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Many of us scream at our printers. But what if you heard? Of the mid-size all-in-one (AIO) printers, none are more advanced and attentive than the HP Tango X printer ($ 199) and its less expensive brother, the HP Tango ($ 149), among the first printers control. They are designed to work primarily with mobile devices – desktops and laptops are an afterthought – and they have the particularity of allowing you to print snapshots from your smartphone. free, in a sense (more on that later). We tested the Tango X, which provides print speeds, results and operating costs comparable to those of competitors whose price is similar, without all the benefits. All of these things and more elevate the HP Tango X to our first choice of publishers in a nascent category: the intelligent or smart printer.
Let's talk Tango
When I took the Tango X out of my box, my 20-year-old daughter said it seemed to have been done by Apple. I realized that since I first saw it a week ago, I was thinking of the same thing. But that's more Apple-
The only difference between Tango and Tango X at $ 50 is that it comes with a fabric that folds around the printer, essentially disguising what it is. The envelope is available in the colors Blue Woven and Gray Woven. The material looks like a hard cover book cover covered with fabric. It folds around the top, front and bottom of the printer, as shown below.
Why the wrapper? According to HP's research, most people in homes and apartments do not want unsightly printers that disguise the decor. Film Is hide the printer in an attractive way and, once opened, offers a beautiful fabric track on which printed pages can land. In my case, however, the Blue Woven enveloped my Tango X (a relatively neutral color) that did not fit in my office or living room. This is neither too stupid nor exaggerated, but it seems to be an add-on to success.
There is a disadvantage to the design of the package. On the section where the printed pages are, a fabric loop appears in the images above and below. Some times during the tests, he interfered with the printed pages as they came out of the exit slot. From time to time, a page came out so quickly that it ran into this loop and stopped. The next page then grabbed the edge of this page and curled up, causing the next pages to slide under the curved frame, and so on, throwing pagination out of sight.
It did not happen so often, though. And since most Tango X print jobs will be short documents (10 pages or less), this is not a hindrance for a high volume printer. However, since the only purpose of the loop seems to be to display the HP logo, the best solution would have been to remove it.
Besides the two colors of packaging, you also have the choice between three color combinations on the body of the printer: laminated gray for tango other than X, gray peral dark gray and dark gray peral for Tango X. The color is applied sparingly, just on the face and this part is visible only when the paper feed tray is open. Otherwise, Tango and Tango X are white all around.
Without film and with the paper tray closed, the Tango X measures 3.6 inches by 15.3 by 9.7 inches and weighs 7.5 pounds. With its lid open and ready to use, it's about 7 inches longer and 2 inches longer. Although it is thinner than most AIOs, as well as some mobile AIOs, the Tango X's footprint is slightly smaller. HP OfficeJet 250 All-in-One MobileFor example, it measures roughly the same with its closed trays, but it develops to a significantly larger size of 10.6 x 15 x 15.8 inches when it is open and ready to be used. Also note that if Tango printers use the same printhead as the OfficeJet 250 Mobile, the latter is designed for travel. Tangos are not, although their chassis
In contrast, the entry-level HP DeskJet 3755, less than $ 100, once touted by HP as the world's smallest AIO, is only slightly smaller and 2.6 pounds lighter than the Tangos. Several other Tango competitors, such as the Canon Pixma TR8520, the Pixma G4210 and the Brother MFC-J995DW INKvestment all-in-one, are (in one way or another) considerably bigger and heavier than the Tango , several inches. and at least 10 pounds.
Paper Management and "Digitization"
Given its light weight, the Tango X is one of the least performing models mentioned here in terms of print volume and paper capacity.
Its paper tray, located at the back of the chassis (shown below), contains only 50 sheets of paper, five envelopes, or 20 sheets or sheets of photo paper. Even though Tango X does not have a scanner bed or
In the process of scanning and copying Tangos, youEssentially, these are the moving parts of the scanner, the replacement of the document feeder, the scanner bed and the sensor that moves under the glass, capturing the image of the page. Smart App is therefore the interface of your scanner. Its home screen contains several mosaics (Windows 10 type buttons) that initiate different "Scan to …" workflow profiles.
