What is the difference between HP Envy 6155e and 6165e?

Updated June 18, 2026

Effectively nothing — and naming that saves you from paying a premium for the higher number. The HP Envy 6155e and 6165e are the same Envy 61xx all-in-one under different retailer and bundle SKUs, sharing the whole printing core: KEY FEATURES – Color print, copy and scan, plus auto 2-sided printing and a 100-sheet input tray. The split is colour, box, and store. Buy whichever is cheaper and in stock.

Start with the honest framing, because it changes what you should compare. The 6165e is not a newer or better Envy — it is the same machine wearing a different store badge, differing by colour, bundle, and which retailer stocks it. HP's Envy all-in-one inkjet printer line-up lists the family these badge variants belong to, and the printing hardware underneath is shared. So the cleanest read is to judge either one by the reviewed 6155e and anchor the decision to running cost, not the fourth digit.

The model number on the box is the least useful part of this choice.

The reviewed twin

Compact body

What stays the same is everything that matters to how it prints. Both badges run the same engine at Print speeds up to 7 ppm color, 10 ppm black., both lean on the same photo-leaning colour pipeline that HP pitches with Print documents and photos that look as vibrant as they do on your screen with HP's P3 technology, and both carry the same on-device HP'S MOST INTUITIVE COLOR TOUCHSCREEN. None of that splits the two numbers apart.

The cost-of-ownership math reaches the same verdict from a different angle. Both SKUs are firmware-locked — HP says it will block cartridges using non-HP chips or circuitry — and both feed on small, dear cartridges, so the running cost is identical whichever digit you pick. RTINGS independent inkjet testing scores cartridge machines on cost-per-print for exactly this reason: the cheapest printer to buy is usually the dearest to own. Paying extra for a different badge buys you nothing on the page. We break that math down across the catalog in our type-versus-type tradeoffs analysis.

Is the HP Envy 6155e a good printer?

For light home printing, yes — and the 6165e is the same machine, so the verdict carries. It is a competent compact all-in-one that prints, copies, scans and duplexes, with a color touchscreen and decent everyday output. The catch is running cost: firmware-locked cartridges, an Instant Ink push, and small starter ink that make the cheap sticker price an expensive one to feed.

Take the praise and the pushback together, because both are fair and both apply to either badge. On the plus side, one reviewer past setup said simply Quality of print is great., and another summed the machine up as This is a nice compact 3 in 1 home printer that does the job for what is was designed. — competent, note, not gallery-grade. The pushback is specific: some photo-minded buyers are let down, reporting that The blacks are more of a dark gray and the colors are muted. The print engine earns a pass for everyday work; the terms wrapped around it are where the cost verdict turns. For the household that prints weekly, a bottle-fed answer settles the cost question these cartridge Envys never will — see our best budget inkjet printers roundup.

Is the HP Envy printer discontinued?

No — the Envy 6155e / 6165e line is current, which is part of why the two SKUs co-exist on shelves. HP sells the same Envy 61xx all-in-one under several retailer and region badges at once, so a buyer often sees both numbers listed new. Stock and price move independently between badges, which is the only practical reason to prefer one digit over the other.

Honestly, the co-existing badges are what spawn this whole question, so it is worth stating plainly. HP runs the same Envy hardware out to different retailers under nearby model numbers, and according to HP's current Envy inkjet printer range the line is active, not retired. Owners cross-shopping the two even surface it in community threads — one asks bluntly whether to "return HP 6165e" after meeting the same Instant Ink setup the 6155e is known for, a reminder that the experience travels between badges. For a cross-shopper the rule is unglamorous: take whichever badge is cheaper and in stock right now, and do not read the higher number as the newer or better machine. The fuller range map lives in our guide to HP inkjet printers.

Color touchscreen

Scan lid

What are the common problems with HP Envy?

Three recur in the owner record, and they hit both SKUs equally. Setup friction is loudest — owners say declining the Instant Ink and HP+ enrollment is deliberately obstructive. Running cost is second: small starter ink and firmware-locked cartridges that refuse cheaper third-party refills. Third is idle clogging — left a month, an HP cartridge head tends to dry out. The print engine itself is rarely the complaint.

The hardware is fine; the terms around it are where it bites — on either badge. The setup gate lands first: one owner reported that the barriers one has to get around to decline HP Instant Ink and HP+ are ridiculous., which is the loudest complaint in the synthesized record. HP markets a fix for the connection half with our most reliable dual-band Wi-Fi, which automatically detects and resolves connection issues, and for many homes the radio behaves. The cost half is structural: expensive ink cartridges you will drop $50 for on replacements. on small starter ink — close to 100% of the running-cost complaints in the synthesized owner record point at the cartridges, not the print quality. Consumer Reports, which tracks inkjet running cost and owner satisfaction, flags cartridge cost-per-page as the buried number budget shoppers miss at the sticker. We map these patterns model by model in our safety and known-risks guidance.

Cartridge bay

Paper tray

It is the setup and the ink, not the spray head, that earn the one-star reviews.

The idle-use failure mode is the third recurring problem, and it is the inkjet tax no HP badge escapes. One longtime owner put the rule starkly: Once you go a month or more of idle time with an HP printer something WILL be wrong with it. A cartridge head left dry tends to clog, and the cleaning cycles that try to clear it burn ink the owner already paid for. That is not a 6155e fault or a 6165e fault — it is what a cartridge inkjet does when it sits unused. A household that prints only occasionally is the exact profile this machine punishes hardest, which is why the cost-of-ownership case, not the model digit, should decide the buy. For photo-leaning buyers weighing this Envy against dedicated photo machines, our best photo inkjet printers roundup lines up the alternatives.

Can you still use the printer if you cancel HP Instant Ink?

Only with cartridges you own outright. The Instant Ink starter cartridges that ship in the box are tied to the active subscription — cancel and they stop working, so you must swap to standard HP cartridges to keep printing. That lock is identical on the 6155e and 6165e, and it is the term to price in before you accept the trial on an occasional-use printer.

Here's the thing: the trial is the trap, not the cartridges you later buy at the shelf. Owners warn that if you take the program and you cancel, you need to be prepared to change cartridges since the ones provided are now useless — the bundled ink is leased, not owned. The trial itself bills on a clock: After 3 months, monthly fee applies unless cancelled., which rewards a steady printer and quietly penalises the idle one this Envy targets. So on an occasional-use machine the safe move is to decline the plan at setup and run standard cartridges you own — the same call whether the box says 6155e or 6165e. The full picture of who the machine fits, and how to dodge the ink lock, is in our HP DeskJet 2855e review.

Setup screen

Connectivity

So the verdict is blunt, not hedged.

Add it up and the 6155e-versus-6165e question answers itself: there is barely a printer to compare. The two numbers are the same HP Envy 61xx all-in-one wearing different store badges — same engine, same color touchscreen, same auto-duplex, same firmware-locked cartridges, same Instant Ink push. No cost-per-page gap, no feature that reshapes the decision. So the right move is the unglamorous one: buy whichever badge is cheaper and in stock, decline the subscription, and own your ink. And if your real problem is expensive pages rather than which digit to pick, stop comparing badges and buy a cheaper-to-feed machine instead — that one distinction, running cost versus model number, settles every part of this comparison.