The HP Envy 100 box is daring me to open it, but I am afraid. Four words: Print Scan Copy Web, hover over an ominous printer on the box front. I gently slip open the top, anticipating the terror of endless plastic wrap and cardboard. What's this? A tote bag? Sweet, I didn't even have to donate to PBS! Yes, even mere mortals like yourself, and not just obscenely "rich" and "handsome" tech writers like me, will have your HP Envy 100 wrapped in a delicious free tote bag.
But seriously, the Envy's packaging is a welcome change from the usual mess of plastic and parts. And while there is the requisite foam and some baggies, at least HP put a bit more effort into presentation while minimizing unnecessary bad-for-mother-earth clutter. Plus, a free tote bag never hurt anyone.
Once you haul it out of the box, you see that the Envy 100 printer/scanner/copier looks like it was designed by Darth Vader. Ominously coated in gloss black with silver accents, it's barely 4 1/2 inches tall; sleek enough to slip into a pretty small space. Even the paper-output handler is an automatically retractable arm that barely sticks out. On the outside, this machine looks badass. But just how evil is it?
First, you'll need to install the rather small ink cartridges. Unfortunately, there aren't separate color ink cartridges that would save money on refills. You get one multicolor ink cartridge and one for all your blacks. Perhaps more alarming: After running through one 50-page load of plain paper and a few photos, the Envy software showed black ink hovering near 50 percent. HP claims the ink-measuring software may not be completely accurate, but be forewarned dear reader, your ink costs could get real big, real fast.
After connecting the power cord, the 3.5-inch LCD touchscreen lit up, and the Envy held my hand as it led me through a zenfully simple setup process ... until it was time to install the software on my computers.
Installation on a Vista PC came off without a hitch, aside from the usual "opt out to not install this extra addware that you'll never use." Next up was a real test where the Envy scored with a +2 critical-hit bonus roll. Yes, dear reader, HP graciously provides Linux drivers on their website. So, for all 20 of y'all out there using Ubuntu or K or X whatever, HP deserves a shoutout. Just be prepared to go through the usual "missing library" installations Linux requires to make anything work. (Mac users can ignore this entire paragraph.)
Once hitched up to my home Wi-Fi network, and loaded with paper (up to 80 sheets), it was time to waste some trees with hard-copy output. On a notebook running Vista, using a wireless connection, and Normal print-quality settings, the Envy averaged 4.5 pages per minute when handling simple text or text with grayscale graphics. On plain paper, text was sharp and dark, while color photos printed in grayscale tended to be slightly dark.