The predefined profiles include scanning to an email, scanning to a copy, etc., and you can edit existing profiles or create new ones. After
HP evaluates the printer for a maximum monthly usage cycle of 500 pages, with one
Connectivity includes dual-band Wi-Fi and Wi-Fi Direct. The Tango X does not have any USB ports or any other means of cable connection to any outlet other than its AC outlet. Beyond Wi-Fi, your phone can transmit traffic to Tango X via the same cellular network that it uses for calls, text messages, etc. From an iOS or Android smartphone or tablet, you can contact the printer from anywhere via the HP Smart App. If you need to print from a desktop computer or laptop, you can download Windows drivers from the HP site, but you still want to do the initial setup with Smart App.
If this, then print
Today, everything from your microwave to your TV is smart, and as smart home technology evolves, the real meaning of the term "smart home" evolves. Tango X is "smart" mainly because it supports voice printing. This does not mean that you can simply set it up, turn it on and start talking to it. It must be on the same Wi-Fi network as a supported smart user interface device. Currently, Tango and Tango X support Alexa, Google Home and Windows Cortana devices from Amazon.
I should note here that Tango and Tango X are not the first
Much of the Internet of Things action behind the scenes is handled by relatively simple IFTTT (If This Then That) scripts. HP provides several rudimentary scripts for voice-activated printing tasks, and you can find customizable scripting gobs on the Internet. (For an introduction to this automation, check out How to control your Smart Home with IFTTT.)
IFTTT East versatile, but you can not use it to make sure that a printer or smart device does something that it is not able to do. Tango X, for example, can not order pizza, even though some smart devices can. Tango X prints and scans and makes copies, sort of, and sends notifications to your smartphone or email, sends scanned documents to the cloud, and so on. Basically, if the Tango X can do it, you can use IFTTT to not only say Tango X at make
The HP Smart App app lets you print on virtually any HP printer, not just Tangos, from mobile devices locally and remotely. When connected to a Tango printer, the HP Smart App downloads additional files and configures itself to support Tango's unique features, such as the ability to scan and copy from your smartphone, mentioned earlier. The Tango X and the HP Smart App also send you notifications, including the completion of the print job, the ink
The Tango X is also the first home printer I know with a sensor that approaches the paper level of the input tray (not the exact number of sheets, but beware) and sends it to the printer. Smart application. In fact, you can do just about everything from your phone through your cell provider connection that you can do locally.
Note that almost all HP printers, as well as most competing models, are able to print remotely, via attachments or other similar settings, via mobile applications similar to HP Smart App. The difference here is that with more traditional methods, you get little or no feedback on your printer, which partly explains the "smart" status of the Tango.
Low volume and entry-level printing speeds
As cool as the Tango X, it's one of the slowest printers I've tested for $ 200. As 50-sheet feed tray and low speed index per page (ppm)
See how we test printers
I've tested the Tango X over Wi-Fi (again, no wired interface is available) from our test PC equipped with standard Intel Core i5 technology running Windows 10 Professional. Now, most users print on the Tango X from a smartphone or tablet, but PCMag historically tests printers using wired connections and that Tango does not have any ports USB and Ethernet. as possible.
I've also printed several test documents from a few different mobile devices. I discovered
The Tango X printed my 12-page Microsoft Word monochrome text document at a rate of 9.6 ppm, a bit slower than HP's. Canon Pixma TR8520, on the other hand, printed the same 12 pages at 12.8 ppm and Brother MFC-J995DW managed 10.5ppm. The slowest text document printers in this group were HP's Bulk Pixma G4210 ink printers and HP DeskJet's 3755 small, low-end printers, which beat 8.3 ppm and 4.3 ppm, respectively.
