I’m 43 now. Apparently, by the time you hit your 40s, you start caring about things like printers. I feel like I’m one of the people trying not to become their parents in a famous commercial. I recently unboxed the HP OfficeJet Pro 9135e with high hopes, and while I am overall impressed, HP still needs to make some advances in setting these printers up.
For context: I’ve been burned by printers. I’m not going to lie about it, I’ve been burned by HP printers. In the past, I’ve had inkjets that chew through cartridges like a puppy devours a brand-new pair of earbuds (true story). Setting up my wife’s HP printer we bought a few years back took way longer than it ever should have. I’m also a bigger fan of laser printers. That is – usually I am. I might be able to make an exception for this one.
Setup that didn’t make me completely hate my life
Setting up the 9135e felt suspiciously… easy. Well – kind of. The printer connects to my Wi-Fi in under a minute. No drivers to download etc., just a clean, crisp display that asks politely for my Wi-Fi password, then got to work. Seems straightforward and ready to go right? Almost. HP has their own setup process that guides me through setup by scanning a QR code.
Yeah, I’m alright with that, when it works flawlessly. However, the HP OfficeJet Pro 9135e got a bit stuck when trying to print the calibration page. Not literally stuck. Let’s just say I’ve printed it three times while setting up the printer on three different PCs. I don’t know why. It just really wants to keep printing that page. Now that it’s all setup, I think I’m good now. Though I have ink cost conspiracies flowing through my brain, I’m now enjoying the speed and possibilities of a great printer.
Once it is setup, within five minutes, I printed W2’s, my son’s speech for an online class, and a highly unnecessary AI edited photo of me in Hawaii. It looks good. Really good – not because of me of course – because this is a really good printer.
Ink costs? A bit rough
This thing uses HP’s newer “instant ink” process. Is it a little pricey? Sure. Is it worth it to not have to swap them every five pages? Absolutely – if you need it. HP will send ink automatically when I get low. This is nice because it eliminates panic. I can however almost guarantee there is cheaper ink out there if you choose to do this manually. Right now, on Amazon, HP ink for the 9135e (936 product #) runs about $123 for black and color refills. That’s quite the sum. However, each refill should cover about 1250 pages for black and 800 for color.
In some ways, the HP OfficeJet Pro 9135e is like that multi-tool in your junk drawer you didn’t realize could open wine bottles or pop a hole in canned pineapple juice. It copies, scans, and even faxes. (Raise your hand if you’ve faxed something this decade. No one? Yeah – me neither. But hey, it’s there I guess.)
The app
HP’s Smart App should be considered the real MVP. For fun, I sent a print job from my phone while stuck in Minneapolis traffic the other day, and it was sitting on the tray when I got home. No weird formatting. There were no missing pages. A small miracle? Nowadays, maybe not, but it sure felt nice to not have to troubleshoot.
Final Thoughts:
If you print once a year, no you don’t need this printer. Get something cheaper or just go to FedEx Kinko’s (I think they still exist). But if you run a home office, freelance hustle, or have school-aged kids who remember projects at 9PM – yes this is worth it. This is the printer you didn’t realize you needed until your old one starts eating paper again. It’s a little slower than a laser printer, but it’s still pretty dang fast, and I give it a giant thumbs up. HP – can you just make it easy to set up without hassle? When I go to add printer – it should just be there. Microsoft did the work here – we don’t need to reinvent the process with QR codes. Happy printing y’all.