Help! I can’t find the HP Envy Pro 6420 printer anywhere, so how do I buy it?

You’ve seen a review of the HP Envy Pro 6420 online and you want to buy it. After all, at around £100 this all-in-one printer includes a 35-page automatic document feeder, good print quality and automatic double-sided printing.

But, darn it, if you enter the term “HP Envy Pro 6420” into your favourite search engine it will come up with one shopping suggestion. On the day I write this, from the unlikely sounding Gelisim Gublugu. Not exactly confidence inspiring.

And if you search from within Amazon, this is what you see:

Usually dispatched within 1 to 2 months? No one is that patient.

But I have good news. HP has confirmed that the HP Envy Pro 6420 is actually the same physical printer as the HP Envy Pro 6432. The only point of difference is that the 6432 comes with a six-month trial of HP’s Instant Ink programme rather than three months of the HP Envy 6420.

That’s a worthwhile improvement too. It means that HP will automatically send through replacement inks (subject to certain usage conditions) shortly before your cartridge runs dry; I use the service for my HP Tango printer and it works extremely well.

It makes even more sense for the Envy Pro 6420 (sorry, Envy Pro 6432) as it’s a tri-colour cartridge. That means that as soon as the yellow runs out, say, the colour cartridge will need replacing.

Should you buy the HP Envy Pro 6420 at all?

In all honesty, I prefer the new generation of bottle printers where replacing the ink is simply a matter of pouring ink into a vat. Good examples: Canon’s Pixma G6050, Epson’s EcoTank series (such as the ET-2750) and HP’s Neverstop lasers (such as the 1202nw).

As you’ll see if you click through to those links, the penalty is the up-front price, but think about how much you pay for cartridges. It doesn’t take long for the figures to weigh in favour of these new bottle-based printers.

Still, I wouldn’t blame anyone for buying the far-cheaper HP Envy Pro 6432. Or, if that isn’t available, the HP Envy 6430, which is again the same printer but with a four-month trial of Instant Ink.