the same time. Using the benefits of HP +, you can access the extra features of HP Smart Advance for 24 months, including those that allow you to save scans as editable TXT, PDF or DOCX and intelligently rename files based on important information found.
- Mobile fax– with HP + you can send faxes from any device at no cost for 24 months.
- Photo Print– Print photos on your device or supported cloud services (e.g. Google Drive and Dropbox ).
- Print Documents– Print documents on your device or supported cloud services (e.g. Google Drive and Dropbox )
- Camera Scan– You can smartly scan documents directly with your device’s camera. Thanks to the additional features of HP Smart Advance included in HP + it is possible to perform the recognition of multiple elements with automatic separation into pages; flatten the pages; save scans as editable TXT, PDF or DOCX; automatically correct holes and other disturbing elements in photos; scan books intelligently with automatic page separation and scan double-sided ID cards.
- Help and support– with all the information about HP Smart, HP + and their main features.
- Printer scan– to remotely scan documents, photos, ID cards or even entire books via the printer’s scanner. There are so many presets to choose from.
- Copy– to manually or automatically scan a document with the camera of your device and create a copy with the printer.
- Create photo books– to create beautiful photo books with your photos.
By accessing the Settings section it is then possible to control and customize other features related to the HP + ecosystem, such as Monitored Security , which allows you to know if the printer protection services are enabled and updated (among these there are the ‘ power on protection , the safe firmware , the memory protection and secure network connection ). From the same screen you can also check if automatic updates are active and if the password is set.
Also from the settings menu it is possible to adjust the HP + Print Anywhere function , thanks to which you can control the printing of contents to your printer wherever you are. The function can be activated and deactivated according to your preferences. Furthermore, on supported printer models it is possible to activate the Request private printing function which activates the printing only if the presence of the user near the printer is detected (the proximity is detected via the Bluetooth of your smartphone, tablet or computer).
From the settings, you can also see the current status and email address of the printer (to which to send files to print), adjust tray and paper preferences , turn silent mode on or off, and adjust other advanced device settings .
Finally, the Scanning section of the app allows you to control the scanning of contents via the printer’s scanner, the View & Print section allows you to select files from the device memory and supported cloud services and then print them, while the Account allows you to view and manage your HP / HP + account information (including printer warranty , possibly extended by 1 year with HP + and list of unlocked HP Smart Advance features ). It is all very intuitive, practically impossible to be wrong or not to find the information you are looking for.
For more information
You can purchase printers that are part of the HP + ecosystem on HP’s official website and on Amazon .
For more details on HP + , if you still have doubts about its features or how it works, I invite you to consult this official support page , which contains all the answers to the most frequently asked questions about HP +.