Continuing my performance tests, I then printed several colorful PDFs loaded with photos, Excel spreadsheets, full-page charts and graphs, and some full-page PowerPoint documents. I then combined these results with the results of the previous 12-page document test. The Tango X beat 1.8 ppm, which, at less than 1.4 ppm on the HP DeskJet 3375, is the slowest rate recorded since mid-2016, the starting point of the current test methodology of PC Labs. To compare: TThe Pixma TR8520 beat at 4.7ppm, the Pixma G4210 at 4.5ppm and the MFC-J995DW at 7.7ppm.
When printing our highly detailed and colorful 4 by 6 inch test snapshots, the 59 seconds of the Tango X was relegated to the background, with 46 seconds. Still, the photo output quality of the Tango is more than respectable, so 59 seconds are not unreasonable. Let's go into this next step.
Hey Tango, Nice Shot
A poor print quality does not pose a problem with inkjet printers nowadays, whether it is entry-level printers or printers. models over $ 500. Tango X performs well where it counts. The text prints clearly and presents a good shape to the common points (8 to 24 points). Even tiny fonts that for some people require magnification are very readable in the test events. I would not hesitate to use the Tango X text output for internal and external business documents.
The same can be said of PDF, Excel and PowerPoint documents that I have printed. I noticed very small chopsticks here and there. (Few users would notice it without specifically looking for flaws.) Where the Tango X shines, it's by printing photographs. It's only a four-ink printer, which limits its range of colors and
The only drawback is that while can print borderless photos, these are limited to snapshots of 5 by 7 inches, tops. The two Canon Pixma models and the Brother AIO discussed here print borderless pages up to letter size (8.5 inches by 11 inches). Often, a borderless finish (called "bleed" in the world of printing and document design) can mean the difference between a photo or an aesthetic document and a professional print artwork.
The only way Tango: Ink Instant
Even if you print 100 pages per month or less with the Tango X (or most other HP ink jet printers), you buy ink at 6.3 cents per monochrome page and 16.5 cents by color printing. does not have a fiscal meaning. The HP Instant Ink program is a near necessity for this printer.
With Instant Ink, you pay a modest monthly fee and the printer monitors your ink levels and sends you new cartridges as needed. When you opt for the highest subscription level (300 pages per month at $ 9.99 per month), the print will cost you about 3.5 cents for monochrome and color pages, including photos.
When writing about HP inkjet printers, at this point, I usually point out that this cost of 3.5 cents per photo, regardless of size, up to letter size, is a great deal . That's always the case with the Tango X (and the Tango), except that HP has created an additional incentive for people who take a lot of photos with their smartphones: Every 5-by-7-inch photo (or less) that you print from your smartphone is free. Regardless of the number of impressions, the snapshots of your smartphone will not be reflected in your subscription to the Instant Ink page, and HP will keep you informed. (Of course, you still need to supply the photo paper.)
You can also print photos larger than 5 inches by 7 (though they do not come out without margin), and they will still make you run at around 3.5 cents, depending on your subscription level HP. If you print a lot of
That's about what the Canon Pixma G4120 Bulk Ink per page costs – about 0.3 cents for black pages and just under a cent for color prints. Brother's MFC-J995DW, one of the
If you do not print a lot of pages each month, operating costs may not be a major concern. But families and home offices that print a lot of snapshots could spend a lot less on ink with the Tango line. (HP notes that the free photo-smartphone contract under Instant Ink is not licensed for professional use.)
The birth of a new class of printers
If you've ever used smart home technology and are impressed by the voice-activated gadgets, passing your commands from one smart device to another, the Tango X seems like the next logical step if you need a basic printer. At this point in the evolution of the smart home, the gains in productivity and convenience are mostly marginal, perhaps more than practical. But with Tango's support for IFTTT and a little creativity on your part, you can expand the capabilities of your smart printer beyond the simple scripts provided by HP.
Like the first smart
But for the moment, if the prospect of an unlimited number of free photos taken from smartphones, low-cost documents via Instant Ink and an excellent overall result is attractive, you should seriously consider the Tango X activated by voice. .
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